Reflections on the Textile Indusry and Wool Economy of Ebla - Declan Maloney (Harvard)
Since the discovery in 1975 of Palace G's archive of cuneiform tablets, scholars have long recognised the central importance of textiles to the economy of Ebla. The monthly accounts of deliveries of textiles (MAT) texts record the deliveries and issuing of hundreds of textiles both within Ebla and out into her broader sphere of influence. The textiles were used for paying taxes, were issued as wages, and were gifted to localities.
My dissertation examines over 250 of these MAT texts to synthesize, for the first time, a model of how the palace at Ebla handled its textiles. In this lecture, which is based on my ongoing dissertation, I will provide new insights into this sphere of economics at Ebla.As my dissertation draws to a close, I will discuss the overall shape of the textile and wool economy at Ebla: the role of the viziers; the strategies of the administration; how these insights change over time; and a strange situation about sheep at Ebla.
Several years' work and several hundred thousand textiles lat…
Event Series: Harvard History and Archaeology of Ancient Near Eastern Societies Workshop.
Thursday, October 22, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
Online via Zoom
https://harvard.zoom.us/j/94839810533.
Rex Wallace (UMass Amherst)
Title: ‘The Sabellic Languages of pre-Roman Campania’
Abstract: In the period before Roman expansion, ancient Italy was home to a diverse array of languages and cultures. In southern Italy, in the territory of Campania, the languages spoken before Roman expansion were Etruscan, Euboean Greek, and the Sabellic languages Pre-Samnite and Oscan. This lecture, which is organized into several sections, has as its prime topics the Pre-Samnite inscriptions recovered from the Sorrentine peninsula, which date to the 6th and 5th centuries BCE, and the Oscan inscriptions recovered from Pompeii, which date to the 4th century BCE and later. The examination of the Pre-Samnite and Oscan inscriptions also includes observations on the alphabets and writing systems, and on the phonology, morphology, and syntax of the languages. The lecture includes a review of the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family and presents groups of phonological, morphological, and lexical correspondences illustrating the linguistic…
Event Series: GSAS Workshop "Indo-European and Historical Linguistics”.
Thursday, October 22, 2026, 5:15 PM – 6:45 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Boylston Hall 237.
Michèle Lowrie (University of Chicago)
"Caesar, Carmen, and the Rule of Law."
Co-sponsored by the Mahindra Civilizations of Ancient Greece and Rome Seminar.
Event Series: Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar: Classical Traditions and Receptions.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Plimpton Room (Barker 133), Barker Center, 12 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA.
Harvard Hebrew Bible Workshop: Prof. Jaime L. Waters, Boston College
Details to follow.
Event contact to appear in listing: hbworkshop@gmail.com. Event Series (if not listed): Harvard Hebrew Bible Workshop.
Thursday, October 29, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.
HMANE 201.
Adam Aleksic (Independent Researcher)
Event Series: GSAS Workshop "Indo-European and Historical Linguistics”.
Monday, November 2, 2026, 5:15 PM – 6:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Location and Time TBD.
Black Cicero: A Conversation with Mathias Hanses
Sponsored by the Department of the Classics and the Hutchins Center, Harvard University
Featuring Professor Mathias Hanses (Associate Professor of Classics, Penn State University) on his new book Black Cicero: W.E.B. Du Bois and the Ancient Romans in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Oxford University Press, 2026.
In conversation with:
· Hannah Čulik-Baird (Associate Professor of Classics, UCLA)
· Harriet Fertik (Associate Professor of Classics, Ohio State University)
· Andrea Kouklanakis (Associate Professor of Classics, CUNY)
· Professor Jesse McCarthy (John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Harvard University)
· Jackie Murray (Associate Professor of Classics, SUNY Buffalo)
· Dan-el Padilla Peralta (Professor of Classics, Arizona State University)
· Diontay Wolfries-Thomas (Department of the Classics, Harvard University)
The panel will be followed by an EOS Reads event (from 3:30-5 pm), focusing on Du Bois’s classicism: details and readings to follow.…
Thursday, November 12, 2026, 1:00 PM – 3:00 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Venue: Hutchins Center for African and African American Research, Hip Hop Archive & Research Institute, 104 Mount Auburn Street.
Book Celebration in honor of Leah Whittington
Celebration in honor of Leah Whittington’s book, Antiquity Made Whole: The Renaissance Continuation of Ancient Literature.
Event Series: Mahindra Humanities Center Seminar: Civilizations of Ancient Greece and Rome. Event Series (if not listed): The Early Modern Workshop at Harvard University.
Tuesday, November 17, 2026, 5:00 PM – 7:00 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Thompson Room, Barker Center, Cambridge, MA.
For more info visit emworkshop.fas.harvard.edu. Harvard Hebrew Bible Workshop: Prof. Corinna Korting, University of Hamburg
Tuesday meeting, in Alternate Location. Details to Follow.
Event contact to appear in listing: hbworkshop@gmail.com. Event Series (if not listed): Harvard Hebrew Bible Workshop.
Tuesday, November 17, 2026, 6:00 PM – 7:30 PM.
TBA.
Harry Saunders (Harvard)
Event Series: GSAS Workshop "Indo-European and Historical Linguistics”.
Thursday, November 19, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Boylston Hall 335.
Ian Wilson (Harvard University)
Event Series: Methods and Practice in Classics Workshop.
Friday, November 20, 2026, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Boylston Hall 237.
Zachary Rothstein-Dowden (Harvard)
Event Series: GSAS Workshop "Indo-European and Historical Linguistics”.
Thursday, December 3, 2026, 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY; Boylston Hall 335.
Workshop on Classical Pedagogies
Laura Viidebaum from NYU
James Ker from Penn.
Event contact to appear in listing: contact: Irene Peirano Garrison (peirano@fas.harvard.edu).
Friday, December 4, 2026, 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY, TBD, Cambridge, MA.