All upcoming Archaeology programs

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the fossil skeleton known as Lucy. Learn more about this 3.2-million-year-old find and the significance of its species, Australopithecus afarensis, from paleoanthropologist Rick Potts of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. Paleo-artist John Gurche discusses how he reconstructed Lucy’s body for the museum and why several of her features are unlike those of any human or ape living today.

When classicist Michael Ventris deciphered the Linear B script in 1952, he shed light on our understanding of the politics, economy, society, and religion of the world of Late Bronze Age Greece, sometimes referred to as "Mycenaean." Classicist and archaeologist Dimitri Nakassis examines what this writing system and a second still-undeciphered “Minoan” script, Linear A, can tell us about life in the Aegean during the second millennium B.C.E.

The prehistoric art painted on the walls and ceilings of the caves at Altamira in Spain and Lascaux and Chauvet in France offer tantalizing clues about the origins of humankind and the development of abstract thought. Historian Justin M. Jacobs analyzes recurring motifs and patterns in Paleolithic cave art, examines why and how such images were created, and revisits some of the leading theories about their meaning.

Three decades ago, a buried treasure trove of megaliths was discovered at Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, some dating back more than 11,000 years—far older than any similar structures found elsewhere. These intricately carved pillars were adorned with images that suggest a complexity of thought and artistry previously unimagined for the Neolithic era. Since then, surrounding sites including Karahan Tepe have begun to share their secrets. Turkish tour guide Serif Yenen delves into the captivating stories of Göbekli Tepe, Karahan Tepe, and neighboring stone hills.

Nineteenth-century Americans were astonished to learn that discoveries of prehistoric fossils revealed that the New World was far older than previously thought—evidencing what is now known as "deep time," the concept that Earth is billions of years old. Historian Caroline Winterer traces the rise of this transformative idea as she examines how naturalists, explorers, engineers, and ordinary Americans unearthed a history more ancient than anyone could have imagined.

Were all of Egypt’s kings and queens guided by the divine wisdom and justice that their devoted subjects believed them to possess? Not quite, especially when their reigns were marked by civil wars, a pyramid complex, mass graves of forced laborers, and political sabotage by PR offensive. Egyptologist Jacquelyn Williamson draws from the most recent archaeological evidence to examine four of Egypt’s most influential rulers and the impact­—and darker sides—of their reigns.

Visit the world of ancient Egypt during a day at the Walters Art Museum with Egyptologist Jacquelyn Williamson. A guided tour explores the museum’s collection of statuary, reliefs, stelae (commemorative stone slabs), funerary objects, jewelry, and objects from daily life that date from prehistoric to Roman Egypt. Williamson even gives a lesson on the basic hieroglyphic offering formula, which appears on memorial statuary and is designed to provide the dead with essential goods in the afterlife. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)