Sunday, March 17, 2024

Daniel Pioske on “The Bible and Archaeology: Problems and Possibilities"

 Friday, April 5, 2024, 3:30 pm

IN PERSON, Iverson Hearth Room (ASC340), Anderson Student Center, University of St. Thomas

Please see the St. Thomas campus map & Parking info; the Anderson Student Center ramp and the Anderson Parking facility are closest



Abstract: The past century was witnessed numerous excavations carried out at sites identified with locations named in the Bible. This talk discusses certain problems that arose with efforts to authenticate the historical character of the biblical writings through archaeological finds recovered at these locations and how the Biblical Archaeology movement met its demise by the 1990s. It then turns to how the relationship between archaeology and the Bible might be in pursued in the next century through ways that are both more sensitive to the interpretive questions this relationship raises and more historically rigorous.

About the speaker: Dan Pioske is an Old Testament scholar at the University of St. Thomas whose research centers on how the biblical writers thought about and experienced the past. These interests typically touch on matters of epistemology and hermeneutics, broadly speaking, or questions of knowledge and how we might interpret ancient texts written in a world far different from our own. In light of these interests, his work examines how the stories of the Bible both resonate with and resist what has been learned through archaeological excavations carried out in the past century, and how these writings' relationships to what has been recovered archaeologically contribute to a better appreciation of the claims they make.

Prior to St. Thomas, Dr. Pioske taught at Georgia Southern University and Union Theological Seminary, New York. He has participated in digs in Ashkelon, Israel, and Zincirli, Turkey, and studied in Göttingen, Germany. He is a native of Kelso Township in the southern prairie lands of Minnesota where he grew up on a family farm.

Dr. Pioske's publications include: 

Monographs: 

The Bible Among the Ruins: Time, Materiality, and the World of the Biblical Writers (Cambridge University Press, f/c).

Memory in a Time of Prose: Studies in Epistemology, Hebrew Scribalism, and the Biblical Past (Oxford University Press, 2018).

David's Jerusalem: Between Memory and History (Routledge, 2015).

Recent Articles:

“’And I Will Make Samaria a Ruin in the Open Country’ (Micah 1:6): On Biblical Ruins, Then and Now.” Revue Biblique 129.2 (2022): 161-82.

“An Archaeology of Ancient Thought: On the Hebrew Bible and the History of Ancient Israel.” Harvard Theological Review 115.2 (2022): 171-96.

“Observations on the Appearance of Royal Inscriptions in Alphabetic Scripts in the Levant: An Exercise in ‘Historically Anchored Philology’” (w/F.W. Dobbs-Allsopp) Maarav: A Journal for the Study of Northwest Semitic Languages and Literature 23.2 (2019): 389-442.

“The ‘High Court’ of Ancient Israel’s Past: Archaeology, Texts, and the Question of Priority.” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 19.1 (2019): 1-25.

“Material Culture and Making Visible: On the Portrayal of Philistine Gath in the Book of Samuel.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 43.1 (2018): 3-27.


Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Dr. C. Brian Rose on “Archaeology, Museums, and War in the 21st Century.”


Monday, February 19, 2024 at 6pm CT on Zoom:

https://stthomas.zoom.us/j/93574550267

As always, our talks are free and open to the public, and we thank our partners at the University of St Thomas Department of Art History for supporting our event on Zoom.

Dr. Rose touring troops in the Penn Museum (source Penn.Museum)

About the talk: The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria during the last 16 years have profoundly influenced who we are and what we do as scholars dealing with the art and material culture of antiquity. This talk draws heavily on my own experiences with museums, foreign wars, and archaeology, beginning with a discussion of the ways in which the past now dominates the present, and followed by an overview of cultural heritage destruction and preservation programs in conflict zones. This leads to the subject of museums and repatriation requests in an age of increasing nationalism.

About the speaker: C. Brian Rose is the James B. Pritchard Professor of Mediterranean Archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania in the Classical Studies Department and the Graduate Group in the Art and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World. He is also Peter C. Ferry Curator-in-Charge of the Mediterranean Section of the Penn Museum, and was the museum's Deputy Director from 2008-2011. He has served as the President of the Archaeological Institute of America (2007-2011) and currently serves as director of the Gordion (Turkey) excavations. From 2003 to 2007, he directed the Granicus River Valley Survey Project, which focused on recording and mapping the Graeco-Persian tombs that dominate northwestern Turkey, and he served as co-director of excavations at Troy between 1988 and 2012. He is the author or editor of seven books and over 70 articles, as well as co-editor of 19 volumes of the results of the Troy Excavations.

