About the Archaeology Centre
The Archaeology Centre is a community that brings archaeologists and people interested in archaeology together across the University of Toronto and beyond. We aim to provide a centralized hub of information about opportunities (e.g., field schools, scholarships, etc.) and events (e.g., lectures, interest groups, symposia, etc.) related to archaeology. We are not an academic unit at the university and do not offer courses for credit or degree programs. Please do not email the Archaeology Centre with questions about degree requirements. If you are interested in academically pursuing archaeology at the University of Toronto, please see the following departments for more information and contacts, as well as UofT’s Mediterranean Archaeology Collaborative Specialization (MACS):
- Department of Anthropology
- Department of Art History
- Department of Classics
- Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations
- Department of Earth Sciences
Regular Interest Groups
The Faunal Interest Group
The group has convened by-weekly (times TBA; in the Archaeology Centre boardroom AP140 at 19 Ursula Franklin Street) since September 2007. The group discusses new and old issues of zoo archaeological method and theory. For more information, please contact Moses Akogun at moses.akogun@mail.utoronto.ca.
Next meeting: TBD
The Collections Interest Group
Join the Collections Interest Group and discuss a wide array of topics regarding the care, preservation, and public education of artifacts and histories in a collections setting. Whether you are interested in a career in the museum world, plan on interacting with collections in some capacity, or simply find an interest in the curation and preservation of histories, this group is for you. Topics of discussion look to explore the relationship between ‘the institution’ which houses objects and the communities which interact with its stories, the role of ever-evolving technology in a collections/museum setting, and sustainable collections management that serves present, past, and future generations. Interested? Please contact Savanna for more information (s.buehlmanbarbeau@mail.utoronto.ca).
Next meeting: TBD
NEW – Archaeobotany & Environmental Archaeology Interest Group
Archaeobotany & Environmental Archaeology Interest Group
Are you interested in how people in the past engaged with plants, landscapes, and climate? Join the new Archaeobotany & Environmental Archaeology Interest Group at U of T!
This graduate-led group provides a space for discussion, collaboration, and curiosity-driven exploration of the intersections between plants, foodways, people, and environments in the past. We’ll focus on themes such as:
- Human–environment interactions in deep time
- Climate change and resilience in past societies
- Cuisine, diet, and the cultural significance of plants
- Methods and theories in environmental archaeology
Whether your background is in archaeology, anthropology, ecology, history, or related fields, this is a chance to share ideas, workshop projects, and build connections with others who care about reconstructing the lived experiences of past communities through their relationships with plants and landscapes. Come be part of shaping a vibrant intellectual community where we put people back into the past by exploring their environmental choices and legacies. Please email Lachlan Kyle-Robinson (lachlan.kylerobinson@mail.utoronto.ca) with any questions.
Next Meeting: TBD
March Talks
The Archaeology Centre presents: “The Power of Monuments in Ruin in Ancient Oaxaca, Mexico,” by Prof. Arthur A. Joyce (Professor of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder). Friday, March 13th in AP140 from 4:00-6:00 pm. In this presentation, I examine the materiality of two ruined monumental architectural complexes in ancient Oaxaca: The Main Plaza of the mountaintop city of Monte Albán in the Oaxaca Valley and the acropolis of Río Viejo on the coastal floodplain of the Río Verde. Both impressive complexes were important political and ceremonial centers through which urban communities were brought together. Although both fell to ruin, they continued to be places of intensive affect that were central to the constitution and transformation of more-than-human communities. After its abandonment, the Main Plaza, now viewed from afar by the people in the valley below, continued to assemble substances important to human well-being including rain, earth, clouds, sky, ancestors, and the mountain itself. The slow deterioration of the plaza’s durable stone masonry buildings was rarely experienced by people, however. By contrast, the earthen architecture of the acropolis, still located in the center of the city, rapidly eroded and decayed in the tropical lowland climate. I consider how the material vibrancy of these ruins actualized different capacities contributing to the gathering of a new kind of community in one case, and its resistance and eventual dissolution in the other. I make the broader point that even ruined buildings can be powerful in ways that threaten, resist, empower, or transform human projects.
