The Institute will host its first event of the year on Wednesday
February 24. Due to restrictions on in-person gatherings, this will take
the form of a webinar to be held via Zoom. Dr Tristan Carter
(Professor, Department of Anthropology, McMaster University) will give a
lecture entitled,
“The Colonisation of the Aegean Islands and the Global Origins of Seafaring: New Data from Naxos and Crete”.
“Today the only human inhabitants of the earth are us Homo sapiens, yet
not so long ago we lived alongside other members of our species, such as
the Neanderthals and Denisovans. What makes us special? Why did we
survive and the others die out? In this talk we discuss some of the
claimed evolutionary ‘winning strategies’ associated with Homo sapiens,
focusing on seafaring and the colonisation of islands, and the recent
challenges to the theory from work on Crete and Flores that only modern
humans were capable of boat building and maritime exploration. The talk
ultimately focuses on work being conducted at Stelida on Naxos by the
Canadian Institute in Greece, and how the discoveries at Stelida are
contributing to this debate of global significance.”
You are all most welcome to join us for this the talk, which will begin at 19:00 (Greece) / 12:00 (EST). The link is https://umontreal.zoom.us/j/93257451161?pwd=cDZHVTZKa0d5VnJvMTJVRDh5TlFzdz09
Jonathan Tomlinson
Assistant Director
