Lecture Series History: 2019
In 2019, the Natural History Museum of Utah's annual Lecture Series explored Ancient Secrets: Hidden Worlds Revealed. Read on to learn more about the theme and speakers.
About the 2019 Lecture Series
From cities of Maya to tombs of Egypt, the world is filled with the mysteries of our ancestors. Luckily, recent technological advances have unlocked explorers' ability to dig deeper, read further, and uncover more about our past than ever before/ Join us this year as we seek answers, ponder the unknown, and meet intrepid explorers whose research and fascination with the past has unearthed astonishing insights into our hidden worlds.
2019 Speakers
Sarah Parcak
Indiana Jones in Space
Space archaeologist and winner of the $1 million 2016 TED Prize, Sarah Parcak is the founding director of the Laboratory for Global Observation at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology. Inspired by her grandfather, an early pioneer of
aerial photography, Parcak took an interest in remote sensing while studying Egyptology at Yale. Her extraordinary technique analyzes infrared imagery to identify subtle differences in vegetation health. By identifying plant growth variations, Parcak is able to locate long-lost remnants of human history. With these methods, her team has uncovered seventeen potential pyramids as well as thousands of lost settlements and tombs around the world. With her TED prize money, Parcak is developing GlobalXplorer, an online application that allows people around the world to search out lost civilizations from their homes and classrooms. A global collective of amateur archaeologists working together through crowdsourcing could very well uncover the next great archaeological treasures
William Saturno
In Search of the Ancient Maya
Archaeologist William Sturno received his Ph.D. in anthropology from Harvard University in 2000. A specialist in Mesoamerican civilization and archaeological remote sensing, he has conducted fieldwork in the American Southwest, Bolivia, Cambodia, Peru, Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and Guatemala. In March 2001, while exploring in northeastern Guatemala for Harvard's Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, he discovered the remote archaeological site of San Bartolo and the oldest intact murals ever found in the Maya world. Saturno directs the San Bartolo Regional Archaeology Project, a multinational interdisciplinary research effort dedicated to the excavation and conservation of these spectacular murals and to understanding San Bartolo's role in this largely unexplored region. The focus of the regional project has extended to the enormous neighboring center of Xultun, the dynastic seat in the region through the Maya Classic period.
Svante Paabo
Archaic Genomics
Svante Paabo studied medicine at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, where he earned his Ph.D. in molecular cell biology. He did postdoctoral work in Zurich, London and UC Berkeley before becoming a professor of general biology at the University of Munich. In 1997, he became one of the founding directors of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig where he is currently director. Paabo's research has taken a particular interest in Neanderthals, the closest evolutionary relative of present-day humans. His research team has determined high-quality Neanderthal genome sequences leading to the realization that neanderthals contributed DNA to present-day humans who live outside of Africa. By studying DNA sequences from a small siberian bone, Paabo discovered a previously unknown extinct Asian hominin group related to Neanderthals that his team named Denisovans.
Duncan Metcalfe
Farming Among the Fremont: Anticipating Tomorrow
Duncan Metcalfe is Curator of Archaeology at the Natural History Musuem of Utah. He has conducted research in Range Creek Canyon since 2002 and has served as Director of the Range Creek Field Station since 2009. Among his specialties is prehistory of western North America with an emphasis on the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau. His work has led him to examin farming of the Fremont and its implications for the world going forward. The advent and spread of farming was a major milestone in the human past. Agricultural production provides the economic foundation for more than 99% of the modern world. Understanding the processes underlying the switch from hunting and gathering wild foods to farming highlights the challenges of farming today and in an uncertain future. The prehistoric American Southwest provides an excellent venue for such research. A large segment of that population reverted to hunting and gathering after farming for hundreds - an in some areas - thousands of years