In 1972 Greek archaeologists unearthed two nearly complete Archaic (800 to 480 BC) statues a foot below the modern surface of an olive grove in the countryside of Attica, outside the city of Athens. They represent a young man and a young woman of the second half of the 6th century BC, carved in the traditional static pose of the time. They had been erected as grave markers in a nearby family cemetery. But, after standing guard over the deceased for only a short period of time, they had been deliberately removed and buried.

Who are the deceased? What, precisely, do the statues represent? Why were they chosen to mark these particular graves? What achievements or qualities of the deceased – either real or desired – do they commemorate, and what funeral practices may they document? And what threat impelled family members to bury these splendid grave monuments so soon after their erection? In her lecture, Professor Susan Rotroff will address these questions, and explore the ways in which the statues reflect the interconnected themes of youth, beauty, athletic prowess, marriage and death in the society of 6th-century Athens.

Susan Rotroff is a Classical archaeologist who specializes in the archaeology of Athens and in Greek ceramics. Educated at Bryn Mawr College and Princeton University, she has worked at several sites in Greece (Lefkandi, Corinth, Karystos, Samothrace) and Turkey (Troy, Sardis, Cilicia). Her primary association, however, has been with the Agora Excavations, where archaeologists are investigating the ancient civic center of Athens. Her research focuses on the ways in which ceramic evidence informs us about the activities and behavior of ancient peoples. She has taught at Mount Allison University, in Canada, and at Hunter College; currently she is the Jarvis Thurston and Mona van Duyn Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis. She has published three volumes on the Hellenistic ceramics of the Athenian Agora and has recently been working in Turkey on an underwater survey at Kaledran, and on the excavation of a Roman ship at Kizilburun.

This is a Norton Lecture, named for Charles Eliot Norton, the founder and first President of the AIA and former Professor of the History of Art at Harvard University. The Norton Lectureship is part of the AIA’s National Lecture Program

The book of Esther encompasses one of the most exciting narratives in the Hebrew Bible. As such, it has oftentimes provided the subject matter of cinematic treatment. Yet the movies have not been as kind to Esther as one could have hoped. This lecture will survey and critique a number of Esther films. It will pay particular attention to the way in which they rework their biblical source materials for their own ideological and/or theological purposes.

When writing her biography, Clare of Assisi described herself as “Clare unworthy servant of Christ and the little shoot of the most blessed father Francis.” These same images were repeatedly used to portray the virgin of Assisi as humble, obedient and faithful to the original Franciscan vision. From the thirteenth century onwards, virtues that have been regarded as traditionally feminine (such as chastity, beauty and purity) were associated with Clare. While this model persisted throughout the later medieval and early modern periods, it steadily and progressively took on other characteristics reflecting both social and spiritual change.

Popular depictions of the Crusades lead us to assume that to be powerful during the Crusades was to wield a sword.  However, power in the Kingdom of Jerusalem was much more nuanced.  This diverse kingdom was home to five queens who inherited their thrones and expressed their power in ways that did not always reflect rulership a we might expect it to exist in the Levant during the 12th and 13th centuries.  This talk will explore the varies and sometimes surprising ways in which these five queens ruled their kingdom and exprssed thier power: through war, negotiation, and wits.