The Petrie Oration
The Petrie Oration is the annual lecture of the Australian Institute of Archaeology. It commemorates the life and work of Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie, who contributed so much to archaeology and to the collections of the Institute. It is delivered by significant archaeological scholars from Australia and Overseas.
2024
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Dr Claudia Sagona MOM, FAHA,
University of Melbourne
Southeast Malta: A Gateway to Cultural Change
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Past Petrie Orations:
2023
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Associate Professor Andrew S. Jamieson FSA,
University of Melbourne
Searching for the potters behind the pots: the Tell Ahmar Neo-Assyrian ceramic assemblage.​
2022
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Dr Anna-Latifa Mourad,
Macquarie University
Networks, Migrations, and the Enigma of the Hyksos
2021
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Emeritus Professor Ron Ridley FSA FAHA FRHS University of Melbourne
Talking sense about Akhenaten
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2020
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Dr Jennifer Webb AM, La Trobe University
Copper production and trade in Middle Bronze Age Cyprus: The view from Lapithos
2019
Dr Irving Finkel, British Museum
The Ark before Noah
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2018
Dr Craig Barker, University of Sydney
Urban Roman Cyprus: New Evidence from 2nd Century AD Nea Paphos
2017
Lloyd Weeks, Professor of Archaeology, University of New England
Eat, Pray, Smelt: the Enigmatic Prehistoric Desert Site of Saruq al-Hadid, Dubai, U.A.E
2016
Professor Alison Betts, University of Sydney
Kingship and the Gods in Ancient Khorezm: new light on the early history of Zoroastrianism
2015
Dr. Ron Tappy, G. Albert Shoemaker Professor of Bible and Archaeology and Director of the Kelso Museum of Near Eastern Archaeology
Samaria's Ostraca House: Making Sense of a Complicated Context
2014
Professors Carol L. Meyers and Eric M. Meyers, Duke University
Holy Land Archaeology: Where the Past Meets the Present
2013
Professor Wayne Horowitz, Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Seeing Gods in the Sky: Astronomy, Astrology, and Cultural Identity in The Ancient Near East and Beyond
2012
Professor William Dever
Reflections on the death of Biblical Archaeology
2011
Professor Timothy Harrison, University of Toronto
Taita and the ‘Land of Palistin’: Recent discoveries at Tell Tayinat and vicinity
2010
Dr Thomas Davis, Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute
St Paul on Cyprus: Transformation of an Apostle
2009
Dr Bruce Winter, Principal, Queensland Theological College
First Corinthians off the Rocks: Archaeological Resolutions of its Enigmas?
2008
Professor James K Hoffmeier, Trinity International University
New Evidence for the Amarna Period on the East Frontier of Egypt
2007
Professor Naguib Kanawati AM Macquarie University
Recent archaeological work in the Teti Cemetery at Saqqara, Egypt
2006
Dr Kathryn Eriksson, La Trobe University
The eruption of Thera (Santorini) and its impact in the east Mediterranean: archaeological analysis of mid-second millennium BC societies and the Biblical tradition of the Exodus
2005
Edwin Judge, Emeritus Professor of History, Macquarie University
On this Rock I will build my Ekklesia: Counter-cultic springs of Multiculturalism?
2004
Alan Millard, Emeritus Professor, University of Liverpool
Half a pot is better than no pot at all: The role of accident in archaeology
2003
Professor Rosalie David, Keeper of Egyptology, Manchester Museum
Flinders Petrie and the Manchester Mummies: a resource for scientific studies of life and death in ancient Egypt
2002
Professor Anson Rainey, University of Tel Aviv
The Tell el Amarna Letters: 100 years after Flinders Petrie