Re: May 15 Northern Cal. ARCE Egyptology Talk - Sudanese Antiquity:

[Glenn Meyer]

Resending to correct subject line. My apologies.

Glenn

Glenn Meyer wrote:
> PLEASE NOTE THE ROOM CHANGE FOR THIS LECTURE ONLY!!!!
>
> The Northern California Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt; the Department of Near
> Eastern Studies, UC Berkeley; and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, UC Berkeley, are
> sponsoring the following lecture:
>
> Sudanese Antiquity: New Insights from the Bioarchaeology of Nubia Expedition (BONE)
>
> By Dr. Brenda J. Baker
> Arizona State University
>
> WHEN: 2:30 p.m. Sunday, May 15, 2016
> WHERE: NES Lounge, Rm 254 Barrows Hall, Barrow Lane and Bancroft Way, UC Berkeley
> There is no admission, but donations are welcomed.
>
> About the Lecture:
>
> In a project area encompassing nearly 100 m2 on the right (north) bank of the Nile River west of
> Abu Hamed, Sudan, the Bioarchaeology of Nubia Expedition has documented sites ranging back to the
> Early Stone Age (>250,000 years ago) with more intensive use in the Middle Stone Age. The focus of
> fieldwork has been on habitation, rock art/gong, and cemetery sites dating from the Mesolithic to
> Christian periods in the eastern portion of the concession. Using a combination of 2- and
> 3-dimensional historic and modern remote sensing data combined with in-field survey and
> excavation, we examine topographic prominence, intervisibility, and other spatial and contextual
> relationships between archaeological sites and the natural environment. This research spans
> different periods and different types of sites, from relationships among clusters of Kerma period
> graves in one area to analysis of Meroitic fortifications and their viewsheds within a broader
> region. This work helps us understand interconnected components in the region as part of a larger
> cultural dynamic with complex relationships to people and the environment in the past and present.
> Relationships between this “hinterland” and core areas of state-level societies are also of
> interest. Grave architecture and treatment of the dead show variable local practices but inclusion
> of imported grave goods show integration into far-flung trade networks from the Kerma (c.
> 2500-1500 BC) through Christian (c. AD 550-1400) periods. Persistence of local traditions, spatial
> and social organization of cemeteries, and distinct identities marked in life (e.g., dental
> avulsion) or death (e.g., interment with archery equipment) illuminate new aspects of ancient
> Nubian mortuary behavior and identity. Additionally, indicators of diet and disease in the
> skeletons provide insight into shifting patterns of subsistence and life histories of individuals
> over time.
>
>
> About the Lecturer:
>
> ASU bioarchaeologist Brenda Baker poses with her Sudanese field crewDr. Brenda Baker is a core
> faculty member of the Center for Bioarchaeological Research and Head of the Bioarchaeology
> approach (subfield) since 2012. Dr. Baker taught previously at Tufts University (1992) and
> Minnesota State University Moorhead (1993-94), and was Director of the Repatriation Program and
> Curator of Human Osteology at the New York State Museum from 1994-1998. She is the founding
> co-editor of the new journal, Bioarchaeology International. She has served on the Executive
> Committee of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists (2012-2015), as an Associate
> Editor of the International Journal of Paleopathology (2010-2015), and is a founding Steering
> Committee member of the Western Bioarchaeology Group (2012-present). Her teaching includes
> upper-division undergraduate courses on the Global History of Health, Life and Death in Ancient
> Egypt, Bioarchaeology, undergraduate and graduate courses in human osteology, and graduate courses
> in paleopathology and The Bioarchaeology of Children and Childhood.
>
> Dr. Baker’s research encompasses bioarchaeology, mortuary archaeology, human osteology, and
> paleopathology, emphasizing the investigation of human skeletal remains within their
> archaeological contexts to reconstruct past lifeways and the health status of ancient people. She
> directs the Bioarchaeology of Nubia Expedition (BONE) in northern Sudan, currently funded with a
> multi-year grant of $1.18 million from the Qatar-Sudan Archaeological Project. She has also
> received grants from the Institute for Bioarchaeology, National Science Foundation, Packard
> Humanities Institute, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research. She has been
> the bioarchaeologist for the University of Pennsylvania Museum-Yale University-Institute of Fine
> Arts, New York University Expedition to Abydos (since 1988) conducting burial excavation and
> analysis of human remains from both cemetery and settlement contexts at this important ancient
> Egyptian site. She is also the bioarchaeologist for Princeton University's expedition at Polis,
> Cyprus ( since 2005), where she has focused on burials from two medieval basilicas.
>
> MORE INFORMATION
>
> Go to http://arce-nc.org/lectures.htm or send email to Chapter President Al Berens at
> heb...@comcast.net.
>
> -----
>
> Glenn Meyer
> Publicity Director
> Northern California ARCE
>
>
>