Recent Public Lectures
November 2012
"THE MOCHE NARRATIVES: Visual Media, Myth and History in Pre-Hispanic Northern Coast of Peru"
JULIO RUCABADO YONG
Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru
Visiting Assistant Professor
Thursday, November 29th at 5:00 p.m.
University of Rochester, River Campus, 321 Morey Hall
Sponsored by the Program of Archaeology, Technology and Historical Structures, and the Departments of Anthropology, Religion and Classics, and Art and Art History.
December 2011
The Moche: Archaelogoy, Architecture and Society
Luis Jaime Castillo B., The Moche of Northern Peru
Thursday December 1st, 2011
6:30 p.m.
The Memorial Art Gallery
Santiago Uceda Castillo, The Moche Temples of Huaca de la Luna:
Social and Political Changes in the History of the Southern Moche
Thursday December 1st, 2011
7:30 p.m.
The Memorial Art Gallery
Architecture and Urban Development in Pre-Columbian Peru
Luis Jaime Castillo B., Moche Architectonic Models, Meaning and Context
Friday December 2nd, 2011
3:30 p.m.
Welles-Brown Room, University of Rochester
José Canziani Amico, City and Territory in the Andes.
Contributions to the History of Pre-Columbian Architecture
Friday December 2nd, 2011
4:30 p.m.
Welles-Brown Room, University of Rochester
April 2009
The Sanctuary of the Etruscan Artisans at Cetamura del Chianti, Italy
Dr. Nancy T. de Grummond
Friday April 17th, 2009
3:00 p.m.
Dewey 2-110E
Imminent Ecologies—A talk by Professor Kevin Pratt
Thursday, April 9th, 2009
5:00 p.m.
Wells-Brown Room
(Rush Rhees Library)
March 2009
Celebrating the Four Hundredth Anniversary of Galileo's First Observation with the Telescope
Thursday, March 26th, 2009
4:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Robbins Library
(4th Floor, Rush Rhees)
February 2009
Professor John Peter Oleson
Department of Greek and Roman Studies, University of Victoria, Canada
Tuesday, February 17th at 5:00 p.m.
Welles-Brown Room, Rush Rhees Library
University of Rochester
The historical record tends to concentrate, for obvious reasons, on the many spectacular successes of Roman architectural design, engineering, and materials. The structures that remain for us to study, however, although numerous, represent the survivors of an intense, ongoing process of natural selection. How frequent in ancient Rome and the empire were construction problems or disasters caused by incompetent design or construction, poor materials, fraud, or unanticipated stresses? How many structures have been completely lost because of these and other factors? Are we in fact studying a sample of structures atypical in both their design and the quality of materials? This paper reviews the literary and archaeological evidence for construction failures in the Roman Empire in an attempt to answer these questions. The author is co-director of a project involving the analysis of cores of hydraulic concrete from Roman maritime structures.
Sponsored by: The Mellon Humanities Corridor, and Depts. of Religion & Classics, Mechanical Engineering, History, and Art & Art History.
October 2008
"A Roman Engineering Tour de Force: The Building of King Herod’s Harbor at Caesarea Maritima"
Professor Robert L. Hohlfelder
Department of History, University of Colorado, Boulder
Thursday, October 23rd at 5:00 p.m. (Reception at 4:30 p.m.)
Welles-Brown Room, Rush Rhees Library
University of Rochester
In approximately one decade (c. 23-15 BCE), local and Roman builders working for King Herod of JudATHS constructed at Caesarea Maritima (today’s Caesarea, Israel) the largest artificial harbor ever built in the open sea up to that point. The scale and complexity of this project, along with the rapidity of its execution, are remarkable even if judged by modern standards. It ranks as one of the most impressive engineering accomplishments of the Augustan Age. The construction of the harbor was made possible through the use of Roman hydraulic concrete, a building material developed in Campania (Southern Italy) c. 200 BCE and then employed extensively beginning in the Augustan Age (27 BCE – 14 CE). Underwater excavation and exploration have been carried out in the submerged ruins of Herod’s vast harbor complex almost continuously since 1960.
Sponsored by: The Mellon Humanities Corridor, Program of Archaeology Engineering and Architecture, and Departments of Religion & Classics, Mechanical Engineering, History, and Art & Art History at the University of Rochester.
April 2007
"Technological Innovation in Imperial Rome: What Can Ancient Concrete Tell Us about Roman Society?"
Dr. Lynne Lancaster
Department of Classical and World Religions, Ohio University
Thursday, April 26th at 5:30 p.m.
Gamble Room, Rush Rhees Library
University of Rochester
In this lecture I trace the role of a number of different structural techniques developed by the Romans to control loads and create stability in large complex concrete vaulted structures, such as the Colosseum, the Pantheon, and the imperial thermae. These techniques include the use of lightweight volcanic materials, metal tie bars, and external buttressing arches. The development of such techniques is then related to social, environmental, and economic changes within the Roman Empire, such as the development of the marble trade, the catastrophic results of the explosion of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD, and changing methods of taxation in late antiquity.
Sponsored by: The Mellon Humanities Corridor, and Departments of Religion & Classics, Mechanical Engineering, History, and Art & Art History at the University of Rochester.