Lectures
We offer a range of public lectures throughout the year
These events are a great way to keep in touch with recent archaeological discoveries, as well as the chance to meet like-minded people who are fascinated by archaeology.
NEAF Lectures and seminars
NEAF Saturday Seminar Series April/May 2021
The Great Archaeologists
The history of archaeology is marked by significant figures, some for their discoveries that changed the discipline forever, others for the new perspectives gained from their seminal writings, and still others through the sheer force of their personalities.
This Series will examine the lives and times of nine major figures in archaeology, some famous for discovery (Woolley, Petrie, Caton-Thompson, Bass, Mellaart), some for new perspectives on the field (Childe, Brothwell) and some for intrepid early explorations (Stark, Bell). All, through their research, writings and discovery changed the field of archaeology forever.
This fully illustrated lecture series will explore the life and works of a selection of great archaeologists and explorers, discuss their significance to their contemporaries, and how their work is considered today.
10am | Dr James Fraser (British Museum)
Leonard Woolley: Digging up the Past at Carchemish, Ur and Alalakh.
11am | Mrs Maree Browne (Sydney)
Sir Robert Mathew Flinders Petrie ‘The Father of Pots’ and Champion of Small Finds.
10am | Dr Kate da Costa (Sydney)
Two Gertrudes: Gertrude Bell and Gertrude Caton Thompson
11am | Professor Keith Dobney (Sydney)
Don Brothwell: The Birth of Archaeological Science
10am | Dr Catriona Bonfiglioli (Councillor, NEAF and UTS)
Freya Stark: Jewels of the Near East through Freya Stark’s eyes
11am | Dr Joseph Lehner (Sydney)
Beneath the Seven Seas: The Life and Legacy of George Bass (1932-2021)
10am | Professor Roland Fletcher (Sydney)
V Gordon Childe and the University of Sydney
11am | Associate Professsor Phillip Edwards (Latrobe)
One Upon a Time in Anatolia: the extraordinary career of James Mellaart
2021 lecture program
Download the 2021 program calendar (PDF 105kb)
Note: Correct as at 13 January 2021. More details will be provided shortly.
Stealth Bombers in the Desert: Archaeology in War Zones
Dr Pam Watson | University of New Englandand NEAF AGM
24 March 2021
2021 Anthony McNicoll Lectures
Lecture 1 | Assessing the Evidence for the Trojan War: Recent Excavations at Troy
- Saturday 11.am | March 6 2021
Lecture 2 | Exploring the Royal Capital of King Midas: Penn’s Excavations at Gordion (Turkey)
- Saturday 11.am | March 13 2021
25 November 2020
Collapse, Climate Change and Refugees: The end of the Levantine Early Bronze Age
Dr Melissa Kennedy | University of Western Australia
28 October 2020
The Roman Gaze in Egypt: Mummy Portraits and the Egypto-Roman World
Dr Kate da Costa | The University of Sydney
2 September 2020
Egypt and the East Mediterranean World in the International Age: Warfare, Trade and Foreign Relations
Dr Stephen Bourke | Director, Pella Excavation Project
July 2020
Cosmic to microscopic: Hidden spaces and new evidence from the pyramid field at Giza
Dr Karin Sowada | Macquarie University
May 2020
Cleopatra’s Island: Evidence of Hellenistic Cyprus from Nea Paphos and beyond
Dr Craig Barker | The University of Sydney
April 2020
The Legacy of the Cape Gelidonya Wreck and Bronze Age Maritime Trade in the Mediterranean
Dr Joseph Lehner | The University of Sydney
December 2019
Ghostbusting in Mesopotamia
Professor Irving Finkel | British Museum
October 2019
The Highs and Lows of Life in Roman Mesopotamia
Peter Edwell, Macquarie University
August 2019
Darband-i Rania: Gateway to the Zagros
By Dr Amanda Dusting, University of New England
June 2019
Beneath the Wings of the Thunderbird: Excavating Tello in Southern Iraq
By Dr Jamie Fraser, Nicholson Museum
May 2019
Noble Neighbours: Life in Imperial Cities of the Neo-Assyrian Empire
By Shana Zaia, University of Vienna
April 2019
Hunters of Ustyurt
By Alison Betts, Professor of Silk Road Studies, The University of Sydney
September 2018
Ross Burnes Lecture: Damascus 1918
August - September
Exploring theseven wonders of the ancient world
A NEAF Seminar Series
August 2018
Engineering Internationalism: UNESCO’s Victory in Nubia
By Dr Lynn Meskell
July 2018
The Archaeology of Lawrence in Arabia
by Stephen Bourke
June 2018
Houses of Ghosts: Dolmen Tombs in Bronze Age Levant
Lecture and book launch by James Fraser
April 2018
The Gunpowder Empires
A NEAF Seminar Series
April 2018
The Sakdrisi Gold Mining Complex
A lecture by Thomas Stöllner
March 2018
Afghan Daze: Hazy recollections of warlords, looting and the Ghurids
A lecture and book launch by David Thomas
November 2017
Inaugural J. Basil Hennessy Lecture
by Stephen Bourke
October 2017
Lustre: The Pearl Trade in Antiquity
by Deborah Hope
September 2017
The Origins of Money: Silver Sources in the Ancient World
by Dr Gil Davis
August 2017
Cargoes of Cloth: Textile trade in the ancient world
by Christina Sumner
July 2017
Salt, Stone, Spice and Silk: Trade in the Ancient World
A NEAF Seminar Series
May 2017
Lapis Lazuli: King of the Blues. The Stone that Rocked the World
by Dr Wendy Reade
May 2017
From Cordoba to Kashgar: Islamic Cultures and the Wider World
A NEAF Seminar Series
March 2017
The Archaeology of Western Asia today: Challenges, old and new
by Professor Barbara Helwing
November 2016
Aleppo: A Lost City?
by Dr Ross Burns
September 2016
The Nabataeans Beyond Petra: New Insights into Ancient Arabia from Jordan’s Desert Inscriptions and Rock Carvings
by Glenn J. Corbett
August 2016
From Cordoba to Kashgar
A NEAF Seminar Series
July 2016
Ice Age Villagers of the Levant: Sedentism and Social Connections in the Natufian Period
by Dr Phillip Edwards
May 2016
Fire Temples and Towers of Silence: Zoroastrian Architectural Legacies
by Prof Alison Betts
April 2016
The Visible Dead: Dolmens and the landscape in Bronze Age Levant
by James Fraser
March 2016
The Foundations of Western Civilisations
The First Millennium CE.
March 2016
NEAF 2016 AGM: Shangri-La Beneath a Summer Moon
A film by the Kashmir Prehistory Project.
