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Presider:
Caitlin (Cat) Gillespie, Brandeis University

Presider:
Jake Mackey, Occidental College

Presider:

Brett Rogers, The University of Puget Sound

Presider:
Andromache Karanika, University of California, Irvine

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Organizers:
Nathaniel Solley, University of Pennsylvania, and Johanna Kaiser, University of Pennsylvania

Discussants:
Nathaniel Solley, University of Pennsylvania

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Sponsored by:
American Friends of Herculaneum

Organizers:
Carol Mattusch, George Mason University and David Sider, New York University

Introducers:
Carol Mattusch, George Mason University

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Organizers:
Irene Peirano Garrison, Harvard University, Niek Janssen, Amherst College, and Laura Viidebaum, New York University

Organized by Colloquium for Ancient Rhetoric

Introducers:
Laura Viidebaum, New York University

Organizers:

Benedek Kruchio, Yale University

Discussants:
Peter Struck, University of Pennsylvania

Organizers:

Kyle Khellaf, University of California, Riverside and Sonia Sabnis, Reed College

Organizers:
Sarah W. Kansa, Open Context, and Eric C. Kansa, Open Context

This demonstration workshop provides an interactive walkthrough of Open Context (https://opencontext.org), an online archaeological data publishing service. Launched in 2006, Open Context has published 200 projects, amounting to over 2 million items (objects, observations, contexts), and 150,000 images. This workshop is for people interested in learning how to discover and use data in Open Context, as well as data authors seeking more information on the publication process.

The first hour of this workshop will focus on the “data reuser” perspective. We will begin with a tour of Open Context data publications to give participants a sense of the diversity of datasets that can be used for research and teaching. We will choose a few projects to explore in more depth, highlighting the features of each that help make them easier to use (for analysis or integration with other data from across the web). We will then demonstrate how to conduct searches in Open Context (in individual data publications as well as across multiple projects) and the various ways search results can be displayed and downloaded for reuse.

During the second hour, we will look at Open Context from the “data author” perspective, exploring the wide variation of data that archaeologists create (spreadsheets, maps, images, fieldnotes, databases) and discussing some of the challenges data creators face around documentation, data selection, access, and working with multiple contributors. We will conclude the workshop by walking through an Open Context data ingest form to give participants a sense of what to keep in mind as they prepare their data for publication.

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Organizers:
Emily Wiley, Rutgers University, and Corinne Muller, Penn Cultural Heritage Center, Penn Museum

Panelists:
Ayman al-Nabo, Idleb Antiquities Center, Claudia Bührig, Damascus Branch Office and Research Center of the DAI, Ammar Kannawi, Syrians for Heritage (SIMAT), Brian I. Daniels, Penn Cultural Heritage Center, and Corinne Muller, Penn Cultural Heritage Center

Overview Statement:
In Syria, the cultural heritage field is at a pivotal phase following the overthrow of the Assad regime in December 2024. After more than a decade of armed conflict, civil unrest, and repressive governance, cultural organizations and cultural rights defenders face both significant challenges in rebuilding the sector and exciting opportunities to reclaim and reassert Syria’s global prominence culturally and the importance of cultural heritage to local communities. In this workshop, panelists will discuss current efforts to restore cultural heritage in Syria, highlighting international collaborations.

This workshop convenes experts from allied organizations invested in Syrian archaeology and heritage preservation to discuss the successes and challenges of their projects, which may serve to inform further efforts on international collaborations around cultural heritage, especially as the sector rebuilds in Syria. It will include a major update from the Idleb Antiquities Center (IAC) and Syrians for Heritage (SIMAT), who in 2025 finished restoring the Idleb Museum in Idlib, Syria, to safe and renewed conditions in partnership with the Penn Cultural Heritage Center at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and with support from the US ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation. Formerly an epicenter of cultural activity and scholarship in northwest Syria as the repository of the renowned Ebla tablets collection, the Idleb Museum suffered extensive damage during the Türkiye-Syria earthquake in February 2023 as well as from bombardments, vandalism, and looting during the civil war, and was operationally closed. The German Archaeological Institute will present on the current activity of its Damascus branch, which is adjusting to the new political reality and the potential for renewed engagement.

This forum will provide colleagues working in northwest Syria an opportunity to exchange knowledge about current threats to cultural heritage and ongoing development, reconstruction, restoration, and protection interventions. Brief reports will address topics such as the diverse insights on the Idleb Museum project from the collaborating teams at the University of Pennsylvania, SIMAT, and the IAC. The goal of this workshop is to provide an important update on cultural preservation in Syria, presenting SIMETI as one model for other Syrian cultural institutions and sites in immediate need of rehabilitation.

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Chair: Jessica Paga, William and Mary

Chair: Hannah L. Lents, The University of Texas at Austin

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Organizers:
Nicholas Cahill, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Overview Statement:
Archaeological research at Sardis in Türkiye has produced new insights into this long-lived, multiethnic metropolis and capital of the Lydian Empire. Excavation and survey have taken place in the core of the ancient city, at the edges of the fortified, formal city, and in the extensive suburban settlements and necropolises. Research has covered periods from the Bronze Age through the Byzantine periods, with a particular focus on the Lydian period of the ninth through sixth centuries B.C.E., when Sardis was the capital of a major empire that extended as far as central Anatolia.

Papers about recent fieldwork, excavation, and survey address questions of the rise of the Lydian kingdom and empire in the Iron Age. New evidence from the palatial quarter of the urban core shows that the region was monumentalized with megalithic walls and terraces in the eighth century B.C.E., a century before literary sources describe the rise of the Mermnad dynasty. Evidence for earlier, monumental Bronze Age terracing shows that literary sources such as Strabo, who describes Sardis as dating to after the Trojan War, are mistaken. In the extensive suburbs of the city, a new excavation sector is revealing a residential neighborhood destroyed by Cyrus the Great in 547 B.C.E., leaving rich domestic assemblages in situ. Surrounding and probably interleaved with the extramural settlements were scattered necropolises of chamber tombs, tumuli, and other tombs, some of which were excavated by H.C. Butler in the early 20th century but are now being mapped and systematically recorded for the first time.

New discoveries in Hellenistic and Roman Sardis include important new information about the extramural temple of Artemis, one of the largest Ionic temples in the world, including its optical refinements and phasing. A major sanctuary in the city center was a neocorate sanctuary, probably dedicated to the Emperor Claudius. The sanctuary terrace was converted to elite housing in the later fourth century C.E., and these houses, together with the temple of Artemis and all other buildings at Sardis, were destroyed in a devastating earthquake in the early seventh century, a catastrophe seen in other western Anatolian sites as well but not attested in historical accounts.

Chair: Kat Moore, University of Arizona

Organizers:
Shannon Dunn, AJA, Bryn Mawr College, and Luke Madson, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Overview Statement:
Famously leaving less monumental architecture than her frequent rival Athens, Sparta has been a challenge to understand archaeologically. In recent years, great strides have been made in covering the communities and landscapes beyond Sparta, throughout the greater territory of Laconia, through both regional surveys and excavations of towns and sanctuaries. A number of projects working across the region are currently illuminating areas that were previously understudied, shedding essential light on local histories, lived experience, and differing perspectives beyond the hegemony of Sparta.

This panel brings together six papers that apply regional approaches to local identity in Laconia. They will be organized as a geographic tour, from the southern extremity of Cape Tainaron to the northeastern borderlands. Paper 1 brings us to the southernmost point of mainland Greece to the sanctuary of Poseidon at Tainaron, where the author presents the history of this remote site as a place of refuge and the evidence for its autonomy from Sparta. Moving around the Laconian Gulf, paper 2 examines religious change in the harbor town of Gytheio, and how this coastal community may have affected the rest of Laconian religious life, as seen through epigraphic evidence. Paper 3 continues the religious theme with a look at a specific votive type found at the sanctuary of Apollo Hypertealeatas in the Malean Peninsula—incribed bronze bands dedicated by cult personnel—and considers what these votives can tell us about individuals, festival culture, and Laconian cult practices more broadly. Moving north, paper 4 presents the results of fieldwork at Geronthrai, a prominent and well-connected community with a strategic location along major routes, and traces its evolving identity from wealthy perioecic town to a free polis in its own right. Paper 5 follows one of the routes from Geronthrai into the Parnon Mountains, presenting the new study of a fortified site that the authors argue was a permanent settlement, part of a road network in the mountains. Paper 6 concludes the panel with a diachronic look at the sanctuaries, toponyms, and myths associated with a border zone at the northern end of these mountains, and how the ancient sites and stories affect the lived landscape of modern towns.

A local focus in historical studies has continued to facilitate nuanced understandings of politics, people, and landscapes. We seek to bring together scholars who address specific case studies on the intraregional dynamics of Laconia, and consider the evolving stories of epichoric communities.

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Sponsored by:
Penn Cultural Heritage Center

Organizers:
Alyssa C. Thiel, Penn Cultural Heritage Center and Brian I. Daniels, University of Pennsylvania, Penn Cultural Heritage Center

Panelists:
Patty Gerstenblith, Center for Art, Museum & Cultural Heritage Law, María José Buerba Romero Valdés, Office of the Legal Adviser, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Virginia Hermann, U.S. Department of State, and Daniel Healey, Worcester Art Museum

Overview Statement:
In recent years, high-profile law enforcement seizures of cultural property from United States museums have led to significant financial loss, negative public opinion, and a loss of trust in the museum sector itself. The basis for these seizures generally lies in the violation of an object’s country of origin’s patrimony law and its resulting interpretation as stolen property under US law. However, many leading American museums and their professional associations uphold the date of the 1970 UNESCO Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit, Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property, rather than that of the country of origin’s patrimony law, as a benchmark when considering the provenance of a new acquisition.

Although museums have adopted 1970 standard to avoid legal risk, has it instead opened them up to liability? Should museums’ acquisitions and collections management policies continue to require provenance (collecting history) based on the 1970 UNESCO Convention, or, at a minimum, provenance that can be traced to the date of the patrimony law in each object’s respective country of origin?

This workshop creates an opportunity for colleagues to share their expertise and insights on the complicated legal landscape of the 1970 UNESCO Convention, international law, and patrimony laws as they directly affect acquisitions, provenance research, and other collections management activities at US museums. The goal of this workshop is to provide an in-depth look at the current professional standards and institutional policies of museum collecting; the differences between law, soft law, and ethics as they apply to cultural property ownership; and initiatives to update museum policies and standards to meet their ethical and legal obligations.

Sponsored by:
AIA Numismatics Interest Group

Organizers:
Benjamin Hellings, Yale University Art Gallery

Discussants:
Fae Amiro, University of Western Ontario

Overview Statement:
Coins provide unique insight into the ancient world. They inform us about political, cultural, historical, and economic conditions of the past and are critical primary sources. They are also a readily available, generally well-dated, studied, and organized body of material evidence that can be placed into historical contexts. In the ancient past through to the modern era, ancient coins circulated and moved across the globe and thus are excellent proxies to trace the movement of people and practices.

Coin circulation is a timeless subject, but this session, which brings together four papers and a response, different lenses to survey “The Mobility and Circulation of Ancient Coins and People” are presented to discuss matters of agency, trade, the economy (hoards or single finds), migrations, and how the topic may inform current questions (e.g., political economy, local histories, gender norms, imperialism, and colonialism). The panel covers disparate areas and times of the ancient Greco-Roman world that will foster an open dialogue about the limitations and possibilities of employing a variety of approaches.

The first paper, “The Coinage of Expelled Populations in Classical Greece: Mobility, Circulation, Identity” shed new insights into reconstructing the fates, shifting identities, and numismatic habits of uprooted populations to propose that a shared identity relating to mass expulsion was forming on multiple exiled settlements’ numismatic iconography, paving the way for a wider discourse. This first paper will speak well with the second paper, “All Rhodes Lead to Rome: A Geographic Study of the Circulation of Rhodian Coinage in the Late Roman Republic,” wherein, the distribution of Rhodian coinage agrees more with the course of political and military affairs than with commerce (as has often been assumed), to demonstrate the decline of Rhodes, its population, and influence in the Mediterranean. The third paper, “Coins on the March: The Hoards of the Anonymous Coins of the Civil Wars 68–69 C.E.” continues in the same vein, demonstrating the ways that the anonymous coins of the Civil War offer insight into political unrest and military mobility. The final paper, “Changing Representations: The Iconography of Maternal Power in the Numismatics of Julia Domna Across the Roman Empire” considers the appeal of certain iconographic types, for certain population groups (including the military) across the empire. The respondent will conclude by bringing together the papers to underscore the multivariant approaches numismatics offers to study mobility and circulation and connect the inanimate to the animate.

Sponsored by:
Roman Provincial Archaeology Interest Group (RPAIG)

Organizers:
Colin Omilanowski, University of Arizona, and Anne Hunnell Chen, Bard College

Panelists:
Rob Collins, Newcastle University, Erin Peters, Appalachian State University, Sarah Craft, Florida State University, Alice Lynn McMichael, Barnard College, Blair Fowlkes Childs, Columbia University, Zoé Elise Thomas, University of Texas at Austin, and Michelle Heeman, Stanford University

Overview Statement:
This interactive workshop focuses on the Roman Provinces Project (RPP), a groundbreaking pedagogy initiative led by the Roman Provincial Archaeology Interest Group (RPAIG). Given the absence of textbooks on the Roman provinces, the group is creating an open-access digital resource to highlight archaeological sites that demonstrate the empire’s geographic breadth and cultural complexities. The workshop will combine (1) short presentations about what has been accomplished since the initiative launched in January 2024 and (2) a practicum where any attendee can contribute directly to the project.

