McDONALD INSTITUTE for Archaeological Research

6th January 2012: World Oral Literature Project Seminar
by Stephen Pax Leonard (Trinity Hall, Cambridge and Scott Polar Research Institute)
The Oral Traditions of the Inugguit of North-West Greenland
Dr Stephen Pax Leonard is a research fellow at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and research associate at the Scott Polar Research Institute. He has carried out both linguistic and ethnographic fieldwork in Iceland and the Faroe Islands and has become particularly interested in aspects of dialect formation, the role of identity in small language communities as well as language revitalisation and more generally endangered languages and cultures in the Arctic and elsewhere. He has recently started a new project, documenting and researching the endangered oral traditions, verbal behaviour and communicative practices of the Inughuit people in north-west Greenland.
(4.00pm, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Downing Site, Cambridge)
Contact Claire Wheeler or Mark Turin

11th January 2012: Cambridge Archaeology Field Group
Michael Coles (CAFG Field Officer): Excavation at Wimpole Hall and Field Work in 2011
(7.30pm, McDonald Institute Seminar Room)
Open Meeting - All Welcome
Contact Michael Coles (C. 871403) or Susan May (C. 843121) for more details on other group activities

23rd January 2012: ASNC Graduate Seminars
Juan Luís Garcia Alonso (Salamanca): Celtic in Spain
(5-6 pm, G-R06/07 Faculty of English, 9 West Road)

24th January 2012: The Phillipe Wiener Lecture
The Fondation Wiener Anspach, St John's College and the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research have the pleasure of inviting you to the Philippe Wiener lecture which will be delivered by Professor Didier Viviers, Professor of Ancient Greek History and Rector of the Université libre de Bruxelles (see poster .pdf): Mind the Gap! Funerary practices in Ancient Crete: New Archaeological Evidence from Itanos.
(4:30pm McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Downing Street, Cambridge)

24th January 2012: Cambridge Late Antiquity Network Seminar (CRASSH)
Dr Charles West (Sheffield): Kings, Franks and Pseudo-Isidore: Problems of Lordship in Late Ninth-Century Frankia
(5-7 pm, CRASSH, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road)

28th January 2012: Book Sale
Anne Taylor, formerly Curatorial Assistant for Archaeology at the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, is holding a sale of books on Archaeology and Anthropology. Prices from 10p to £95 (for rare antiquarian books), with most in the region of £1 to £5.
(10.00 to 1.00pm, Division of Archaeology Common Room )

31st January 2012: D Caucus Seminar
Dr Olivia Kelley (Sidney): Communal versus Individual: the role of Identity in the burials of Peucetia (central Puglia)
(4.30pm, Room 1.04, Faculty of Classics )
All Welcome

1st February 2012: Cambridge Archaeology Field Group
Robert Harding: Spiceworld: A Medieval Port of Trade on the Malabar Coast
(7.30pm, McDonald Institute seminar room)
All welcome
Contact Michael Coles (C. 871403) or Susan May (843121) for more detail

7th February 2012: Cambridge Late Antiquity Network Seminar (CRASSH)
Dr Luke Lavan (Kent): The Late Antique City: Models of Change
(5-7 pm, CRASSH, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road)

14th February 2012: D Caucus Seminar
Nick Soderberg (Faculty of Classics): Cretan Palaces: Innovation or Emulation
(4.30pm, Room 1.04, Faculty of Classics )
All Welcome

21st February 2012: D Caucus Seminar
Letizia Ceccarelli (Department of Archaeology and Anthropology): The sacra of nomen Latinum: new discoveries from the sanctuaries of Ardea
(4.30pm, Room 1.04, Faculty of Classics )
All Welcome

21st February 2012: Cambridge Late Antiquity Network Seminar (CRASSH)
Dr Roger Collins (Edinburgh): Oh, Let us never, never doubt: The Churches of Early Medieval Spain before, during and after the Arab Conquest
(5-7 pm, CRASSH, Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road)

22nd February 2012: Art Fund in Cambridgeshire Open Lecture
Sally-Ann Ashton (Senior Assistant Keeper, Department of Antiquities, Fitzwilliam Museum): A Captive Audience? The impact of accessing Egyptian art and material culture in prisons
7.30pm, McCrum Lecture Theatre off Bene't Street, Cambridge (through the yard of the Eagle pub), wine reception to follow
Tickets: £12 (Students £6)
Tickets on the door or contact 01223-300887
The lecture is open to anyone who would like to come whether or not they are Art Fund members and we are happy to let students come for half price.
More info see attached poster

24th February 2012: ASNC Seminars
Dr Levi Roach (St John's College, Cambridge): 'Penitential kingship: a millennial phenomenon?'
(5-6 pm, G-R06, Faculty of English, 9 West Road)

25th February 2012: The Cambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon, Norse, and Celtic
Event details.

