This animated film features hand-drawn visualizations accompanied by music and other sound effects, but without any speech sounds. These animated drawings dynamically envision pre-Neolithic tools, weapons—such as big game spears—and other artifacts, as well as pre-Neolithic practices, including big game hunting and its hazards, leading to a dramatic portrayal of a hunter’s violent death in a confrontation with his prey and the ensuing burial practices. Add to this the centuries-later rediscovery and display of the skeletal remains of our human ancestors, and of their artifacts, in modern museums.

Length: 4 min

Country: UK

Language: No dialogue

Director: Michael Blake

Producer(s): Michael Blake

 

England—today an island nation-state—has been separated from the European continent by the ocean waters of the English Channel for the last 8,000 years. Seafaring across the English Channel, and via the Irish Sea—to invade, settle, or trade—has ensued for eons, from the Bronze Age all the way through to the 20th Century. And so have shipwrecks, caused by reefs, storms, piracy, and war. Each shipwreck tells a different tale from the long and rich record of British maritime history. In 1973, the British Parliament passed the Protection of Wrecks Act, which enabled the designation of restricted areas around significant shipwrecks to be monitored, researched and presented to the public by a system of volunteer maritime heritage conservationists. By 2023, 57 shipwrecks had received crucial protections under the Act.

Length: 35 min

Country: UK

Language: English

Director: Michael Pitts

Producer(s): Michael Pitts

TAC Festival Banquet

Back to the Festival Page

Wednesday, May 15th, 2024, 6 - 9 pm ($65 per plate)

Location: Gordon Tavern, 555 Oak Street, Eugene, OR

Who Can Come: Everybody who is interested, up to the capacity of the room

Description: We invite all those interested, including local community members and official TAC Festival and Conference participants, to attend the Banquet and get to know one another. A Banquet highlight will be the Festival Keynote Address by Dr. Dennis Jenkins, who is Senior Research Associate Emeritus, Museum of Natural and Cultural History, University of Oregon. Dr. Jenkins is best known for his excavations at Paisley Caves in eastern Oregon and the recovery of ancient human DNA from coprolites (dried feces) dating 14,500 years old.

Menu entree choices will include chicken and pasta in a buffet, which includes vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options.

Registration:

Call us at 541-345-5538 or email form to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Payment can be made:

by check (made out to ALI or Archaeological Legacy Institute and sent to PO Box 5302, Eugene, OR 97405)

credit card (call 541-345-5538 with the number)

or by PayPal.

Deadline for Registration: Wednesday,  May 8th, 2024

 

This film follows the first systematic underwater archaeological survey around Kasos Island in the Aegean Sea. Kasos Island has had a remarkable maritime prominence, from Homeric times through the 20th century. Maritime archaeologist Xanthi Argyris led the team of archaeologists, scientists and technicians. They conducted intensive diving in search of ancient shipwrecks. At the time of this filming, they were just completing a fourth year of their maritime archaeological survey in the area. After surveying 60 km of shoreline, they discovered ten shipwrecks, representing periods from ancient times to the present. After 220 dives and 320 hours spent underwater, 108 selected archaeological finds were recovered. Studying the shipwrecks’ locations has added new “tiles” to the already massive mosaic of the Aegean Sea’s underwater archaeological expanse.

Length: 12 min

Country: Greece

Language: Greek w/ English subtitles

Director: Stelios Apostolopoulos

Producer(s): Stelios Apostolopoulos

 

This fictionalized documentary is a reproduction of our imagined past—a journey through the lands of Poland and more widely in Europe about 4,000 years ago. The time in our focus is the transition from the Neolithic Age to the Bronze Age. This period witnessed a rapid technological and civilizational leap, by which the standard and quality of life significantly improved, and the very way in which societies functioned changed. The people at large saw a major enrichment of their lives. Bronze products, which began then to be utilized in everyday life, became an external symbol of social status and wealth. This subject matter, outlined in a fictionalized way, supports the cognitive, informative and educational value of this film. Via its choice of locations, its scenography, 3D animations, and precisely planned frames, this film revivifies a world that has long since vanished.

Length: 70 min

Country: Poland

Language: Polish w/ English subtitles

Director: Krzysztof Paluszyński

Producer(s): Andrzej Paluszyński

 

Within every bone is a story, the hidden echo of a long past life. Bones bear the traces of the life experience of an individual, of a community, of a people. They help us to reconstruct dramatic events, and even to reveal the face of one of our ancestors. At the University of Siena, in Italy, anthropologist and anatomical illustrator Stefano Ricci Cortili devotes his life to this special kind of archaeological research. The knowledge he has gained has already brought to light many secrets, hidden within bones.

Length: 7 min

Country: Italy

Language: Italian w/ English subtitles

Director: Gabriele Clementi

Producer(s): Gabriele Clementi

 

At the height of its power between the 9th and 15th centuries AD, Angkor was a resplendent city, considered the most extensive urban complex of the pre-industrial world. However, by the late 16th century, this capital of the Khmer Empire had become derelict, invaded and occupied by the surrounding jungles. The people of Angkor left not a single written word explaining when and why their city-state was abandoned. Come along with us on this big-screen adventure story, unveiling the mysteries behind this urban lost jewel of Cambodia!

Length: 39 min

Country: USA

Language: English

Director: Murray Pope

Producer(s): David Gross
Murray Pope
Christopher Zaryc