Trash Talk Lecture: The Archaeologist's View of Trash
Listen to the lecture.
Trash is a nuisance and a problem, but archaeologists treasure it as a key to the question: how did people of the past live their daily lives? Trash has caused villages, towns, and even cities to rise vertically and spread horizontally. It has provided a means to understand the dynamic history of those settlements and their place in the landscape.
The Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology presents the free lecture, "Garbage: The Archaeologist's View of Trash," on Thursday October 6 at 5:30 P.M. at the Geological Lecture Hall (24 Oxford St., Cambridge). The lecture will be followed by a public reception at the Peabody Museum (11 Divinity Ave.).
The speaker is Richard H. Meadow, Director of the Peabody Museum's Zooarchaeology Laboratory and Senior Lecturer on Anthropology, Harvard University.
This illustrated lecture will look at ancient trash through an archaeological lens, discussing trash generation, deposition, and preservation, and how recycling and redeposition can cause problems for the study of the past. Dr. Meadow will use examples from his own fieldwork at the urban site of Harappa in Pakistan (3600-1500 BC) and other projects that have involved Harvard faculty and students to show how the trash of the past can be the treasure of today.
Additional talks in this series include managing materials to achieve sustainable results, and a look at where our trash goes. Join us this Fall for an exploration of the anthropology of waste!