All upcoming Archaeology programs

China has more than three thousand years of recorded history, but misconceptions abound at every stage. Historian Justin Jacobs clears up misinterpretations as he takes you on a thematic tour of four important topics in ancient Chinese history. Each lecture includes a rich, nuanced overview based on the latest scholarship and illustrated with copious slides. This session focuses on the maritime voyages of Zheng He.

As twilight settled in the ancient world, a host of activities began, some of which were significantly different from what was done during the day. Paleolithic archaeologist April Nowell reveals the people who worked the night shift in ancient societies: the hunters, sewage workers, poets, ironsmiths, rebellion leaders, and others. Drawing on archaeological data and textual evidence, she argues that night in the ancient world was anything but sleepy.

At the end of 1177 B.C., many of the Late Bronze Age civilizations of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean lay in ruins, undone by invasion, revolt, natural disasters, famine, and the demise of international trade. The so-called First Dark Age had begun. Classicist and anthropologist Eric Cline, author of 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, surveys this dramatic period and how the downfall of powerful civilizations created new circumstances, innovations, and opportunities to which people and societies had to adapt.

Our modern world echoes and even replicates the creative vestiges of the past—and the key to understanding our surroundings is through an overview of ancient material culture. Focusing on the Mediterranean region, art historian Renee Gondek offers a survey of the earliest traces of artistic production from the Paleolithic period through the late Bronze Age. (World Art History Certificate core course, 1 credit)

Our modern world echoes and even replicates the creative vestiges of the past—and the key to understanding our surroundings is through an overview of ancient material culture. Focusing on the Mediterranean region, art historian Renee Gondek offers a survey of the earliest traces of artistic production from the Paleolithic period through the late Bronze Age. (World Art History Certificate core course, 1 credit)

Understanding the Bible means understanding the cities and cultures that produced it. The story of these centers—their history, their archaeology, their mysteries, and the inhabitants, and the people later excavated there—is also the story of the Bible itself. Professor of classics and religious studies Robert Cargill leads a fascinating tour through cities including Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Qumran, Babylon, Athens, Alexandria, and Rome to reveal how their stories shed new light on the Bible.

Our modern world echoes and even replicates the creative vestiges of the past—and the key to understanding our surroundings is through an overview of ancient material culture. Focusing on the Mediterranean region, art historian Renee Gondek offers a survey of the earliest traces of artistic production from the Paleolithic period through the late Bronze Age. (World Art History Certificate core course, 1 credit)

Our modern world echoes and even replicates the creative vestiges of the past—and the key to understanding our surroundings is through an overview of ancient material culture. Focusing on the Mediterranean region, art historian Renee Gondek offers a survey of the earliest traces of artistic production from the Paleolithic period through the late Bronze Age. (World Art History Certificate core course, 1 credit)

The Classic Maya city-states of Central America that flourished from the 3rd through the 9th centuries famously "collapsed" in the 9th and 10th. However, in the distinctive environment of the Yucatan Peninsula the Maya experienced a greater continuity, and a resurgent Post-Classic Maya culture arose that persisted uninterruptedly until the incursion of the Spanish in the 16th century. Cultural historian George Scheper examines its achievements and legacy.

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the late 1940s and early 1950s forever changed the study of ancient Judaism and early Christianity. Dead Sea Scrolls scholar Gary Rendsburg describes the discovery of these precious fragments, what we know about their origins, the controversies surrounding them, and their influence on the development of both ancient Judaism and early Christianity.