Great Discoveries Lecture Series

07 October 2009
Everywhere the Glint of Gold: The Discovery of the Tomb of Tutankhamun by Dr. David P. Silverman
Come hear the story of the long search for the tomb of the boy-king Tutankhamun by the determined British archaeologist Howard Carter.

04 November 2009
Angkor! by Dr. Joyce C. White
Deep in the jungles of Cambodia, ruins of a forgotten kingdom called Angkor came to the attention of 19th century Europe with the publication of sketches by naturalist Henri Mouhot.

02 December 2009
Pompeii A.D. 79: The Treasure of Rediscovery by Dr. C. Brian Rose
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.

06 January 2010
China’s First Emperor: Man and the Empire for all Eternity by Dr. Nancy S. Steinhardt
Examine the funerary world of the First Emperor, who in death broke with the millennial-old precedent of sacrificial burial and instead had thousands of life-size clay warriors accompany him into the afterlife.

03 February 2010
Machu Picchu and the Incas by Dr. Clark L. Erickson
After its “discovery” in 1911 by Hiram Bingham and subsequent research, competing hypotheses have been proposed about the site’s purpose and meaning. Dr. Erickson will evaluate these interpretations.

03 March 2010
Lascaux by Dr. Harold Dibble
In ancient caves in the south of France, boys in 1940 discovered 17,000 year old paintings and artifacts made by our early ancestors.

05 May 2010
The Easter Island Statue Project by Dr. Jo Anne Van Tilburg
Statues with human heads-on-torsos carved from hardened volcanic ash cover the coast. The islanders call them "moai," and they have puzzled people for years.

02 June 2010
The Sutton Hoo Ship Burial and the Origins of the English Speaking Peoples by Dr. Richard Hodges
Dr. Hodges will examine the extraordinary objects found in these excavations which reveal a story of how the English peoples began to have a new identity as well as new ambitions.