Upcoming Lecture Series Institute for the Study of the Ancient World @ NYU. The Sovereign Assemblage: Sense, Sensibility, and Sentiment in the Bronze Age Caucasus Adam T. Smith (Cornell University) April 8, 15, 22, & 29 at 6:00pm Lecture Hall … Read more
A fascinating discovery of a temple of the sun god at El Zotz in Guatemala dramatizes the articulation of rulership with the cosmos. Two things of particular interest strike me most immediately. The first is the dynamic nature of the … Read more
Greeks apologize to the EU with a gift of a huge horse THE nation of Greece said sorry to the European Union with a present of an enormous wooden horse. Left outside the European Central Bank in the dead of … Read more
I’m starting to compile a list of new books to recommend as summer must reads. I’ll add to this list as I think of them but herewith, recommendation number 1: 1. I was delighted to see that Anne Porter’s book … Read more
Imagine that thieves force their way into your house and steal all the paintings off of the walls. You know who the thieves are, but they are rude and uncooperative and the police are ineffectual. But get this, the thieves … Read more
As described in a recent column in The Atlantic Armenia is opening a fascinating new front in the battle over heritage and repatriation: To the British Museum, she is “probably Aphrodite,” the Greek goddess of love and beauty. To most Armenians, she … Read more
This from Mike Bobick with many thanks. This amazing video that is but one of many examples of everyday items (beanbags, water coolers, abstract minimalist techno that has now been successfully co-opted for military uses. I thus present the watercooler as modern weapon. … Read more
The new issue of Annual Review of Anthropology contains an article of mine examining the emerging archaeological investigations of sovereignty. From the abstract: Archaeology has long sublimated an account of the political into a series of proxy concepts such as … Read more
