February 11, 2002

An expert on climatic change in the Near East will discuss his research on February 13, as part of the Beverly and Raymond Sackler Art and Archaeology Lecture Series.

Harvey Weiss, professor of near eastern archaeology at Yale University, will discuss "Abrupt Climate Change and the Rise and Fall - and Rise - of Mesopotamian Civilization" at 4:30 p.m. in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.

Weiss is widely recognized for the discovery of a major and abrupt climate change that affected the region from the Aegean to the Indus at ca. 2200 B.C. Since his 1993 findings, the change has become a focus of attention among scholars interested in paleoclimatic and archaeological research. His scholarship has appeared in many publications, including Confronting Natural Disaster: Engaging the Past to Understand the Future; Science; The Sciences; Orient Express; The Dictionary of Art; and The Encyclopedia of the Ancient Near East.

This lecture series, which began in the fall, brings archaeologists and scholars working in the fields of Near Eastern, Middle Eastern, and Latin American archaeology to the University to present their research and discuss critical issues facing the field.

The third lecture in the series will be March 28. John Russell, professor of art history and archaeology at the Massachusetts College of Art, will discuss "Racing the Rising Euphrates: Salvage Archaeology in Ancient Til Barsib, Syria." The lecture will take place at 4:30 p.m. in the Thomas J. Dodd Research Center.

The new lecture series is supported by a gift to the Department of Art and Art History from philanthropists Raymond and Beverly Sackler. The Sacklers, Connecticut residents, are long-time supporters of art and art history, music, drama, medicine, biological and natural sciences, mathematics, and archaeology. They are patrons of museums and galleries around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the British Museum in London, and the Louvre in Paris.