The story of Xolotl, the supernatural dog who returned from the underworld, as told by Harvard Divinity professor David Carrasco in front of the Day of the Dead altar.
From Storied Walls: Murals of the Americas: Ancient Maya music as depicted in the murals of Bonampak.
From Storied Walls: Murals of the Americas: The fearsome Decapitator God of the ancient Moche culture in Peru leads a Peabody Museum curator to ask, "Why worship such an angry god?"
Why do so many ceramic bottles of the ancient Moche culture have stirrup-shaped spouts? A curator shows how concepts of duality were commonly featured in Moche ceramics.
From Encounters With the Americas: Harvard Divinity School's David Carrasco describes the essential elements of a Day of the Dead altar in front of the Museum's permanent altar.
From Encounters With the Americas: A conversation with Day of the Dead Altar Artist Mizael Sanchez about his permanent altar in the Museum. Produced by Lisa Barbash.
"Weaving History" follows the production of the sally bag, "Honoring the Weaver of the 1805 Wasco Basket," to its display in the past exhibit, From Nation to Nation: Examining Lewis and Clark's Indian Collection.
Totem poles are returned to the Tlingit people in Alaska and the Peabody Museum commissions new totem poles now on view in the Hall of the North American Indian. Film by by Wen-Jie Qin.
Discover classes and self-guided tours for K-12 school groups at the Peabody Museum.
What inspired ancient Mesoamericans to drink their chocolate with a lot of froth on top?
Videos - Behind-the-Scenes
Who is the Monkey King and why is he one of the most beloved characters of Chinese mythology? Puppeteer Margaret Moody of Galapagos Puppets brings the Monkey King to life.
Who is the Laughing Buddha and what does he have to do with Chinese New Year? Maskmaker and performer Eric Bornstein of Behind the Mask Theatre explains.
Zuni fetishes: what are they, who were some of the master carvers, and what makes them so extraordinary?
Peabody Museum archaeologists lead students on a search for colonial Harvard.
Harvard students dig for signs of the 17th-century Indian College in Harvard Yard. Explore two Wampanoag students, Joel Iacoomes and Caleb Cheeshateamuck.
A piece of metal print type discovered in Harvard Yard is connected to a Native American printer from the 17th-century Indian College.
A flute-playing intern asked if she could try to play ancient bone flutes. With help from the Conservation Department, the answer was "yes."
Intern research on 19th-century home dental care products excavated from a Cambridge home.
Behind-the-scenes in the Museum's Zooarchaeology Lab, where archaeologists go to identify animal bones.
Who was the FeeJee Mermaid, and why did people pay to see her?
An excavation in Peru reveals a tiny scrap of paper with a big story to tell: a previously unknown language spoken in pre-hispanic and Colonial Peru.
A few highlights from the 19th-century Boston Museum: George Washington's sash, a Malayan dagger, and a Maori carving depicting facial tattooing (moko) with a Peabody Museum intern.
Museum educator Andy Majewski demonstrates a traditional manioc (yuca) press.
Audio Lectures and Talks
February 9, 2012
Trash Talk Lecture: "Terrible and Charismatic Waste: A Close Reading of Ocean Plastics" (mp3)
Max Liboiron, ABD, Department of Media, Culture and Communication,
New York University; Regional Co-Director of the Plastic Pollution Coalition
Trash Talk Lecture: "Products, Plastics, Putrefaction, and Power: Rethinking How We Manage Materials to Achieve Just Sustainability" (mp3)
Samantha MacBride, Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs
Lecture: The Copan Sculpture Museum: Ancient Maya Artistry in Stucco and Stone(mp3)
Barbara Fash, Director, Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, Peabody Museum
Trash Talk Lecture: "The Archaeologist’s View of Trash" (mp3)
Richard Meadow, Director of the Zooarchaeology Laboratory, Peabody Museum; Senior Lecturer on Anthropology, Harvard University
Trash Talk Lecture: Garbage: Learning to Unsee (mp3)
Robin Nagle, Director, Draper Program in Humanities and Social Thought, New York University, Anthropologist-in-Residence, New York City Department of Sanitation
Visible Language Lecture: The Preservation and Importance of Inscriptions: 21st-Century Challenges (mp3)
Barbara Fash, Director, Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, Peabody Museum More...
April 20, 2011
Visible Language Lecture: A Brief History of the Spectre of the Internet and the Death of Writing (mp3)
Matthew Battles, author, Library: An Unquiet HistoryMore...
April 14, 2011
Lecture: Excavating the Great Aztec Temple:Achievements and Perspectives (mp3)
Eduardo Matos Moctezuma, General Coordinator, Great Aztec Temple Project More...
