Tuesday, February 15, 2005
4:00pm
Bondurant 204C

Archaeological research focusing on the ancient Maya provides information about their complex culture by exploring their material remains, including residential and ceremonial architecture, art, and tools. From these clues, we can often piece together pictures of their daily lives. One of the most important sets of data that can be recovered from archaeological sites is skeletal remains, which offer unique biological data related to health, diet, and genetics. Using as an example the site of Chau Hiix, located in northern Belize, this talk will focus on how data from skeletons are used to inform archaeological interpretations of ancient cultures.
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Tuesday, March 8, 2005
4:00pm
Turner 205

Classical archaeology, as the field has developed over the last two hundred years, has become an interdisciplinary study of ancient Mediterranean culture. Archaeologists working in Greece, Turkey, Italy, Israel, Libya, or further east, in Iraq, Iran, and other middle eastern regions, use ancient literary sources, the physical evidence, inscriptions, coins, and modern anthropological surveys as they attempt to reconstitute the lives and social systems of the people who lived in these places. Students who want to continue their studies in this field should be prepared to study ancient Greek and Latin, as well as modern languages like French, German, Italian and modern Greek. This path toward a career in Classical archaeology can be long and challenging, but ultimately rewarding.
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Tuesday, April 12, 2005
4:00pm
Bondurant 204C

In the mid-seventeenth century the Chickasaws became engaged in the global economy through the commercial trade for Indian slaves. Because slaving was an act of war, the red/war moiety directed slaving and, hence, participation in the colonial trade. The white moiety found themselves at a disadvantage, and their jockeying for position impacted and eventually changed the system. This paper examines the documentary and archaeological evidence to support the thesis that the red/white moiety system was a fundamental structural element in Chickasaw political and economic life, its link to the European slave trade, and the ensuing power struggle between the moieties.
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