Penn Museum Event: Looking East from Constantinople, on May 4, 2011
I realized that in all the hustle and bustle of the last two weeks, I never posted about the archaeology lecture! Here's the description:
Looking East from Constantinople: Byzantium and the Silk Road
Medieval Constantinople was the greatest emporium of the eastern Mediterranean, where East and West came together. After a brief overview of the Byzantine capital, the talk will chart the routes merchants took traveling eastward from Constantinople, as well as the cities, sites, and landscapes they passed along the way. It will also examine the luxury goods and exotic commodities they brought back with them.
This lecture was pretty excellent. The speaker, Robert Ousterhout, was interesting and engaging and gave a really good talk. Also, I love Constantinople and have a major thing for it. I squirmed with glee every time he mentioned Justinian and Theodora or the hippodrome or the Hagia Sophia. (Thank you, Guy Gavriel Kay, for making me feel like I know these people personally.) It was cool to see the maps of the area and learn about the different trade routes.
ArchaeologyWife went with me to this one, which made me happy. AW is having some rough times lately, so we talked all about her for once, which also made me happy. I really miss seeing her all the time. I had to leave the lecture right at 7:05 so I could catch the 7:12 train home, because we had so much to do to get ready for the trip, but I'm really glad I made the time for this.
Oh, and we got the schedule for next year's lecture series! The theme is "Great Riddles in Archaeology", and so we're going to hear about Camelot and Noah's Ark and Stonehenge and Atlantis! And our two favorite archaeologists, C. Brian Rose and Fredrik Hiebert, are both giving lectures! Should be so much fun.
Looking East from Constantinople: Byzantium and the Silk Road
Medieval Constantinople was the greatest emporium of the eastern Mediterranean, where East and West came together. After a brief overview of the Byzantine capital, the talk will chart the routes merchants took traveling eastward from Constantinople, as well as the cities, sites, and landscapes they passed along the way. It will also examine the luxury goods and exotic commodities they brought back with them.
This lecture was pretty excellent. The speaker, Robert Ousterhout, was interesting and engaging and gave a really good talk. Also, I love Constantinople and have a major thing for it. I squirmed with glee every time he mentioned Justinian and Theodora or the hippodrome or the Hagia Sophia. (Thank you, Guy Gavriel Kay, for making me feel like I know these people personally.) It was cool to see the maps of the area and learn about the different trade routes.
ArchaeologyWife went with me to this one, which made me happy. AW is having some rough times lately, so we talked all about her for once, which also made me happy. I really miss seeing her all the time. I had to leave the lecture right at 7:05 so I could catch the 7:12 train home, because we had so much to do to get ready for the trip, but I'm really glad I made the time for this.
Oh, and we got the schedule for next year's lecture series! The theme is "Great Riddles in Archaeology", and so we're going to hear about Camelot and Noah's Ark and Stonehenge and Atlantis! And our two favorite archaeologists, C. Brian Rose and Fredrik Hiebert, are both giving lectures! Should be so much fun.