Classics professor plays guide to ancient Pompeii’s daily life on TV series
In the three-part docudrama POMPEII: OUT OF TIME, Cornell archaeologist Caitie Barrett helps actor Tom Hiddleston uncover some of the secrets of the daily lives of people who were living in Pompeii when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 C.E.
CIAMS Congratulates 2026 Graduates
Congratulations to the CIAMS 2026 graduates! Cornell's 2026 Commencement Ceremonies took place on the weekend of May 22-24th, during which this year's graduates were able to celebrate their hard-earned accomplishments.
Featured Archaeology Major: Ian Bayliss
"My interest in archaeology began after a series of Late Bronze Age and Egyptology classes through the archaeology and NES departments."
Featured Archaeology Major: Jacky Zhou
"Archaeology is increasingly interdisciplinary, and some of the most interesting work happens when you’re willing to borrow tools and ideas from outside your own field."
Classical art historian Annetta Alexandridis dies at 58
Annetta Alexandridis, a classical archaeologist known for her hands-on approach to research and teaching, died April 13 in New York City. She was 58.
Book Release by Professor Nerissa Russell; "Hunting and Eating Symbols"
"Hunting and Eating Symbols", by Dr. Nerissa Russell, published through Cambridge University Press, covers the symbolic and social aspects of big game hunting in the past, giving a broad overview of the world spanning from the Paleolithic to the current day through a variety of case studies. Dr. Russell states that "the three themes that…
Professor Matt Velasco publishes book, Feature in New York Times
Associate Professor of Archaeology Dr. Matt Velasco recently published his first book titled "The Mountain Embodied", exploring the social and cultural significance of the historic practice of head shaping in Peru's Colca Valley. Rather than simply categorizing head shaping as an ethnic marker, Velasco explores the relationship between this practice and various social processes, political…
Sacred Ground: Excavating Black History at Ithaca's Freedom Church
Sacred Ground: Excavating Black History at Ithaca's Freedom Church showcases a diverse range of artifacts from four seasons of excavations at Ithaca's St. James AME Zion Church, highlighting the collaborative efforts between Cornell students, faculty, and the St. James Congregation.
CIAMS Congratulates 2025 Graduates
Congratulations to the CIAMS 2025 graduates! Cornell's 2025 Commencement Ceremonies took place on the weekend of May 23-25th, during which this year's graduates were able to celebrate their hard-earned accomplishments.
Cornell Anthropology Opens New Collaboratory in Olin Library
Woven Indigenous art from Brazil, ceramics excavated from the Treman State Park area, stone tools, animal bones: a wide variety of objects from vast spans of time contribute to the study of the human condition undertaken by the Department of Anthropology in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S). A new Anthropology Collaboratory, which opened…
CIAMS Members Receive Awards at the Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting
Two members of CIAMS, Matthew Velasco (Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology), and Anna Whittemore (Ph.D. Candidate, Anthropology) will receive awards at this year's Society for American Archaeology (SAA) Meeting.
Cornell Undergraduate Unearths Miniature Hercules Statue in Montaione, Italy
A miniature Hercules statue was unearthed in Montaione, Italy, at a Roman mansio and bathhouse complex during the Montaione Excavation 2024 season. It was found by Alexander Cooper-Bohler (‘25), an Archaeology Major with a minor in East Asian Studies, and a student in the field school.
A Brief Look at a Select Glass Jar Lid from Community Excavations at Ithaca’s St. James AME Zion Church
We’ve been busy this Fall with the final season of community-engaged excavations at the St. James AME Zion Church in Ithaca. We’ve opened up the ground in a new 1 meter by 1 meter square very close to the western door of the new church kitchen currently being constructed. This new area is within a…
Stitch by Stitch: Uncovering the Past Through Textiles
What do your clothes say about you? When you wake up in the morning and get dressed, do you meticulously plan out your outfit, or do you just grab whatever’s clean and comfortable and throw it on? Either way, we all have a deeply personal relationship with the clothes we wear. This is why I…
Doing Archaeology of the Spiritual
I’m not a particularly religious person, but I’m struck by how the slow and deliberate act of moving my trowel across the dirt at the bottom of this 2x1 unit feels like a deeply spiritual act. I’ve worked in this unit before, with a rotating group of my academic peers and volunteers from Cornell and…
A Historical Analysis of the Intact Royal Salad Dressing Bottle Found at Ithaca’s St. James AME Zion Church
One of the unfortunate truths about archaeology is that most of the time, the artifacts we find are broken. This is especially true for artifacts made of fragile materials, such as glass. However, every now and then everything comes together to preserve a whole glass object in the ground where it can be found later.…
CIAMS Director Presents on the Destruction of Armenian Cultural Heritage by Azerbaijan
On September 19, 2024, Prof. Adam T. Smith (Distinguished Professor of Arts and Sciences in Anthropology, Director of CIAMS, and Co-director of Caucasus Heritage Watch) presented testimony to the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the United States Congress. Smith’s testimony was part of a hearing on alleged human rights violations perpetrated by the government…
CIAMS Welcomes its New Students
In late September, CIAMS welcomed new and returning students and faculty at the Welcome Back Party, hosted at the A.D. White House.
Almonds, pottery and wood help date famed Kyrenia shipwreck
The Cornell Tree-Ring Laboratory identified the likeliest timeline of the Hellenistic-era ship's sinking as between 296-271 BCE, with a strong probability it occurred between 286-272 BCE.
CIAMS Celebrates Juneteenth at St. James AME Zion Church
As part of the city’s Juneteenth celebration, Ithaca’s Southside Community Center hosted a series of events from June 9th to June 19th, continuing a tradition that has endured over 4 decades.
CIAMS Congratulates 2024 Graduates
Rebecca Gerdes (pictured right), Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology. Her dissertation is entitled: "Assessing the use of organic residue analysis to investigate plant oils in the Late Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean: An environmentally and archaeologically contextualized approach."
'My research in New Zealand boosted my confidence as a global citizen'
Milan Taylor is an anthropology & archaeology major.
Defying the Odds: Elja Sharifi’s Voice for the Powerless
Afghan visual artist Elja Sharifi, currently a visiting scholar at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, sees her escape from the Taliban as a call to action. She will enter Cornell’s PhD program in art history next fall.