The Dead of Chaeronea: Unearthing a Lost Battlefield

Join the John and Penelope Biggs Department of Classics for the George E. Mylonas Lecture in Classical Art and Archaeology with Maria Liston, emeritus professor, Anthropology and Classics Departments, University of Waterloo, Ontario.

In 338 BCE, the ancient Greek world changed forever when Battle of Chaeronea pitted the forces of Philip II of Macedon and his young son Alexander the Great against a powerful alliance of Greek city-states. This lecture will uncover the human cost of the battle by examining the skeletal remains of two elite forces: the legendary Sacred Band of Thebes and the Macedonian cavalry. Through their injuries, we gain a vivid, almost forensic glimpse into how these warriors fought, suffered, and died on one of history’s most decisive battlefields.

This lecture is presented in partnership with the St. Louis Art Museum; the Hellenic Government–Karakas Family Foundation Professorship in Greek Studies at the University of Missouri–St. Louis; the Departments of Classics and Art History and Archaeology, Washington University in St. Louis; and the Classical Club of St. Louis.

Maria Liston

Professor Maria Liston recently retired from the Anthropology and Classics Departments at the University of Waterloo, Ontario. She is a bioarchaologist who studies human remains from Greek archaeological sites including Kavousi, Crete, the Athenian Agora, ancient Corinth, Thebes, and the UMSL excavations at Iklaina in the Peloponnese. Professor Liston specializes in the study of infectious diseases and battle trauma.