Western Massachusetts Society
|
||
|
AIA
Lecture Title:
Reconstructing
and Testing Ancient Linen Body Armor: The Linothorax |
||
For nearly 1,000 years, one of the
most common forms of protection used by ancient Mediterranean warriors,
including the armies of the Greeks and Alexander the Great, was the
linothorax, a type of body armor apparently made out of linen. Due to
the perishable nature of its material, however, no examples have survived,
and today it is poorly understood, and is known only through fragmentary
descriptions in literature and images on pottery and in sculpture. Employing
only the materials and techniques that would have been available to
the ancient Greeks, the Linothorax Project at the University of Wisconsin-Green
Bay is investigating this mysterious armor by reconstructing and wearing
examples of the linothorax, as well as subjecting test samples to attack
with ancient weapons in order to determine the characteristics and protective
qualities of this type of armor. This presentation will not only describe
the project’s findings, but will also display a reconstructed
linothorax and test samples for the audience’s examination.
(Back) |
||
Place
and time: Mount
Holyoke College,
|
||
|
AIA
Lecture Title: The Unsolved Mystery of the Agora Bone Well |
||
Discovery In 1937, American archaeologists
in Athens excavated a deep well on the brow of the Kolonos Agoraios,
the hill that overlooks the agora, or public center, of the ancient
city. The well has been abandoned and filled in the 2nd century BCE
with the usual trash of daily life: broken pottery and lamps, corroded
bronze from a nearby workshop, even part of the scabbard of a sword.
Unlike most other wells, however, this one contained a large collection
of human bones: the remains of 450 new-born infants, along with the
skeleton of an older child and one adult. It also had a rich collection
of faunal material, including the bones of about 150 dogs, an unusually
large collection. Perhaps because of its unsettling contents, the deposit
has never been studied in detail.
The lecture will present the results of an interdisciplinary study of the contents of the well, concluding with hypotheses as to why and how the babies and the dogs found their way into the well. Plague? Famine? Infanticide? Or simply natural infant mortality? (Back) |
||
| Place
and time: Amherst
College, Time and Location TBD Hosted by the Amherst College Classics Department |
||
|
||
|
AIA
Lecture Florida
Division of Historical Resources Title: Exploring Tristán de Luna’s Lost Galleon: A Study of Florida’s Earliest Shipwreck |
||
Discovery of a well-preserved
early Spanish shipwreck in Pensacola Bay, Florida, has reopened a long
forgotten chapter of Latin-American history. Assembled by the Viceroy
of New Spain, a fleet of eleven ships under the command of Tristán
de Luna embarked from Mexico in 1559 to establish a colony on the shores
of La Florida. Aboard the ships were more than 1,500 soldiers, settlers,
and servants equipped with livestock, agricultural and construction
tools. The colonists disembarked at Pensacola, only to suffer a hurricane
that destroyed all but three of the ships anchored in the harbor, some
of which had not yet been unloaded. The catastrophe doomed the Luna
colony, which was eventually abandoned in 1561.
During a survey of shipwrecks in Pensacola Bay, underwater archaeologists from the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research have discovered the remains one of the larger galleons in Luna’s fleet buried beneath a shallow sandbar. Two campaigns of careful excavation have revealed a surprisingly well-preserved array of colonial artifacts, as well as faunal and botanical specimens, that present a fascinating portrait of Spain’s ill-fated attempt to secure a foothold on the frontier of its American empire. Follow the archaeologists as they explore Florida’s earliest shipwreck. (Back) |
||
Place
and time: University
of Massachusetts-Amherst,
4:30
PM |
||
|
AIA
Lecture Title: Popular and Profane Experiences with the Sublime: The Temple as a Social and Cultural Focus in Egypt
|
||
One’s first impression of
an Egyptian temple is that it was the exclusive domain of the gods,
the king, and the priests. The distinguishing characteristic of the
temple precinct is that it circumscribed and limited architecturally
a site that was regarded as fundamentally unlike the mundane space
into which it was set; for the temple was constructed precisely at
the interface between the sacred and the profane. This boundary was
described symbolically in the consecration of the very ground on which
the temple was erected, and concretely by a series of imposing, progressively
more restrictive enclosure walls which surrounded and protected it.
The sanctuary was located mythologically at the exact center of the
Universe, where the Primordial Event of Creation had occurred; here
the earthly or temporal world and the divine celestial and infernal
worlds met and were linked via a miraculous portal. In such a cosmic
setting, what role could the ordinary population possibly play? And
yet temples were formally designated as “places of supplication
and hearing the petitions of gods and humans.” The temple was
not irrelevant to daily life; in fact, it was fully integrated into
the life of the surrounding community. The lecture examines human
aspects of the New Kingdom temple (1570-1070 BCE). Because of the
focus that the temple provided in their lives, the people of Egypt
have always been active on its peripheries. In antiquity they even
participated in public processions during annual festivals, when they
were introduced into the less restricted courtyards and ceremonial
halls of the temple. In the role of “congregation,” they
took part as both adorers and witnesses to the dramatic success of
the important rites conducted there. In political terms, these festivals
constituted symbolic display, staged to reinforce the king’s
power and position as head of society. Finally, it will be noted that
ancient Egypt is still an important component of modern Egypt, and
there has been considerable cultural continuity in the past 3500 years,
particularly in the realm of folklore and popular belief.
(Back) |
||
Place
and time: Amherst
College,
|
||
|
AIA
Lecture Title: The Etruscan Underworld |
||
Etruscan art represents
many images of the Underworld, perhaps not surprisingly, since so much
of it comes from graves in central Italy dating from 1000 to 100 BC.
Many of the scenes include characters from Greek myth, which the Etruscans
adopted as an integral part of classical culture, and used to express
their own customs, ideas and religious beliefs. Etruscan art often illustrated
the important idea of the Journey to the Underworld, a dangerous trip
that was facilitated by local demons, in particular the beautiful female
Vanth and her male partner, the hammer-wielding Charu. We will see examples
of the survival of these figures in medieval and later time: it was
no coincidence that the Renaissance started in the area where the Etruscans
had lived, and where their art continued to be discovered.
(Back) |
||
Place
and time: Mt.
Holyoke College, Gamble Auditorium, 5:00PM Hosted by the Mt. Holyoke College Classics Department |
||
.
This site is hosted by the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
