Malcolm Bell, Willa Lawall
Charlottesville Society of the Archaeological Institute of America

The subject line has a double meaning.  It refers first to this year’s initial AIA lecture on September 30.  It also refers to the founding of the Charlottesville Society of the Archaeological Institute of America 50 years ago and its first lecture on October 15, 1965.  Our September 30th lecture will celebrate the founding and the first lecture.  As the Classics and Ancient History played a prominent role in the founding of the C’ville AIA Society, I hope that many of you will attend the lecture and the reception following in the Fayerweather Lounge.  One of our founding members, Willa Lawall, still attends every AIA lecture.  She will make a few brief remarks about the founding.

This is a triple celebration!  There are two more pieces of good news.  This year, 2015, the Morgantina Excavations celebrate 60 years!  The last 35 of those years have been associated with the University of Virginia, a cause for celebration in its own right.  In order to celebrate Morgantina’s anniversary Malcolm Bell will be the speaker and he will lecture on Morgantina’s agora.  There is a beautiful symmetry here because Homer Thompson was the speaker at the very first C’ville AIA lecture in 1965 and he must have spoken on another agora, the Athenian Agora.

Our third celebration pertains to Malcolm Bell himself.  This year he is a Norton Lecturer for the AIA.  The Norton Lectureship is one of the three most distinguished lectureships within the AIA, the others being the Joukowski and the Kress (this being designated to bring international archaeologists to U.S. and Canadian Societies).  The news gets better!  At its January 2016 Meeting the AIA will award its Gold Medal for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement to Malcolm Bell!

Please participate in this triple triumph (compressed into one evening)!

The lecture will no doubt take place in Campbell Hall, probably at 5:30 or 6:00.  The University will not allow us to book a room until classes have started.

John Dobbins

President, Charlottesville Society of the Archaeological Institute of America