In response to studies showing that syllabi for Roman archaeology courses over-rely on a few famous sites, the project began with an online survey asking Roman specialists which sites they would add to their teaching if given more resources. Building on these findings, approximately thirty contributors are currently writing up guides to geographically diverse archaeological sites. The guides adhere to an adaptable template for consistency and cover key facts, features, objects, online resources, and connecting themes. The guides currently exist as open access documents on RPP’s website and the Roman Provinces Wikiproject while a dynamic website is under development. Key bibliography from the site guides appears on the group’s public Zotero library. Key information from the site guides is also used to enrich Wikidata, which is different from Wikipedia in being an open-access platform with controlled, inherently multilingual vocabulary that makes data easy to search and to extract for cultural mapping projects and comprehensive websites. Ethically, RPP’s initiative aims to increase the diversity of sites studied in classrooms, while also confronting the inequities of early excavation practices, enduring knowledge silos, and persistent publication paywalls.

Presider:

Andrew Riggsby, University of Texas at Austin

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Presider:
Christopher B. Krebs, Stanford University

Presider:
Michael Gagarin, University of Texas at Austin

Presider:

Carlos Noreña, Berkeley University

The Committee on the Translation of Classical Authors

Organizers:
Brian Jorge Bigio, Independent Translator-Scholar, Deborah Roberts, Haverford College, Emily Wilson, University of Pennsylvania

Introducers:
Luke Soucy, Princeton University

Discussants:
Vanessa Stovall, Independent Translator-Scholar

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Sponsored by:
The Society for Ancient Medicine and Pharmacology

Organizers:
Aileen Das, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and Calloway Scott, University of Cincinnati

Introducers:
Aileen Das, University of Michigan

Discussants:
Calloway Scott, University of Cincinnati

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Organizers:

Sandro La Barbera, University of Trento

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Sponsored by:
Classics and Social Justice

Organizers:
Amy Pistone, Gonzaga University

Organizers:

Julia Irons, University of Chicago

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Sponsored by:
AIA Etruscan Interest Group

Organizers:
Alexandra A. Carpino, Northern Arizona University, Daniele F. Maras, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze, and Richard De Puma, The University of Iowa

Panelists:
Daniele F. Maras, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze, Luana Toniolo, Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, Nancy de Grummond, Florida State University, Alexander Ekserdjian, Yale University, Kristine Bøggild Johannsen, Thorvaldsens Museum, Bodil Bundgaard Rasmussen, The National Museum of Denmark,Cecilie Brøns, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Vinnie Nørskov, Aarhus University, Renée Dreyfus, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young / Legion of Honor, and Lisa C. Pieraccini, University of California Berkeley

Overview Statement:
This workshop aims to provide a vibrant forum for exchange that engages with Etruscan material culture as the catalyst for discussions about collection stewardship, curatorial practice, visual display, and interpretation for current and future generations of museum goers and community stakeholders. It brings together directors, curators, art historians, and archaeologists dedicated not only to modernizing the presentation of their multifaceted Etruscan collections but also to making them attractive to 21st-century visitors of all backgrounds, ages, and identities.

The first four presentations will highlight the different strategies that several Italian museums are employing to reimagine how diverse audiences can more effectively engage with and learn about the Etruscans heritage, once considered an important marker of Italian cultural identity. Presentation 1 focuses on the renovation work currently underway at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze, which includes new topographic and thematic sections as well as one where Etruscan art is integrated into a unified Mediterranean discourse. Presentation 2 highlights the reenvisioning efforts at the Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia, where a new chronologically organized itinerary, enhanced by multimedia displays, is now in operation. Presentation 3 centers on the impetus behind and display strategies of a new Italian cultural center in Gaiole in Chianti where the Etruscans heritage is interwoven with other important stories about the region. Finally, presentation 4 addresses how the curators of a recent exhibition at the Capitoline Museums gave audiences a new appreciation of the often-fragmentary nature of Etruscan art through virtuosic display decisions and full-color large-scale reconstructions.

The diverse collecting policies and curatorial trends at the four largest and most representative Danish museums with classical antiquities will be the focus of presentations 5 and 6, which will also include a discussion of how special exhibitions have shaped, over time, the perception and dissemination of the Etruscans heritage to Northern European audiences.

The final two presentations address topics related to the three exhibitions on Etruscan material culture that will open in California’s Bay Area in 2026. Presentation 7 considers the behind-the-scenes work that goes into planning and securing loans for the first international American exhibition in nearly two decades, which opens at the Legion of Honor in May. Presentation 8 focuses on the value of student participation in two different exhibitions on the University of California, Berkeley campus and how their hands-on engagement with Etruscan material culture will generate exhibit designs that speak to diverse audiences.

Chairs: Charlotte R.F. Mandy, Columbia University

Sponsored by:
AIA Student Affairs Interest Group

Organizers:
Allison A. Davis, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Wendy Vencel, North Carolina State University

Panelists:
William Loder, Independent Scholar, Adin White, Chico State University, Joel Christensen, CUNY, Jennifer Sacher, Hesperia, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Natalie Susmann, Brandeis University, and Dani McIvor, Exec Director, The Alliance for Historic Hillsborough

Overview Statement:
What can you do with a degree in archaeology? This workshop, sponsored by the Student Affairs Interest Group, provides a collaborative forum to explore career pathways for individuals with degrees in archaeology. Designed for undergraduates, graduate students, and early career scholars, the session brings together a panel of experienced professionals to share strategies for navigating the ever-evolving job market within and beyond the academy.

Career uncertainty and employment pressures are persistent challenges for students and emerging professionals in archaeology. While many faculty mentors are best positioned to advise on academic trajectories, students increasingly seek guidance on broader opportunities. This workshop responds to that need by presenting a range of professional experiences that demonstrate the versatility of archaeological training.

Panelists will address critical questions, including:

• What career opportunities exist for those passionate about archaeology?
• Are graduate degrees essential for employment in the field?
• What options are available outside of academia?
• How can individuals effectively communicate their skills and experience to diverse employers?
• What strategies can help navigate current challenges in the public and private sectors?

The workshop will open with brief introductions from our panelists, who represent a range of career paths and experiences. James Newhard, for example, has advised classics and archaeology undergraduates at a public university for over a decade with a focus on preparing students for life after graduation; as a member of the AIA Mentorship Subcommittee, his current project is to advise the advisors on training students beyond academic professions. For a different perspective, Matt Stirn has experience pursuing archaeology through photography and journalism, exemplifying how archaeological training can support multidisciplinary professional goals. Additional panelists will bring perspectives from national services, cultural resource management, and private-sector work.

Following panelist introductions, we will pose our prepared questions to prompt discussion around career development, professional identity, and transferable skills. The session will conclude with an open Q&A, encouraging attendees to ask questions, share concerns, and engage in peer dialogue.

By connecting students and early career professionals with a diverse group of mentors, this workshop aims to empower attendees with practical tools, broader perspectives, and a clearer understanding of the career possibilities available to those with a degree in archaeology.

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Chairs: Emma Blake, University of Arizona

Organizers:
Gregor Kalas, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Colin Whiting, Dumbarton Oaks

Overview Statement:
This AIA session uses space as a means to connect secular administrative authorities with the ecclesiastic culture of late antique Rome. Although Rome was no longer the exclusive seat of emperors during this period, it remained the heart of the empire—and a critical locus for negotiation between the imperial government and the city’s powerful aristocrats, increasingly confident bishops, and enormous urban population. These Romans, too, continually refashioned their city in new ways, despite occasional crises (or “Falls,” in the title of one recent book on the subject). The approaches of the papers in the session draw upon a wide variety of material evidence and textual sources to better elucidate how, exactly, Rome’s diverse residents transformed themselves, their city, and their empire in this pivotal period. Recent investigations presented here highlight innovations in later Roman urban governance together with the rising influence of bishops that transformed the cityscape, as is witnessed in the buildings, pictures, and texts that will be examined in the session.

One paper, entitled “The Architectural Design of Late Antique Rome: Metrology and Acoustics on the Eastern Caelian,” draws upon new data to establish that a predetermined proportional system did not generate the Lateran Basilica’s layout, since acoustics together with liturgical and processional requirements more likely dictated the format of Rome’s first cathedral. This paper focuses upon the city’s episcopal complex featuring a major basilica together with the baptistry and the bishop’s palace to emphasize that sound was a fundamental element in the conceptualization of Rome’s late antique ceremonial spaces. The session then turns to the nexus of urban architecture and imperial power in its second paper, “Constantius II and Constantina in Rome: Dynastic Unity and Christian Piety.” This paper disputes the traditional view that this emperor’s non-Nicene Christianity had minimized his religious sway over the city. Evidence attests that the emperor’s sister Constantina worked as a cultural ambassador in Rome and linked her mausoleum to the Basilica of St. Agnes on the Via Nomentana. Doing so allowed her to foreground dynastic claims on behalf of Constantius in opposition to a usurper as she also established herself as an Augusta. In the third paper, epigraphic evidence is used to demonstrate that bishops pursued significant architectural transformations when they reconfigured Rome’s preexisting audience halls to create liturgical spaces. Entitled “The Transformed Radiance of Rome’s Late Antique Audience Halls,” this presentation establishes parallels between the shifting ownership of the marble-clad interiors and a heightened appreciation for generous supplies of reflected light. Although the profusion of light in these structures made the interiors all the more glittering to behold, that very abundance may have made bishops, perhaps contrary to expectations, ambivalent about such largesse; bishops only appear as intermediaries in the inscriptions and seem more likely to stress that inlaid marbles and mosaic decorations benefited from being replenished first and foremost by the light of faith. The final paper, entitled “Governing Rome at the End of Empire,” likewise draws upon epigraphy. It uses inscriptions that appeared in the city after the sack of 410 C.E. to argue that, during the last decades of the western capital’s prominence in the empire, urban prefects put on display new documentation of their administrative experience. Rome’s top-ranking officials of the fifth century appear to have rejected the independence of their forebears, as local prefects started to broadcast their loyalty to the emperors in the city’s public inscriptions. By drawing together these four studies on basilicas and bishops, emperors and epigraphy, cemeteries and saints, this panel will demonstrate how the changing spaces of the Eternal City can only be truly understood by drawing together the material and textual remains of the time and place.

Chair: Matthew Notarian, Hiram College

Chair: Liz Colantoni, University of Rochester

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Chair: Lauren Pratt, UCLA

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Sponsored by:
AIA Museums and Exhibitions Committee

Organizers:
Sarah Lepinski, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lisa Anderson-Zhu, The Walters Art Museum

Panelists:
Seth Pevnick, Cleveland Museum of Art, Jessica Powers, San Antonio Museum of Art, Lynley McAlpine, San Antonio Museum of Art, Carolyn M. Laferrière, Princeton University Art Museum, MaryKate Cleary, Princeton University Art Museum, Jens Daehner, J. Paul Getty Museum, and Maya Muratov, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Overview Statement:
For museums, acquiring art today involves numerous steps of evaluation and necessitates significant investment of resources to conduct research and verify provenance and to consider broader issues surrounding fund raising, conservation, storage, programming, and the presentation of the work in the galleries for a variety of audiences. With the significant investment of time and effort involved, and the challenges to acquiring objects from the ancient Mediterranean region in a legal and ethical manner, how and why do museums continue to collect ancient art?

In many respects, institutions collect because they seek to diversify collections and the stories they can tell, to fill narrative and thematic gaps in collections, or to target acquisitions that either connect directly to objects already in the institution or are exceptional objects in their own right. Diversifying collections to include objects made for daily life, were made by or for women, or that depict underrepresented groups, offers curators opportunities to change the kinds of narratives presented in gallery displays, making them more inclusive and accessible.

Acquisition opportunities arise when well-provenanced objects appear on the art market or are offered as gifts or bequests to an institution. Antiquities have been featured on the art market for centuries, and it is possible for curators, collectors, and auction houses to trade in objects whose histories extend not only beyond 1970 but can even be traced back centuries. Through increased engagement with international partners and careful research to verify the provenance of objects, museums legally and ethically expand their collections today.

This workshop features brief presentations by museum professionals highlighting recent acquisitions of antiquities in the last four years (2022–present). As a group, the presentations address museum acquisition practices and procedures, as they pertain to specific institutions, and examine the goals and rationales behind decisions to acquire works of ancient art today. The presentations will be followed by moderated discussion with the workshop presenters and participants.

The topic of museum acquisitions is timely, as communities and professionals working across institutional structures (e.g., universities, museums, research centers, and government agencies) are actively engaged in assessing policies and principles surrounding the stewardship of cultural heritage. The session provides the opportunity to explore the complex issues surrounding museum acquisitions among the wide range of the AIA professional membership.

Join us for an Archaeology Resources, Pathways, and Impact Fair! Sponsored by the Research and Academic Affairs Committee and its subcommittee on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB), this round-table style fair will provide information and access to a variety of archaeological and educational resources and career and research pathways. A great variety of organizations, groups, and initiatives will be available for discussion, resource distribution, networking, and other opportunities available through AIA and in development. The fair is intended for first-time and seasoned attendees to the Annual Meetings with something for everyone to discover. The fair is also a place to share interests and needs in career and research opportunities in addition to becoming engaged in AIA’s many initiatives and interest groups. A question/suggestion box and online form will be available as well. One outcome of the event will be material for the “Access & Responsible Practice” webpage under the Professionals tab on the AIA site, while another will be introducing a wide variety of AIA members to the meetings, to the discipline, and to each other.