27th February 2012: ASNC Graduate Seminars
Dr Alban Gautier (Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale) 'Seneschals and butlers in Anglo-Saxon royal courts'
(5-6 pm, G-R06,Faculty of English, 9 West Road)

28th February 2012: D Caucus Seminar
Simon Keay (Southampton): The Portus Navalia
(4.30pm, Room 1.04, Faculty of Classics )
All Welcome

1st March 2012: Magdalene Festival of the Image
Conversation IX: Forgotten Images of Europe Classical images of Europe abound in museums and throughout western art. But what of Europe before or beyond Greek and Roman influence? In this conversation, we bring together a unique group of scholars to examine what images meant to other European cultures, such as the Palaeolithic, the "Celts" and the peoples of pre-historic Malta. Jessica Cooney (University of Cambridge), Dr Melanie Giles (University of Manchester) and Dr Reuben Grima (University of Malta) will speak.
(5.00 pm Cripps Theatre, Magdalene College)

5th March 2012: World Oral Literature Project
Professor Ursula Baumgardt and Marie Lorin: The Encyclopaedia of Literature in African Languages
The Encyclopaedia of Literature in African Languages (ELLAF) project focuses on oral and written literature in African languages. The ELLAF project proposes the creation of a website presenting and analysing literary texts in African languages, in order to make a wide range of these written or oral texts, in Sub-Saharan African and Malagasy languages, available to enthusiasts, students and specialists from around the world. The project aims to build up a research database based on literary works produced in their original languages, translated into French and/or English and presented in their linguistic, social and cultural contexts.The website signifies the creation of new tools for presenting and analysing textual data, centred on written/oral African literature in African languages regardless of their sociolinguistic status. This presentation favours research through various fields (language, author, literary genre, predefined keyword and/or full text keyword) using a cross-disciplinary and comparative method. It provides access to, for example: every text from a particular literature, the same genre found in several literatures, one theme in several literatures, a figurative element in several genres, notional degrees not necessarily made explicit by lexical occurrences. The material available here is ready for teaching straight away in regards to the transmission of factual knowledge: presentation of a language, overview of literature, contextualisation of literary production, bibliographic data. Furthermore, the bringing together of oral and written literary texts is not only of interest in a practical and documentary sense, but equally from a theoretical point of view.
(5.00pm, McDonald Institute Seminar Room)

5th March 2012: World Oral Literature Project
Professor Ursula Baumgardt and Marie Lorin: The Encyclopaedia of Literature in African Languages
The Encyclopaedia of Literature in African Languages (ELLAF) project focuses on oral and written literature in African languages. The ELLAF project proposes the creation of a website presenting and analysing literary texts in African languages, in order to make a wide range of these written or oral texts, in Sub-Saharan African and Malagasy languages, available to enthusiasts, students and specialists from around the world. The project aims to build up a research database based on literary works produced in their original languages, translated into French and/or English and presented in their linguistic, social and cultural contexts.The website signifies the creation of new tools for presenting and analysing textual data, centred on written/oral African literature in African languages regardless of their sociolinguistic status. This presentation favours research through various fields (language, author, literary genre, predefined keyword and/or full text keyword) using a cross-disciplinary and comparative method. It provides access to, for example: every text from a particular literature, the same genre found in several literatures, one theme in several literatures, a figurative element in several genres, notional degrees not necessarily made explicit by lexical occurrences. The material available here is ready for teaching straight away in regards to the transmission of factual knowledge: presentation of a language, overview of literature, contextualisation of literary production, bibliographic data. Furthermore, the bringing together of oral and written literary texts is not only of interest in a practical and documentary sense, but equally from a theoretical point of view.
(5.00pm, McDonald Institute Seminar Room)

7th March 2012: Cambridge Archaeology Field Group
Rachel Ballantyne: Arable Farming and Economy along the Fen-edge
(7.30pm, McDonald Institute Seminar Room, Division of Archaeology, Downing Street, Cambridge)
Open Meeting - All Welcome
Contact Michael Coles (C. 871403) or Susan May (C. 843121)

