Archaeology Discovery Weekend showcases women of the ancient world

On Sat., Nov. 12 and Sun., Nov. 13, La Sierra University’s Center for Near Eastern Archaeology will explore the varied roles women played in the ancient worlds of Israel, Egypt, and elsewhere in the Levant. The 8^th Annual Archaeology Discovery Weekend titled, “A Man’s World? Queens, Goddesses and Mothers in the Ancient Near East” will feature a lineup of 18 archaeologists, presenters and panel participants, including 14 internationally renowned female archaeologists.

The weekend’s activities will include a Middle Eastern banquet, hands-on lab activities such as pottery dating and a three-dimensional video cave demonstration, and a kids’ dig in which children ages 6 - 12 will participate in a simulated excavation led by an experienced archaeologist. A Bedouin hospitality tent imported from Jordan will transport visitors to the Middle East with refreshments and cultural décor.

Keynote lecturers will include Kathlyn ‘Kara’ Cooney, professor of Egyptian art and architecture at the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2014, Cooney published a book on the unlikely rise of a young, royal Egyptian woman, who through deliberate planning and patience became Egypt’s king during the 15^th century BC. Titled “The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut’s Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt,” the book will form the subject of Cooney’s talk.

“In all antiquity, history records only one woman who successfully calculated a systematic rise to power during a time of peace: Hatshepsut, meaning ‘the Foremost of Noble Women,’” writes Cooney in a Lapham’s Quarterly article.

Cooney holds a doctorate in Egyptology, and in 2005 served as co-curator of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art exhibit, “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs.” She also produced a comparative archaeology television series titled “Out of Egypt” which aired on the Discovery Channel in 2009. She is currently working on a book about ancient Egyptian queens. Her academic research focuses on 21st Dynasty coffins.

Speaker Carol Meyers, a professor at Duke University, archaeologist and prolific writer, has authored more than 450 articles, reports and reviews, and has authored, co-authored or edited 21 books. She recently published two long essays on “Women’s Daily Life (Iron Age Israel)” and “Women’s Religious Life (Iron Age Israel).” Her landmark study of women in ancient Israelite society, published in 2013 by Oxford University Press, is titled “Rediscovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context.” For archaeology weekend, she will discuss women’s household activities in ancient Israel.

“I will be talking about women’s economic activities, notably bread production. I will show archaeological materials [grinding stones, ovens] that relate to processing of grain and then explain how ethnography can help us understand the value of those economic activities in a premodern society, where households had to be self-sufficient,” Meyers said.

Jodi Magness, an award-winning author, archaeologist and holder of a senior endowed chair at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, will provide an overview of the excavation site of Qumran in Israel and the Dead Sea scrolls. She will discuss the identity and nature of the people who lived at Qumran as well as the role and status of women within a Jewish sect that lived there.

Magness, an international lecturer and participant in 20 different digs in Israel and Greece, said she has not previously participated in an event focused solely on the roles and issues of women in the ancient world. “While I don’t believe such an event is unique, I also don't think it is common, either, and I applaud the organizers for devoting the weekend to women in archaeology, both past and present,” she said.

Additional major speakers include Susan Ackerman, professor of religion at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire; Tammi Schneider, dean of the School of Arts and Humanities at Claremont Graduate University; Josephine Verducci, a research fellow at the Australian Institute of Archaeology; Kent Bramlett, associate professor of archaeology at La Sierra University; and William Dever, renowned Near Eastern archaeologist and former archaeology and anthropology professor at the University of Arizona, Tuscon.

Archaeology Discovery Weekend activities begin at 3 p.m. on Sat., Nov. 12 and extend until 6 p.m. Sun., Nov. 13. Lectures on Sat. from 4 – 5:30 p.m. and on Sun. from 1 – 5:15 p.m. will be live streamed at ZSBlive.com. General admission is free, with $5 admission for the Kids’ Dig, and $50 for the Middle Eastern banquet. Events are held in the Troesh Conference Center of the Zapara School of Business and at the Center for Near Eastern Archaeology.

For a full schedule and event registration visit https://lasierra.edu/cnea/discovery-weekend/. Additional information is available at 951-785-2632, or at archaeology@lasierra.edu. La Sierra University is located at 4500 Riverwalk Parkway, Riverside. A campus map is available at https://lasierra.edu/campus-map/.