Themed Tables include:

1. AIA Resources for Students and Professionals (AIA staff – Meredith Langlitz)
Information on resources such as fellowships, grants, and engagement opportunities offered by the AIA.

2. First-Time Attendees to the Annual Meeting: tips and tools (DEIB subcommittee – Elizabeth Greene, University of Western Ontario)
Insight and information to navigate the meetings for the first time as well as maximize the experience and meet other first-time attendees.

3. Redefining the Fieldwork Experience for Access (DEIB subcommittee – Dimitri Nakassis, University of Colorado, Boulder)
A discussion of barriers to fieldwork and the exchange of ideas for possible solutions (funding, access, disability)

4. Research Opportunities Network (RON) (RAA committee – VP Kim Shelton, UC Berkeley)
Come and learn about a new interactive online resource in development for finding researchers or material to research. Ideas and suggestions welcome from all AIA members at every stage of their career.

5. Flexible Fieldwork and Research Retention (Rights, Responsibilities, and Practices subcommittee – Maryl Gensheimer, University of Maryland)
An interactive discussion of flexible approaches to research and fieldwork to better allow for participation and retention in projects (shorter seasons in-person, remote work).

6. Engaging with Outreach (Outreach and Education Committee – VP Jen Thum, Harvard Art Museums)
Find out about engaging in outreach opportunities, such as Skype a Scientist, or bringing outreach to your community or group

7. Meet Society Officers and Society Officer Resources (Societies Committee – VP Katie Petrole, The Parthenon Nashville)
Interested in AIA local societies? This is an opportunity to get to know officers and leadership roles. Already a society officer? Come to pitch your program ideas and learn helpful tools.

8. Digital Resources and Access to Archaeology (DEIB subcommittee and Digital Archaeology Interest Group – David Wheeler, UC Davis)
An opportunity to discuss and discover digital approaches to archaeological research which may help to remove barriers to equitable access to cultural heritage.

9. Student Engagement in Archaeology (Student Affairs Interest Group)
Learn about opportunities to engage with SAIG and what resources they offer students.

10. Community and Mentorship in Archaeology: A Conversation with the Asian and Asian American Classical Caucus (AAACC – Chris Waldo, University of Washington)
Learn about AAACC and how to get involved.

11. Meet and Chat: Discussion and Networking at the Annual Meeting (RAA Committee – various members)
An open table with rotating participants to discuss any topic of interest, meet others of similar interests, and discover a wide range of resources.

To participate remotely:

Zoom Link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/j/86369080503

Zoom Passcode: 672189

Presider:
Benedek Kruchióor, Yale University

Presider:
Richard Martin, Stanford University

Presider:

Emily Mackil, University of California, Berkeley

Presider:
Bridget (Sheila) Murnaghan, University of Pennsylvania

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Sponsored by:
The Committee on College and University Education

Organizers:
Stephen Kershner, Austin Peay State University, Teresa Ramsby, University of Amherst, and Michael Furman, Florida Statue University

Introducers:
Stephen Kershner, Austin Peay State University

Speakers:

1. Sara Abel-Rappe, University of Michigan
2. Audrey L. Anton, Western Kentucky University 
3. Alberto De Simoni, North Carolina State University
4. Elizabeth Bobrick, Wesleyan University 
5. Kassandra Miller, Colby College
6. Alexandra Pappas, San Francisco State University 

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Organizers:

Marsha McCoy, Southern Methodist University

Introducers:
Marsha McCoy, Southern Methodist University

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Organizers:

Alexandra Henning, University of California, Los Angeles and Roselyn Campbell, University of California, Los Angeles

Sponsored by:
The Vergilian Society

Organizers:
Vassiliki Panoussi, College of William & Mary

Introducers:
Vassiliki Panoussi, College of William & Mary

Discussants:
Kirk Freudenburg, Yale University

Sponsored by:
The American Society of Greek and Latin Epigraphy

Organizers:
Laura Gawlinski, Loyola University of Chicago

Introducers:
Laura Gawlinski, Loyola University of Chicago

Chair: Grace Erny, UC Berkeley

Sponsored by:
MAPMA

Organizers:
Fotini Kondyli, University of Virginia, and Angelo Castrorao Barba, Escuela de Estudios Árabes (EEA), Granada, Spain

Overview Statement:
This colloquium brings together recent archaeological fieldwork projects investigating medieval and postmedieval periods across the Mediterranean and its surrounding regions. The session highlights the diversity of approaches and methodologies employed in contemporary archaeology, including excavation, survey, laboratory analysis, postexcavation research, and archival study, while emphasizing the vital role of fieldwork in understanding and preserving the region’s cultural heritage.

The papers presented share a focus on the dynamic interaction between human communities and the landscapes they inhabited, shaped, and transformed over time. Political centers, sacred spaces, fortifications, burial grounds, and monastic sites are explored not only as reflections of social and religious organization but also in relation to their environmental settings and natural features. Mountains, coastlines, waterways, and resource-rich zones emerge not as passive backdrops but as active agents in structuring settlement patterns, power relations, and economic activity.

A unifying aspect of the session is the innovative use of new technologies—including LiDAR, photogrammetry, digital documentation, and environmental analysis—which are enhancing field documentation, enabling refined reconstructions of past landscapes, and informing strategies for site preservation. These methodological advances facilitate new insights into patterns of settlement, landscape modification, and heritage management in the face of both historical and contemporary environmental challenges.

Chronologically and geographically wide-ranging, the session offers comparative perspectives on the medieval and postmedieval Mediterranean, encompassing diverse communities—Islamic, Christian, and multiconfessional—and regions from the western Mediterranean to the Byzantine East. This broad coverage allows for critical reflection on long-term processes of landscape transformation, patterns of continuity and change, and the networks of interaction that connected different parts of the Mediterranean world.

In an era of growing concern for cultural heritage preservation, this colloquium highlights how current archaeological fieldwork is generating new data, refining methodologies, and advancing our understanding of medieval and postmedieval societies. The session fosters dialogue on innovative and interdisciplinary approaches that are reshaping the study of the past while addressing the challenges of heritage conservation and interpretation in the Mediterranean and beyond.

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Organizers:
Valeria Riedemann Lorca, University of Washington, and Karolina Sekita, Tel-Aviv University

Discussants:
Luigi Todisco, Università degli Studi di Bari

Overview Statement:
Chamber tombs represent one of the most complex and enduring expressions of funerary architecture in pre-Roman Italy. Found across diverse regions, including Etruria, Campania, Lucania, and Apulia, these tombs serve as critical markers of ethnicity and cultural belonging. They reflect a wide range of localized traditions while simultaneously revealing shared practices of elite self-representation, memory construction, and ritual performance. To date, however, the study of chamber tombs has remained primarily confined to regionally specific and specialized approaches. Only a few attempts have adopted cross-regional perspectives capable of contextualizing these monuments within broader Mediterranean frameworks (Prayon 1989; Steingräber 2000). Moreover, scholarship has often emphasized the “Greek contribution” to the development of tomb painting and decoration, especially in Etruria and southern Italic contexts, frequently overlooking the agency and innovations of local workshops (Pieraccini 2016; Todisco 2024). This session revisits chamber tombs from the eighth to the third centuries B.C.E. through a comparative and cross-regional lens, highlighting their function not merely as places of burial but as dynamic ethnoscapes—constructed and contested spaces where identities were shaped, displayed, and transformed.

The session brings together seven case studies, organized by region. Three papers focus on Apulian chamber tombs: “New Observations on the Preserved Sculptural Decoration of Hypogeal Tombs from Canosa” offers a reassessment of figural programs and their spatial integration, while “The Funerary Hypogea of Daunia Between the Fifth and the Second Centuries B.C.E. Architecture, Paintings, Funerary Rituals and Assemblages” expands into different tomb typologies and the use of tomb furnishing at funerals. An integrated archaeological and anthropological approach to Messapian funerary systems is explored in “New Directions in Pre-Roman Southern Apulia Funerary Archaeology.” Next, chamber tombs from Lucania are the focus of “Family Burials at Roccagloriosa: Structure, Decoration, Intent,” while they are contextualized in “Theoretical Perspectives and New Approaches on the Interpretation of Necropolises and Funerary Chamber Tombs of Etruria and Campania.” Tombs specifically designed to contain coffins are the subject of “The Forgotten Tombs: Etruscan Sarcophagi in Context.” Finally, “Funerary Landscapes and Political Authority: Chamber Tombs and Necropolises in the Middle and Lower Tiber Valley” discusses the role of local authorities in determining tomb placement in non-Etruscan cultural areas.

Through this renewed focus on the chamber tombs as a node within wider ethnoscapes, this session aims to advance comparative dialogue, challenge entrenched interpretive models, and highlight the specific materialities of Italic and Etruscan funerary monuments and practices.

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Chair: Alex Knodell, Carleton College

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Sponsored by:
AIA Anatolian Archaeology Interest Group

Organizers:
Omur Harmansah, University of Illinois at Chicago

Discussants:
Jennie Bradbury, Bryn Mawr College

Overview Statement:
Yalburt Yaylası Archaeological Landscape Research Project is an interdisciplinary, fieldwork-based landscape archaeology, ecology, and settlement history project. It investigates the long-term history of settlement and landscape change in a microregion in the southwestern borderlands of the Hittite Empire in the modern Turkish province of Konya and districts of Ilgın and Kadınhanı. The Hittite king Tudhaliya IV commissioned the construction of two important water monuments in this borderland region: Yalburt Yaylası Sacred Pool Complex and the Köylütolu Yayla Earthen Dam. The survey project also aimed at contextualizing this imperial intervention in the longue durée of local settlement dynamics and landscape change. The diachronic history of the region is explored from early prehistoric settlement of the region with Neolithic caves and mounds to the incorporation of the region to the Phrygian cultural sphere during the Iron Age and to the eventual foundation of the Hellenistic city of Toriaion under the influence of the Pergamene kingdom, or the prosperous pastoralism in late Roman and Byzantine periods in the upland zones. Methodologically speaking, the project has featured a comparative perspective on Holocene and Anthropocene landscapes, comparing Hittite politics and practices of water and land management in the Holocene to the political ecology of water and land use in the postindustrial landscapes of Ilgın. As a landscape archaeology project set in a region with diverse environments, including a lake basin, river valleys, karstic pastoral uplands and verdant mountain terraces well-watered with springs, the investigators have advocated for studying medium-scale landscapes, the landscapes of human experience and movement. Medium-scale landscape analyses offer the fine-grained resolution and down-to-earth scale to discuss the embodied experience of taskscapes, movement across regions, transhumance, material flows between sites, and geomorphological change. Furthermore, documentation of cultural heritage and the forms of ongoing vulnerability of cultural heritage under late capitalist management of the countryside has also been the focus of the field operations in the project. In this session, the papers from various specialists in the project team will offer diverse perspectives on methodological and archaeological contributions of the project to western Asian landscape archaeology, including geomorphology, landscape ecology, material culture analysis, historical processes, architectural documentation, and cultural heritage.

Chair: Guy Hedreen, Williams College

Chairs:
To Be Announced

Chair: Lauren Petersen, University of Delaware

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Chair: John R. Clark, University of Texas at Austin

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Sponsored by:
Hellenic Ministry of Culture

Organizers:
Anastasia Gadolou, Hellenic Ministry of Culture, Archaeological Musuem of Thessaloniki, and Andreas Vlachopoulos, University of Ioannina

Discussants:
James C. Wright, Bryn Mawr College and Claire L. Lyons, J. Paul Getty Museum

Overview Statement:
The interpretation and use of the ancient past all over the world and in the Mediterranean particularly—a region rich with cultural and archaeological significance—emerges, apart from attributed meanings by communities, from the countries’ legal frameworks and management plans attributed in the enhancement and protection of the various archaeological sites and monuments.

The Hellenic Ministry of Culture’s strategy for protecting cultural heritage—both tangible and intangible—centers on ensuring it is safeguarded, shared by everyone, and accessible for future generations. Key aims include improving archaeological sites and monuments, highlighting their role as social advantages, and preserving their historical, environmental, and biodiversity values. Greek state museum collections are managed with these same aims (Greek Law 4858/21. Gov. Gazette A/220/19.11.21. “On the Protection of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage in General”).

Through projects led by the ministry’s Ephorates of Antiquities and Museums, culture is recognized as a driver of development, social inclusion, and civic empowerment. The ministry promotes culture as a tool for resilience, prosperity, and digital innovation in a rapidly changing world.

Cultural heritage is complex, shaped by the values of past societies, yet it offers modern opportunities to reconnect with those histories. The management of archaeological sites and museums seeks to reflect the diverse ways people engage with heritage—through visits, routes, or digital tools—imbuing cultural products with symbolic, educational, and experiential value.

The nexus between culture and development was studied in particular during the UNESCO Decade of Culture and Development (1988–1997), resulting in the WCCD Report “Our Creative Diversity” (WCCD, 1995). The Helsinki Declaration of 1996 on the political dimension of cultural heritage conservation recognized cultural heritage as an economic factor for local development. A landmark event in this process has been the integration of culture in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted in 2015 (Agenda 2030, Target 11.4) .

