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Providence Preservation Society is excited to announce that the 6th Annual Hacking Hertiage UnConference is returning this Saturday, April 13. This one-day, participant-led gathering is open to anyone with an interest in exploring questions about community history, heritage, and preservation together with neighbors. Pop-up conversations invite questions and debate about how and why we protect, interpret, manage, and market our cultural heritage that may be uncomfortable, provocative, critical, or, as one of our steering committee members put it, just plain weird. It is a place to gather and talk together about things like experimental preservation, marginalized stories, historic houses, monuments, sites of conscience, and digital heritage.

Never been to an unconference before? All of the sessions are proposed and led by participants and don’t need to follow any particular format. They can be discussions, but they can also be a space for collaboration on a new project with new partners, or a community art-making workshop. All participants are welcome to submit session proposals in advance or at the event.

April 13 // 9:30 am – 1:00 pm

$10 suggested donation

ARIT Hybrid Lecture: Art and Archaeology in Turkey

The American Research Institute in Turkey is hosting a series of hybrid lectures entitled Art and Archaeology in Turkey. See information below on the upcoming lecture.

“The Flavian Building Programme in Asia Minor: The Age of Vespasian” | A hybrid lecture by Deniz Berk Tokbudak [Karamanoğlu Mehmet Bey University, Karaman
Turkish American Association (TAA) / Türk Amerikan Derneği (TAD) in Ankara]. Monday, April 15, 2024, 7:00 pm, 12:00 EDT. Register for the lecture here.

Exploring Central Anatolia (Galatia and Phrygia) On the Road with The Byzantine Legacy | A hybrid lecture by David Hendrix [Turkish American Assocation (TAA) / Türk Amerikan Derneği (TAD) in Ankara]. Monday, April 29, 2024, 7:00 pm, 12:00 pm EDT. Register for the lecture here.

For more information on the American Research Institute in Turkey, see their website here.

Virtual Book Discussion: Coptic Culture and Community

The American University in Cairo (AUC) Press is hosting a virtual discussion of their new publication, Coptic Culture and Community: Daily Lives, Changing Times. Edited by Mariam F. Ayad, this volume brings together leading experts from a range of disciplines to examine aspects of the daily lived experiences of Egypt’s Coptic Christian minority from late Antiquity to the present. In doing so, it serves as a supplement and a corrective to institutional or theological narratives, which are generally rooted in studying the wielders of historical power and control.

Coptic Culture and Community reveals the humanity of the Coptic tradition, giving granular depth to how Copts have lived their lives through and because of their faith for two thousand years. The first three sections consider in turn the breadth of the daily life approach, perspectives on poverty and power in a variety of different contexts, as well as matters of identity and persecution. The final section reflects on the global Coptic diaspora, bringing themes studied for the early Coptic Church into dialog with Coptic experiences today. These broad categories help to link fundamental questions of socio-religious history with unique aspects of Coptic culture and its vibrant communities of individuals.

The virtual book talk will take place on Tuesday April 16, 2024 at 8pm Cairo Time (7pm London, 2pm NY EST) on zoom. To register for the book discussion, please follow this link. It will also be streamed live on Facebook at this link. Browse the catalog of other publications at AUC Press here.

Society of Black Archaeologists | April Newsletter

The Society of Black Archaeology (SBA) has released their April newsletter! See below for some highlights from their announcements, as well as more information on how to get involved.

Updates

2024 Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology | The 89th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology will take place on April 17-21, 2024. Many members of the SBA will be attending and are planning to get together for dinner! Email Jordan Daivs [secretary@societyofblackarchaeologists.com] to let them know if you are interested in attending or will be in town!

African American Burial Grounds Preservation Program | The SBA is asking for your help in getting the African American Burial Grounds Preservation Program S.3667 and H.R.6805) approved appropriation from Congress to implement the program! The program establishes a $3 million annual grant program to aid preservation and research of African American burial grounds across the country, protecting invaluable sites of community and memory. The SBA asks for you to contact your Congressperson to approve the $3 million dollar budget and visit the National Trust for Historic Preservation page to write a letter of support that will be sent immediately to your State Representative.