12th March 2012:
All are warmly invited to a celebration of the publication by Cambridge University Press of Martin Allen’s Mints and Money in Medieval England and Rory Naismith’s Money and Power in Anglo-Saxon England
There will be drinks and light refreshments.
(5.30pm, Munro Room, Queens’ College)
RSVP to Martin or Rory

14th March 2012: CRASSH
Dr Gethin Rees: Uncertain Date, Uncertain Place: Interpreting the History of Jewish Communities in the Byzantine Empire using Geographical Information Systems
(12:00 - 14:00, CRASSH, Alison Richard Building, ground floor, SG1)
A buffet lunch is included. Please sign up for this in advance here.

15th March 2012: (NB: 5.30pm START) D Caucus Seminar
SPECIAL LECTURE TO CELEBRATE 10 YEARS OF THE MUNICH EXCHANGE
Rolf Schneider (Munich):The Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria: classical ideals and Afrikaner ideologies
(5.30pm, Room 1.04, Faculty of Classics )
All Welcome

17th March 2012: Science on Saturday
The Science of Archaeology: Discover the secrets revealed by pots, plants, soil, bones and even fossilized poo! Displays and hands on activities.
Drop in, all ages
(10.30-4.00pm, McDonald Institute)

4th April 2012: Cambridge Archaeology Field Group
Following the AGM
Paul Spoerry (CAFG President): Medieval Pottery in Cambridgeshire: a new regional review
(7.30pm, McDonald Institute Seminar Room)
Open Meeting - all Welcome
Contact Michael Coles C. 871403 or Susan May C. 843121 for more detail

16th April 2012: Symposium
Living with the Dead: The social role of burial in the Iron Age and Roman northwestern provinces.
A two day colloquium exploring social interpretations of funerary behaviour in northwestern europe during the Late Iron Age and Roman periods. For a programme and list of speakers, please follow the link below.
(Faculty of Classics, room 1.04)

24th April 2012:
Dr Andrew Roddick (McMaster University)
SITUATING POTTING PRACTICE AND LEARNING COMMUNITY ON THE TARACO PENINSULA, BOLIVIA (200 BC- 300 AD)
Like many other parts of the world, Andean archaeologists working in the Lake Titicaca Basin deploy potsherds to construct regional chronologies and to define the social boundaries of prehistoric communities. Many Andean archaeologists take a ‘bird’s eye perspective’, defining communities - religious, political or ethnic - by the presence and density of particular ceramic design styles across the landscape. However this approach is not ideal for fine-grained social questions, in particular for the ‘design-light’ ceramics of the Late Formative Period (200 BC - 250 AD). In this talk I will take a different perspective on community, developing ideas from situated learning to investigate Late Formative communities of potting practice on the Taraco Peninsula, Bolivia. I track shifting technological choices and bodily practices by examining ceramic attributes and compositional data from a large ceramic assemblage excavated by the Taraco Archaeological Project.
(4.30 pm, McDonald Seminar Room)

26th April 2012: Personal Histories
A Conversation with Professor Mick Aston about his Life and Times
Tea at 4pm in the McDonald.
4.30pm conversation (come with questions), McDonald seminar room
5.30pm wine or chocolates for the younger people.
Contact Pamela

28th-29th April 2012: Art Through Millennia: Cambridge Art and Archaeology Workshop
The first Cambridge Art and Archaeology workshop invites presentations on research and ideas involving prehistoric, historic and contemporary art. The workshop aims to stimulate lasting discussion considering how existing understandings of contemporary art influence the way we view and interpret the visual culture of the past. Further, we welcome submissions which explore new and diverse approaches to the study of prehistoric art. There will be three sessions over the course of the weekend and we invite submissions for all: Art and Process
Contemporary Art and Archaeology
New Approaches to Prehistoric Art
Presentation abstracts for submission should be no longer than 400 words and sent to Jessica Cooney and Sarah Evans or Mark Sapwell by the 16th March. Venue: St. John's College, Cambridge
For more information, please visit our website. Call for Papers