In the above theoretical context, and in the frame of the UNESCO’s world cultural policies, five papers are presented, each highlighting different approaches to the protection and communication of Greek cultural heritage:

1. Petres Archaeological Site (Florina, Macedonia): This project focuses on conserving a remote archaeological site and integrating it with the natural environment. Emphasis is placed on connecting visitors to heritage through an inclusive and socially aware approach.

2. Ancient Theater of Larissa (Thessaly): The restoration of the theater and surrounding monuments has revitalized the area, influencing urban planning and strengthening the community’s connection to its cultural identity.

3. “CULTUREID”-RFID in Thessaloniki Museum: This initiative introduces RFID technology in the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, allowing interactive digital experiences. It also supports efficient management and personalized tours based on visitor interests and museum activity.

4. New Archaeological Museum of Chania (Crete): This paper highlights how the museum enhances the communication and education of western Crete’s heritage and connects it with contemporary art through temporary exhibitions.

5. Thematic Cultural Routes: Developed by the Directorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, these include:

• Monumental Mycenaean works,
• The journey from Homer to Cervantes,
• The footsteps of Saint Paul.

Each route aims to offer an immersive experience of cultural and environmental richness, promoting awareness through conservation, infrastructure upgrades of archaeological sites and monuments, and engagement with local communities and stakeholders.

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Higher education is currently dealing with unprecedented attacks from the federal government, on several fronts.  The current administration has: cancelled billions of dollars in previously-awarded grants; coerced several colleges into agreeing to unprecedented federal oversight; demanded data regarding hiring and admissions; tried to convince universities to sign on to a “compact” that would have severely restricted academic inquiry into certain topics; and declared open conflict on programs designed to make the university system more open, accessible, and equitable. 

In this climate, classicists can find themselves in a double-bind.  Those of us who teach in areas that are not aligned with the federal government’s agenda can find ourselves subject to threats, intimidation, and sanction from our institutions.  Those who teach in more traditional areas can find ourselves co-opted by the far right, even if/when we do not share their values.  In light of this current context, our panelists will provide short provocations to open up a discussion about how we can do Classical Studies responsibly.

Introducer:

Kirk Ormand, Oberlin College

Offsite Reception. Location: Heartwood Bar (531 Commercial Street, San Francisco, CA 94111)

Note: Attendees are responsible for their own food and beverages.

Information:
Location: Iron Horse Cocktails (25 Maiden Ln, San Francisco, CA 94108), Mezzanine Floor

Directed by Vanessa Stovall, Independent Scholar/Artist

Sponsored by:
The Society for Early Modern Classical Reception

Presider:
Ralph Rosen, University of Pennsylvania

Presider:
Ginna Closs, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Presider:
Peter Struck, University of Pennsylvania

Presider:
Brett Mulligan, Haverford College

Sponsored by:
Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions

Organizers:
Zsuzsa Varhelyi, Boston University

Sponsored by:
Friends of Numismatics

Organizers:
Roberta Stewart, Dartmouth College and Fae Amiro, Western University

Introducers:
Roberta Stewart, Dartmouth College and Fae Amiro, Western University

Discussants:
Nathan Elkins, American Numismatic Society

International Ovidian Society

Organizers:
Andrew Feldherr, Princeton University and Hunter Gardner, University of South Carolina

Discussants:
Heather James, University of Southern California

Sponsored by:
Lambda Classical Caucus

Sponsored by:
The International Plutarch Society

Organizers:
Erin Lam, University of California, Riverside and Nicolette D'Angelo, University of California, Los Angeles

Organizers:
Evan Vance, McGill University and Flavio Santini, University of California, Berkeley

Introducers:
Evan Vance, McGill University

Discussants:
Barbara Kowalzig, New York University

Organizers:
Mary Danisi, Cornell University, and Verity Platt, Cornell University

Introducers:
Mary Danisi, Cornell University, and Verity Platt, Cornell University

Discussants:
Nancy Worman, Barnard College

Chairs:
To Be Announced

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Organizers:
Elizabeth S. Greene, Brock University

Overview Statement:
In 1966 George Bass published Archaeology Under Water, in which he explained the methodologies of underwater archaeology, highlighted early discoveries in the field, and emphasized the importance of its inclusion within archaeology more broadly. Since then, archaeologists have recognized the Mediterranean as a connecting force, linking vast social, religious, and economic networks, and providing a crucial counterpart to traditional views from land. Now sixty years later, the field has progressed such that David Gibbins could recently write a public-facing History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks, analyzing wrecks as time capsules for unique historical moments and worlds joined by the sea.

Recent finds of bronze rams speak for the battles of Punic Wars; archaic Cypriot terracotta votive offerings emerge off the Turkish coast. New trajectories of analysis bring clarity to mechanisms of elite exchange in the Late Bronze Age and the movement of agricultural goods when Athens ruled the seas. Renewed explorations allow scholars to rethink the famous cargoes of bronze statues and architectural marble from Antikythera and Marzamemi. These ongoing investigations offer an opportunity to consider how shipwrecks reveal key events in Mediterranean history, mechanisms of exchange, modes of movement, naval strategies and technologies, and the daily lives of people who lived and sailed on the ancient seas.

Following an opening overview by the organizer that reviews the trajectory of the discipline and current frameworks for the preservation of this heritage—2026 also marks the 25th anniversary of the 2001 UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage—participants will share brief highlights of their projects, emphasizing current directions, methodologies, discoveries, and modes of analysis. A robust session of moderated questions and audience engagement will reflect on the contributions of shipwrecks to Mediterranean archaeology. Participants consider how their wrecks serve as snapshots of unique moments yet also reveal broader historical narratives; how the stories of individual ships and sailors align with larger datasets from particular regions or periods; how wrecks help us to write social, political, and economic histories; how we can make visible the many different people who moved across the seas and the habits and customs they followed; how shipbuilders responded to technical and environmental challenges; and how new technologies for discovery, new theoretical approaches, and new methods of scientific analysis allow us to ask and answer questions Bass scarcely imagined 60 years ago.

Chairs:
To Be Announced

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Sponsored by:
AIA Committee on Research and Academic Affairs

Organizers:
James Newhard, College of Charleston and Joanne Murphy, University of North Carolina-Greensboro

Panelists:
Carrier Galsworthy, Conestoga College, Catherine Foster,  Argus Cultural Property Consultants, Steve Karacic, Chronicle Heritage, Inc.. Jen Thum, Harvard Art Museums, and Rachel Dewan, Skagway Public Library, U.S. Committee of the Blue Shield

Overview Statement:
Preparing the next generation of archaeologists falls within the professional duties of academics. Unfortunately, university professors are not explicitly trained in articulating the transferability of skill sets into nonacademic settings nor the compatibility degrees with the variety of career options. The importance of career placement has risen in importance as institutions increasingly place priority on alumni success and employment, broadly defined. Students interested in career options after graduation and the declining demand in academia for tenure-track jobs place additional importance on our roles as guides who can adequately advise on various pathways for students studying archaeology and its cognate fields outside the traditional roles of tenured professors.

This workshop brings together an array of individuals from the educational, public, and private sectors. The workshop will focus on delineating the key facets of an archaeologist’s educational training, how it maps onto career options, and how to develop strategies for guiding students to prepare for several of those pathways. Each panel member will address the career landscape for archaeology students from their perspective (five minutes each). Their presentations will include the need in their field for archaeology students, expected starting salary ranges, and career trajectories in their field. They will also describe the skills and aptitudes that students would need to secure employment in their field. After all members of the panel have presented, there will be time for a short question-and-answer session (20 minutes). This will be followed by a structured discussion that will help attendees create a plan that they can share with their colleagues to help advise their students better as they approach the workforce. We will divide the discussion period into large and small group discussions. This will allow each attendee to have ample opportunity to address their particular needs and issues and create a plan of action that is unique to their institutional situation. This workshop will benefit faculty who are guiding and advising undergraduate and graduate students and for students of all levels who are interested in working in nonacademic careers.

Chairs:
To Be Announced

Chairs:
To Be Announced

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Sponsored by:
AIA Gold Medal Committee

Organizers:
Lora Holland Goldthwaite, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Alexandra A. Carpino, Northern Arizona University

Overview Statement:
This symposium addresses a field of study that has interested Nancy T. de Grummond from early in her career, when she first wrote a chapter on rediscovery of the Etruscans for the handbook Etruscan Life and Afterlife, edited by Larissa Bonfante (1986). Later in her ambitious Encyclopedia of the History of Classical Archaeology (1996), de Grummond included many articles on Etruscan archaeology, art, sites, museums, and individual archaeologists. The history of Etruscan studies in America was folded into the much larger topic of the development of Etruscan archaeology in Italy and Europe, including in the important appendix to her seminal monograph, Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend (2006). Since then, relatively little has to date been published on the American contribution and there exists no general work on the participation of Americans in this significant field of classical and Mediterranean archaeology. Exceptional in this regard is the 2017 colloquium at the Toronto AIA, organized by Alexandra Carpino and Richard de Puma, “Collecting and Presenting the Etruscans in North America.” Like the edited volume that followed, Collecting and Collectors from Antiquity to Modernity, ed. Alexandra Carpino, Tiziana D’Angelo, Maya Muratov, and David Saunders (2018), this colloquium focused on the formation of the Etruscan collections in major American museums. It is remarkable that the richness of Etruscan-centered scholarship has not included the highly important work done in the 20th century by other pioneering professionals in the United States–de Grummond herself prominently among them—that is the topic of this symposium.

Chairs:
To Be Announced

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Sponsored by:
AIA Roman Provincial Archaeology Interest Group (RPAIG) and AIA Subcommittee on Climate Change

Organizers:
Matthew Schueller, The College of William & Mary, and Andrew Welser, Duke University

Discussants:
Amanda Gaggioli, University of Memphis

Overview Statement:
Environmental and climate changes were ever-present across Rome’s Mediterranean-wide empire. Especially when notably sudden or impactful, some of these changes and people’s responses attracted literary mention that survives today (e.g., Pliny the Younger on Vesuvius’s eruption or natural phenomena in Strabo’s Geographica). For most enviro-climatic changes (categorized by F. Braudel as longue durée, conjonctures, or événement) across the Roman Empire geographically and chronologically, however, archaeology is more informative. Varied archaeological analyses can elucidate not only the scope of such changes and communities’ responses but also how human activity fueled them.

This panel explores enviro-climatic change, particularly through the theme of hydrology, in contexts around the Roman provinces (Britannia, Hispania, Macedonia, and Arabia) through various methodologies. Two questions guide its case studies. How did communities shape and get shaped by enviro-climatic change, and how can Roman antiquity inform modern approaches to the natural world?

First, “Roman Land Management at Magna Fort: Archaeological and Palaeoecological Evidence for Land Utilization” investigates how Romans changed the landscape to best suit a fort on the Romano-British frontier. Also from Britannia, the next study “Ditches and Drainage on the Roman Frontier: Controlling Water Movement at Vindolanda” uses second-century Vindolanda to investigate how the landscape was altered in ways that caused water control problems that were later mitigated with strategies like ditches. Similarly concerned with water control, “Silver, the Olive, and the Guadalquivir: Human-Driven Environmental Change in Hispania Baetica” argues that large-scale olive oil production in Iberia emerged from human modifications to the Guadalquivir River. “Riverside Erosion, Rising Groundwater, and Desiccation at Roman Stobi” takes the panel’s water theme to the Roman East; it connects flooding along Stobi’s lower terrace in the fifth-sixth centuries to enviro-climatic challenges at the site today, arguing that ancient responses to such changes parallel modern proposals. Water and aridity are linked in “Overcoming Resource Scarcity on the Edge of Empire: The Innovative Construction of Roman-Style Baths in Arabia,” too, which considers innovation in bathhouse construction to overcome resource scarcity in challenging environments.

Closing the panel, the discussant draws on political ecology to interweave its papers’ diverse approaches and material. In so doing, the discussant emphasizes that understanding human-environmental relationships requires considering Roman provincial contexts’ unique historical conditions. Overall, this panel explores the complex feedback loop between humans and nature in the Roman world and asks what the Romans can do for us when it comes to modern interactions with the natural world.

Sponsored by:
Friends of Numismatics

Organizers:
Roberta Stewart, Dartmouth College, and Fae Amiro, Western University

Discussants:
Nathan Elkins, American Numismatic Society

Overview Statement:
The panel explores the character and functions of small change (i.e., lower-value denominations) in Greek and Roman cultures broadly defined. With the continuing publication of the Roman Provincial Coinage (RPC) volumes, primarily made up of small-value coinage, there is renewed scholarly attention on the lower denomination coins from across the Roman Empire.

Papers engage with ongoing debates about the economic and political functions of small change, to fulfill monetary needs (Sargent and Velde, 2002; Kemmers 2003; Stannard and Frey-Kupper 2008) and to serve as a medium of mass communication in and between communities across broad geographical areas (Howgego, Heuchert, and Burnett 2005; Burnett 2011). They further address methodological challenges for using coins as evidence to study varied monetary systems, including monetary functions of coinage (Crawford 2003; DeRose Evans 2018; Horsnaes 2017) and the value of typology and iconography to study political messaging (Bucolo 2024).

