Lectures on Tap - "Ancient DNA, Power, and the Real Game of Thrones"

📍 Location: Exact address given in confirmation email

🧠 Lecture: "Ancient DNA, Power, and the Real Game of Thrones"

🎤 Speaker: Dr. Jakob Sedig

Join us for a fascinating evening as archaeologist Dr. Jakob Sedig reveals how ancient DNA (aDNA) is transforming our understanding of power, politics, and family in the ancient world. Focusing on a remarkable case from Paquimé in northern Chihuahua, Mexico, Dr. Sedig will explore the burial of a sacrificed child with parents more closely related than first cousins—evidence pointing to an elite family using inbreeding as a strategy to consolidate power.

He will connect this case to other archaeological and ethnographic examples, challenging the idea—popularized by shows like Game of Thrones—that inbreeding among elites was a dark secret. Instead, you’ll learn how it was often a deliberate, visible tool of rule.

Dr. Jakob Sedig is an archaeologist specializing in the US Southwest and Northwest Mexico and in ancient DNA. Formerly Ethics and Outreach Officer and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Reich Lab at Harvard University, he now serves as Senior Archaeologist and Principal Investigator for Chronicle Heritage, with a strong focus on the ethics of paleogenomic research and collaboration with Indigenous communities.

Get a drink, connect, and learn at Lectures on Tap! 🙌

Agenda

6:30 PM – Doors open: find a seat (open seating!), order food & drinks, and expect a bar line—arriving early is key.

6:55 PM – Host introduction

7:00 PM – Lecture begins

7:45 PM – Audience Q&A

8:00 PM – Have 1:1 time with the speaker, mingle with fellow guests, and order another round

8:30 PM – Wrap up.