Opportunities

The University of Missouri Research Reactor’s Archaeometry Laboratory | This workshop is to provide historical archaeologists with fundamental skills in archaeological sciences. It will take place from August 5th-8th, 2024. The workshop is open to graduate students and early career researchers in historical archaeology; attendees do not need previous experiences with archaeological science. The workshop is in person, and will be held in Columbia, Missouri. Each attendee will be reimbursed for up to $600 in travel and housing expenses. To find out more information, as well as how to apply to the workshop, please see this link. Questions may be sent to Matt Greer at mcgkkb@missouri.edu.

For more information on opportunities exclusive to SBA members, as well as how to get involved with the Society of Black Archaeologists, please visit the SBA website here.

Call for Papers | The Connected Past: Religious Networks in Antiquity

On April 3, 2024

In CFP

The University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada is currently open for paper submissions for their October 2024 conference entitled The Connected Past: Religious Networks in Antiquity. The organizing committee, comprised of The Connected Past, The Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions, and researchers at The University of British Columbia, invites scholars to submit abstracts for 20-minute papers that explore the intersections of network science, social network analysis, network theory, archaeology, and ancient religions.

Network approaches are used by archaeologists and historians as tools to model relational ties between individuals and groups in the past as key predictors of historical outcomes. The growing uptake of these approaches comes in an era recently dubbed the “Third Science Revolution” (Kristiansen 2014), where the advancement of Big Data and computational techniques have revolutionized the types and amounts of information at our fingertips and our means of analyzing and visualizing its patterns. This workshop and conference aim to build bridges between often divergent disciplinary skillsets: the quantitative and computational side of network analysis and the qualitative questions and explanations that undergird network theory alongside historical and archaeological work.

A special area of focus for the conference will be the application of network perspectives to the emergence and spread of religious beliefs and practices, positioning these phenomena as deeply intertwined with the human and material connections that comprised the ancient world. Religion has often been regarded as both an intensely local and intensely transcultural force for ancient communities. Now, at the digital frontiers of the twenty-first century, the resurgent interests in large-scale questions on human development have opened up new opportunities to study religion from relational and quantitative perspectives combined with deep qualitative and historical approaches developed in the humanities. Possible themes to investigate include:

Modeling religious diffusions
Networks and religious identities
Networks and collective memory
Networking myth
Religion, networks, and social complexity
Networks and materiality
Communities of (religious) practice
Knowledge networks and religious practice
Networks, rituals, and power
Network science techniques and humanities pedagogy

Specifics: Please submit abstracts of 300-400 words to connectedpast2024@gmail.com by March 24th April 5th 2024. Notification of acceptance will be in mid-April 2024. Please direct any questions to the above email address or email megan.daniels@ubc.ca. Please see this link for more information.

Conference registration will open in May, with more detailed information on the workshop that will precede the conference. We endeavour to provide fair and accessible registration fees. Registration costs will range from $50-100 CAD (concessionary, regular).

Optional workshop on network science to take place prior to the conference on UBC Vancouver Campus, Oct. 2nd-3rd 2024. Schedule and registration TBA. Workshop seats will be limited.

This workshop and conference is sponsored by The Connected Past, The Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions, UBC Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies, The UBC Centre for Computational Social Sciences, Green College UBC, The UBC Centre for Migration Studies, The UBC Public Humanities Hub, UBC History, UBC Anthropology, the Vancouver Chapter of the Archaeological Institute of America, and UBC Advanced Research Computing

Institute for Advanced Study | Unearthing the Past at IAS

On April 3, 2024

IAS Squeeze Digitization Project Unlocking the Text of Ancient Inscriptions

The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) has released their monthly newsletter! Learn more about their projects relating to the ancient world and archaeology below.

The Institute’s Krateros Project is launching a new exploratory effort to further unlock the text of ancient Greek inscriptions by applying optical character recognition technology to its 30,000-strong collection of squeezes.