The first paper, “Pale Sulfur for Broken Glass: Sulfur as Small Change?,” takes a novel approach to the small change supply debate and presents the evidence for considering sulfur as form of commodity-based currency. It further explores the significance of the finding to our broader understanding of the Roman economic system.

The next paper, “Pierced and Cut: Contextualizing Small Change on the Roman Frontier in the First Century C.E.,” adds to this debate by considering another understudied form of irregular currency: pierced coins. The paper proposes that some pierced coins, usually believed to have ornamental functions, also had monetary functions.

“Imperial Women’s Portraits on Provincial Small Coinage During the Flavian-Trajanic Period: Importance and Significance” considers small change as media of mass communication. The paper proposes that the concentration of portraits of imperial women on lower-value currency increased both the women’s visual reach and political impact.

The next paper, “The Emperor’s New Hair: Noncanonical Hairstyles of Augustus on Small Change in the Roman Province of Hispania” takes a different approach to imperial portraits. Using deviations from the metropolitan Roman models by local Spanish mints during the reign of Augustus, the paper explores the roles of local agency and imperial communication.

The final paper “Uncovering Tarsus’s Small Change: A New Look at Pseudoautonomous Coinage” considers the iconography and material features of Roman-era Tarsian small change to resolve questions about its denominational structure. The proposed system furnishes a new understanding of the function of small change in the local economy, showing how Tarsus addressed its small change supply problem.

Presider:
Kelly Nguyen, University of California, Los Angeles

Presider:
Scott DiGiulio, Mississippi State University

Sponsored by:
First-Generation Low-Income Federation and the Committee on Contingent Faculty

Organizers:
Katie Tardio, Bucknell University and Ashley Eckhardt, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Naomi Campa, University of Texas, Austin, Matthew Chaldekas, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, CJ Rice, Vassar College, Leticia R. Rodriguez, University of Houston, Jeremy Swist, Grand Valley State University

Organizers:
Kirk Ormand, Oberlin College and Mackenzie Zalin, Johns Hopkins University

Sponsored by:
Eos

Organizers:
Sasha-Mae Eccleston, Brown University and Bhion Achimba, Brown University

Organizers:
Will Lewis, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Jay Houston, Princeton University

Sponsored by:
Hesperides

Organizers:
Julia Hernández, Bienecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and Marina Cavichiolo Grochocki, Arizona State University

Organizers:
Michael Freeman, Texas Tech University

Introducers:
Michael Freeman, Texas Tech University

Sponsored by:
The Society for Ancient Greek Philosophy

Organizers:
Jacqueline Carlon, University of Massachusetts, Boston and Theodosios Polychronis, Aix-Marseille Université

Discussants:
Sherry (Chiayi) Lee, University of California, Berkeley

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Sponsored by:
First-Generation Low-Income Federation and the Committee on Contingent Faculty

Organizers:
Ashley Eckhardt, American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and Katie Tardio, Bucknell University

Overview Statement:
Over the last 20 years, short-term and contingent academic positions have proliferated, making precarity the norm. As the prospect of moving directly from graduate school into a tenure-track position has become increasingly slim, early career scholars face a mounting series of challenges as they enter the profession, including financial insecurity, professional stagnation, and burnout. Many scholars approaching the end of their graduate career fail to comprehend the differences between various contingent positions or the difficulties inherent in taking on nontenure-track positions. These issues often affect first-generation, low-income (FGLI) scholars even more acutely due to their FGLI status.

In this workshop, we aim to demystify the academic job market by highlighting the different positions and career routes available in higher education. Featuring panelists with a range of perspectives and experiences, we will address the particular challenges faced by contingent faculty in classics, archaeology, and related fields, with the goal of assisting early career and FGLI scholars in navigating and mitigating the precarity. This workshop will provide an overview of the contingent faculty landscape, elucidating the differences between adjunct/sessional positions, VAPs, postdoctoral fellowships, and academic positions outside of North America. The panelists will also discuss the practicalities of contingent positions, including the logistics of moving between short-term posts, securing research funding, transitioning to a tenure-track position, and finding permanent employment outside of the tenure track. Finally, we will offer actionable steps by which tenured faculty and administrators can support their contingent peers, with the goal of making the field more equitable, welcoming, and vibrant for all.

During this forum-format workshop, we will encourage an open dialogue with the audience so the entire community can join in these important conversations. Although this workshop centers FGLI scholars, we welcome participation by everyone served by the AIA and SCS, including all underprivileged and underrepresented groups. The ultimate goals are to empower early career and FGLI scholars in their professional ambitions and to build community and support among all scholars and their peers.

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Organizers:
Helaine Blumenthal, Wiki Education Foundation, and Andres Vera, Wiki Education Foundation

Panelists:
Chelsea Gardner, Acadia University, Geoff Emberling, University of Michigan, Ann Glennie, College of the Holy Cross, Katie Rask, The Ohio State University, Victoria Austen, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, and Andres Vera, Wiki Education Foundation

Overview Statement:
Scholars have long recognized the creation and open sharing of knowledge as part of a disciplinary praxis of communicating human diversity, analyzing power, and critiquing inequality. In a media landscape experiencing a crisis of information access, equity, and integrity, open systems for sharing reliable knowledge offer an antidote to dis- and misinformation, and a critical, noncommercial space for communicating specialized knowledge. The Wikipedia Student Program, launched in 2010, merged the movements of open knowledge with open pedagogy. The program is designed to help students at institutions of higher education develop a range of critical skills while improving Wikipedia content. In the program (facilitated by Wiki Education), students from postsecondary institutions contribute to Wikipedia as a course assignment. In doing so, they improve content on Wikipedia on a diverse range of underdeveloped subjects, while honing critical skills, such as research, media literacy, and professional collaboration.

In this two-hour demonstrative workshop, attendees will hear from Wiki Education staff as well as faculty who have taught with Wikipedia in their archaeology of the ancient Mediterranean courses. The program will consist of a brief roundtable discussion where the audience will be able to hear how faculty have incorporated the Wikipedia assignment into their classes as well as hands-on activities to introduce the fundamentals of teaching with Wikipedia. The participating faculty represent the fields of Nubian, Greek, and Italian archaeology, religion, and history. We will tackle the impact that students can have in ensuring content on Wikipedia is accurate, equitable, and representative. We will touch upon the role Wikipedia can play in elevating the stories and voices of people who have been excised from normative historical narratives and why this endeavor is more critical than ever. Session attendees will learn how to integrate Wikipedia assignments into their own curricula and gain a more in-depth understanding of the role open knowledge can play in the fields of archaeology and classics.

Chairs:
To Be Announced

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Sponsored by:
Society for Late Antiquity (SLA), Co-sponsored by the Medieval & Post-Medieval Archaeology AIA Interest Group

Organizers:
Amelia R. Brown, Macquarie University, and Colin Whiting, Dumbarton Oaks

Overview Statement:
This workshop is a two-hour forum to discuss and debate new findings and theoretical frameworks in the development of new technologies and the transmission of professional knowledge in late antiquity. Each presenter will give a brief (ca. five-minute) overview of their recent work related to this subject before a broader discussion with participants. From large to small changes in technology, its human transfer, and its teaching practices, and from the evidence of sites to artifacts to related literary sources, recent research is showing how the practices and transmission of both technical and professional knowledge changed dramatically in late antiquity, around the Roman Empire, and far beyond.

Planned presentations span textiles in museum collections, and their treatment in ancient lexica; the relationship between changing lime kiln technologies, and urban sociology; shell- to frame-first ship-building and lateen-rigged sailing technologies; legal texts and practices in the epigraphic and manuscript traditions; Christianization of knowledge; and beyond. Our goal is to encourage greater dialogue between archaeologists working in the field and historians working primarily with texts, both at a fundamental level (i.e., how archaeological finds inform textual sources, and how textual sources inform archaeological finds), and within a more theoretical framework—how and why we understand the past, and the significance of late antique technological change in relationship to changing modes of teaching, working, and knowledge transmission among a range of professional people and groups.

Archaeologists still connect sites and evidence for “decline” with shifting economic, social, intellectual, technological, and religious changes of late antiquity. From Diocletian’s price edict to Mark Lettney’s (2023) The Christianization of Knowledge in Late Antiquity, from water wheels to industrial installations in the Athenian Agora, late antiquity was an era of rapid and significant technological and cultural change. Yet too few scholars ask who were the professionals (not) making or (not) teaching new practices in age-old professions, and how the material record intersects, or not, with new literary and religious preoccupations, demolition and construction, iconoclasms and extended trade routes. This workshop brings together these different strands of archaeological and historical scholarship, and examines the agents and continuing impact of rapid technological and social change in late antiquity and beyond. The intersection of material culture and intellectual history will guide our workshop forum and discussion: understanding late antique processes of knowing, doing and teaching in an era of rapid change better can only help to illuminate our own, contemporary processes too.

Chairs:
To Be Announced

Chairs:
To Be Announced

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Chairs:
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Chairs:
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Sponsored by:
AIA Ancient Painting and Decorative Media Interest Group

Organizers:
Angela Bosco, Università di Bologna, and Hilary Becker, Binghamton University, and Antonella Coralini, Università di Bologna

Overview Statement:
Initially founded on the study of iconography and iconology, as well as on the study of classical sources—such as Vitruvius and Pliny the Elder—the study of Roman wall paintings in the Mediterranean area has made significant progress today. Wall paintings are no longer studied as simple decorative elements on the walls of public and private buildings, but are now analyzed in close connection with the building that hosts them, following its architectural and social transformations. The study of wall paintings is now strongly linked to material archaeology: The techniques of its execution, especially the work of the painter, the organization of the workshop, the production and use of pigments all provide insights to better understand both the social and economic aspect of the Roman world.

This approach to the study of Roman wall painting is now based on meticulous archaeometric investigations: methods such as pXRF, VIL, IR-FC, and other noninvasive and nondestructive methods are able to return a large amount of data. However, such research continues to avail itself of the support of ancient sources: the recipe for many of the pigments indicated by Pliny and Vitruvius has been confirmed by archaeometric investigations, just as many colors never mentioned in the sources have been added to the palette of the Roman painter. These techniques also allow us to investigate restoration interventions, both ancient and modern, allowing us to understand what care was given to the wall-paintings in the Roman world and how the theory of conservation has evolved over the centuries.

The contributions that we intend to present within this panel show the quantity and the quality of new data that the Mediterranean area can return: from the study of ancient restorations and pigments used in Herculaneum, to a completely new context, such as the Roman villa of Positano, whose exceptional conservation allows for investigations with quite a degree of reliability. We will also explore the application of new investigative methodologies in Spanish contexts: Ecijia, Carthago Nova, Colonia Patricia Corduba, Augusta Emerita, and Colonia Augusta Firma Astigi.

A new study at the Penn Cultural Heritage Center seeks to develop a comprehensive picture of collecting policies, procedures, and practices across U.S. museums and similar collecting institutions. The study's institutional survey will be administered later this year. 

At the 2026 Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) Annual Meeting, we invite your feedback on the survey questionnaire. Sign up here to participate in a drop-in workshop and receive an advance draft of the survey.

This project is made possible, in part, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (MG-255529-OMS-24)

Information:

Please access this meeting via Zoom:
 https://cwru.zoom.us/j/96022937393?pwd=LfeQLHuTYUXWrrr8X7rXXePVkSbZPa.1.

Information:
(Open to Alumns Only)

Organizers:
Talia Boylan and James Patterson, Yale University

Organizers:
Melissa Funke, University of Winnipeg

Organizers:
Evan Armacost, Culver Academies

Organizers:
Irene Morrison-Moncure and Jared Simard, New York University

Organizers:
Jacqueline Arthur-Montagne, University of Virginia

Organizers:
Ryan Platte and Abbe Walker, Northwestern University

Organizers:
Brett Rogers, University of Puget Sound, Benjamin Stevens, Bryn Mawr College, Jesse Weiner, Hamilton College

To join this meeting remotely, please go to https://csun.zoom.us/j/85935017557.

Presider: Rachel Lesser, Gettysburg College

Presider:
Chris van den Berg, Amerherst College

Presider:
Joe Farrell, University of Pennsylvania

Presider:
David Blank, University of California, Los Angeles

Organizers:
Lisa P Eberle, University of Tuebingen and Katharine P D Huemoeller, University of British Columbia

Organizers:
Del Maticic, School of the Holy Child, Rye, and Rachel Philbrick, University of British Columbia

Introducers:
Del Matcic, School of the Holy Child, Rye

Organizers:
Christopher Gipson, Loyola Marymount University

Introducers:
Christoper Gipson, Loyola Marymount University

Organizers:
Sarah Nooter, University of Chicago

Organizers:
Robyn Le Blanc, University of North Carolina, Greensboro and Rebecca Worsham, Smith College

Sarah Keith, University of Michigan and Rachel C. Morrison, University of California, Los Angeles

Chairs:
To Be Announced

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Chairs:
To Be Announced

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To Be Announced

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Sponsored by:
AIA Coroplastic Studies Interest Group

Organizers:
Rebecca Miller Ammerman, Colgate University, Alexandra Katherina Sofroniew, University of California, Davis, and Andrew Farinholt Ward, Fairfield University

Overview Statement:
The discovery of figurative terracottas within an archaeological site presents an array of interpretive challenges. The colloquium addresses varied conditions that lead to the inference that a terracotta held religious meaning. Case studies explore multiple questions. What methodological guidelines help determine if a terracotta was deposited as part of a sacred rite, fashioned to display imagery related to a specific cult, or meant to convey an explicit message of piety? What criteria must be met to ascribe a sacred quality to terracottas recovered in funerary, domestic, or secular contexts? Similar difficulties arise attributing a particular ritual or religious resonance to terracottas’ imagery. The anthropomorphic pantheon of the Graeco-Roman world bedevils interpretation. Did coroplasts who fashioned and worshippers who dedicated terracottas representing figures devoid of distinctively divine attributes see these votives as portraits of deities, mortals, or the dedicants themselves? How should interpreters tackle these ambiguities?

