The Archaeological Institute of America
Western Illinois Society

CALENDAR OF EVENTS
1998-1999

Click on highlighted titles for lecture descriptions.

"An Update on the Excavations at the Original Peoria: the Marquette-Joliet-Illini Site in N. E. Missouri" (no lecture description available)
Prof. Lawrence Conrad of the Archaeolgical Research Lab at Western Illinois University
Thursday, September 17, 1998 (ILLINOIS ARCHAEOLOGY AWARENESS WEEK)
Highlander Room, Stockdale Center, Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois.
7:30 P.M.

An Archaeological Fieldtrip to the Marquette-Joliet-Illini Site in N. E. Missouri
with Prof. Lawrence Conrad the Archaeological Research Lab Western Illinois University
and Mr. Robert Boyd of the Missouri State Park Service

Saturday, October 17, 1998, 10:00
A tour of the archaeological site will be accompanied by a display of artifacts and a slide show. The program begins promptly at 10 A.M. at the Battle of Athens State Park just off Missouri State Road 81 near Farmington, Iowa.
Limited seating is available on a van which leaves the Monmouth College campus at 7:15 A.M.

"Tiresias and the Parthenon Frieze"
Dr. Ian Jenkins of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum

Thursday, October 15, 1998
Western Illinois University, Macomb, Illinois. Nauvoo Room, Student Union, 7:30 P.M.

"Cypriot Sculptures and the Market for Miniatures in Archaic Greece"
Dr. Ian Jenkins of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum

Friday, October 16, 1998
Highlander Room, Stockdale Center, Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois.
12:00 Noon
NOTE: Cypriote style lunch available in the Highlander Room. Cost: $4.25 per person (free to MC students on meal plan).

"The Search for Aztec Ancestors: Archaeological Investigations at Xochicalco, Mexico" Dr. Kenneth Hirth of Pennsylvania State University
Thursday, November 5, 1998
Highlander Room, Stockdale Center, Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois.
7:30 P.M.

"Militarism and City-States before the Aztecs: Archaeological Investigations at Xohicalcom, Mexico"
Dr. Kenneth Hirth of Pennsylvania State University

Friday, November 6, 1998
Highlander Room, Stockdale Center, Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois.
12 Noon
NOTE: Central American style lunch available in the Highlander Room. Cost: $4.25 per person (free to MC students on meal plan).

"Student Excavators in Israel: Tel Rehov, 1998"
Professor Robert Haak of Monmouth College with student participants in 1998 excavations

Thursday, December 3, 1998
Highlander Room, Stockdale Center, Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois
7:30 P.M.

"Tel Anafa: A Case Study of a Graeco-Phoenician Settlement in the Hellenistic Era"
Dr. Sharon Herbert of the University of Michigan

Tuesday, April 6, 1999
Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois. Room to be announced.
7:30 P.M.

"The Art of Flint Knapping and Artifact Identification"
with Rick Steiner of Monmouth, Illinois, and Larry Conrad of Western Illinois University

April 27, 1999
Monmouth College, Monmouth Illinois
7:30 P.M.

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Lecture Descriptions

"Tiresias and the Parthenon Frieze" by Dr. Ian Jenkins of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum
The British Museum's Tiresias Project offers a new way of looking at the Parthenon frieze with an exhibition and a book. The aim of the project is to focus interest in the frieze on the sculpture itself and to locate any speculation as to its symbolic meaning in a close reading of what survives. In particular, Tiresias attempts to reconstruct the original 'blueprint' of the frieze with the aim of understanding how the viewer was intended to interact with the sculpture. As part of an ongoing commitment to promote understanding of the Parthenon sculptures by the broadest possible audience, the project includes a program that will make the frieze accessible to visually impaired people for the first time. The lecture will include a demonstration of a tactile book recently published by British Museum Publications and entitled Second Sight of the Parthenon Frieze.

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"Cypriot Sculptures and the Market for Miniatures in Archaic Greece" by Dr. Ian Jenkins of the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum
Gisela Richter's valuable and important work still dominates the study of the archaic kouros, which she described as a 'laboratory' of Greek sculpture. She saw her subject in terms of a linear development of the human figure in Greek art from primitive beginnings to the severe naturalism of the early Classical period. Constructing her chronological type-series, Richter drew upon a number of miniature kouroi in limestone and so-called alabaster. In Richter's 'laboratory', these were discussed in isolation from their archaeological contexts and their strong Cypriot connections ignored. This lecture takes a fresh look at the miniature kouroi and reassesses their cultural origins in the light of new archaeological and scientific evidence.

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"The Search for Aztec Ancestors: Archaeological Investigations at Xochicalco, Mexico" by Dr. Kenneth Hirth of Pennsylvania State University
At the time of the Spanish conquest the Aztecs had established a large and powerful conquest state which extended over much of the modern territory of Mexico. The Aztecs were not the first group in ancient Mexico to establish a militaristic society. Rather, militaristic societies appeared throughout Central Mexico between 700-900 A.D. which were identical in form and organization to the well-known Aztec culture. The speaker explores these early societies. He will explore 16 years of research at the site of Xochicalco, Morelos and will summarize the evidence indicating that it was an early forerunner of Aztec-style military societies.

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"Militarism and City-States before the Aztecs: Archaeological Investigations at Xohicalcom, Mexico" by Dr. Kenneth Hirth of Pennsylvania State University
Research over the past decade has established that the Epiclassic period between 700-900 A.D. was characterized by the emergence of militaristic city-states throughout Central Mexico. These societies were similar in both social organization and religious ideology to the later and better known Aztecs encountered by the Spanish at the time of the conquest. They are important for two reasons. First, they represent a break with and change in forms of social and political organization associated with the Teotihuacan state which was the main political power in Central Mexico between 200-700 A.D. Second, they provide a foundation on which all subsequent militaristic societies in Central Mexico (e.g., Toltec, Aztec, Tarascan, Tlaxcalan, Tepenecan) develop during the Postclassic. The speaker explores the development of militarism and militaristic city states in Central Mexico during the Epiclassic period. He will explore 16 years of research at the site of Xochicalco, Morelos and will summarize what it tells us about social organization, political structures, and religious ideology during Epiclassic.

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"Student Excavators in Israel: Tel Rehov, 1998" by Professor Robert Haak of Monmouth College with student participants in 1998 excavations
Participants in a consortial program for undergraduate students sponsored by Hebrew University offer an illustrated presentation on a major Bronze and Iron Age site, one of the largest archaeological sites in Israel. Information about the 1999 summer program will be available.

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"Tel Anafa: A Case Study of a Graeco-Phoenician Settlement in the Hellenistic Era" by Dr. Sharon Herbert of the University of Michigan
Ten years of excavation (1983-73; 1978-86) at Tel Anafa in the Upper Galilee of Israel have revealed a country estate, Hellenistic in date, probably belonging to a wealthy hellenized Phoenician from the city of Tyre. The final publication of the site has recently (1994) appeared and this lecture summarizes the results of the excavation and discusses the ways in which the Phoenician identity of the inhabitants has been discerned under the largely hellenized surface of the material remains. Prospects for a new project at the Tyrian stronghold of Kedesh of the Upper Galilee will also be discussed.

This material was placed on the web by Prof. Tom Sienkewicz of Monmouth College, in Monmouth, Illinois. If you have any questions, you can contact him at toms@monm.edu.

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