San Diego Museum of Man Announces Expansive Lecture Series

In conjunction with our new exhibit Journey to the Copper Age: Archaeology in the Holy Land the museum has invited scholars from around the world to present their most recent work on the early civilizations of the Southern Levant. Also, enjoy an expert led tour of the Copper Age exhibit following the lecture.

Sunday, September 23, 2007

The Rise of Desert Cult: The Sacred Precinct at Ramat Saharonim, Central Negev
Steve Rosen, Ph.D.

Lecture 3:00– 4:30 p.m. Gill Auditorium
Gallery Tour of Journey to the Copper Age with Dr. Rosen, 4:30 – 5:30
$20 General Public; $10 Museum of Man members, seniors, and military
Limited to 60 people. Call (619) 239-2001 for reservations.
The earliest archaeological evidence for elaborate shrines reflecting public ritual and cult in the southern Levantine deserts 7000 years ago coincides with the adoption of herd animals as the people of the late Neolithic through the Early Bronze Age moved from hunting-gathering to pastoral nomadic lifestyles. Survey and excavation at the desert shrine complex at Ramat Saharonim, in the Central Negev, revealed four courtyard shrines and thirty burial cairns. The shrines are aligned with the setting sun of the summer solstice, tying them circumstantially to death symbolism, suggesting a mortuary cult. Join Steve Rosen, Ph.D., professor of archaeology at Ben-Gurion University, for a fascinating look at the interplay and interdependence of subsistence, symbol, and social structure.
Dr. Steve Rosen received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Chicago and worked for 8 years as a field archaeologist for the Archaeological Survey of Israel—Negev Emergency Survey, where he developed his taste for desert archaeology. Other research interests include Levantine prehistory and stone tool analysis. He is currently serving as the editor of the Journal of the Israel Prehistoric Society.

Sunday, November 4
Living in the Desert as a Chalcolithic Farmer
Arlene Rosen, Ph.D.

Lecture 3:00– 4:30 p.m. Gill Auditorium
Gallery Tour of Journey to the Copper Age with Dr. Rosen, 4:30 – 5:30
$20 General Public; $10 Museum of Man members, seniors, and military
Limited to 60 people. Call (619) 239-2001 for reservations.

There is a popular notion that early village farmers living on the margins of the Negev Desert were at the mercy of a fickle environment which dealt out droughts versus abundant rainfall in seemingly random yearly intervals. We now know that Chalcolithic farmers had very sophisticated strategies for living securely in a marginal farming environment, and were able to make a good and secure living in that locality. This lecture explores some of the evidence for the climatic changes that impacted Chalcolithic farmers, the ancient farming strategies they used to adapt to them, and how this might be relevant to modern farmers within a context of impending global warming.

Arlene Rosen obtained a PhD in anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1985. She is currently a Reader in Environmental Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London. She has participated in archaeological fieldwork in Central America, Europe, Africa, the Levant, Central Asia, and East Asia. Her primary research interests include human relationships with their environments, the impact of climate change on human societies, and the development of agricultural systems in the proto-historic Near East, Central Asia, and Neolithic to Bronze Age China. Rosen’s publications include Civilizing Climate: Social Responses to Climate Change in the Ancient Near East (2007), Altamira Press, and Cities of Clay: The Geoarchaeology of Tells (1986) Univ. of Chicago Press.

Sunday, November 11

Religious Rituals in the Chalcolithic Period
Osnat Misch-Brandl, Curator of Chalcolithic and Canaanite Periods

Lecture 3:00– 4:30 p.m. Gill Auditorium
Gallery Tour of Journey to the Copper Age with Osnat Brandl, 4:30 – 5:30
$20 General Public; $10 Museum of Man members, seniors, and military
Limited to 60 people. Call (619) 239-2001 for reservations.

Osnat Misch-Brandl received her BA in Archaeology and History and her MA in Biblical and Classic Archaeology from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She has participated in excavations with The Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Cyprus and Israel. She currently is the Curator of Chalcolithic and Canaanite Periods for The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. As a curator she has worked on many exhibits, including The Oldest Gold in the World (1994), Thundering on High: Images of the Canaanite Storm God (2000), and A 6000-Year-Old Nobleman: Finds from the Cave of the Warrior (2003). For the exhibition Journey to the Copper Age: Archaeology in the Holy Land at the San Diego Museum of Man, Osnat has collaborated with curator Thomas Levy and accompanied the ancient artifacts on loan from The Israel Museum, Jerusalem.

Sunday, December 2, 2007

Copper Ore Transformed: How people 6000 years ago made metal
Thomas Levy, Ph. D., Andreas Hauptmann, Ph. D., Mohammad Najjar, Ph.D.

Presentation including demonstration of copper smelting begins at 5:00 p.m. Entrance includes a tour of the Journey to the Copper Age exhibition.

$20 General Public; $10 Museum of Man members, seniors, and military.
Limited to 60. Call (619) 239-2001 for reservations.

In 1997, Dr. Tom Levy lead a group of international scientists on a ten-day donkey caravan to reconstruct the ancient methods of mining, transportation, and smelting used by the people of the Chalcolithic 6,000 years ago. Join Dr. Levy and original team members Dr. Andreas Hauptmann from the German Mining Museum, and Dr. Mohammad Najjar of the Department of Antiquities of Jordan, as they crush copper ore, and heat it using ancient methods of smelting. The smelting demonstration will be followed by a tour of the exhibit with these scholars.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

The Emergence of the Earliest Temples in the Holy Land
Thomas Levy, Ph. D.

Lecture 3:00– 4:30 p.m. Gill Auditorium
Gallery Tour of Journey to the Copper Age with Dr. Levy, 4:30 – 5:30
$20 General Public; $10 Museum of Man members, seniors, and military
Limited to 60 people. Call (619) 239-2001 for reservations.
During our final week of the Journey to the Copper Age, join Dr. Levy to learn about his continuing research.

Regular Prices:
$20 general public, $10 Museum of Man members, students, seniors, and military.
Special Packages Available:
General Public: 7 lectures for $100, 5 lectures for $80.
Museum Members & Students (w/ ID): 7 lectures for $50, 5 lectures for $40.
Lectures are limited to 60 people, so call for your reservation today.
Call (619) 239-2001 to reserve space.
For a full listing of lecture topics visit our website at: www.museumofman.org

Registration:

By Phone
Call (619) 239-2001 for reservations.
8:15 am – 4:45 pm, Monday – Friday

By Mail
Send registration form with payment to:
San Diego Museum of Man
1350 El Prado, Balboa Park
San Diego, CA 92101

By Fax
Fax a copy of the registration form to:
(619) 239-2749

Media Contacts: c3 Communications, Inc.
Joice Truban Curry / Denise Scatena/ Sean Curry
11211-3 Carmel Creek Road, San Diego, CA 92130
(858) 794-6974 -- denise@c3publicrelations.com

The San Diego Museum of Man is an educational, non-profit corporation founded in 1915 to collect and preserve for posterity the life and history of humankind.

Open daily:
10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Closed:
Thanksgiving
Christmas
New Year's Day

Admission Fees:
Adults – $8.00
Ages 6-17 years – $4.00
Children under 6 – FREE
Seniors (65+) – $6.00
Students (with ID) – $6.00
Active Military (with ID) – $6.00
Members – FREE

Address:
San Diego Museum of Man
Balboa Park
1350 El Prado
San Diego, California 92101

This release was published on openPR.