Events and Calendars

Dr. Karen King
Hollis Professor of Divinity
Harvard Divinity School

Early Christianity was forged in a violent world. Not only Jesus’ violent death, but also those of his followers were formative events in Christian identity. From the prison diary of a mother sentenced to die in the arena, a bishop pleading to be allowed to suffer for his God, or theologians refusing to believe that God desires these brutal deaths, we can see Christians trying to meet these challenges ethically, spiritually, and communally. Dr. King's lecture will discuss their stories and reflect on the controversial legacy they left in theological imagination and practice.

Sponsored by the Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology

Dr. Kenneth Ames
Professor and Chair of the Anthropology Department
Portland State University

Co-sponsored by the Salem Society of the Archaeological Institute of America and the Willamette University Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology

Dr. Alison Futrell
Associate Professor of Roman History
University of Arizona

Empire! Taxes! Violation! Massacre! In the early years of his reign, the Emperor Nero briefly considered withdrawing the legions from the new province of Britannia. Before he could do so, the stability of empire was shaken by revolt, as Boudica, a tribal queen pushed beyond her limits by the excesses of the Roman colonizers, exacted a horrifying retribution, with deaths in the tens of thousands. The revolt of A.D. 60 is presented by Romans as an example of power gone wrong during the hated Nero's anti-empire; the center of power is under the sway of the emperor's atrocious whims, the ruling elite in thrall to the emperor's desiring, irrational body. Meanwhile, on the fringes of empire, Roman military might is disrupted by Boudica, a barbarian who nevertheless lays claim to nobility and ancient traditions, a woman whose leadership transcends the physical limitations imposed by gender, a queen who champions the liberty Romans found antithetical to the very concept of monarchy. In the post-Roman period, Boudica, or Boadicea, becomes a key element in constructing British national identity; the meaning of Boadicea’s body, her sexuality, and her “barbarism” shift with different interpretations of gendered power and of the role played by Rome in Britain’s origins. This talk explores a number of representations of Boudica, from Roman to modern times.

Co-sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America and the Willamette University Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology

Dr. Mike Parker Pearson
Professor of Archaeology
University of Sheffield in England

Stonehenge has long captivated the world with the mystery of its origins and use, and after seven years of new excavations there is now a completely new understanding as to the date and purpose of this enigmatic structure. One of the key breakthroughs has been to understand how Stonehenge formed part of a wider complex of monuments and landscape features on Salisbury Plain. The Riverside Stonehenge Project and the Feeding Stonehenge Project have been key in these new discoveries, and we now know much more about the people who built Stonehenge – where they came from, how they lived, and how they were organized. Not only has the recent work discovered a large settlement of many houses—thought to be for Stonehenge’s builders—at the nearby henge enclosure of Durrington Walls, but it has also helped to re-date Stonehenge and investigate its surrounding monuments and sites, many of which were hitherto undated and unknown.

Principal Investigator for the Riverside Stonehenge Project and the Feeding Stonehenge Project, Professor Mike Parker Pearson, will be speaking on the current theories about Stonehenge – as an astronomical observatory, a centre of healing or a place of the ancestors – and the identity of its Neolithic builders. Parker Pearson will also touch on the discovery of a new monument called Bluestonehenge, located about one mile from Stonehenge, and what its discovery signifies. Potentially the most captivating question of all is how and why stones from 180 miles away were used to create Stonehenge, and while this is currently being investigated, Parker Pearson will give his professional opinion along with brand new results from the field.

Parker Pearson is with the Department of Archaeology, University of Sheffield, and has also been Vice-President of the Prehistoric Society and the UK Archaeologist of the Year 2010. He attended undergraduate studies for European Archaeology at the University of Southampton and received his Ph.D. from Kings College, University of Cambridge. His research interests include Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain and Europe, funerary archaeology, society and change in Madagascar and the Indian Ocean, the ‘Barbarian’ Europe of the first millennia, and public archaeology and heritage. His work was featured on the National Geographic channel in the documentary “Stonehenge Decoded” (2008).

Co-sponsored by the Willamette University Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology and the Archaeological Institute of America’s National Lecture Program. Funding for this lecture has been provided by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in New York, which strives to support the work of scholars in the fields of ancient art.

Dr. Andrew Dalby
Classicist and food historian
France

In the lifetime of Augustus the Roman Republic became an Empire, and in hindsight we are right to call him its first emperor. How did he do it? Building on varied historical and literary sources the lecture will focus on the Roman arts of entertainment as they were practised in his time, and will show how creatively Augustus himself played the roles of host and patron. His triumphant career demonstrates that these skills were (as they still are) an essential ingredient of political success.

Co-sponsored by the Willamette University Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology, the Classical Association of the Pacific Northwest, and the Salem Society of the Archaeological Institute of America.

Dr. Sherry Fox
Director of the Wiener Laboratory
American School of Classical Studies at Athens

Human skeletal remains from four Early Christian ecclesiastical sites in Cyprus have been analyzed in an effort to discern the common burial customs, the demographic profiles (sex and age) of individuals from the site, along with pathological data such as the common diseases, and in particular, evidence for trauma from individuals dating to this time period on the island. There are few skeletal studies on Cypriot material from the Early Christian period.

Different patterns have emerged between the smaller, coastal sites when compared to the larger, inland site of the Hill of Agios Georgios. The pattern is particularly evident when examining evidence for trauma such as fracture types and locations. There are more fractures, greater variability among fractures, and fractures among more males, including cranial fractures and hand trauma, and in a later period, even parry fractures that characterize individuals at the urban and inland site of the Hill of Agios Georgios when compared with individuals from the South Coast who are characterized by more severe trauma from falls that include multiple fractures. Reasons for the different patterns in this preliminary study will be discussed.

Co-sponsored by the Salem Society of the Archaeological Institute of America and the Willamette University Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology

Dr. Maria Liston
Associate Professor and Chair
Anthropology Department
University of Waterloo

With the assistance of the Government of Canada / avec l'appui du gouvernement du Canada. Co-sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America and the Willamette University Center for Ancient Studies and Archaeology.