You can pay your dues and travel charges online

This feature enables you to pay online for your annual dues, day trip charges, etc. No PayPal account required.


Pay Dues - Choose Membership Type


Donate to The Friends of Archaeology.
We Appreciate Your Support!

Make payments here for events and trips.


Upcoming Events

Lectures

Lectures

Symposiums

Symposium

Monthly Dinners

Monthly Dinner with Friends

International Archaeology Day

International Archaeology Day

Our Approach for the Coming Months

Creating a firm Friends of Archaeology schedule is a challenge until the current COVID meeting restrictions are lifted and we can resume in-person meetings.

For now we have planned a series of Zoom Lectures and have acquired the Pro version of Zoom which supports 100 attendees and an unlimited amount of time for each event. Please let us know if you need help getting started with Zoom. Zoom meeting details will be e-mailed to members in advance.

For our 2020/2021 membership year, the club will not request dues from our members. If you have already paid dues for this year, we will hold them until 2021/2022 or you can request a refund. Last year's membership list will continue as our mailing list. In addition, let us know if you have friends you would like to include in our emailings.

Friend’s Fall Zoom Lectures

November 15 at 5pm / A Prehistory of Music by Member Christopher Kilgore.
Using art, historical images, ethnographic films, and archeological materials, Chris will present a compendium of evidence of early musical performance. Beginning at the dawn of the historical period and working backward, he will cover the musical cultures of ancient Rome, Greece, China, Egypt, Sumer, Africa, and Paleolithic Europe. Topics will include vocal performance, dance, early instruments, and hidden remnants of ancient musical traditions. Special attention will be given to the most recent scholarship.

December 13 5pm Zoom Lecture / How Archaeology of the Past is Pointing to Architecture of the Future by Charles A. Stewart, Ph.D.
Abstract: Today architecture students focus on so-called "Green Architecture", which is a style and method of construction that minimizes toxic manufacturing and chemicals, while being more fuel efficient. Besides recycling older buildings for modern uses, "Green Architects” also preserve and cleanse air, water, and earth by choosing eco-friendly materials and construction practices. These students are studying the work of archaeologists, since ancient building methods employ environmentally safe and renewable materials, such as mudbrick (adobe), rammed earth, and timber designs. In this lecture, Dr. Stewart, will share some of his research regarding these ancient technologies in Central Asia, and how they can be used to inspire architecture of the future. He will also discuss some of his work this year collaborating with his Excavation Team in Kazakhstan, despite the COVID-19 restrictions, and how “remote-archaeology” is conducted.

Lectures of the Archaeology Section of the Houston Gem and Mineral Society

The Friends and the Archaeology Section of HGMS have a cooperative agreement in which we invite each other's members to our Zoom lectures. (Note: the Archaeology Section is one of eight HGMS sections.) The following HGMS Zoom meetings are planned:

November 5 at 7:30 pm / Egypt: The Dendera Temple Complex.
Bob Moore, Section Chair, will present the lecture. The Complex contains the Temple of Hathor, one of the best-preserved temples in Egypt, and many other temples and churches that help us understand life and death in ancient Egypt. The presentation includes photos taken by Bob’s wife, Nancy. Friends members, Bob and Nancy, have made in person presentations to our organization.

December 3 at 7:30 pm / Artifact pricing, selling and authenticating by Bob Dodge,
Founder, Executive, and Director of Artemis Gallery. The Friends of Archaeology have worked with Bob Dodge in the sale of our society artifacts. He helped us determine reserve prices for the objects and has auctioned a number of them on his website. https://www.artemisgallery.com/auction/. Tune into this Zoom lecture to see and hear about artifacts Bob has worked with.

The Symposium

The Symposium will keep in touch with our Friends by providing a video each month that is related to archaeology or ancient culture. On the second Tuesday of each month we will send a link to members enabling you to watch on your computer or IPad at your convenience. In November and December we will send episodes of the well-known British TV Series “Time Team”, which we were just beginning to enjoy when the pandemic caused a halt to our meetings. The November Time Team episode is "The Lost Castle of Dundrum"; The Team works at the site of a Norman castle in Northern Ireland on the County Down coast. Go to: youtube.com/watch?v=m_UrPN13KyM

Social Events

The dates for these events are to be determined:

Monthly dinners with Friends

Annual Father Bader Banquet and Lecture

Lunch with Friends at the Houston Yacht Club hosted by Naomi Joyner. There will be a reception and leisurely five course lunch followed by an archeology lecture.

Galveston Trip. A tour of the Bryan Museum's collection of historical artifacts, documents, and artwork relating to Texas and the American West. There will also be a private lecture followed by lunch at the museum.

Friends of Archaeology - Houston on Facebook

The Friends' intriguing Facebook page is maintained by Fred Kelly who daily posts new and interesting archaeological artifacts from all over the world. The site has garnered interest beyond our membership. Join the over 70 people who regularly check out this interesting source of information. In the Facebook search box entitled “Find Friends”, type in “Friends of Archaeology – Houston”. Or, with your browser go to: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1385634571488926

Dr. Charles Stewart

We are very grateful to Dr. Charles Stewart for his long time support of the Friends of Archaeology and his interesting presentations to our club. Our congratulations go to Charles who has accepted a position at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. We are so pleased that he has agreed to keep us informed of his ongoing research with a future Zoom Lecture. Covid restrictions permitting, his 2021 summer efforts are outlined below.

For the month of May, Charles will conduct a project at the University of Pisa (Italy) as a Research Fellow. He will investigate the symbols found on gravestones he and colleagues found in Kazakhstan. These seem to be linked to the Great Bubonic Plague of 1330 to 1345.

In early June, Charles will be excavating an urban Roman villa in the ancient city of Kourion in Cyprus. This work will be partially funded by the Lanier Center for Archaeology at Lipscomb University and the Lanier Theological Library in Houston.

Later in June, Charles will continue his excavations in Kazakhstan through the Kazakhstan Academy of Science and Archaeological Expertise, LLP. They will seek the remains of an ancient church there which would be the earliest evidence of Christian architecture in the Far East.

Stay tuned for forthcoming Events.