Events

Orange County Society

LECTURES AND EVENTS

AIA Orange County Society offers monthly lectures from renowned professional archaeologists who share insights into Old and New World civilizations with the latest cutting-edge research.  Our lecturers’ topics span the globe and occasionally venture into space.
Each year AIA national provides our society with two lecturers. All other lectures are supported from donations by generous sponsors.  The cost to sponsors a lecture is $300, and both members and non-members have done this.  Mostly it’s the satisfaction of helping that generates a donation, but it is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.

Some of our past years’ events:

2025 Upcoming Lectures:

  • 2/23 – “On the Roads of Wind: Archaeology of the Origins and Expansions of the Indigenous Pacific Peoples.” Presented by Dr. Tianlong Jiao, Vice President of Collections, Bowers Museum. Time & Location: 2pm, Bowers Museum.
  • 3/23 – “Merchants and Mercenaries: Greeks in Upper Egypt in the Late Period.” Presented by Dr. Camille Acosta, Professor, UC Irvine. Time & Location: 2pm, Concordia University, Grimm Hall South
  • 4/27 – ” The Harbor of Ancient Corinth: Results from the 2024 Excavation Season.” Presented by Dr. Paul Scotton, Professor and Director of Classics Program, CSU Long Beach. Time & Location: 2pm, Concordia University, Grimm Hall South
  • 5/18 – TBA

AIA National Lectures via Zoom

Join Wednesday, March 19, at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT for AIA Archaeology Hour with UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus Rosemary Joyce! In her lecture, Complex Society Without Rulers, Professor Joyce will present on the ancient Ulúa culture of northern Honduras—a society of wealthy farmers who enjoyed artworks of extraordinary beauty.

For many people, the word “archaeology” conjures up images of monuments, traces of the lives of powerful rulers who can seem to be inevitable parts of any urban, agricultural society. But there are other stories archaeology can tell about societies where there is no apparent ruler, but where many of the hallmarks of “complex society” are found. This lecture explores one such society, the ancient Ulúa culture of northern Honduras, neighbors to Classic Maya states.