“Women and the City: Some Thoughts on the Significance of the Female Terracottas from Anavlochos, Crete” combines study of iconography and spatial distribution of 1200 Geometric to classical terracottas, arguing that the relief plaques and figurines represent dedicants (not deities) associated with rites of passage. “Hydriaphoroi at the Boundaries of the Sanctuary of the Great Gods” concludes that figurines of female water-bearers of the fifth and fourth century B.C.E. found between the city walls and Propylon of the Samothracian Sanctuary of the Great Gods reflect processions associated with a cult of Demeter separate from rites enacted within the Sanctuary of the Great Gods. Feminist and phenomenological methodologies guide the investigation of “Tanagra” figurines from different spatial and functional contexts at Olynthus in “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: On the Fungibility of ‘Tanagra’ Figurines” illustrating their shifting significance for different audiences. “Surrounded by Smoke: Reclining Terracotta Figurines in Pompeian Censers and Their Significance in Domestic Rituals” argues the reclining woman embellishing a censer from a domestic shrine at Boscoreale represents a deceased woman commemorated by burning incense. Comparing an assemblage from urban Edeta with those from a shrine and houses at the hillfort, Puntal dels Llops, “Iberian Figurative Terracottas: Landscape Perspectives, Contextual Analysis, and Sacred Significance,” addresses terracottas’ religious connotations and role in shaping identities within Iberian communities. Focusing on terracottas from a second-century C.E. sanctuary at Thinissut (Tunisia) within chains of production and semiotic systems, “Articulating Clay Cult in Roman Africa: Terracotta Statues, Production, and Worship” offers a richer understanding of Roman cult.

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Sponsored by:
AIA Digital Archaeology Interest Group and AIA Women in Archaeology Interest Group

Organizers:
David M. Wheeler, UC Davis

Overview Statement:
This workshop explores how digital approaches to archaeology (photogrammetry, LiDAR, 3D modeling, etc.) not only play a crucial role in preserving and documenting archaeological contexts and materials for future generations, but also offer critical opportunities to curate more equitable access to cultural heritage. Together we will consider how digital approaches can break down barriers in the field, museum, and classroom to empower a larger, more diverse community to take an active role in shaping narratives of the past. Topics we will explore include: defining and measuring accessibility in digital archaeology, strategies for designing inclusive digital projects, target audiences, decolonization and digital archaeology, hurdles/limitations, and more.

This workshop will take place as a forum. After an introduction, panelists will briefly present their own work using digital archaeology to curate a more inclusive discipline and then will briefly answer questions from the audience. Once all the panelists have presented, our discussants will provide some preliminary observations before moving to a group discussion (2 hours).

Presenters 1 & 2 will discuss Cultural Heritage Imaging’s work training Albanians and Native American tribes to digitally document their heritage and preserve what remains of their cultural legacies using photogrammetry.

Presenters 3 & 4 will present their work with The Southern Etruscan Tomb Survey and how they have used LiDAR to create opportunities in the field for women and team members with physical disabilities.

Presenter 5 will share the work of The Spatial History of Charleston (SHOC) project, which is creating a historical spatial database infrastructure and deep map of African-American descendant communities in Charleston to preserve their history and increases accessibility to all stakeholders.

Presenter 6 will explore how CyArk uses interactive storytelling through the Tapestry platform to support community-driven heritage preservation and amplify underrepresented voices in Ukraine and the American Southwest by documenting and digitally sharing artifacts and sites while also highlighting local/Indigenous perspectives on archaeological landscapes.

Presenter 7 will present the work of the International [Digital] Dura-Europos Archive, which uses the Wikimedia ecosystem to bridge accessibility gaps and knowledge silos that track back to the site’s Mandate-era excavations.

Presenter 8 will explore the use of digital interventions such as accessibility/tactile mapping, 3D models, and sensory maps in creating accessible content for the disabled public and employees at sites and museums.

Organizers:
Andrew Ward, Fairfield University, Rebecca Salem, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and Clemente Marconi, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

Discussants:
Ortwin Dally, Leitender Direktor, Deutsches Archäologisches Institut Abteilung Rom.

Overview Statement:
Selinunte, the most westerly Greek apoikia in Sicily, has been explored since the 1820s, quickly becoming a site for discussions of archaic and classical Greek sacred architecture, architectural sculpture, urbanism, and cross-cultural interaction. Of particular interest over the decades has been the site’s main urban sanctuary, situated at the highest point of the southern urban hill (also known as the acropolis), itself the seaward facing projection of a larger plateau representing the city’s urban core. With major excavations by Cavallari and Gàbrici, revealing the sanctuary’s five temples, and architectural study and survey by Mertens, Helas, and others providing insight particularly into the area’s history after the city’s sack by the Carthaginians in 409 B.C.E., there seemed to be little reason to explore the precinct further in the 21st century.

This changed thanks to an initially limited topographical, architectural, and archaeological project on Temple B by the Institute of Fine Arts–NYU between 2006 and 2009. Test trenches around Temple B (ca. 300 B.C.E.) and its altar revealed untouched stratigraphy stretching from the building’s construction back to the foundation of Selinunte in the seventh century and further back into pre-Greek periods. Exploration of Temple B’s predecessor, Temple R (ca. 570 B.C.E.) started in 2010, has revealed intact construction levels, ritual deposits, and original floor surfaces with important implications for the history of Selinunte and broader Greek construction and ritual practice. Starting in 2023 the project (since 2018 a collaboration between the Institute of Fine Arts-NYU and the University of Milan) has turned to exploring the entire main urban sanctuary in its entirety, with major discoveries already made pertaining to the development of the sacred area, votive and dining habits within, and its transformation into a multipurpose space under Carthage’s control.

The six papers in this colloquium, presented by senior and junior team members representing the project’s multidisciplinarity, review the major research avenues explored over the past twenty years. Whether architecture, 3D reconstruction, ritual behavior, or object and faunal study, the multidisciplinary work at Selinunte continues to provide valuable insights into religious practice at a site that was simultaneously on the frontier of the Greek settlements abroad and at the heart of architectural innovation.

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Sponsored by:
AIA East Europe and Eurasia Interest Group

Organizers:
Owen Doonan, California State University Northridge

Overview Statement:
The Iron Age in western Eurasia is often imagined as a fragmented patchwork of localized ethnic entities defined by subtle differences in material culture forms rather than an expansive tapestry of communities undergoing broadly similar changes. The early Iron Age (ca. 1000–600 B.C.E.) in the lands around the Black Sea is characterized by the appearance of larger fortified settlements (hillforts) that signal a regional scale phenomenon. Hillforts of the early Iron Age exhibit impressive evidence of community mobilization in the apparent absence of strong hierarchical organization. Ritual practices associated with this cultural horizon appear consistent with the idea of communal participation, while funerary monuments highlight some individuals without the exaggerated investment that might be associated with strong intergenerational hierarchies.

Recent work on the early Iron Age in western Europe has noted a broadly distributed pattern of relatively egalitarian communities capable of ambitious collaboration but with a tendency toward dispersed intergenerational power (see papers in Currás and Sastre, eds., 2019). Egalitarian systems like the Iron Age castros of northwest Iberia persisted for nearly a millennium until the military and economic disruptions associated with the Roman encroachment promoted more hierarchical communities (Currás and Sastre 2019). In the Black Sea the introduction of trade with motivated outsiders, and exposure to novel political and cultural formations (especially Greek and Persian), power came to be amassed and passed on intergenerationally. By the late fifth and early fourth centuries B.C.E. large political entities (kingdoms) emerged across the Black Sea zone.

Case studies from all major culture zones around the Black Sea are presented in this colloquium in the interest of examining the formation of hillfort communities and the transition from more egalitarian to more hierarchical social systems. By highlighting changes in community formation, the “ethnicity” of cultural forms and the agency of civilizing outsiders is downplayed and the social stimulus of cross-cultural contact illuminated.

Sponsored by:
AIA Roman Provincial Archaeology Interest Groupand AIA Archaeology of North Africa Interest Group

Organizers:
Andrea Gatzke, SUNY New Paltz, and Katelin McCullough, Hollins University

Overview Statement:
Epigraphy has long provided significant insights into the identities and social connections of individuals living in the boundaries of the Roman Empire. Epigraphic analysis also allows scholars to examine the development and transformation of collective identities in the Roman provinces. Inscriptions from Roman provincial contexts present an opportunity to examine the diversity of methods by which collective identity(-ies) were negotiated and/or marginalized across various places, times, languages, ethnicities, genders, and cultures. From the development of group identities among Christians to those found among soldiers or laborers, the examination of epigraphic remains for evidence of group identity or “imagined communities” has proved a fruitful endeavor, and can especially provide an avenue for looking at groups overlooked in the literary record.

This panel builds on existing scholarship on epigraphy and group formation by grounding examinations of collective identity and “imagined communities” within the context of spatial analysis. The “spatial turn” in Roman studies has revealed the wealth of information that we can gather by considering inscriptions not simply as texts, but also as contributors to space and makers of place. In the scholarship of human geography, place is defined as a space that has been assigned meaning, identity, or even security by the people who live in it, pass through it, or interact with it in some way. This panel explores how these inscribed texts contributed to communal “place-making.” The Roman provinces provide an exciting focus for this project because of the different ways in which subsets of the population across the Mediterranean used writing to define and/or redefine their own collective narratives and the spaces they inhabited, and may provide a starting point for a comparative analysis of how conceptions of space and identity overlapped and were differentiated among these different regions.

This collection of six papers approaches the question of space and group identity through communities across the empire. From broad-ranging questions about agricultural workers across several eastern and western provinces, to the detailed analysis of Roman interactions with the Baquatian tribes in North Africa, these papers range in their scope and focus. What they collectively show, however, is the importance of considering inscriptions within their spatial contexts, and how looking at these inscriptions not simply as texts, but as participants in physical landscapes, can reveal more to us about collective identities and the formation of place in the Roman world.

Organizers:
Anne H. Kontokosta, New York University, and Peter De Staebler, Pratt Institute

Panelists:
Ann Kuttner, University of Pennsylvania, Rachel Kousser, City University of New York. Verity Platt, Cornell University, Rachel Patt, University of Notre Dame, Elizabeth McGowan, Williams College, Elizabeth Marlowe, Colgate University, Erin Peters, Appalachian State University, Sebastian Heath, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University, and Anne Chen, Bard College

Overview Statement:
Defining “Roman Art” remains a challenge (Hallet 2015). To differentiate new Roman creations from the Greek tradition, scholars have traditionally relied on carefully selected genres of Roman visual culture, such as historical reliefs and veristic portraits, which are clearly distinct from earlier Hellenic production. This approach deafeningly excludes other categories of Roman visual production from the traditional corpus of Roman art, including those focused on mythological, heroic, and religious themes, small-scale private objects, Roman adaptations or “copies” of Greek originals, new pieces that combined or conflated existing historical styles, or those associated with early Christian iconography or patronage, among others.

This workshop aims to reflect on, reevaluate, and expand this challenge within the field of Roman art history by exploring how and why scholars now seek to both introduce new material and bring back neglected objects that have traditionally been considered outside the scope of Roman art history. We also examine the still-undefined relationship between post-Enlightenment, capital-A “Art,” material culture, visual culture, and design, as well as the connections between artists, designers, craftspeople, architects, and builders in ancient Roman thought as well as historical and contemporary scholarship. Our goal is to broaden the discussion of Roman art and visual culture and to foster academic interest in innovative methodological approaches to the study of Roman art history.

This gathering will help formalize an ongoing discussion among AIA members interested in Roman art history regarding the need to reconceptualize and expand the disciplinary definitions of Roman Art. Participants will work to update and redefine how we approach the facts related to Roman art. Through a series of case studies that illustrate a broad theme, participants will collectively reconsider and debate which types of objects to prioritize when teaching a Roman survey, as well as how previously excluded or minimized objects or categories can be thoroughly integrated into research and the publication of Roman material culture.

A new study at the Penn Cultural Heritage Center seeks to develop a comprehensive picture of collecting policies, procedures, and practices across U.S. museums and similar collecting institutions. The study's institutional survey will be administered later this year. 

At the 2026 Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) Annual Meeting, we invite your feedback on the survey questionnaire. Sign up here to participate in a drop-in workshop and receive an advance draft of the survey.

