Ancient Greek Necropolis Unearthed in Sicily
Tuesday, December 3, 2019
NORWICH, ENGLAND—A manuscript in Lambeth Palace Library has been identified as a work produced by Queen Elizabeth I, according to an announcement released by the University of East Anglia. Researcher John-Mark Philo was looking for translations of works written by the Roman historian Tacitus when he found the manuscript, which was written on a kind of paper stock favored by the Tudor queen. He identified it through a watermark including a rampant lion, the initials “G.B.,” and a crossbow countermark present on paper used for her known translations and personal correspondence. The script of the newly identified translation is a match for the elegant handwriting of one of the queen’s known secretaries in the mid-1590s, but the corrections are in the queen’s own notoriously messy handwriting, Philo said. He added that the subject matter focuses on the death of Augustus, the rise of Tiberius, and the centralization of governmental powers in a single ruler. To read about a grand country estate in Kent that was passed down to Elizabeth I, go to "The Many Lives of an English Manor House." (photo: Lambeth Palace Library)
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Our FREE LECTURES are held on a Saturday at 12:00 pm in building 51 (Social Sciences) on the University of North Florida campus in Jacksonville.
Our early human ancestors used diverse strategies to meet the changing subsistence demands of a wide array of environments. Until recently, the general research consensus supported a hypothesis that prior to the Upper Paleolithic period, Neanderthals and other archaic Homo species hunted a narrow range of animals and exploited mainly large herd animals across the Mediterranean region. This presentation will reveal new data about hunting practices from some of the earliest Paleolithic archaeological sites in France to reconsider the notion that Neanderthals exclusively hunted big game. Together, the recent findings of this zooarchaeological research yield new insights into early human and Neanderthal life-ways.
JANUARY 25, 2020
Dr. Jacqueline Meier, professor of Anthropology at the University of North Florida
Neanderthal Hunting Strategies in the Northeastern Mediterranean
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Meier's research investigates human-animal relations across pivotal shifts in human history—from the decline of Neanderthals in Paleolithic France, to the beginning of animal domestication in Neolithic Israel, and to the rise and fall of urban centers across Bronze–Iron Age Greece. During these uneasy transitions, animals played diverse roles as active participants in daily life, symbols, and sources of calories and waste. She integrates zooarchaeological and contextual taphonomic methods to detect daily meals, past rites (i.e. feasting), and norms of refuse management. By examining this evidence through social zooarchaeology and ecological anthropology frameworks, she works to form more complete models of past ecologies during times of human stress across diverse environments.
16th-Century Manuscript Attributed to Queen Elizabeth I
Thursday, December 5, 2019
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GELA, SICILY—According to a report in The Local, excavation work on Sicily’s southern coast has revealed a small section of a Greek necropolis dating to the seventh century B.C. Among the burials, archaeologist Gianluca Calà has discovered the remains of a newborn and bones from a large animal in a hydria, or ceramic water jug, and a sarcophagus containing an intact skeleton. Pottery recovered from the graves links them to the earliest Greeks from Rhodes and Crete to settle in Sicily. To read about excavations at the nearby Greek colony of Akragas, go to "Sicily's Lost Theater." (photo: Regione Siciliana)
FEBRUARY 15, 2020
Dr. John Cherry, Professor at Brown University, will present a lecture titled "Taking to the Water: New Evidence and New Debates about the Earliest Seafaring in the World.”
MARCH 21, 2020
Lisa Duffy, Doctoral Candidate at the University of Florida, will present the results of her fascinating research into pottery residues.
APRIL 18, 2020
Dr. Sarah Clayton, University of Wisconsin—Madison, will present a lecture titled “The End of Teotihuacan: Perspectives on Collapse and Regeneration from Beyond the Ancient Metropolis.”
MAY 16, 2020
Dr. James P. Delgado, Senior Vice President of SEARCH, INC, will present a lecture about the recent recovery of the Clotilda, the last ship to bring slaves into the United States. its location has long been the subject of great interest to archaeologists.
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