Events and Calendars

Eleana Yalouri, Department of Social Anthropology, Panteion University, Athens

Dr. Robin Rhodes, Department of Art, Art History, and Design, University of Notre Dame

Color, 117 minutes

As a prelude to Robert Edsel’s lecture on Oct. 15, the Emmy award winning PBS documentary, The Rape of Europa, will be shown on Tuesday, Sept. 29 and Tuesday, Oct.13 at 7:00 p.m. in the Roger Hull Lecture Hall at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art. The film tells the epic story of the theft, destruction and survival of Europe’s art treasures during the Third Reich and World War II. Actress Joan Allen narrates this breathtaking chronicle about the battle over the very survival of Western civilization.

Dr. Scott Pike, Associate Professor of Environmental Science, Geology, and Archaeology, Environmental and Earth Sciences Department, Willamette University

Mr. Robert Edsel, director of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art in Dallas, Texas, and a New York Times bestselling author and producer

Dr. James Cuno '73, President and CEO of the J. Paul Getty Trust

Dr. Katherine A. Schwab, Fairfield University

Dr. Junko Habu, UC Berkeley

Archaeologists have long been interested in the study of the mechanisms of long-term social change.  Factors that involve specialization and centralization, such as domestication of plants, technological developments and social competitions, have been proposed as prime movers for the “development” of human societies.  Contrary to these interpretations, this presentation proposes a hypothesis that diversity and decentralization may be critical for maintaining long-term sustainability of human societies in the order of hundreds to tens of thousands of years.  Using a case study from the Early and Middle Jomon periods (ca. 6000-4400 cal. BP) of prehistoric Japan, this presentation emphasizes the importance of framing recent and current global environmental problems in the context of the greater human experiences.

Dr. Kerry F. Thompson, Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University

As a symbolic representation of the Diné universe, the hogan represents a life lived in pursuit of beauty and balance and is a material representation of Diné philosophy and worldview. Using Diné philosophy as an interpretive tool, this project investigates the archaeological evidence for cultural persistence among late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century Diné hogan households. Analysis of a sample of hogan sites recorded as evidence for the Navajo Land Claim case indicate that hogan architecture persisted in form and function in the face of intensive American contact, intrusive colonial policies, and profound changes in other areas of Diné social and cultural life. The dialectic between colonial policy and traditional Dine culture did not alter the core of Diné identity as it is represented in Diné architecture, persistent settlement patterns, and decision making about movement on the landscape.

John Haslett, Author & Explorer

In September 1526, off the coast of what is now modern-day Ecuador, two vessels met on the Pacific Ocean. One was Spanish and most likely a caravel. The other was a balsa raft, carrying “sails and rope as fine as anything in Castile.” The mariners aboard this unusual vessel are today classified as the Manteño-Huancavilca. At their height they numbered roughly sixty thousand, had at least five major chiefdoms on the coast, and had an economy based on sea transportation. In the time before the Spaniards, Manteño balsa rafts carried Inka dignitaries and regular freight alike.

The vessel the Spanish caravel encountered in 1526 was a balsa raft that came from the chiefdom of Salango, and in 1995, the author and his colleagues went to this tiny fishing village, which still has a thriving maritime culture, to begin building their first balsa raft.

Over the next five years, the author and his team sailed balsa rafts for 125 days and lived aboard those vessels for an additional 90 days in various ports and anchorages. Their voyages were punctuated by “madness, mutiny, mud, terror, desperation, failure, disease, death, the surreal, and the sublime.” In that time, and in the years afterward, they have emerged with a unique view of the Manteño raft, its abilities, its limitations, and its impact on pre-Columbian trade in northwestern South America.

Dr. Patrick Hunt, Stanford University

The almost perfectly preserved remains of “Ötzi the Iceman”, a 5,300-year-old Copper Age / Neolithic man whose body was discovered in 1991 in the Ötztal Alps at 10,500 ft. between Italy and Austria, may give us a glimpse into medicine practiced by prehistoric peoples. We know that “Ötzi” carried a medical kit with him – his own portable pharmacy with over ten different plant products that could heal and cure. Discoveries about ancient medical techniques may be possible studying Ötzi’s singular case.

Amazing forensic science has recovered much detail about Ötzi’s life. This lecture explores the medical evidence, including material technology he carried, with vital medical and bioarchaeological data. This is research conducted under the auspices of National Geographic and the Institute for EthnoMedicine where Hunt is also a Research Associate in Archeoethnobotany. Hunt has filmed several documentaries (2008, 2010) for National Geographic on Ötzi and is currently involved in a third production (2015).

Short bibliography and/or website on lecture topic:

“PBS NOVA Iceman Murder Mystery”

Stephanie Budin (University of Oregon)

*Watch the Willamette University Classics Department website for additional details