This project is made possible, in part, by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (MG-255529-OMS-24)

Agenda

1. In Memoriam
2. Talk: Father Lycambes and the Frog Brigade: Iambic Modes of Resistance
3. Awards (Excellence in Teaching, Distinguished Service, Gamel Outreach, Gruen, Cribiore Award, Goodwin Award))
4. Business Meeting

To join this meeting remotely, please go to https://us05web.zoom.us/j/81115803698?pwd=X2xhpHXxXUkAwVCAPnfRCs29uZ0HRR.1 

Presider:

Anastasia Peponi, Stanford University

Presider:
Stephanie Frampton, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Presider:

Jim Clauss , University of Washington

Presider:
Kendra Eshleman, Boston College

Presider:

Anna Uhlig, University of California, Davis

The Digital Classics Association

Organizers:
Neil Coffee, University at Buffalo, SUNY

Introducers:
Neil Coffee, University at Buffalo, SUNY

Join Zoom here: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87451162610?pwd=8oells15GJr26XBck1a7N5fo7fcOal.1 

Organizers:

Sarah Norvell, Princeton University and Hannah Smagh, Pennsylvania State University

Introducers:
Sarah Norvell, Princeton University

Discussants:
Katie Rask, The Ohio State University

Join Zoom here: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85802170625?pwd=chwep4apu1vMj0bZ5frNRCRIJyUwfw.1 

The Women's Classical Caucus

Organizers:
Aisha Dad, University of North Carolina, Greensboro

Join Zoom here: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82795723747?pwd=HHUJqb8u6GIJmDVVs8Dm3wQkao7N8T.1

Sponsored by:
The American Society of Papyrologists

Organizers:
C. Michael Sampson, University of Manitoba

The American Association for Neo-Latin Studies

Organizers:

Patrick M Owens, University of Saint Mary

Introducer:

Patrick M Owens, University of Saint Mary

Organizers:
Andrea De Giorgi, Florida State University, and Allison E. Smith, Davidson College

Overview Statement:
This colloquium zeroes in on Cosa and the central place it continues to occupy in Roman republican archaeology. It is a small site with an impressive record of research and publication that began more than 70 years ago under the leadership of Frank E. Brown, whose team was also responsible for the creation of a tourist itinerary and, what was still something of a novelty in Italy, an on-site museum. Since 2013, Cosa Excavations conducts fieldwork at the site, leveraging a host of scientific approaches that have greatly advanced our understanding of the colony and its evolution, from its nucleation to the Middle Ages. In particular, the traditional broad views of Cosa’s urban landscape have driven the pursuit of higher resolution data, whether through ex-novo excavations of buildings (the bath and a host of new domestic units) or sampling new areas within previously explored sites (horreum). Complemented by nondestructive field methods, such as geophysical prospections, LiDAR remote sensing, and geoarchaeological surveys, these new datasets provide a revised sociopolitical framework for the discussion of Cosa’s well-known public and religious focal points, while fostering an increasingly sound picture of urban life through the ages.

Chairs:
To Be Announced

Chairs:
To Be Announced

Chairs:
To Be Announced

Join Zoom here: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89669696465?pwd=38zEYu9hJYJbodxPDMbxCu0DKKgwLx.1

Sponsored by:
AIA Roman Provincial Archaeology Interest Group

Organizers:
Tatiana Ivleva, Newcastle University, and Alena Wigodner, University of Maryland

Discussants:
Sarah Levin-Richardson, University of Washington

Overview Statement:
Queer archaeology is no longer new. Efforts to acknowledge gender and sexual diversity in the archaeological record have significantly enhanced our comprehension of ancient identities and societal values, destabilizing normative and binary perspectives. While queer approaches to the Roman world are thriving in literary and historical studies, as seen in regular sessions on queer classics at the SCS annual meeting, queer Roman archaeology still lacks cohesion and thorough study as a discipline and topic. The aim of this session is to kickstart an ongoing dialogue at the AIA about the role of archaeology in enhancing queer perspectives on the Roman world.

This panel embraces a broad definition of “queer” as that which is in opposition to the norm, including but not limited to an orientation towards sex, gender, and sexuality beyond binaries. Theoretically, all papers follow this broad definition, but also examine evidence through various queer lenses such as drag theory, queer time, trans pragmatism, and queer space. Methodologically, the panel explores queerness in visual material culture. Geographically, the panel covers the entire Roman Empire, including provinces like Britain, Gaul, and Egypt.

All papers focus on representation and self-representation to showcase heterogeneity and ambiguity in sex and gender forms across the Roman Empire. The first paper destabilizes the idea of the Roman family in a provincial context by applying a “queer time” framework and presents evidence of “queer unions” on funerary reliefs, suggesting intentional visibility. The second paper uses drag theory to examine self-representations of priests of Magna Mater on funerary reliefs, revealing complexities in gender expression. The third paper examines healing votives without sex and gender characteristics, addressing how modern biases hamper recognition of the nonbinary in material culture and analyzing the meaning behind their intentional visual ambiguity. Following on from this, the fourth paper takes up Roman castration practice by deconstructing the linear binary progression from puer to vir and applying a “queer time” lens to Hermaphroditus statues. The fifth paper challenges binary assumptions about monasteries in late antiquity, posing monastic tombs as spaces of gendered slippage.

Collectively, these papers treat “queer” as a historical and archaeological reality. The categories of sex, gender, and sexuality are historically specific, unfixed, and mutually constituted. This complexity motivates us to center the material and visual traces of queer in the Roman archaeological record in order to refine queer Roman archaeology. This panel affords such stepping stone.

Join Zoom here:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87311528079?pwd=QyrCpjhkcCO29EZCOeaylFVD1PMfZ2.1

Organizers:
Thea De Armond, New Mexico State University, and Lindsay Der, University of British Columbia

Overview Statement:
According to the Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP), 2023 saw a record number of armed conflicts, the most since the UCDP began gathering data in 1946. The data for 2024 have yet to be processed, but optimism seems misplaced. Three out of the last four years saw record-level armed conflict.

Despite the existence of a (too-often) disregarded body of international law calling for the protection of heritage during wartime, heritage and heritage workers have long been entangled in war, both targets and “incidental” casualties of conflict. This entanglement is both a byproduct of heritage’s relationship to politics—the grounds for its being targeted—and the simple outcome of war’s ceaseless spread. New questions about heritage—restoration (or not?) of destroyed heritage, commemoration (or not?) of wartime trauma—emerge in the wake of war. Increasingly, archaeologists must attend to the ways in which war shapes their work.

This session is interested in archaeology and heritage work during and after war. We particularly emphasize the experiences of local stakeholders (including but not exclusive to project collaborators), as well as what archaeologists (local and nonlocal) can do to support them. Accordingly, several of our papers detail the responses of collaborative, international projects to recent or ongoing conflict: “The Tigrai War: Impacts on Cultural Heritage and Archaeological Research” discusses archaeological research practices in the context of the recent conflict in Tigrai, Ethiopia; “Archaeology, Heritage, and Community During War: The Jebel Barkal Archaeological Project” examines the role of collaborative organization in facilitating site protection during the ongoing war in Sudan; and “Looted Coins, Scholarship, and Heritage Preservation in Contemporary Ukraine” considers the ethics of using looted materials as scholarly evidence during unstable times. Other papers contemplate the resonances of heritage in wartime or postwar contexts: “Ethnogenesis and Monitoring Imperiled Cultural Heritage in Postwar Nagorno-Karabakh” discusses the politics undergirding site destruction and protection in the Caucasus; “Safeguarding for Whom? Examining the Beneficiaries of Disruptive Technology in the Conservation of Sites Destroyed by Armed Conflict” interrogates the reception of a 3D reproduction of the Triumphal Arch of Tadmor (Palmyra); finally, “Recreating at a Site of Atrocity in Central Europe” analyzes the commemoration—or, rather, lack thereof—of the post-World-War-II expulsion of Germans from a resort town in the Czech Republic. Ultimately, this session aims to spark dialogue both on the impact of war on cultural heritage, and on the ways that scholars can and should respond to it.

Join Zoom here: 

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85431394389?pwd=7LflCbx5ciIBTI6xca9tVFn2v6gSMJ.1

Sponsored by:
AIA Ancient Figure-Decorated Pottery Interest Group

Organizers:
Danielle Bennett, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Mark Stansbury-O’Donnell, University of St. Thomas, and Liz Neill, Boston University

Overview Statement:
Recent decades have seen increased attention paid to the provenance or ownership history of ancient artifacts. This is often motivated by claims for restitution and efforts to reckon with histories of collecting, but also through a growing interest in recording “object biographies” (or “object itineraries”). These address the many hands and places through which an object may pass, from its production, dispersal, and deposition in antiquity, to its modern recovery, restoration, marketing, and display. Such topics can be applied fruitfully to all types of material culture, but painted pottery is especially productive on account of its durability, portability, relative affordability, and the profound role that it has played in shaping tastes over the last three centuries.

This session addresses the shifting significance and understanding of provenance from the eighteenth century to the present, beginning with an exploration of how findspot, object history, and style have often been conflated. Two papers delve into late-eighteenth and nineteenth-century collections in England—those of Charles Townley, now in the British Museum, and the Lucy family at Charlecote Park—and use archival sources to outline the motivations and methods of the collectors, while the third paper explores early publications as source material for understanding provenance. The next paper focuses on material from Orvieto, calling attention also to the valuable insights that the study of restoration techniques can provide in reconstructing archaeological contexts. Turning to the twentieth century, World War II has long been a focus for provenance research, but antiquities have often been overlooked. The next paper examines Greek vases obtained by members of the Nazi elite or taken from their owners through theft or forced sales. Looking further at the market—and marketing—of painted pottery, the penultimate paper focuses on an assemblage of vases sold in 1971 by Royal Athena Galleries in New York, highlighting the challenges of studying objects that are poorly documented. These are issues that continue to resonate, particularly in relation to questions of ownership and restitution. The final paper explores these topics in detail, providing insights into the years of work that led to the repatriation of vases and fragments acquired from the dealer Edoardo Almagià. Collectively, the papers demonstrate how provenance research expands our understanding of Greek vases and the individuals and events that have shaped their histories, and offers compelling strategies for how we can advance the study and presentation of this material.

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https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87334067595?pwd=qpOa9TV2koLTqV4Gctep6b2MsIPeLr.1

Organizers:
Samuel Holzman, Princeton University, Phil Stinson, University of Kansas, and Alessandro Pierattini, University of Notre Dame

Overview Statement:
Studies of ancient architecture can often center elite patrons, the experience of buildings’ users, and treat the construction process in the abstract. This session shines a light on the ancient worksite, particularly the ways technical analysis of architecture reveal the human side of building. What can be recovered of the personal contribution of workers? What varied sources of evidence reveal the fingerprints of builders? This colloquium session takes a broad chronological and geographic perspective on the ancient world, stretching from archaic Sicily (sixth century B.C.E.) to late antique Constantinople (sixth century C.E.) and includes worksites in Achaemenid Persia, Roman Gaul, and North Africa. The methodology of architectural energetics analysis, which seeks to empirically convert quantities of materials into labor estimates, is taken up in multiple papers, both as a useful tool that aids our understanding of worksites and as a target for critique. Themes of the colloquium encompass craftsmanship and materials, worksite demography and women builders, transmission of structural and design principles, style and workshops, the dynamics of networks and itinerancy.

The session examines the mobility of architects and crews, showing how construction booms—such as in the post-Persian War era—stimulated itinerancy and stylistic exchange across the Mediterranean. In Achaemenid Persia, written records, masons’ marks, and technical features testify to a diverse, multinational workforce—including Greek and Anatolian builders—whose movements and workshop structures challenge Greek civic labor models. Votives to Asklepios dedicated by Greek masons attest the occupational hazards and health of builders. In Roman Gaul, building practices reveal regionally distinct labor organization: communal, ad hoc workforces collaborated on earthwork theaters, producing monuments that fostered local identity. A paper on the mausoleum at Thugga proposes that highly skilled, small teams—rather than vast structured guilds—shaped ancient projects, employing time-efficiency strategies that are archaeologically detectable. Finally, the case of Juliana Anicia in sixth-century Constantinople reminds us that knowledge of construction was not limited to male professionals. Iconography and textual sources, including the Vienna Dioscurides Codex, document women’s roles in overseeing building projects, celebrating them as patrons, planners, and managers of large work crews. The example illustrates a broader cultural recognition of women’s engagement in the processes of construction, before imperial centralization refocused attention on the completed architecture alone.

Together, these papers demonstrate how technical, textual, and material approaches to the ancient worksite reveal the creativity, labor, and lives of those too often left out of architectural history.

Organizers:
Rodney D. Reeves, Florida State University, and Elijah Watson, Florida State University

Overview Statement:
Our forum workshop focuses on the theme of how works of civic engineering can also gradually introduce vulnerabilities to public health. The purpose of this workshop is to investigate the elements composing Constantinople’s aqueducts, cisterns, and baths for possible sources of lead contamination as a contributing factor to the precipitous decline of the city’s population by the mid sixth century C.E. (Koç 2020). We argue that chronic, subtle exposure to this toxic element gradually weakened the population over generations prior to a series of disasters under the reign of Justinian. This research is significant to the discipline because it employs an interdisciplinary approach to reassess critical ancient civic infrastructure through a biopolitical lens. We combine geoarchaeological and biological inferences to situate late antique Constantinople within modern conversations about health risks posed by administrative negligence of urban infrastructure. We articulate our findings through a slideshow presentation before breaking out into discussion groups for audience deliberation of evidence. Resulting deliberation will then be shared upon reunion of the breakout groups. Our presentation begins with the establishment of the hydraulic infrastructure of Constantinople and the effects of lead exposure on the human body. This is followed by evidential analysis of the geological region’s volcanic, tectonic, and hydrothermal conditions that are conducive to the deposition of galena ore (lead sulfide), a survey of soil sediments in the Harbor of Theodosius that reveals heightened levels of lead (Erenturk et al. 2018), and early Byzantine medical accounts of conditions associated with lead toxicity such as gout (Di Cosmo 2021) and mood disorders (Laes 2019). We proceed with an examination of the hydraulic mortar used in Constantinopolitan aqueducts and cisterns which contained crushed ceramic as dry aggregate in an area where lead-glazed ceramics were common (Armstrong 2020), followed by an examination of Proconnesian marble columns used extensively within three major subterranean cisterns and how these may have been contaminated with lead geologically and artificially (Balkis & Sari 2004). Finally, we conclude with elucidation on how potential lead concentrations within cisterns would have been higher during times of drought or when the flow of the aqueduct was interrupted. This workshop requires a length of two hours for presentation and discussion.