From 1987 to 2005 he taught in the Classics Department at the University of Cincinnati, serving as head of the Department from 2002-2005, and as Cedric Boulter Professor of Classical Archaeology. Rose received his B.A. from Haverford College, and his Ph.D. in Art History and Archaeology from Columbia University in 1987. He was a Trustee of the American Academy in Rome from 2001 to 2019, having served as both Chair of the Executive Committee and Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees. In 2017 he was elected President of the American Research Institute in Turkey and concluded his term of office in January of 2023.

 

For nearly a decade, Rose has also offered pre-deployment education and training for armed-forces personnel bound for Iraq and Afghanistan to emphasize cultural heritage awareness and protection. Soldiers learn about the regions’ historical backgrounds, heritage and resources, site recognition, emergency salvage, and conservation. He currently serves on the advisory council of the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage, and on the Board of Directors of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC).

 

Rose received the Gold Medal of the Archaeological Institute of America in 2015. He has also received fellowships from the American Academy in Rome, the American Academy in Berlin, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, and the American Research Institute in Turkey. In 1994, he and his collaborator, Manfred Korfmann, received the Max Planck Prize of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. In 2012 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he is a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute and the Austrian Archaeological Institute.

Saturday, March 25, 2023

Interdisciplinary Archaeology in Croatia: Art Historical, Environmental, and Geological approaches to Cultural Heritage

 Friday April 14, 3:30-5pm, in-person at the University of St Thomas, Anderson Student Center, Room 340 (the Hearth Room)

A group of people sitting on the ground outside

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Please join us for brief presentations and casual conversation about interdisciplinary archaeological research projects in Croatia. Topics that students and professors have worked on include fresco analysis, geological core sampling and cultural heritage management in touristic island environments.




Croatia: An Archaeological Journey, Sunday, April 2, 2023 at 3 pm in-person at the Croatian Hall


 

Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Dr. Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow on “Exploring the Technologies and Realities of Roman Toilets: Not a lot to Go on.”

Tuesday, February 21, 2023 at 6pm CT on Zoom

As always, this event is free and open to the public, but please pre-register via our partner, the University of St Thomas Art History dept 
(scroll down to Events, the event will be posted soon!)
 
Latrine at Ostia Antica, By Fubar Obfusco - en.wiki, Public Domain, 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=287299



This talk considers the following: What can Roman toilets teach us about daily life in ancient Rome?  What does the archaeology of these structures reveal about Roman hygiene, public sanitation, customs related to purity or cleanliness? In a talk that investigates and illustrates some key examples of public and private Roman toilets from Rome, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Ostia, we take a trip down into the black holes of ancient space for some answers.


Talk by Prof. Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts: https://www.brandeis.edu/magazine/2022/summer/featured-stories/aoko.html

Monday, November 14, 2022

Archaeology Virtual events 2022-2023!


Please remember that pre-registration is required for the real-time Zoom events, but they are also being recorded and will be available on the AIA YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfsz4WrLKGXVKlRR05NZNpg


 

click to download flyer

Monday, May 2, 2022

War on Looting: Contested Object Case Studies

Monday, May 9, 6:00 pm CT on Zoom

As always, this event is free and open to the public, but please pre-register via our partner, the University of St Thomas Art History dept 
(scroll down to Events, the event will be posted soon!)


Weary Herakles, MFA Bostonimage: Weary Herakles, MFA Boston repatriated to Turkey


Please join us for an hour of brief case studies and Q&A about Looting presented by University of St. Thomas Art History graduate students!

  • Looting Related to colonialism: Presentations by Erica Berglund, Mari Kuennen and Brielle Pizzala
  • Looting Related to Wartime: Presentations by Erin Bourget, Julianna Hunt, Mary Agnes Ratelle
  • Looting in the Present Day: Presentations by Elsa Ballata, Ingrid Cologne, Nicole Petersen
  • Moderators: Lorene McGrane and Jon Lundberg