From Yale University’s ARCHAIA program:

Upcoming hybrid conference: Dura-Europos: Past, Present, Future

This three-day event (March 31-April 2, 2022) sponsored by Yale University’s interdisciplinary ARCHAIA program is arranged to celebrate the centennial of excavations on-site at Dura. Papers and discussion will explore the town’s regional and long-distance ties in antiquity, 21st-century geopolitical entanglements, and avenues for future research. Registration is free, and online attendance is open to all.

For information about the papers and presenters, and to register, please see: https://campuspress.yale.edu/duraeuropos2022/.

The Department of Egyptology and Assyriology invites you to their first Tuesday talk of the semester, which will take place on March 1 at 12pm in Wilbour 301. 

Jonathan Price will be presenting “Who’s a Good Boy? Canine Metaphors and the Ethos of Service in the Neo-Assyrian State Correspondence.”

For those of you who are not on campus, please join on Zoom: https://brown.zoom.us/j/97587414273. 

From the Archaeological Institute of America:

Two of our featured ArchaeoCon presenters have collectively spent decades underground and underwater uncovering the mysteries of the past.  Join us for live presentations and Q&A with maritime archaeologist Jim Delgado and Mayanist and archaeological illustrator Heather Hurst. 

Tickets starting at $10

1:00 pm ET
Heather Hurst presents The Murals of San Bartolo: A Maya Masterpiece in Pieces
Anyone who has experienced the frustration and satisfaction of putting together a jigsaw puzzle will be awed by the tale of Hurst’s 10-year effort to document and re-assemble nearly 7,000 fragments of mural paintings in the pyramid of Las Pinturas at San Bartolo in Guatemala.  The San Bartolo murals are remarkable for their depiction of origin mythologies from the time of the first Maya kings and queens, as well as for their hieroglyphic texts. Experience the magnificent murals and story of San Bartolo like never before though the eyes of illustrator, archaeologist, and materials scientist (not to mention, MacArthur “Genius” and Guggenheim Fellow) Heather Hurst.

7:00 pm ET
James Delgado presents Behind the Scenes with National Geographic International’s Number One Maritime Archaeology Show, “Drain the Oceans”
For over five decades, maritime archaeologist James Delgado has worked on some of history’s most iconic shipwrecks – the Titanic, Kublai Khan’s lost fleet from his invasion of Japan in 1281, the Civil War Wreck of the USS Monitor, the wrecks from D-Day,  the Arctic exploration, the California gold rush, the lost ships of Pearl Harbor and the atomic tests at Bikini Atoll, and most recently, the Clotilda, the last known ship to bring enslaved people to America.  ArchaeoCon participants will be transported behind the scenes of the show to talk about how archaeology helps film makers and how films and documentaries help archaeology.  Delgado will share insights into many of the wrecks and sites featured in this and past seasons—as well as a few of the iconic wrecks not featured in “Drain the Oceans” (yet!).

See the full ArchaeoCon schedule.

Not available on March 5? Not to worry, recordings will be made available to all ticket purchasers and can be viewed throughout the month of March.

Buy tickets.

From Wendy Bird Womack and Patrick William Smith, Producers – Groundbreaking (Kiyo Films):

TV SERIES ‘GROUNDBREAKING’ REFRAMES HOLLYWOOD PORTRAYAL OF ARCHAEOLOGISTS 

Audiences get first-look at the long-awaited series trailer

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Groundbreaking, a new mockumentary television series being described as “The Office meets Indiana Jones”, aims to reframe how Hollywood portrays archaeologists. Drawing inspiration from hundreds of accounts of actual archaeologists – the series leans into the more innocuous day-to-day activities of a working dig site, unearthing a wealth of relatable comedy.

Watch the trailer here: https://youtu.be/z4tXJTMoUM4

“We really wanted archaeologists to see themselves – their frustrations, their challenges, their unique traditions – represented accurately on screen, so every component of the show was researched and informed by professionals in the field. Our actors trained alongside notable archaeologists in Ireland, England, France, and the US – participating in actual digs prior to production – and our art department scoured the planet to obtain authentic vintage tools used on past digs – many with fascinating stories of their own.” – Patrick William Smith (creator/writer/director)

On a macro-level, Groundbreaking hopes to bring a renewed interest to the field of archaeology, which is currently experiencing alarming shortages in trained field workers. 