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https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85802170625?pwd=chwep4apu1vMj0bZ5frNRCRIJyUwfw.1 

Organizers:
Sarah Norvell, Princeton University, and Hannah Smagh, Pennsylvania State University

Discussants:
Katie Rask, Ohio State University

Overview Statement:
In recent years, the application of new theoretical approaches has reinvigorated the field of ancient Greek religion. Drawing from developments in fields such as cognitive science, psychology, and anthropology and first applied in the study of Roman religion (cf. Rüpke et al. 2020), these approaches privilege the recovery of material, sensory, and embodied religious experiences in the ancient world and have enabled the reorientation of research agendas from the role of religion in society to the ways in which religion may have been experienced by an individual. While still acknowledging that major aspects of religious life in ancient Greece were structured by civic institutions, sanctuaries, and festivals, adopting a “lived religion” framework refocuses attention on the ways that individuals navigated religious experiences and beliefs in their everyday lives. This approach makes it possible to consider how religious experiences factored into the lives of individuals in periods, regions, and social strata for which robust textual or historical evidence may be lacking.

This AIA-SCS colloquium brings together a diverse group of scholars at various career stages to draw attention to the ways in which these developments are currently being applied to studies of Greek religion. The seven papers collected in this session explore a wide range of lived religious experiences in the Greek world across a broad geographical and chronological range. The papers employ diverse methodological approaches and have been selected to present a balance between material and textual evidence.

The first paper, “Touch Me, See Me, Speak to Me: A sensory Approach to God-Mortal Relationships at Epidaurus,” considers the construction of divine-human relationships through iamata inscriptions from Epidauros, privileging the individual and collective experiences of those seeking to be healed by the god through dreams.

In the second paper, “Material Microtheologies: Crafting Elysium in Athens and Abydos,” funerary inscriptions from Athens and Abydos are leveraged through the methodology of “microtheology” to reconstruct lived experiences of individuals and individual beliefs about the afterlife held by those living in urban environments.

The third paper, “Between Subjugation and Salvation: Religious Experiences of the Enslaved in Classical and Hellenistic Greece,” draws together votive inscriptions, curse tablets, and manumission records to explore how enslaved people navigated personal religious practices beyond elite control. The paper probes the role of the unfree in sacred spaces, focusing on their experiences as laborers in sanctuary construction projects.

The built sacred environment serves as the focus of the fourth paper, “Talking with Gods: Kinesthetics, Divergent Thinking, and Oracular Consultation at Delphi.” This paper reconstructs the kinesthetic, embodied experience of moving through the oracular sanctuary at Delphi.

The fifth paper, “From Territorial Claims to Affective Encounters: Rethinking Tomb Cult in Early Iron Age Crete,” also treats questions of embodiment and the built environment. This paper presents a new reading of engagements with ancient tombs by exploring how aspects of the sensorial assemblage such as light and built architecture contributed to the experience of encountering ancient tombs in central and eastern Crete.

The sixth paper, “Between the Sacred and Everyday: Lived Religion and Object Agency in Greek Domestic Religion,” also considers the agency of objects used in the practice of domestic religion. Integrating literary and archaeological evidence, this paper demonstrates how reciprocal human-object relationships shaped the lived experiences of private ritual practitioners.

The final paper, “Embodied Curses Ritual Binding in Ancient Greece,” considers the agency of objects in ritual practice as well by examining the intersection of materiality and ritual performance inherent in curse objects such as tablets and figurines.

Altogether, these papers explore religious activities beyond the strictures of “polis religion” and work toward reconstructing lived religious experiences of individuals. The panel will close with remarks by an invited respondent, an assistant professor who recently authored a book on Greek personal religion, and a general discussion moderated by the organizers.

Drs Eleni Nodarou and Yiannis Papadatos, “From Pots to Politics: Ceramic Regionalism and Political Integration in East Crete during the Neopalatial Period”

Information:
https://vanderbilt.zoom.us/meeting/register/2ErkPat_RH2h6twXYRVETg

Presider:
Sanjaya Thakur, Colorado College

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 https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87293698361?pwd=5hFN6skgjy6SA6XvzdjGjIYl9xtH1T.1 

Presider:
Dan-el Padilla Peralta, Princeton

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https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89291024608?pwd=TukXuX0zZPJaFUzsECAkCyhbied3A4.1 

Presider:

Sarah E. Bond, University of Iowa

Presider:
Naomi Campa, University of Texas at Austin

Sponsored by:
International Society for Neoplatonic Studies

Organizers:

Sara Ahbel-Rappel, University of Michigan

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https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84904052698?pwd=4uhEZamTvw0MaPBiTY3CgTNtxP2ona.1 

Sponsored by:
The Graduate Student Committee

Organizers:
Lyaah Bhalerao, New York University and Nadhira Hill, Randolph-Macon College

Discussants:
Nancy Worman, Barnard College

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 https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84457271283?pwd=AlSO5A2WSdu9bySCnFbEtyOoa4I8HW.1 

Sponsored by:
Eta Sigma Phi

Organizers:
Katherine Panagakos, Stockton University

Introducers:
Katherine Panagakos, Stockton University

Discussants:
Kenny Morrell, Rhodes College

Sponsored by:
AIA Outreach & Education Committee

Organizers:
Jen Thum, Harvard Art Museums, and Meredith Langlitz, AIA

Overview Statement:
The AIA’s Outreach & Education Committee proposes an interactive workshop on the development of self-guided object-based learning resources, to be led by the vice president for outreach and education and committee members. The workshop will be open to all AIA members wishing to flex their learning-design skills for a public audience of their choice. Participants will be asked to select an artifact ahead of time (such as one they have excavated, a famous one, or one in the care of a museum where they work) as well as one or more audiences for which to develop their resource. During the workshop, the organizers will model pedagogically responsible and ethical active learning practices with artifacts and lead a discussion of these methods. Each participant will then work though an object-based learning resource template, concurrently with the rest of the group, with everyone aiming to complete a draft by the end of the session. Those who wish to take their drafts one step further will be invited to share them with members of the O&E committee, who will provide edits for streamlining and ultimately post them on the AIA website, where they will be available for download by educators and other members of the public interested in learning directly from objects.

SCS members are welcome to participate. “Extra” objects will be available for those who are not able to select one ahead of time. All artifacts used in the workshop will be expected to be documented in accordance with the AIA Policy on the Presentation and Publication of Undocumented Antiquities.

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https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87521569634?pwd=pC2tajmddGatEl6dhB27WmwqqaKcWV.1

Sponsored by:
AIA Roman Provincial Archaeology Interest Group

Organizers:
Alex Hagler, University of British Columbia, and Marlee Miller, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

Discussants:
Erica Rowan, Royal Holloway, University College London

Overview Statement:
This session responds directly to recent interest in food and foodways as the underpinning of many of the larger social, economic, and political systems that drove the Roman Empire. Previous scholarship on food in the ancient Greek and Roman world has focused extensively on food and dining practices in domestic contexts in Greece and Italy (e.g., Greek symposia and private Roman banquets), and because of a proliferation of textual and visual sources from these areas, much of the study of food in the Roman world takes the domestic foodways of Greece and Italy as standard across the rest of the empire.

However, a host of recent scholarship has begun to show just how unique and varied foodways could be beyond the Mediterranean basin. The provinces served as the supplier for much of Rome’s food, whether grain from North Africa and Egypt, fruits from Asia Minor and the Levant, or wine from Gaul. Yet, not much scholarly attention has been paid to the food in these provinces in their own right. Many questions remain largely unanswered, including logistics and production of agricultural goods, cultivation of livestock and horticulture, and provincial dining practices in nondomestic contexts. The study of food in ritual contexts, such as funerary practices, sacrifices, and feasting, has also been widely neglected, leaving what is known to be a key component of lived experience in the ancient world understudied. Drawing on a diverse array of sites and evidence to examine the unique ways food and dining practices functioned throughout the Roman provinces, this session fills a substantial gap in the scholarship of food in the Roman world.

This session illuminates some future directions for studying food in the Roman provinces. We interrogate everything from the historiography of provincial foodways, to local Sicilian production methods of oil and wine, to the blurry line between ritual and everyday meals in Britain, and the unique dining practices of gladiators in Austria. These papers point to the value in studying provincial foodways in their own right and how doing so deepens our understanding of Roman society at large. The papers proposed have been written by an international group of early career scholars with a senior scholar acting as the discussant, drawing on a diverse set of perspectives, identities, and experiences to highlight the exciting future of this topic.

Chairs:
To Be Announced

Chairs:
To Be Announced

Chairs:
To Be Announced

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https://etsu.zoom.us/j/86716310916?pwd=Ev3r82FdKZlMbg9n2s22RE11tT8w20.1

Organizers:
Michael Anthony Fowler, East Tennessee State University, and Astrid Lindenlauf, Bryn Mawr College

Discussants:
Susan I. Rotroff, Washington University in St. Louis

Overview Statement:
Ceramic vases tend to break. If a damaged vase is not considered unsalvageable, it may be mended for the same purpose (reuse) or modified for a different function or use (reutilization). The latter may involve intentional breakage (chipping, fragmentation, or “killing”), as when potsherds are repurposed as gaming pieces or deposited throughout tombs. A damaged vessel (or potsherds) may also be broken down completely to reclaim the material (recycling). While these processes and practices have received some attention in recent years, especially with Roman ceramics, they remain understudied for Greek pottery.

This session examines the manifold trajectories of accidentally and intentionally broken Attic pottery. The assembled papers illuminate the varying circumstances under which individuals or groups of people afforded damaged Attic pots (and their fragments) further/additional lives, as well as the necessary materials, tools, and skills. Going beyond explanatory models of scarcity and economic necessity, they illuminate the properties and qualities that people or entire communities appreciated and valued in broken ceramics.

All five papers examine the second life of Attic ceramics in distinct, archaeologically well-documented contexts. The first two contributions demonstrate varying repair habits and motivations and regimes of value in Greek colonial and indigenous communities in/around Empúries and Etruria. The following paper addresses reutilization of fragmented ceramics, highlighting overlooked instances of ceramic blades from Naukratis and discussing their real and imagined use as improvised weaponry in Athens. The final two papers emphasize the ritual and symbolic affordances of accidentally or deliberately fragmented pottery. The first considers the manipulation of broken vessels in Peucetian tombs as a means of forging continuity with, and deriving legitimacy from, earlier generations; the second retraces the many lives of a single, black-glazed sherd, inscribed with a Phoenician dedication and placed within the foundation deposit of a Hellenistic temple at Doros.

This session draws attention to the value that ancient people saw in broken ceramic material and calls for greater analytical nuance and terminological precision in studies of this material. In so doing, it reframes the archaeological discourse on breaking and fragmentation. Increasing sensitivity to the constructive aspect of ceramics’ second lives, the session’s papers open promising new avenues of inquiry into human-object entanglements, ancient perceptions of value (socioeconomic, aesthetic, etc.), and memory and its materialization.

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https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87069858254?pwd=EvJQwE1Ot1S22wWEIV4os9Ocq2Pbac.1

Chairs:
To Be Announced

Chairs:
To Be Announced

Chairs:
To Be Announced

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83690375829?pwd=Y9FoyvaooyI1bjW4KTBkW5xFomUbDi.1

Meeting ID: 836 9037 5829
Passcode: NCLG

Information:

Please access this meeting via Zoom:

https://upenn.zoom.us/j/9578561329

Meeting ID: 957 856 1329

Presider:

Mira Seo, Wesleyan University

Presider:
Alex Purves, University of California, Los Angeles

Presider:
Hans Bork, Stanford University

Organizers:
José Antonio Cancino, Columbia University and Katherine Krauss, Kalamazoo College

Discussants:
Jeremiah Coogan, Santa Clara University

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https://us06web.zoom.us/j/85396496641?pwd=0ZPySgd8FGN3qRPoJskiYvgVqFbh6f.1 

Organizers:
Davide Napoli, Cornell University

Discussants:
Victoria Wahl, University of Toronto

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https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89343584098?pwd=fNSIhQeNK4zJk8CwoPX1p1ypAFZaNA.1 

Sponsored by:
The Asian and Asian American Classical Caucus)

Organizers:
Tori Lee, Boston University and Melissa Mueller, University of Massachusetts, Amherst

Discussants:
Anne Cheng, Princeton University

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https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82210984251?pwd=6EvdYh0PASZprItss134yarlw0owka.1 

Sponsored by:
The Society for the Study of Greek and Latin Languages and Linguistics

Organizers:
Jeremy Rau, Harvard University, Timothy Barnes, Oxford University, and Benjamin Fortson, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor