In Conversation: What’s Your Sign? The Oldest Zodiac in Europe and Other Adventures in Archaeology

What's Your Sign? The Oldest Zodiac in Europe and Other Adventures in Archaeology

Tuesday, October 17, 2017, 6:15 p.m.
Dr. Tim Kaiser, Professor, Department of Anthropology

In 2002 archaeologists working in a cave on Croatia's Mediterranean coast made a remarkable discovery. They found fragments of an ivory astrologer's board with several engraved signs of the zodiac, sequestered for more than two thousand years in an undisturbed chamber of the cave. With an estimated date of 100 BCE, these zodiac symbols are the oldest ever found in Europe. What were they doing in this remote cave? In this talk, Dr. Tim Kaiser, the project's director, recounts his experiences at Nakovana Cave and discusses the possible meanings and significance of this find.

Dr. Tim Kaiser teaches Archaeology and Anthropology at Lakehead University. Dr. Kaiser is a specialist in European and Mediterranean archaeology and has directed excavations in Southeast Europe over the last forty years. Lately his research has taken him to caves on Croatia's Mediterranean coast where he has found sites that span the last 18,000 years.