28th April 2012: Cambridge Heritage Seminar
The Annual Cambridge Heritage Seminar brings together researchers, policy makers and practitioners to explore the most pressing issues in Heritage Studies today. For the 13th Annual Cambridge Heritage Seminar, we welcome back distinguished Cambridge Alumni who will speak at this one day event of lectures, panel discussions and seminars, reflecting on their personal contributions to Heritage Studies, and the emergence and trajectory of Heritage as a discipline. Our intention is to weave together an image of the evolution of the heritage field and its stories in the making. Venue: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Downing Site, University of Cambridge Please see invitation and poster for details. For more information and registration please visit the 13th Cambridge Heritage Seminar website
The deadline for registration is Friday 25 February 2012.
Invitation
Event poster

2nd May 2012: Cambridge Archaeology Field Group
Dr Steve Boreham: Unseen Cambridge-geology beneath your feet
(7.30pm, McDonald Institute Seminar Room)
Open Meeting- All Welcome
Contact Michael Coles: C. 871403, Susan May C. 843121

12th May 2012: Cambridge Language Sciences Launch Event
Free one-day conference to find out more about the Initiative and its research themes.
(10.00-17.00, Lunch included)
Event poster
Contact: Language Sciences Coordinator, Jane Walsh

15th May 2012: D Caucus Seminar, Faculty of Classics
Dr Sabine Ladstätter (Österreichisches Archäologisches Institut)
"Ephesos: Terrace House 2"
(4.30pm Room 1.04,Faculty of Classics)
All welcome

23rd & 24th May 2012: Faculty of Classics Craven Seminar 2012
Archaeology and Written Evidence
Provisional timetable
(Room G21 Faculty of Classics)
Mare info…

29th May 2012: Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology
THE THIRD VON HÜGEL LECTURE
Jonathan King: CUSTOM AND COMMUNICATION IN ANTHROPOLOGY DISPLAYS
Jonathan King is the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology’s inaugural Von Hügel Fellow. He has worked in Native North America for forty years, and published, as author or co-editor, a dozen books, including Imaging the Arctic (1998), and Woodlands Art (2006).
This lecture will explore the ways in which curators have explained their exhibitions to audiences, over the last 200 years, through publications such as gallery guides and exhibition catalogues. In the nineteenth century, displays at the British Museum situated other cultures between the curious and the colonial. These ways of framing exhibitions will be placed in the context of proto-ethnographies, accounts of the ‘manners and customs’ of other societies, such as the Jesuit Relations that offered early ethnographies of Native North America. It was at Jesuit institutions, such as Stonyhurst College, that had ethnographic collections, that museum founder Anatole von Hügel may have systematised his interest in other cultures. Today exhibitions and their catalogues perform a different role: they at once introduce grand stories, but question their relevance, opening up new possibilities and imaginations.
5.00-6.00pm: Lecture in Plant Sciences Lecture Theatre (entry opposite courtyard entrance to Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology)
6.15-7.15pm: drinks reception in the Maudslay Hall, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3DZ
RSVP Liz Haslemere

25th June 2012:
Dr Rachel Ives (MRC HNR): "Of broken bones and scurvy dogs" - Evidence of metabolic bone disease in past populations
(4pm, MRC Human Nutrition Research Laboratory, 120 Fulbourn Road, CB1 9NL)
All welcome. Tea/coffee served from 3.45pm

28th June 2012: Seminar
Assembly of the Postcolony: Action in the Contact Zone
Advanced Seminar
Organiser: Dr Robin Boast, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge
(2.00-5.00pm, McDonald Institute Seminar Room)
Flyer

7th September 2012:
Fourth meeting of the Ancient Egyptian Language and Text Workshop
The purpose of this all-day workshop is to bring together text-based researchers in Egyptology in the UK and to provide a forum for sharing and discussing ideas, problems and issues. The intention is to highlight work in progress: we do not aim to publish papers from the workshop, but to provide an opportunity for colleagues to present their research at a working stage with publication taking place elsewhere. For more information please see the workshop website. Registration is free but space is limited, so please email contacts below if you would like to attend.
Contacts: Sian Thomas and Amy Bahe.

21st to 23rd September 2012: African Conference
Connections, Contributions and Complexity: Africa's Later Holocene Archaeology in Global Perspective
Contact Matthew Davies

21st to 23rd September 2012: Gardening Time
Reflections on Memory, Monuments and History in Sardinia and Scotland.

29th-30th September 2012:
Workshop/Seminar on Chronology of the migration period
Details tba
Contact: Catherine Hills