ISAC Podcast

Former director of the Oriental Institute Gil Stein, Professor of Archaeology, sits down with the oral history project to discuss his life and career. This interview took place in the Research Archives of the Oriental Institute on April 17, 2018.

Highlights the OI’s mission of discovery, preservation, and the dissemination of knowledge through the lens of the OI's three projects in Egypt and global partnerships.

This audio recording was originally recorded as a video highlight. The video is available on the OI YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/b-X0sZwce6E

Be My Baby in Babylonia: Girl Meets Boy and Vice Versa

Presented by Andrew George, Professor of Babylonian, University of London, SOAS.

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

This lecture presents two Old Babylonian incantations in comparative perspective. The language and emotions of new love and sexual attraction are shared in compositions as diverse as Akkadian and Sumerian love incantations and popular music from nearly four thousand years later. The incantations are on tablets newly published in the speaker’s Mesopotamian Incantations and Related Texts. One is completely new, the other strangely familiar.

This audio recording was originally presented as an illustrated lecture. The video of this lecture is available on the OI YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/xYSqscmp_f0

Presented by Lisa Cooper, Associate Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology, University of British Columbia

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Encounters with Ancient Splendors: Gertrude Bell’s Archaeological Discoveries and Research in Mesopotamia, 1909-1914

Recent biographies highlight many aspects of the extraordinary life of Gertrude Bell, an early 20th century Englishwoman known for her bold travels to remote regions in the Middle East and her role in the creation of the country of Iraq. But most of these accounts tend to pass rather quickly over the one thing that drew Bell to the Middle East time and time again, and which continued to be a driving force until the end of her life: archaeology. This lecture attempts to fill that important gap concerning our appreciation of Bell by relating, through her own photographs, journal entries, books and letters, the tremendous effort she made to describe ancient monuments and antiquities, and the breadth to which she gained an understanding of the history and culture of the antique lands through which she passed. Special emphasis is placed on Bell’s travels through Mesopotamia and her investigation of several key Islamic period archaeological sites for which she developed a particular interest and specialization.

This audio recording was originally presented as an illustrated lecture. The video of this lecture is available on the OI YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/Y24fDbtmpzM

Irving Finkel, Assistant Keeper I with responsibility for cuneiform in the Department of the Middle East, British Museum.

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

This talk will describe what befell the speaker after one quite remarkable cuneiform tablet was brought for examination to the British Museum in London. The inscription on this four-thousand-year-old tablet led to a series of altogether unexpected discoveries, demanding a whole new look at Noah and his Ark, and culminating in a book and a documentary film.

This audio recording was originally presented as an illustrated lecture. The video of this lecture is available on the OI YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/s_fkpZSnz2I

The Battle of Kadesh: A Debate between the Egyptian and Hittite Perspectives

Wednesday, January 6, 2016

The Battle of Kadesh, ca. 1285 BC, is the earliest military encounter that can be analyzed in detail. This conflict between the Egyptian forces of Ramses II and the Hittite army of Muwatalli was celebrated as a personal victory by Ramses, but is often treated by modern scholars as an Egyptian defeat or as a stalemate. In any case, the battle had profound impact on international politics of the age, with unexpected results. Join us for a lively debate presented from the two sides of the ancient conflict, provided by noted Oriental Institute scholars Robert Ritner, for the Egyptian side, and Theo van den Hout, for the Hittites.

This audio recording was originally presented as an illustrated lecture. The video of this lecture is available on the OI YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/A1AGe2V0qHo

Josef Wegner, Associate Professor of Egyptian Archaeology from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania, presents "The Pharaohs of Anubis-Mountain: Archaeological Investigations of a Royal Necropolis at Abydos"

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Recent excavations at Abydos in Upper Egypt have revealed an extensive royal necropolis beside a sacred peak: Anubis-Mountain. Here a series of tombs spanning Egypt’s late Middle Kingdom (ca. 1850-1650 BCE) and Second Intermediate Period (ca. 1650-1550 BCE) are helping to illuminate one of the most shadowy eras of Egyptian history. The lecture discusses the twelve royal tombs currently known at Anubis-Mountain, and the most recent results– the excavation in June this year of a tomb likely belonging to king Sobekhotep IV, as well as the discovery of the previously unknown pharaoh Senebkay.

This audio recording was originally presented as an illustrated lecture. The video of this lecture is available on the OI YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/H33c9gAqMMQ

Exhibit co-curator Dr. Virginia R. Herrmann explores the themes of "In Remembrance of Me".

The exhibit elucidates the means by which the people of the ancient Middle East and Egypt honored and commemorated their deceased ancestors, as illustrated by numerous statues, steles, and inscriptions discovered throughout the region.

This audio recording was originally presented as an illustrated lecture. The video of this lecture is available on the OI YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/vUtXqIEunxQ

The Long Defeat: The Fall of the Roman Empire

by Clifford Ando

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Clifford Ando, David B. and Clara E. Stern Professor; Professor of Classics, University of Chicago speaks at the third lecture in our four-part series: Why Did Civilizations Collapse: Internal Decay or External Forces? The Long Defeat: The Fall of the Roman Empire in East and West.

The Roman Empire remains one of the world's longest lived polities. Its collapse has therefore endured as a great historical puzzle. Was it barbarians or internal decay? Or was Christianity to blame? The lecture will explore a range of theories and consider in detail why the two famous theories, those of St. Augustine and Edward Gibbon, have found so little favor.

This audio recording was originally presented as an illustrated lecture. The video of this lecture is available on the OI YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/2vSGPHByAZc

Professor of Hittite and Anatolian Languages Theo van den Hout tells us about who scribes in Mesopotamia and Anatolia were.

This interview was produced for the OI special exhibit "Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East" which ran from September 28, 2010, through March 6, 2011.

This audio recording was originally recorded as a video interview. The video of this interview is available on the OI YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/cmZ_3VYWLqU