Since releasing the trailer this month, a massive groundswell of support for the project has already led to over 1-million views, thanks in large part to Chinese-Irish actor Steven He, whose meteoric rise to YouTube stardom has garnered him more than 8 million followers and nearly 1 billion views across his social media channels (recently making headlines for his ultra-viral and widely circulated “Emotional Damage” video).

“I think Hollywood nearly always misses the point of archaeology. Real archaeology isn’t treasure hunting – it’s story hunting – and Groundbreaking really seeks to honor that.” – Wendy Bird Womack (Producer, Co-Writer)

Groundbreaking is a full-length dramedy series that follows a team of astoundingly unsuccessful archaeologists on the brink of unemployment, who unwittingly discover an ancient Celtic secret that sparks a series of inexplicable events. 

Groundbreaking’s ensemble cast is made up of notable actors hailing from nine different countries and 7 languages were spoken on set. Filmed in Ireland, the story pays homage to ancient Irish mythology and beautifully showcases the world-famous Connemara landscape. A mixture of comedy, adventure, and mystery – Groundbreaking hopes to reach a wide audience thirsty for original content. 

“Groundbreaking is ultimately a story about friendship, discovery, and the rekindling of wonder in the lives of the wonder-less – something it seems we could all use a bit more of these days. And after spending two years in isolation – waiting for the film industry to kick back into gear – the sheer act of living and working with all these incredible people quickly became one of the most cathartic, engrossing, and (mis)adventurous experiences of my life.” – Patrick William Smith (Creator, Producer, Writer, Director)

Currently in post-production, Groundbreaking will be seeking wide distribution later this year. The production is currently running a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for post-production. Fans looking for a way to get more involved (and even hide their own artifact in the show) can visit: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kiyofilms/groundbreaking-series 

From the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture:

Free Virtual Public Lecture

Dimitri Laboury, Associate Professor of Ancient Egyptian Art History, Archaeology, History and History of Religions; Research Director, Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research in Ancient Egyptian Art History and Archaeology; Director of the Ancient Egyptian Art Historical Research Unit, University of Liège, Belgium

Advance Registration Required.

One of the salient characteristics of ancient Egypt undoubtedly is its hieroglyphic script. The “code” to decipher this writing system was cracked precisely two hundred years ago, in 1822, by the brilliant French linguist Jean-François Champollion—the founding father of Egyptology. The complexity of Egyptian hieroglyphs resulted in a low literacy rate among the Pharaonic population. In this lecture, Dimitri Laboury will address the level(s) of literacy and scholarly education among the makers of the countless hieroglyphic monuments that help make ancient Egypt so famous. Was every ancient Egyptian artist capable of reading and writing hieroglyphs? And in that society, who were the real experts in hieroglyphic writing?

To join the program, you will need to download the free Zoom app in advance. If you already have Zoom, you do not need to download it again. For details on how to improve your Zoom experience, visit the How to Attend an HMSC Program webpage.

About the Speaker

Dimitri Laboury is research director of the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research (F.R.S.-FNRS) and associate professor at the University of Liège, where he teaches ancient Egyptian art history, archaeology, history, and history of religion. Trained as an art historian and an Egyptologist, he has taken part in several archaeological expeditions in Egypt, notably in the Theban area, and codirects the Belgian archaeological mission in the Theban Necropolis. Thanks to a Research Incentive Grant of the FNRS, he has been leading an important project on painters and painterly practices in the Theban necropolis during the 18th Dynasty, studying ancient Egyptian artists, their practices, and social statuses in Pharaonic Egypt. His bibliography includes: La statuaire de Thoutmosis III. Essai d’interprétation d’un portrait royal dans son contexte historique (Aegyptiaca Leodiensia 5, Liège, 1998), an archaeological biography of Akhenaton (Pygmalion – Flammarion Editions, Paris, 2010), and The Oxford Handbook of Egyptian Epigraphy and Palaeography, coedited with Vanessa Davies (Oxford University Press, 2020).