March Talks
The Archaeology Centre presents: “Invisible Potters, Visible Signatures: Tracing Ceramic Production Communities in the Colonial Southeast,”by Lindsay Block (Senior Archaeological Analyst, Digital Archaeological Archive of Comparative Slavery) and Elizabeth Bollwerk (Archaeologist, International Centre for Jefferson Studies). Wednesday March 18th in AP140 from 5:00 -7:00 pm. Colonoware, a hand-built, low-fired coarse earthenware, appears on archaeological sites occupied from the mid-17th to mid-19th century throughout the southeastern United States. The mysteries of colonoware—who made it and for whom it was made—have sparked ongoing and heated debates. To date, most analyses have focused on localized models of production and use or debates about the ethnicity of manufacturers. What is clear is that colonoware is a deeply contextual material manifestation of related strategies enslaved and free African, African American, and Indigenous communities developed in response to the oppressive and disruptive conditions caused by colonial regimes. Our current research project applies fine grained artifact analyses to thousands of colonoware artifacts from sites across the Southeastern United States to identify regional “recipes” for this pottery type. This approach enhances our understanding of how colonoware producers contributed to, circumvented, and even disrupted traditional European markets.
March Talks
The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA- Toronto chapter) and the Archaeology Centre present: “Stress, Sex, and Death: Health and Survival in the Context of Medieval Famine and Plague,” by Dr. Sharon N. DeWitte (Professor, Institute of Behavioural Science & Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder, The Ann Santen Endowed Lecture). March 24, 2026, 6:10 PM EST in the Anthropology Building, RM. 130. In the 14th-century, Afro-Eurasia was struck by the Black Death, a devastating pandemic of bubonic plague. Dr. DeWitte will discuss her bioarchaeological research, focusing on the skeletal remains of people who died at the time of the Black Death in London, England. She has found evidence of declines in health for people before the Black Death, but improvements in health afterwards. However, there were differences between males and females, which might reflect variation in sensitivity to stressors or differences in dietary resources in the aftermath of the Black Death. Dr. DeWitte will highlight future directions in medieval plague bioarchaeology, including analyses of the potential effects of migration on population-level patterns of health in the context of famine and plague. Zoom link to be announced on our website.
March Talks
The Mediterranean Collaborative Specialisation (MACS) and the Archaeology Centre present: “The Technicity of Artefacts: Objects and Images as Encapsulated Relations,” byProf. Ludovic Coupaye (Anthropology, University College London). Friday 27th March, 4pm (AP140). In this work-in-progress presentation, I explore the technicity of images and artefacts. I approach objects as encapsulated relations, or material condensations that actualise and transform the relational fields in their vicinity. I define “technicity” as a regime of relations between humans and their worlds, actualised in technical activities. Instead of starting from their functions, roles or even usage, I suggest examining how the technical and cognitive functioning of objects generate and transform relations in their vicinity. Building on my earlier work on decorated yams in Papua New Guinea, I experiment with an analytical lens that allows us to understand artefacts as operators and agents of collective representations and cosmological imaginaries. Objects contribute to the emergence of particular logics of engagement with the world; they orient bodies, gestures and attention, structure perception, and stabilise or unsettle categories. From ritual objects, I move to networked printers, and — more tentatively — generative “AI”, to explore how objects participate in world‑making processes, and how their functioning encapsulates and reconfigures the relational, perceptual, and cosmological orders in which they are embedded.
April Talks
The Archaeological Institute of America (AIA- Toronto chapter) and the Archaeology Centre present: “What’s in a Name? The Ancient Harbour at Kommos Known as Amyklai,” by Dr. James C. Wright (Emeritus Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College). April 21, 2026, 5:10 PM EST (please note earlier start time) in the Anthropology Building, RM.130. Please join us for a lecture by Professor Jim Wright, current Director of the Kommos excavations and former Director of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Professor Wright will discuss new perspectives on the ancient port town of Kommos and its likely identification as Amyklai, as attested in both Linear B tablets from Knossos and the inscription of Amenhotep III at Kom el-Hetan in Egypt. He will trace the continuity of this name into historic times, when Kommos–Amyklai functioned as the port of Gortyn, and will conclude with an overview of the ongoing conservation master plan for the site. Further event details and Zoom link to be announced on our website.
