Lecture – Hearth, Heart, Home: Skara Brae’s Early Stone Age Dwellings by Martin Carruthers
Skara Brae outside house 8 (to the left). Author: Wknight94. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
What was it about an ancient windswept place in the remote Orkney Islands that caused people to invest so much effort in creating one of the earliest examples of permanent homes? Skara Brae, a Stone Age village and UNESCO World Heritage Site, features unique stone-built homes, stone furniture, and an ingenious drainage system.
Dr. Martin Carruthers, manager of the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology, will provide insight for what this Neolithic site teaches us about the meaning of home today.
Co-sponsored by Archaeological Institute of America with support from Schlumberger, British American Business Council and Houston Highland Games Assoc.
Tuesday, February 20, 2018 – 6:30 PM
Members $12, Tickets $18
BTS – Knights
Illustration from Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary (1890—1907). Source: Wikimedia Commons.
Enjoy the Knights special exhibition in the evening when the museum is closed to the public. Your master docent will take you back to the very origins of knighthood, in the days after the collapse of the Western Roman Empire. Chivalry, feudalism and knighting will be introduced alongside a wide array of weapons and armor dating back to the 14th century showing how knighthood and armor evolved through the ages.
Wednesday, February 21, 2018 – 6:00 PM
Tickets $32, Members $20.
Lecture – Making Houston a Resilient City: Flooding, Carbon and Food by Jim Blackburn
Skyline of downtown Houston, TX in the United States from Sabine Park. Author: Jujutacular. Source: Wikimedia Commons.
This lecture will focus on the challenges and opportunities that lie before Houston, a key city in the global response to changing weather patterns, emerging economies and changing consumer preferences and needs. The future of Houston as a serious competitor in the global marketplace lies in many of the choices that will be made in the next few years. Are we ready to take our place as a truly world-class city, showing the way for the world, or will we be left behind?
Jim Blackburn is a Professor in the Practice in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at Rice University, co-director of Rice University’s Severe Storm (SSPEED) Center and a Faculty Scholar at Rice’s Baker Institute. He is both an environmental lawyer and planner and has written two books about the Texas coast with the most recent – “A Texan Plan for the Texas Coast” — just released in October 2017 by Texas A&M Press. He has also co-authored a book of poems and paintings with artist Isabelle Chapman titled “Birds: A Book of Verse and Vision.”
Cosponsored by Urban Harvest.
Tuesday, February 27, 2018 – 6:30 PM
Members $12, Tickets $18
