Themes of the conference include: Global Exchange and Local Impact; Port Cities across Time, Space, and Disciplines; The Mediterranean and Beyond; Urban Governance and Territorial Organization; and Innovation and Preservation.

This talk will relate amazing story of the Discovery of the earliest known text of works by the ancient Greek Mathematician Archimedes, and the recent project to conserve, image and publish the manuscript. The Archimedes Palimpsest contains the unique texts for two treatises by Archimedes. Only the latest imaging technology has brought these texts properly to light, and the results are rewriting the history of mathematics and revealing hitherto unknown texts from the Ancient World. He will also discuss issues of digital access and copyright more generally.

Dr. William Noel is Curator of Manuscripts and Rare Books at The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. Dr Noel is on the Faculty of Rare Book School, University of Virginia, and he is an Adjunct Professor in the Department of History of Art, Johns Hopkins University.

Tel Beth-Shemesh is an important Late Bronze and Iron Age biblical site in the northeastern Shephelah (lowland) of Judah and an ideal site for the investigation of key historical and cultural issues relating to the vexed relations and interaction among Canaanites, Philistines and Israelites. Excavations conducted at Tel Beth-Shemesh in 1911-1912 by Duncan MacKenzie and in 1928-1933 by Elihu Grant from Haverford College. Remains of several successive cities from the Bronze and Iron Ages were uncovered. But these excavations, conducted during the early days of archaeology in Israel, left open many important questions concerning the cultural and social history of Beth-Shemesh. The aim of the new excavations initiated in 1990 by Prof. Shlomo Bunimovitz and Dr. Zvi Lederman of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University is to answer questions.

Coffees and cookies in the second floor lounge at 4 PM.

Tea will be held at 4 PM before the lecture in the Quita Woodward Room, which is in the Thomas Library.

Lunch is provided.

In the spring of 2009, parts of the mass grave of 57 Irish Railway workers who died while building the 59th mile of the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, was uncovered. Historic accounts indicate that these railway workers died of cholera; the bones tell a different tale constructed around violence and tainted with prejudice against these early industrial age immigrant workers. Duffy's Cut is located in Malvern PA along Route 30. You can see the mass grave from both SEPTA and AMTRAK trains as they course over this ancient landscape.

Catch an overview of what Pompeii was like 2,000 years ago, before it was buried by thick layers of ash and mud when the volcanic Mt. Vesuvius erupted, freezing one moment in the cities' history.

$5.00 Advance General Admisson. $10 at the door. FREE for Museum Members.

Reception held in conjunction with the American Anthropological Association’s Annual Meeting in Philadelphia. Cash Bar. Please visit the website to register: http://www.aaanet.org/

Coffees and cookies in the second floor lounge at 4 PM.

The Seventh Biennial Bryn Mawr College Graduate Group presents their symposium entitled: “The Anxiety of Influence and Appropriation.” The Featured Respondent is Robert Nelson from Yale University.

Lunch is provided.

Two Penn Museum researchers offer updates on their latest work. Simon Martin, Associate Curator, American Section, and one of the foremost experts on Maya writing and history, summarizes his work on hieroglyphs of Calakmul, Mexico, the largest city in Classic Maya civilization, and provides details on some of the new finds that are shedding light on the social, cultural and political development there. Dr. Lauren Ristvet, Dyson Chair and Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, talks about Penn Museum's excavations in Azerbaijan (the first American excavations in that country) at the ancient fortress site of Oglanqala, inhabited between 1200 and 200 BCE. Through excavation and survey work, the team is revealing a complex landscape of fortresses, cemeteries and nomadic settlements that are helping to illustrate what it meant to be on the edge of several empires.

Lecture admission: pay-what-you-like. Reception follows: $35; $25 Penn Museum members. Information: 215/898-4890.

This presentation examines the nature of the past among the ancient and modern Maya of Belize. The ancient Maya site of Xunantunich will be discussed along with the connection between the ancient sites of southern Belize and the local modern Maya and the national government of Belize.

Tea will be held at 4 PM before the lecture in the Quita Woodward Room, which is in the Thomas Library.