Upcoming ISAW Library Public Events

09/09/2025 05:30 PM ISAW Lecture Hall
Foot end of an Egyptian mummy showing Anubis facing right with solar disk above him and a Greek inscription.

The Materiality of Death in the Transitional Phase: The Funerary Landscape of Roman Egypt

Leah Mascia

Dr. Leah Mascia presents on the ways in which funerary customs of Roman Egypt adapted to a changing multicultural landscape while remaining firmly embedded in the Pharaonic tradition.
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12/04/2025 05:30 PM ISAW Lecture Hall
Book cover of Nature's Greatest Success

Nature’s Greatest Success

How Plants Evolved to Exploit Humanity

Robert N. Spengler

The domestication of plants in prehistory allowed humanity to demographically expand, form dense population congregations (urbanism and social hierarchies), and advance the arts and sciences. For millennia, humans drove the evolution of domestication traits in crops and animals. Archaeologists, ecologists, and geneticists are all working to develop new theories about how domestication in antiquity occurred; one of these theories – the ecological release hypothesis – suggests that crops and animals evolved traits of domestication as a response to humans simply removing predators and herbivores. Dr. Spengler will briefly explore a few key themes in this theory and the rich history of domestication and culture, which he traces in his recent book, Nature's Greatest Success: How Plants evolved to Exploit Humanity.
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