News Article

Gonzaga University’s popular Archaeology and Ancient History Lecture Series will conclude with a lecture by archaeological conservator Kent Severson titled, “Keeping It All Together: Preserving Archaeological Materials in Both the Short and Long Term.”

The lecture, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 4:30 p.m., Monday, April 24, in the Auditorium of the Jundt Art Museum at Gonzaga. The series had been scheduled to end following the April 7 lecture but will continue with this final lecture by popular demand.

Ancient structures may survive as columns and walls sticking up out of the landscape or buried in the earth, to be excavated and sometimes re-erected. Once exposed, they are subject to all of the stresses the modern world can bring, from tourist traffic and a polluted environment, to the forces of deterioration brought on by the natural world.

From nasty graffiti to aggressive archaeologists, the conservator must cope with all kinds of pressures to preserve the priceless remains of the ancient world.

Recent work in Turkey and Egypt will illustrate what it takes to hold those temples and theaters together, whether they have been standing since antiquity or re-erected in our time.

Severson is a professional archaeological conservator, with an advanced degree in conservation from the prestigious Institute of Fine Art Conservation Center at New York University. He serves now as senior field supervisor at the Aphrodisias Excavations in Turkey and the Conservator for Special Projects at the Harvard-Cornell Expedition at Sardis (Turkey). Severson has worked at more than a dozen major archaeological projects in Turkey, Greece, and Egypt, as well as many of the most important museums in the United States.

Andrew Goldman, assistant professor of history at Gonzaga, organized the lecture series and delivered its first lecture Nov. 17, 2005, titled, “Discovering a Roman Military Post: The 2004-05 Excavations in the Roman Town at Gordion (Turkey).”

For more information, contact Assistant Professor Goldman at (509) 323-6691 or via e-mail at goldman@gonzaga.edu.