Every month, the Museum offers 30-minute “museum chats” about ancient objects in our collection, led by faculty and graduate students currently completing research on related material. Visitors are invited to look up close at objects and ask questions of our presenters. Over the past several months, we have held museum chats featuring a diverse range of objects from the Museum, and offer an upcoming chat in March 2013.
March 2013
From 12:15 to 12:30: Laura Hutchison, graduate student in Classical Art and Archaeology discussed some of the museum’s votive figurines, including a small Hand of Sabazius, and statuettes of a pries, Lares, Harpokrates, and Hercules. These objects reflect the prevalence of religious syncretism in the Roman domestic sphere.
From 12:30 to 12:45: Dr. Emily Anderson, Lecturer in Aegean Bronze Age art and archaeology discussed objects from the island of Cyprus, including the museum’s two unique plank figurines, which raise questions concerning the representation of gender and how it changed over time.
February 2013
The museum chat on Monday, February 11th featured two speakers describing the care of the self in the ancient world. From 12:15-12:30 Art History graduate student Nathan Dennis discussed the personal beauty and appearance of men in Greece and Rome. From 12:30-12:45 Experimental Archaeologist and Hairdresser Janet Stephens spoke on aspects of female hairdressing in ancient Rome.
Dr. Lauinger makes a cuneiform tablet at the December museum chat.
December 2012
For our final museum chat of the year, we offered our visitors the opportunity to make their own cuneiform tablets after hearing about their ancient manufacture and history from Dr. Jacob Lauinger, Assistant Professor of Assyriology and Anna Glenn, graduate student, both in the department of Near Eastern Studies. On December 5th, from 12:15 to 12:30, our speakers discussed ancient cuneiform tablets and cylinder seals in the museum collection. From 12:30 onwards, we will make our own tablets using stylus tools and replicas of cylinder seals.
November 2012
Ceramic bowl from Veracruz, Mexico (600-900 CE).
In honor of Veteran’s Day, the Archaeological Museum (Gilman 150) held a Museum Chat on Tuesday, November 13th, on the lives and deaths of warriors from the Ancient Americas and the Roman Empire. From 12:15 to 12:30, Dr. Lisa Deleonardis, Austen-Stokes Term Professor in Art of the Ancient Americas discussed the narratives on two Vera Cruz ceramic vessels from Mexico (600-900 CE). From 12:30 to 12:45, Classics graduate student Elisabeth Schwinge discussed epitaphs for Roman soldiers that shed light on how they lived, worked and died.
October 2012
On Halloween, Wednesday October 31st, the museum presented a chat about ancient Egyptian animal mummies and bones in the museum collection and their role in funerary and magical practices. The objects were discussed by Egyptology graduate student Ashley Fiutko Arico. Cat, dog, ibis and shrew mummies were on view as well as crocodile bones and reliquaries that once held animal remains. Images of the chat and an audio file of the chat will be posted shortly.
September 2012
On Wednesday, September 26th, at the Archaeological Museum in Gilman 150, from 12:15 to 12:45, two speakers discussed powerful magic texts from the ancient Near East.
Dr. Theodore Lewis (far left) and Marina Escolano-Poveda (left) enthralled a crowd of nearly 50 attendees to the September 2012 museum chat.
From 12:15 to 12:30, Dr. Theodore Lewis, Blum-Iwry Professor of Near Eastern Studies discussed the topic, “Deciphering Ancient Magic Spells: From the Late Bronze Age to Late Antiquity,” and revealed the ancient words written on a ceramic sherd from the site of Nippur (current day Iraq) in the museum collection and dated between the 5th-7th century CE.
From 12:30 to 12:45, Egyptology graduate student Marina Escolano-Poveda presented her recent research on a funerary papyrus dated to ca. 1000 BCE from the Eton College Myers Collection, currently on loan to the museum.
A detail of the Amduat Papyrus (ECM 1573) dated to the 21st Dynasty in the Third Intermediate Period (ca. 1000 BCE). This object is currently on loan to the museum from Eton College, England. Learn more about this artifact and others during our September museum chat.
April 2012
Left: Professor Paul Delnero reads from an ancient cuneiform tablet. Right: Curator Sanchita Balachandran shows images of the “Tanagra” terracotta archer before conservation.
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The art (or crime) of copying ancient artifacts is an old one. On Tuesday, April 10th, we examined ancient objects from the museum collection, and some of the relatively modern works that they inspired.From 12:15-12:30, Paul Delnero, Assistant Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, deciphered texts from ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets and also decoded a not-so-ancient cuneiform tablet written for Daniel Coit Gilman, the first president of Johns Hopkins University, in the late 19th century. Another tablet for Hopkins Classicist Basil Gildersleeve was also discussed.
From 12:30-12:45, Sanchita Balachandran, Curator/Conservator of the Johns Hopkins Archaeological Museum, discussed a group of terracotta figurines on display in the museum collection that were pieced back together from hundreds of fragments in 2010. These so-called Tanagra figurines, supposed to date from the last quarter of the 4th century BCE, might actually have been made in the 19th century. We examined objects including the Knucklebone Player and the Terracotta Archer currently on view in the museum.
March 2012
Maggie Bryson (far left) and Dr. Betsy Bryan (left) discuss Egyptian funerary objects with visitors.
On March 15, from 12:15-12:45, two speakers considered how the ancient Egyptians cared for their dead. Led by Dr. Betsy Bryan, Alexander Badawy Professor of Egyptian Art and Archaeology, and Egyptology graduate student Maggie Bryson, the chat gave visitors an opportunity to see and learn more about the Ptolemaic mummy, a mummy mask, an ancient ivory wand and an Old Kingdom painted wooden tomb figure on view in the museum. Download a copy of this poster here.
February 2012
Laura Garofalo and Nicole Berlin lead the February museum chat.
For Valentine’s day, Classics graduate students Laura Garofolo and Nicole Berlin posed the following query:
“Have you ever wondered about the more “intimate” details of life in ancient Rome? Join us at the JHU Archaeological Museum for a discussion of Roman amatory objects dealing with several forms of love, from the romantic, to the erotic, till death do us part (or not!).”
Focusing on three images of the goddess Venus as well as more humble, domestic objects such as a lamp fragment with an erotic scene and a child’s gold ring with a phallus.
November 2011
Our November museum chat focused on the topics of revelry, food and drink in ancient Greece and Rome. Led by Dr. Alan Shapiro, W.H. Collins Vickers Professor of Archaeology in the Department of Classics, and Dr. Matthew Roller, Professor in the Department of Classics, the conversation discussed objects such as Greek drinking vessels and images of Roman and Etruscan figures feasting.
The November museum chat, “Revelry, Food and Drink” featured Classics professors Dr. Alan Shapiro (far left) and Dr. Matthew Roller (left).
October 2011
Our first museum chat on Halloween, October 31st, discussed a Roman lead curse tablet in the museum and focused on its original use as well as the recent conservation work that made it possible for us to place it on exhibit. The original context and use of the curse tablet was presented by Elisabeth Schwinge, graduate student in the Department of Classics, with the conservation of the tablet discussed by Sanchita Balachandran. The event was even featured on the 5′o’clock news on WBAL Television. 