Archaeology Brown-Bag Workshops provide an informal, interdisciplinary venue for presentations of work in progress by students, faculty, and visiting scholars, and for discussion of developments in the recent archaeological literature. Workshops convene more-or-less tri-weekly on Fridays at 4:00-5:30 in the conference room on the second floor of Brooks Hall, unless otherwise noted below. Want to volunteer a talk or discussion topic? Contact Adria LaViolette, Fraser Neiman , or Tyler Jo Smith.

Dame Barbara Cartland and Sir Mortimer Wheeler, attending a Brown Bag, circa 1965.

Spring 2013 Schedule

Feb. 7 Special Event

Weaving as Worship: Reconstructing Ritual at the Etruscan Site of Poggio Colla (Vicchio). Gretchen Meyers, Franklin and Marshall College. 6:30 p.m. 160 Campbell Hall. Sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America, Charlottesville Society.

Feb. 15

Contextualizing the Domestic Sphere in Roman Africa. Karim Mata, Department of Anthropology, University of Chicago.

Feb. 19 Special Event

"The landscape cannot be said to be really perfect": A Comparative Investigation of Plantation Spatial Organization on Two British Colonial Sugar Estates. Lynsey Bates, Department of Anthropology University of Pennsylvania and DAACS, Department of Archaeology, Monticello. 12:00 noon. Berkeley Room, Jefferson Library, 1048 Thomas Jefferson Parkway (on the right, just past Monticello). Directions are here.

Feb. 27 Special Event

The Terrace Houses at Ephesos. Dr. Hilke Thür, Institut für Kulturgeschichte der Antike, Vienna. 5:30 p.m. 153 Campbell Hall. Sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America, Charlottesville Society, the American Friends of Turkey and the McIntire Department of Art.

March 5

A Dragon Kiln in the Americas: 19th-Century Innovations in Edgefield, South Carolina. Christopher C. Fennell, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois. Abstract The first innovation and development of alkaline-glazed stoneware pottery in America occurred in Edgefield, South Carolina, in the early 1800s. These potteries employed enslaved and free African Americans, and stoneware forms also show evidence of likely African cultural influence on stylistic designs. The first Edgefield kiln, built circa 1815, also appears to have been based on the up-hill, dragon kiln design utilized successfully for centuries in southeast China. Edgefield thus represents "a crossroads of clay" where the influences of Asia, Africa, and Europe were combined. This presentation reviews kiln designs over time in Asia and Edgefield, and methods for examining the cultural landscape of pottery production sites and residential districts of free and enslaved laborers in these South Carolina pottery communities. Approaches including LiDAR and remote sensing offer promising strategies for effective reconnaissance and analysis. More information on the project is available at http://www.histarch.uiuc.edu/Edgefield/.

March 22

Human Ecodynamics: Long-Term Trends of Vulnerability and Resilience in Socio-Ecosystems of French Polynesia Jennifer Kahn, Department of Anthropology, College of William and Mary. N.B.: 4:30 p.m. , Second Floor Conference Room, Brooks Hall. Abstract In this talk I will examine two islands in Eastern Polynesia and cultural responses to ecosystem change which led to radically transformed landscapes and emergent sociopolitical formations (known as chiefdoms). Using a comparative approach, I will discuss recent archaeological and paleo-ecological research on socio-ecosystems of Mo'orea, and Maupiti. These islands exhibit critical contrasts in island geology and age, geomorphology, size, climate and marine resources and vary significantly in their degree of socio-political hierarchy and integration. Applying the concept of islands as model systems, my project seeks to understand both the vulnerability of island ecosystems and their resilience to long-term human interactions with the landscape. I will present new archaeological and paleoecological data to outline the available resources at Polynesian settlement, and how these were transformed through time due to Polynesian subsistence activities and socio-political systems. The long-term goal is to understand how dynamic interactions between island populations and island environments allowed some Polynesian cultures to develop substantial resilience, and led others into states of high instability and vulnerability

April 8 Special Event

Recutting Portraits of Roman Emperors: Problems in Interpretation and the Use of New Technology in Finding Possible Solutions. Professor John Pollini, University of Southern California. 5:30 p.m. 160 Campbell Hall. Sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America, Charlottesville Society.

April 16

Becoming Farmers and Herders: The First Ancient DNA Evidence for the Origins of Southern Africa's Domestic Cattle. K. Ann Horsburgh, Research Fellow, Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, New Zealand.

April 26

Heating Roman Baths at Ostia. Ismini Miliaresis, Department of Art History, Program in Classical Art and Archaeology, University of Virginia.

Workshop Schedule from Past Semesters

For topics and speakers from past semesters, click here.