ISAW’s Third Annual Leon Levy Lecture To Be Held Nov. 5

      The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) will present the third annual Leon Levy Lecture on Nov. 5, featuring speaker Nicola Di Cosmo, Henry Luce Foundation Professor of East Asian Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study. Di Cosmo will lecture on “The Historian in the Future of the Ancient World: A View from Central Eurasia.”
      Much of the making of the ancient world has to do with the movement of peoples, as well as the languages, genes, and material cultures they carried from place to place. Central Eurasia from the Pontus to the Baikal was a major theater of population movements from the dispersal of the Indo-Europeans to the migratory waves of the early Middle Ages. While often met with skepticism, the recent encounter between molecular biology and genetic studies with linguistics, archaeology, and physical anthropology has heralded radical changes in the study of the ancient world. Questions such as “How should the historian of the ancient world view this development?” and “Does the historian have a role to play?” will be discussed in relation to the study of ancient Eurasian nomads.
      The lecture will take place Nov. 5 at 6 p.m in the Oak Library, 2nd floor of the ISAW building, located at 15 East 84th Street (between 5th and Madison Avenues). The lecture is free and open to the public but seating is limited. Interested individuals are requested to RSVP by calling 212-992-7818, or emailing isaw@nyu.edu.