2010-2011 Public Lecture Program

Synopsis: In January 2023, the Wadi el-Hudi Expedition conducted a three-day survey of Dihmit South, a large fortified settlement and amethyst mine of the Middle Kingdom in the Eastern Desert. The institutional elements, including organization, design, and artifacts at Dihmit South, are similar to those found at Wadi el-Hudi contemporaneously. They are key cogs representing a much larger regional pattern of centralized amethyst mining. During our survey, we examined the multi-phased settlement, its construction methods, and its dense ceramic distribution. The settlement's intricate walls and rooms also show extensive evidence for amethyst production. On a northern hill overlooking the settlement, dozens of cairns, standing rocks, several stelae, and a cairn-court were built across the top of a double-saddled hill. This conglomeration is for more than navigation and seems to be related to the religious practice of the miners. We also examined two large mines and several smaller mines on the south side. Here the Chaîne opératoire of mining can be seen, including a unique building full of pottery and stone tools likely used to fix baskets or other products during the mining process. Miners also carved rock art on a large boulder between the mines. And on another clump of boulders, inscriptions occur about half a kilometer down the wadi between Dihmit South and the Nile, demonstrating that people could arrive here via boat. This talk will share some of our latest discoveries and discuss how they enhance our knowledge of Middle Kingdom mining expeditions.

Venue: the GlasSalon in the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art

2. 6:30 pm, November 20 (Friday), 2026

* * * 13th Annual Dorothy M. Price Memorial Lecture on Ancient Art * * *

Speaker: Steven Tuck, Ph.D., Professor of History and Classics at Miami University (Miami, OH)

Lecture: “Decorating for Death: Sculptural Programs at the Colosseum and Flavian Amphitheaters”

Synopsis: Roman public buildings were lavishly decorated with art that reinforced the values of their culture and government. The Colosseum and its two twin amphitheaters were no different. Investigating the sculptures commissioned and carved to enhance the exteriors and interiors of these amphitheaters, we can see a unique case study of this. This imagery reflects some of the major events taking place in the arenas while also reinforcing societal values to all who attended the games they hosted.

Venue: Haigh Auditorium in the Center for the Visual Arts (beside the Toledo Museum of Art)

3. 6:30 pm, December 11 (Friday), 2026

Speaker: Augusta McMahon, Ph.D., Professor of Mesopotamian Archaeology at the University of Chicago (Chicago, IL)

Lecture: "New Approaches to Mesopotamian Cities: Current Excavations at Nippur, South Iraq”

Synopsis: Nippur during the 3rd - 1st millennia BCE was an important ancient Mesopotamian religious and economic center, surrounded by city walls. Past excavations on its main mounds indicate that the city center occupation remained relatively stable over time. However, recent excavations have revealed that a southern extension of the city was dynamic, expanding and contracting in response to climate change and political churn. The edges of ancient cities are rarely excavated, but such peri-urban areas are vital for reconstruction of past urban economies and demography. This southern city edge area at Nippur may have absorbed both internally displaced residents and new immigrants. Further, burials, discarded rubbish, and features related to the unregulated economy were located outside the city wall, suggesting that ancient cities, like modern cities, had porous boundaries..

Venue: Haigh Auditorium in the Center for the Visual Arts (beside the Toledo Museum of Art)

There will be no lectures in January and February 2027

4. 6:30 pm, March 5 (Friday), 2027

Speaker: Daniel Contreras, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Florida (Gainesville, FL)

Lecture: "Chavín de Huántar and the "Chavín Phenomenon": Networking 1st Millennium BCE Peru"

Synopsis: For more than a century, archaeologists have proposed that the 1st millennium BCE ceremonial center of Chavín de Huántar, in highland Peru, is key to understanding early cultural complexity in the Central Andes. Chavín's platform mounds, sunken plazas, elaborate lithic art, and sophisticated material culture pose two persistent archaeological questions: "What does it tell us that a community had the motivation and the capacity to build this monumental center?" and "Why did Chavín share artistic, architectural, and technological forms with contemporary sites throughout much of what's now Peru?" This talk will explore current understandings of Chavín and the "Chavín Phenomenon", how 21st-century archaeological science is improving our answers, and what we still don't know.

Venue: Haigh Auditorium in the Center for the Visual Arts (beside the Toledo Museum of Art)

5. 6:30 pm, April 15 (Thursday), 2027

Speaker: Sissel Schroeder, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin at Madison (Madison, WI)

Lecture: “Archaeology of Indigenous Dugout Canoes of Eastern North America”

This lecture is co-sponsored by the National Museum of the Great Lakes

Synopsis: Dugout canoes were important for Indigenous navigation of the many rivers and lakes of eastern North America. More than 900 have been reported from this region, including 230 from the states and provinces bordering the Great Lakes. More than half of the Great Lakes dugouts are from Wisconsin, including 18 from Lake Mendota in Madison. A comparison of wood type, age, and style across these three different regional scales gives new insights into Indigenous wood choice, resilience, and persistence in the face of climate and cultural changes, technological innovation, and Indigenous ecological knowledge, and how these varied across space and through time.

Venue: the National Museum of the Great Lakes in Toledo

6. 6:30 pm, May 14 (Friday), 2027

Speaker: William Taylor, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Colorado (Boulder, CO)

Lecture: “Rethinking the Origins of Horse Domestication and Its Impact on the Ancient World”

This lecture is co-sponsored by the Toledo Museum of Art.

Synopsis: The domestication of the horse is widely understood as one of the most significant events in human history - with horse transport linked to drastic changes in ecology, communication, culture, ceremony, and even the very structure of societies across the ancient world. But how did this transformative relationship between people and horses first emerge? New discoveries from archaeological sciences are overturning long-held assumptions about the timing and process of the first domestication, revealing a process that was far more rapid - and far more disruptive than previously understood.

Venue: the GlasSalon in the Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art

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For more information on the Toledo Society's lecture program contact:

James A. Harrell, Lecture Program Co-coordinator for the AIA-Toledo Society
(phone: 419-530-2193; e-mail: james.harrell@utoledo.edu)