ACTIVITIES


AASV Lectures and Other Activities Annual General Meeting 2009 The AGM will be held at 7.00pm on Thursday 19 November at the Royal Society of Victoria Hall, 9 Victoria Street, Melbourne. The brief business meeting will be followed by the guest lecture to be given by Professor Antonio Sagona. The title of his lecture is On the Cusp of Empires: Archaeology in Central Caucasus Caucasus, an isthmus of land separating the Black and Caspian Seas, satisfies almost any definition of a frontier. For much of antiquity, the lands south of the great Caucasus mountain range had their own cultural landscape, which was quite distinct from other centres of power. Such was the Iberian Kingdom of Caucasus — at one time a client state of Rome, at another annexed by Persia. This lecture will report on two seasons of fieldwork at Samtavro, in Mtskheta, Georgia, a collaborative project between the University of Melbourne and the Georgian National Museum. The Meeting will be followed by a buffet dinner. The cost is for $25.00 members and for $30.00 non-members including wine and soft drinks. Guests are welcome. Please consider nominating for the committee. It is not arduous and the society cannot run without an executive and committee. Please send bookings for dinner to: The Secretary AASV PO Box 203 Carlton Victoria 3053 Cheques must be made payable to The Archaeological & Anthropological Society of Victoria AASV Lecture Series 2009 Lectures are held on the third Thursday of the month between March and November. Members are welcome to join the committee and the speaker for a meal afterwards in Carlton. The Society continues to invest in the future of archaeology by inviting students from Monash University, the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University to talk about their work. Lectures commence at 6.30pm and are held in the Discovery Centre Lecture Theatre at Melbourne Museum, Nicholson Street, Carlton. Entrance is opposite the Royal Exhibition Building. What you missed in 2009 Thursday 19 March 2009 Dr John Long, Head, Sciences, Museum Victoria The Australian prehistoric megafauna: an overview of discoveries and controversies Join us for a lecture by Dr John Long, Head, Sciences at Museum Victoria. The lecture topic is “Who killed the Megafauna?” Dr Long followed up a PhD at Monash University with six years of research based at universities in Canberra, Perth and Tasmania before taking up a position as Curator, Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Western Australia. In 2004 he returned to Melbourne to take up the position of departmental head at Museum Victoria. John has pursued fossils across the globe, researching in Antarctica, Africa, Asia, Europe and North America and every part of Australia. Mountains of Madness, published in 2000, documents his gruelling trips to Antarctica. His recent research has focused on the part played by fish in the development of land animals and the big question - Who did kill the Megafauna? Thursday 16 April Monash University Postgraduate Students Thursday 21 May Dr Tim Denham The origins of agriculture in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea Multi-disciplinary evidence (archaeology, archaeobotany, palaeoecology and sedimentology) indicates that agriculture developed independently on the island of New Guinea sometime before c. 7000 years ago. At present, the evidence is largely limited to wetland margins in the highlands of Papua New Guinea and comprises early forms of plant exploitation (c. 10,000 cal BP), mounded cultivation (7000/6500 cal BP) and ditched field systems (4000 cal BP to present). In this paper, the evidence for early forms of agriculture in the highlands is reviewed together with some more speculative scenarios for the domestication of some plants on the island, including bananas (Musa spp.), sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum), taro (Colocasia esculenta) and yam (Dioscorea spp.). Thursday 18 June Brad Duncan Invasion Paranoia in Victoria: The archaeological signatures of Defense Installations along the Port Phillip Coast Thursday 20 August La Trobe University Postgraduate Students Thursday 17 September University of Melbourne Postgraduate Students Thursday 15 October

AASV Lectures and Other Activities

Annual General Meeting 2009

The AGM will be held at 7.00pm on Thursday 19 November at the Royal Society of Victoria Hall, 9 Victoria Street, Melbourne.

The brief business meeting will be followed by the guest lecture to be given by Professor Antonio Sagona. The title of his lecture is On the Cusp of Empires: Archaeology in Central Caucasus

Caucasus, an isthmus of land separating the Black and Caspian Seas, satisfies almost any definition of a frontier. For much of antiquity, the lands south of the great Caucasus mountain range had their own cultural landscape, which was quite distinct from other centres of power. Such was the Iberian Kingdom of Caucasus — at one time a client state of Rome, at another annexed by Persia. This lecture will report on two seasons of fieldwork at Samtavro, in Mtskheta, Georgia, a collaborative project between the University of Melbourne and the Georgian National Museum.

The Meeting will be followed by a buffet dinner. The cost is for $25.00 members and for $30.00 non-members including wine and soft drinks. Guests are welcome.

Please consider nominating for the committee. It is not arduous and the society cannot run without an executive and committee.

Please send bookings for dinner to:

The Secretary

AASV

PO Box 203

Carlton Victoria 3053

Cheques must be made payable to The Archaeological & Anthropological Society of Victoria

AASV Lecture Series 2009

Lectures are held on the third Thursday of the month between March and November. Members are welcome to join the committee and the speaker for a meal afterwards in Carlton.

The Society continues to invest in the future of archaeology by inviting students from Monash University, the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University to talk about their work.

Lectures commence at 6.30pm and are held in the Discovery Centre Lecture Theatre at Melbourne Museum, Nicholson Street, Carlton. Entrance is opposite the Royal Exhibition Building.

What you missed in 2009

Thursday 19 March 2009
Dr John Long, Head, Sciences, Museum Victoria
The Australian prehistoric megafauna: an overview of discoveries and controversies

Join us for a lecture by Dr John Long, Head, Sciences at Museum Victoria. The lecture topic is “Who killed the Megafauna?” Dr Long followed up a PhD at Monash University with six years of research based at universities in Canberra, Perth and Tasmania before taking up a position as Curator, Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Western Australia. In 2004 he returned to Melbourne to take up the position of departmental head at Museum Victoria. John has pursued fossils across the globe, researching in Antarctica, Africa, Asia, Europe and North America and every part of Australia. Mountains of Madness, published in 2000, documents his gruelling trips to Antarctica. His recent research has focused on the part played by fish in the development of land animals and the big question - Who did kill the Megafauna?

Thursday 16 April
Monash University Postgraduate Students

Thursday 21 May
Dr Tim Denham

The origins of agriculture in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea

Multi-disciplinary evidence (archaeology, archaeobotany, palaeoecology and sedimentology) indicates that agriculture developed independently on the island of New Guinea sometime before c. 7000 years ago. At present, the evidence is largely limited to wetland margins in the highlands of Papua New Guinea and comprises early forms of plant exploitation (c. 10,000 cal BP), mounded cultivation (7000/6500 cal BP) and ditched field systems (4000 cal BP to present). In this paper, the evidence for early forms of agriculture in the highlands is reviewed together with some more speculative scenarios for the domestication of some plants on the island, including bananas (Musa spp.), sugarcane (Saccharum officinarum), taro (Colocasia esculenta) and yam (Dioscorea spp.).

Thursday 18 June
Brad Duncan

Invasion Paranoia in Victoria: The archaeological signatures of Defense Installations along the Port Phillip Coast

Thursday 20 August
La Trobe University Postgraduate Students

Thursday 17 September
University of Melbourne Postgraduate Students

Thursday 15 October