“Becoming Bodies” Explores History of Computing, Cybernetics, and Cyberorganisms

Artificial intelligence continues to blur the lines between human and machine. An exhibition on display at the Institute reveals that, since its founding, IAS has been a key space for the testing and contesting of these boundaries.

For more information on the IAS, as well as their other projects related to fields such as physics, biology, chemistry, and mathematics, please view their website here.

Call for Papers | 14th Cambridge Heritage Symposium

On April 3, 2024

In CFP

The Cambridge Heritage Research Centre is due to host the 24th Annual Cambridge Heritage Symposium between the 19th and 20th of June 2024 in the McDonald Building, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge. Entitled Heritage Expertise: Paradigm or Platitude? this year’s symposium provides the first constructive attempt to critically interrogate the skills and roles of those working and researching within heritage spheres. More importantly, the symposium makes an innovative and significant contribution to heritage theory, practice, and methodologies by focusing on skills and roles, some of which have been overlooked by the participative turn in heritage theory and practice.

For more information on the upcoming symposium, as well as how to submit your paper, please click this link.

2024 Women’s History Month at the Institute

On March 20, 2024

Breaking Ground: Women in Old World Archaeology

This Women’s History Month, the Institute celebrates and highlights the invaluable contributions women have made to the field of archaeology, both past and present. In the past, the Institute has created a variety of online and physical exhibits that center the experiences of women in the field of ancient archaeology. This blog post provides a list of these past exhibitions, as well as highlighting current female faculty’s research and role in making the Institute what it is today.

Past Exhibits, Online Archives, and Interest Groups

This online database of women in Old World Archaeology was created by the Institute’s founder and namesake, Martha Sharp Joukowsky, alongside former professor and friend Barbra S. Lesko. The database extends across time periods, countries, and continents, highlighting the often overlooked contributions of women archaeologists.

Hidden Figures

Scattered throughout Rhode Island Hall – anywhere from ceilings, to kitchens, to corners of our second floor library – are framed portraits of female archaeologists from the 19th century to the present. Often, these portraits are inaccessible, whether due to timing (e.g., lectures) or permissions (e.g., the Vault) – this was done to highlight how traditional narratives of the discipline enforce marginalized voices to remain ‘hidden.’ Each portrait and label recognizes the women who have often been ‘hidden’ from view in the history of archaeology, and challenges viewers to look for the missing voices in the field

Trowelblazers@Brown

Inspired by the project “Trowelblazers” created by Brenna Hassett, Tori Herridge, Suzanne Pilaar Birch, and Rebecca Wragg Sykes, Trowelblazers@Brown is a group of early career researchers from historically underrepresented communities and their allies coming together in solidarity to reflect on experiences in the field and academia and engage in meaningful exchanges related to gender issues and accessibility. Anyone who resonates with this message is invited to join the group!

“Picturing Femininity” | Exhibit by Erynn Bentley (Ph.D. expected May 2025)

This exhibit created by Ph.D. candidate Erynn Bentley explores how individuals in the ancient world conceived of and constructed gender through material culture. With artifacts from across the world, both ancient and modern, this exhibit highlights three themes in which women are center stage: Women as Objects, In the Hands of Women, and Feminine Ideals.

The Women of the Institute

Laurel Bestock | Associate Professor of Archaeology and the Ancient World and Egyptology and Assyriology

Dr. Laurel Bestock researches the material culture of the Nile Valley as it relates to kingship, monumentality, and the contexts and audiences for art and architecture. She is the co-director of an excavation at Uronarti, Sudan, and is developing a universal tablet-based archaeological recording system called Kiosk Archaeological Recording Platform. She was most recently featured in a WIRED “Tech Support” video: “Egyptologist Answers Ancient Egyptian Questions from Twitter.”

Sheila Bonde | Professor of Archaeology, and Christopher Chan and Michelle Ma Professor of History of Art and Architecture

Dr. Sheila Bonde specializes in the study of medieval sites and their representation in the archaeological record. She is the current director of the MonArch excavation project located in northern France at the Augstinian abbey of Saint-Jean-des-Vignes in Soissons, the Carthusian house at Bourffontaine, the Cistercian monastery at Notre-Dame d’Ourscamp, and the motherhouse at Tiron.

Kathleen Forste | Postdoctoral Research Associate in Archaeology and the Ancient World

Dr. Kathleen M. Forste is an anthropological archaeologist with research exploring agricultural systems and human-plant relationships of the 4th-13th centuries CE. Her dissertation was on the Levant agricultural economy of the Early Islamic era (c. 636-1100 CE) and was completed at Boston University. She is currently involved in fieldwork at the Tel Shimron Excavations in Israel, and the Menorca Archaeology Project in Spain.

Robyn Price | Postdoctoral Research Associate in Archaeology and the Ancient World

Dr. Robyn Price studies ancient sensory experience and its role in establishing asymmetrical power relationships in the past. Her dissertation examined the value of scent in New Kingdom Egypt (ca. 1550-1050 BCE), and was completed at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Candace Rice | Assistant Professor of Archaeology and the Ancient World and Classics

Dr. Candace Rice’s research focuses on Mediterranean maritime trade and economic development in the Roman period. She is the current co-director of the Upper Sabina Tiberina Project, excavating a late Republican to mid Imperial villa in the Sabina. She has done fieldwork at Etruscan, Samnite, Roman, and Medieval sites in Italy, France, and Tunisia.

Sarah Bell | Ph.D. expected, May 2025

Sarah Bell researches cross-cultural conventions through the identification of “vocabularies” of spatial arrangement, the etymologies of spatial language, and the architecture associated with religious or cult worship in Minoan palaces.

Erynn Bentley | Ph.D. expected, May 2025

Erynn Bentley researches the art and archaeology of late antiquity and the early medieval period in the Mediterranean and Europe, performativity of objects and places, cultural exchange and mobility, and public archaeology and its relationship to museum curation.

Emily Booker | Ph.D. Expected, May 2024

Dr. Emily Booker successfully defended her dissertation this March, entitled, “Contextual Clay Bodies: Figurine Use and Meaning in Late Bronze Age Cypress.” Her research interests are in international ties, trade, and communication in the eastern Mediterranean during the Late bronze and Early Iron Age.

Elizabeth “Liza” Davis | Ph.D. expected, May 2025

Liza Davis researches the mechanics and effects of the spread of Christianity in the eastern Mediterranean during Late Antiquity. She is interested in network analysis, spatial statistics, GIS, and geoarchaeology.

Grace Hermes | Ph.D. expected, May 2029

Grace Hermes researches the lived experiences of women in the ancient Mediterranean, with special attention to the body as a locus of gendered experience. She is interested in anatomical votives in the 5th century healing cult of Askelepios at Corinth.

Julia Hurley | Ph.D. expected, October 2024

Julia Hurley researches foodways in the ancient world, with an emphasis on Roman social and economic history in the western provinces of the Roman Empire. She is interested in digital approaches to studying the ancient world.

Rachel Kalisher | Ph.D. expected, May 2024

Rachel Kalisher researches reproductive physiology through bone histology and the treatment of women in the ancient world, with much of her present research carried out in present-day Israel. She is also pursuing a Sc.M. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology through the Open Graduate Education Program at Brown University.

Jennifer “Jen” McLish | Ph.D. expected, May 2029

Jen McLish researches knowledge transmission and craft production in the ancient world, with a focus on the maintenance of revival or craft traditions and its relation to social memory and identity. She is also interested in the impacts of social and political marginalization, environmental disaster, or economic turmoil’s impact on craft production.

Leah Neiman | Ph.D. expected, May 2026

Leah Neiman researches systems of sex and gender expression, medical archaeology, museum education, and public-facing scholarship. She has done fieldwork in Samothrace, Greece, and at the Turkana Basin Institute Field School in Kenya.

Gerasimoula “Mina” Nikolovieni | Ph.D. expected, May 2025

Mina Nikolovieni researches Greek prehistory, with an emphasis on the archaeology of space, craftsmanship, textiles, and objects of domestic life. She has past experience in museum work and cultural resources management.

Ana González San Martín | Ph.D. expected, May 2025

Ana G. San Martín researches landscapes of rural labor, seasonality, and social complexity during the second millennium BC, and specializes in the landscape of the Cypriot hinterland. She is also interested in mobility, temporality, and social memory as it appears in the archaeological record.

Anna Soifer | Ph.D. expected, May 2024

Anna Soifer researches ancient craft and industry, knowledge transfer, and ceramic analysis in Pre-Roman Italy. She has past experience in archaeology museums and collections, and the digital illustration of artifacts and architecture from Umm el-Marra, Syria.

Many women have made archaeology what it is today, and the Institute extends our gratitude to those who have yet to be ‘rediscovered.’ We hope this month may be a time for reflection on how the field of archaeology can better support, represent, uplift, and honor women both in the ancient world and in the present. The Institute wishes you a Happy Women’s History Month.

*Written by Christina Miles (`25), Records and Collections Assistant at the JIAAW, and student of Anthropological Archaeology (A.B.) at Brown University. Christina studies mortuary landscapes and placemaking in Freedom Colonies of the Southwestern United States.

Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission Bulletin

On March 6, 2024

The monthly bulletin for the Rhode Island Historical Preservation & Heritage Commission (RIHPHC) is live! Some featured events, grants, and projects can be found below.

Supporting Local Preservation Programs

The RIHPHC wishes congratulations to the recipients of the 2023 Certified Local Government grants. The recipients for the 2023 year are:

Coventry: 10,000 to survey Arkwright, Harris, and Greene Villages
Cranston/Preserve Rhode Island: $16,000 to prepare a National Register Historic District (NRHD) nomination for Garden City
Cumberland: $12,000 to prepare an NRHD nomination for Grant’s Mill
East Providence: $8,000 to complete a condition assessment and preservation plan for Newman Cemetery
Providence/Neutaconkanut Hill Conservancy: $7,500 to prepare an NRHD nomination for Neutaconkanut Hill Park
South Kingston: $20,000 to survey areas of Matunuck threatened by costal flooding and sea level rise

If you are interested in applying to the grant for the 2024 year, please see more information here.

Diversifying Representation on the National Register

Rhode Island’s African American Civil Rights history initiative (launched in 2015) rolls on!

RIHPHC was recently awarded an Underrepresented Communities Grant from the National Park Service to fund a Multiple Property Documentation Form and National Register nominations for four properties related to the theme of African American Civil Rights.

Meanwhile, work is underway to nominate the former home of John Carter Minkins to the National Register. A professional journalist, Minkins (1869-1959) is recognized as the first person of African heritage to lead a white-owned newspaper in the U.S. He was one of Rhode Island’s leading civil rights advocates, wielding the power of the press and his oratorical skills to call out and fight racial injustice.

Rhode Island Cemetery Works

RIHPHC and the Rhode Island Advisory Commission on Historical Cemeteries (RIACHC) will present R.I. Historical Cemeteries Awareness and Preservation Weeks in April – May 2024. Look forward to tours, clean-ups, gravestone conservation demonstrations, talks, and additional free programs that raise awareness about Rhode Island’s historic cemeteries and promote their preservation.

Have a program proposal? Please contact Christine MacWilliams (cmacwilliams58@yahoo.com) of Rhode Island Advisory Commission on Historical Cemeteries.

Heritage Happenings for March

47th Annual Newport Irish Heritage. Month
Pawtucket’s 42nd St. Patrick’s Parade (3/2)
Museum of Work & Culture hosts “La Francophonie” events (3/3, 3/14, and 3/24)
Providence St. Patrick’s Day Parade (3/9)
Tomaquag Museum’s Maple Thanksgiving (3/9)
Nowruz 1403 with the International House of RI and Iranian American Cultural Society (3/16)
RI Day of Portugal’s Annual Breakfast
Tomaquag Museum’s Lunch and Learn Series (3/25)
Tomaquag Museum hosts 2024 Monthly Book Club (3/26)

For more information regarding the events sponsored by the RIHPHC, please visit their website here.

ARIT Online Lecture | Alevi-Bektashi Digital Archive: A Project of Cultural Preservation

On March 5, 2024