All Lectures Are Delivered Virtually & Free!
Lectures in Year 2025
September 4, 2025 (Thursday) at 7:30 PM Central Standard Time (US and Canada)
Notre-Dame de Paris and the Wider World of Medieval France
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Speaker: Dr. Gail L. Peterkin
Archaeology Now (Archeological Institute of America, Houston Society) focused their 2024-2025 annual program on the restoration work at Notre-Dame de Paris, including the archaeological excavations made possible by the devastating fire of 2019. In addition to focusing on the cathedral itself, the season included an exploration of medieval France and its surprisingly far-flung international connections. An unprecedented collaboration with the French government, Rebâtir Notre-Dame, and many other local and international agencies and organizations facilitated the presentation of this ground-breaking research to the public in Houston and around the world. Please join us for this fascinating lecture!
Speaker Biography: Gail Larsen Peterkin holds a Ph.D. in anthropology from Tulane University, where she specialized in French Paleolithic archaeology. She has authored and edited several papers and books. Her field experience includes Paleolithic sites in France as well as prehistoric and historic sites in the American Midwest and Southeast. While in New Orleans, she taught anthropology, geography and geology at Tulane University and Delgado Community College. Gail directed Tulane’s Cultural Resources Management program, and was principal investigator and lab director for R. Christopher Goodwin & Assoc. Now, she volunteers at the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) and is a master docent specializing in anthropology and archaeology. Gail edits the HMNS Dashing Diplodocus newsletter and has served as president of the HMNS Volunteer Guild. She also serves on the board of Archaeology Now (Archaeological Institute of America Houston Society) and is active in numerous related organizations.
May 1, 2025 (Thursday) at 7:30 PM Central Standard Time (US and Canada)
Understanding How Coinage Evolved Through Archaeometallurgy
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Speaker: Dr. Garth C. Clark
Mankind has a 5000-year history of improving capabilities in the mining, purification, alloying, and use of metals. Metal items give a wonderful glimpse into the aspects of ancient life and civilizations. Garth will go over how to approach a piece of metal to identify what it is and where it was mined. Every ancient piece of metal, although smelted and alloyed, still retains a signature of its origin. Using this technology and the archaeological record, the journey from hunks of metal to standardized metal weights and forms, and on to the discs known as coinage can be mapped. Mark your calendar and do not miss this captivating lecture!
Speaker Biography: Dr. Garth Clark has a Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Texas in Austin with specialties in computer programming and biomedical engineering. His work with M.W. Kellogg led to his further specialization in metals analysis and ore origination signatures. In turn, this led him into decades of analyzing coins and other metal objects from Viking, Celtic, and older far eastern archaeology sites. Garth also attended the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and has practiced internal medicine for over 30 years. His unique combination of engineering, computer, and medical backgrounds led him to become involved in designing several labs for medical and genetic research. Currently, he is head of research and CEO of Indyme Genetics.
April 3, 2025 (Thursday) at 7:30 PM Central Standard Time (US and Canada)
The City of Petra; It’s Much More Than One Building!
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Speaker: Robert (Bob) Moore
Bob will show Petra, Jordan in its entirety based on a personal visit in 2023. This presentation will expand your view of the city! Mark your calendar and do not miss it.
Speaker Biography: Robert ‘Bob’ Moore is an advocational archaeologist who loves travel, history, and paleontology. He graduated from Michigan Technological Institute with degrees in geology and computer science. After working in the Oil & Gas Industry, he changed careers, earned his CFP through the University of Houston, and started his own financial business “Moore Money Management”. In 2021, Bob and his wife, Nancy Engelhardt-Moore co-founded the virtual Engelhardt-Moore Lecture Series (E-MLS). Now retired, Nancy and Bob volunteer for a variety of organizations including the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Both participate in paleontological and archaeological digs around the world and give lectures.
March 6, 2025 (Thursday) at 7:30 PM Central Standard Time (US and Canada)
Bite Force, Feeding Traces, and Ecology of Tyrannosaurus rex throughout Ontogeny:
A Review
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Speaker: Joseph Peterson, Ph.D.
Think it was rough being a teenager? Try being a Teenage T. rex! While Tyrannosaurus rex is one of the most famous dinosaurs of all time, what do we know about the teenage years for the tyrant lizard? In his presentation on “Dino-Damage”, Dr. Joe Peterson will investigate the fossil record for evidence and indicators of behavior in juvenile and subadult T. rex, including diet, ecology, and injuries. Mark your calendar and do not miss this enlightening talk on T. rex behavior!
Speaker Biography: Dr. Joseph Peterson is a Professor of Geology at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. His research in vertebrate paleontology covers a wide range of subjects including injuries and behavioral interpretations in dinosaurs, the science of how fossils are preserved, and paleoecology. He has been actively working in the Morrison Formation of Utah for the last decade studying the accumulation of bonebeds in the Late Jurassic period.
February 5, 2025 (Wednesday) at 7:30 PM Central Standard Time (US and Canada)
Cracking the Coldest Case: Ice Age Extinctions in Western North America
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Speaker: Eric Scott
The causes of the extinction of large mammals such as mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths, and others has long been a topic of debate and contention. He will review two of the primary hypotheses, climate change and human overkill, and propose that an answer might be found in some of the extinct - and not so extinct - megafauna themselves. Mark your calendar and do not miss this fascinating talk!
Speaker Biography: Eric Scott is a vertebrate paleontologist with over 40 years of experience in paleontological mitigation, fieldwork, curation, and research. He specializes in extinct Ice Age mammals, particularly horses and bison. Eric studies the evolution and extinction of North American Pleistocene megafauna, with a focus on biogeography – particularly, how the geographic distribution of species can change through time, and how this can inform our understanding of Ice Age extinctions. He has worked throughout western North America as well as East Africa. Currently, Eric is Vice President and Principal Paleontologist of Cogstone Resource Management, Inc., an adjunct lecturer at California State University, San Bernardino, and a research associate of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and the Le Brea Tar Pits, and Museum. He is also an emeritus Curator of Paleontology for the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands, California, where he worked for 24 years. He graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1990.