(in Spanish, with English translation)
March 29, 2011
Gordon R. Willey Lecture: The Teotihuacan Cosmogram and Polity: Update on the Sacred City and its Three Monuments (mp3)
Saburo Sugiyama, Professor, International Cultural Studies, Aichi Prefectural University & School of Human Evolution and Social Change More...
March 15, 2011
Presentation: "Digging Veritas: Archaeology at Harvard University" for Massachusetts Archaeological Society Northeast Chapter at the Robert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology in Andover, Massachusetts. (mp3)
Diana Loren, Associate Curator, Peabody Museum
Christina Hodge, Senior Curatorial Assistant, Peabody Museum
March 10, 2011
Hallam L. Movius, Jr. Lecture: "The Evolution of Big-Game Hunting: Protein, Fat, or Politics?" (mp3)
John D. Speth, Professor of Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology and Curator of North American Archaeology in the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan. More...
February 24, 2011
Visible Language Lecture: The Living Sign: Maya Hieroglyphs and Vitalized Writing(mp3)
Stephen Houston, Dupee Family Professor of Social
Sciences, Brown University More...
Peter Machinist, (Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages, Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University). More...
October 18, 2010
David Carrasco (Neil L. Rudenstine Professor for the Study of Latin Amer. in Fac. of Divinity/Arts and Sciences; Neil L. Rudenstine Professor for the Study of Latin America in the Faculty of Divinity and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University) talks with K-12 educators about teaching Day of the Dead "Teaching Day of the Dead" (mp3) 51:00
October 6, 2010
Visible Language Lecture: "Diviners and Scribes: the Origins and Development of Writing in China" (mp3) 1:12 Adam Smith explores how China became one of the few regions in the world where the literacy developed independently. The last hundred years of discovery, decipherment, and archaeological discovery of texts now draw a rich and detailed picture of the early development of writing. More...
Dr. Adam Smith, Society of Fellows in the Humanities, Columbia University, is the speaker.
September 16, 2010
Visible Language Lecture:"On the Origins and Development of Writing" (mp3) 1:12 This talk highlights recent discoveries in the field of comparative writing systems, including social and biological implications of the surprisingly similar origins of writing around the world. Find out more about the lecture here.
Marc Zender (PhD 2004, Archaeology, University of Calgary) is a Research Associate in Maya Hieroglyphic Writing at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, and a Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology.
March 5, 2010
Lawrence Guy Straus: "Hunters and Artists of Late Ice Age Europe: The Magdalenian World" 1:04:40 (mp3). Near the end of the last Ice Age, glacial ice sheets in Europe retreated, and people could finally expand beyond their Ice Age refuges. How would they adapt to their new environment? Recent discoveries by Straus and his colleagues at the major Magdalenian site of El Mirón Cave in the Cantabrian Mountains show how regional styles in both rock and portable art clearly defined distinct social territories (often with very different regional ecologies, major game species and thus human settlement-subsistence strategies). Find out more about the lecture here.
Lawrence Straus has been a professor of anthropology for nearly 35 years at the University of New Mexico. He is a specialist in the Paleolithic prehistory of Western Europe. Straus is the editor of the Journal of Anthropological Research.
April 8, 2010
Michael Moseley: "Four Thousand Years Ago in Coastal Peru" (mp3) 1:08:00. Could the ancient city of Caral in Peru be the oldest city in the Western Hemisphere? Covering more than 130 acres, Caral was an urban center with large temple mounds that predate Giza’s famed pyramids. Michael Moseley discusses the four-thousand year-old architectural monuments in the Supe desert valley that are the focus of claims for the earliest civilization in the Americas. Find out more about the lecture here.
Dr. Michael Moseley earned his doctorate from Harvard University studying coastal Peru, and went on to become a curator at the Peabody Museum and the Field Museum before joining the University of Florida.
November 19, 2009
Marc Zender:"Much Ado About Nothing: 2012 and the Maya" (mp3) 1:09:50. Did the ancient Mayas predict December 21, 2012 as the catastrophic end of the world? The popular theory has spawned books, documentaries, and a Hollywood disaster movie. In this talk, Zender enlists William Shakespeare's Much Ado about Nothing. He suggests the famous romantic comedy about deceit, mistaken identity, and the peril of unexamined assumptions will “shed some light on the New Age nonsense surrounding the supposed Maya ‘end date’ of 2012.” Find out more about the lecture here.
Marc Zender (PhD 2004, Archaeology, University of Calgary) is a Research Associate in Maya Hieroglyphic Writing at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, and a Lecturer in the Department of Anthropology.
