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Egyptology expert to give lecture at Lycoming College

Lycoming College’s archaeology program will present a lecture by Egyptology expert Matthew Adams, Ph.D., at 3 p.m. Thursday in room C-303 of the Academic Center. His presentation, “The Roman VIth Legion at Armageddon: 2013 JVRP Excavations at Legio,” is free and open to the public.

Adams is the director of the Jezreel Valley Regional Project (JVRP), a group that studies an area that bridges Israel and Palestinian territories, the Jezreel Valley, to learn more about human activity from the Paleolithic to the Ottoman periods. This year, the excavation group discovered a long-lost Roman military base from the second century CE. The camp had been set up by the Roman VIth Legion Ferrata to help the Xth legion fight Jewish and Christian rebels, which were increasingly problematic for the Roman Empire.

JVRP was able to locate the position of the ancient establishment using historical and geographical sources, aerial photography and remote sensing.

It is “the first glimpse of a second-century Roman military base yet uncovered in the entire eastern Empire,” according to a press release.

Adams, who has taught at Lycoming College, received his doctorate degree in Egyptology from Penn State University in 2007. He is a visiting assistant professor in the classics department at Bucknell University, has more than 20 seasons of excavation experience in Egypt and Israel, and will begin his role as the new director of the W.F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem in June 2014.

“Dr. Adams is a great communicator with interesting ideas and wide experience bridging Israel and Egypt, currently directing his own project in Israel,” said Robin Knauth, Ph.D., assistant professor and director for the archaeology program at Lycoming. “The directorship of the Albright Institute is an important and influential position, so it’s great for our students to get to hear him in person.”

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