Parthenon Symposium: Life, Death, & Disease: Insights from Petra’s Tombs

Parthenon Symposium: Archaeological Discoveries in Nashville

Join us for a free in-person talk on Wednesday, January 21, at 6 PM at the Parthenon. This in-person Symposium is free and open to the public, RSVP required. It will take place in the Naos on Level 2.

Join bio-archaeologist Dr. Megan Perry for an overview of recent archaeological discoveries from the ancient Nabataean city of Petra. RSVP for FREE Museum admission for the event.

About the topic:

Ensconced within the sandstone hills of southern Jordan, evidence from mortuary structures in the ancient Nabataean city of Petra tells powerful stories about life, illness, death, and commemoration of its residents. This talk will focus on their experiences across the life course through bioarchaeological evidence of disease, diet, and immigration from the skeletal remains recovered from tombs within the city. In addition, evidence of mortuary behaviors within these tombs will reveal the rich and varied forms of remembrance after their deaths. This integrated approach, shifting away from Petra’s temples and monuments, offers new perspectives on resilience, identity, and memory in a dynamic ancient city.

About the speaker:

Dr. Megan Perry is a Professor of Biological Anthropology and has been at East Carolina University since 2003. She teaches courses on human osteology, death and disease in Classical antiquity, and human diseases and ancient environments. Most of her research focuses on 1st century BCE–7th century CE Jordan, but she supervises graduate students interested in numerous aspects of bioarchaeology including analyses of a late 17th/early 18th century CE family cemetery in North Carolina, isotopic analysis to understand diet in ancient Petra, and paleopathological analysis of metabolic disease in 19th century Jordan.

She has been working on archaeological projects in Jordan for 30 years and is a member of the Board of Trustees of the American Center of Research (ACOR) in Amman, Jordan. She is currently the Director of the Petra North Ridge Project, which focuses on the excavation of 1st century CE tombs and 1st–4th century domestic structures.

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