The Archaeological Institute of America - Jacksonville Society
The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) is the world's oldest and largest archaeological organization. The AIA is a nonprofit founded in 1879 and chartered by the United States Congress in 1906. There are more than 100 local societies, like this Jacksonville Society, in the United States, Canada, and overseas. Members include professional archaeologists, students, and enthusiasts, all united by their passion for archaeology and its role in furthering human knowledge.
The AIA:
- promotes archaeological inquiry and public understanding of the material record of the human past to foster an appreciation of diverse cultures and our shared humanity.
- supports archaeologists, their research and its dissemination, and the ethical practice of archaeology.
- educates people of all ages about the significance of archaeological discovery and advocates for the preservation of the world’s archaeological heritage.
Professional archaeologists who are AIA members, have conducted fieldwork worldwide. The Institute has founded research centers and schools in seven countries and maintains close contact with these institutions. AIA Members are dedicated to the greater understanding of archaeology, the protection and preservation of the world's archaeological resources, and the support of archaeological research and publication.
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SOCIETY MEETINGS AND PRESENTATIONS
Our speaker presentations take place at noon, in Building 51 at the University of North Florida, Jacksonville, (1 UNF Dr, Jacksonville, FL 32224) AND/OR on Zoom. The lectures are free and open to the public. After the lecture, complimentary refreshments may be served in the Physical Anthropology Lab. On Saturdays, parking is free and the staff/faculty/vendor spaces are open to everyone.
2023 SPEAKERS
Dr. Carolyn Kennedy, professor at Texas A&M University
The Gaspe Maritime Archaeology Project
Gaspe Bay is located in eastern Quebec and was visited by early European ships in order to fish for cod. The ships were large and technically advanced, yet some of their features are still unknown. The Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A & M has surveyed the area hoping to find wrecks of these ships. This lecture will present the results of the remote-sensing survey, the documentation efforts of the nautical materials, and the long-term goals of the project.
I am a nautical archaeologist with a focus on North American maritime history. I received my Master’s and PhD from Texas A&M University’s Nautical Archaeology Program where my thesis and dissertation examined the hulls of four 19th-century steamboats in Lake Champlain, Vermont, analyzing how their designs differed and developed over the course of the century as shipbuilders sought to create the ideal hull for the novel steam propulsion. After graduating, I spent a year as a research associate using cutting-edge laser-scanning technology to document the disarticulated timbers from three historic shipwrecks in Alexandria, Virginia, and reconstructing the ships digitally to better understand their original design and use.
Currently, I am co-directing the Gaspé Maritime Archaeology Project, launched in 2019, which seeks to study the maritime heritage and nautical archaeology of early European colonization and subsistence activities of eastern Québec and Canada. In addition to my interests in the historical and maritime archaeology of Canada and the United States, my research specialties and teaching interests also include public archaeology, analytical archaeology, and the conservation of archaeological materials.
Dr. Elizabeth Murphy, AP of Roman Archaeology in the Department of Classics at FSU
Potters in the Roman East: Daily life of an everyday profession in the Roman Empire
Dr. Murphy will discuss the everyday working lives of ancient potters. With many hundreds of kilns documented from the Mediterranean, with elaborate trade networks reconstructed from distributed pottery, and with workshops appearing in a range of settings (from cities to rural estates), potters and their ceramic products are the most archaeologically visible craft profession of the ancient world, yet we have no biographical accounts or personal narratives from the period on the lives of these workers. Using the rich archaeological record, she will investigate their workplaces and working lives—from the technologies of production to the rituals and magic of workshops.
Elizabeth A. Murphy (PhD, Joukowsky Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, Brown University) is an archaeologist specializing in the study of the Mediterranean during the Roman Imperial and Late Antique periods. Her research and teaching concerns the social and economic organization of the Roman world; more specifically, her work focuses on the history and archaeology of labor, production, and technology, with complementary interests in ancient urbanism and the Roman military. She is a specialist in material culture studies, with particular emphasis on the artifactual record of crafts production, and her fieldwork projects have spanned the ancient Mediterranean world from Asia Minor to Italy. She currently co-directs the Landscape Archaeology of Southwest Sardinia project (LASS), a diachronic landscape project in the modern region of Sulcis-Iglesias (Sardinia, Italy). With LASS, she is investigating the settlement organization, landscape exploitation, and daily life practices of this rural region during the period of the Roman Empire.
Dr. Emily Zavodny, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Central Florida
Building the Seasonal Round: faunal and isotopic evidence for agro-pastoral scheduling in prehistoric Croatia

Dr. Nancy Thomas, Professor Emerita of Art History Jacksonville University
Was Herodotus Right? Lions in Ancient Greece
Modern scholars scoff at Herodotus because he said real lions existed in ancient Greece. Was he right after all? Myths and art are not good enough proof. Even a few real lion bones could be the remains of imported pets, or pelts. Since the 1970s, however, this picture has totally changed as more and more Panthera leo bones have been unearthed all over Greece. Combining different kinds of evidence, Nancy R. Thomas, Professor Emerita of Art History at Jacksonville University, gives us a new, lion’s eye view of life in ancient Greece.
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RECENT ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS
When Did Hominins Begin to Produce Tools?
LEIPZIG, GERMANY—According to a Science News report, Tomos Proffitt of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and his colleagues suggest that it may be necessary to develop new guidelines for evaluating whether or not stone flakes were produced by ancient hominins on purpose or by accident. Proffitt and his team members identified more than 200 complete and fragmented stone flakes at 40 locations in southern Thailand where long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis) use rocks to crack open oil palm nuts. Sharp-edged flakes sometimes break off the monkeys’ pounding stones inadvertently in the process. These flakes resemble those thought to have been produced on purpose by ancient hominins living in East Africa between 3.3 and 1.56 million years ago, Proffitt explained. The team members did observe some differences between the flakes left behind by macaques and those uncovered in East Africa, however. For example, many of the macaque flakes are damaged only on one side, while many of the hominin flakes are damaged on two sides. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Science Advances. To read about a 4,500-year-old burial of a rhesus macaque at Shahr-i-Sokhta, go to "World Roundup: Iran."
Sphinx Uncovered in Upper Egypt
QENA, EGYPT—Ahram Online reports that traces of a shrine, including a sphinx with the smiling face of an individual who is believed to be a Roman emperor, were uncovered at the site of the Horus Temple in the Dendera Temple complex by a team of researchers led by Mamdouh El-Damaty of Ain Shams University. El-Damaty said that the shrine had a two-level platform and a ramp, which had been carved from limestone. Inside the shrine, he and his team members found a mudbrick basin built during the Byzantine era and a ladder covered with plaster. The sphinx was found within this basin, El-Damaty said. A Roman stela carved with Demotic and hieroglyphic inscriptions was found beneath the statue. Its text could help to identify the face of the sphinx, he explained. To read about innovative research on Roman mummy portraits from the Fayum region of Lower Egypt, go to "At Face Value."
CURRENT ARCHAEOLOGY MAGAZINE
Click the cover image for more details
The Ancient Promise of Water
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The Shaman's Secrets
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An Enigmatic Empire Rises
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End of an Era
Archaeologists discover that the ancient city of Ephesus met a fiery demise
A Caliph's Shining City
In southern Spain, Umayyad rulers built a sprawling complex to reflect their unique vision of the medieval Islamic world