A lecture on the demons, monsters, and witches that haunted daily life in ancient Mesopotamia, blamed for disease and death, especially in infants, and the protective rituals people used against them.
A guided walk through the institute's current exhibition on magic and curses in the ancient world, led in the gallery itself. An hour with the objects and someone who can explain them.
A morning in a Gilded Age mansion full of Vermeer, Rembrandt, Fragonard and Turner, with the gallery talk A Home for Art on how the house became a museum.
Prof. Jeb Card traces how paranormal and conspiracy myth-makers borrow from ancient archaeology, from intelligent plasma jinn to star-sent Anunnaki and secret missions to seize a stargate.
Heka, the force usually translated as "magic," was woven into creation itself for the ancient Egyptians. The talk draws on texts and objects from the exhibition Cursed.
Two decades of excavation are used to argue for a fundamental rethinking of how precolonial African states formed, looking at elites, trade, technology and governance in the archaeological record.
A talk on ancient Jewish prayer that looks past liturgy to the amulets and phylacteries worn on strings and cords, and how they tied supplicants' minds, hearts, and bodies to devotion.
