Great Catastrophes Lecture Series
Throughout time, catastrophes have shaped the world we live in. In the 2019-20 Great Lecture Series, we explore catastrophes from their causes and immediate impacts, to their implications and ingenuities. Natural and nuclear disasters, along with disease and deluge, will all be explored—from Pompeii to Chernobyl and mass extinction to the flu pandemic.
Length: 1:03:30
The Destruction of Pompeii and Its Aftermath: Blacker and Denser Than Any Other Night
When Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE, it buried Pompeii, Herculaneum, and the surrounding settlements under nearly 20 feet of volcanic ash and pumice. Pliny the Elder, a Roman writer, documented his eyewitness account of the disaster, supporting the ...
Length: 1:03:15
Spit Spreads Death: The Influenza Pandemic of 1918–19 in Philadelphia
What happens when disease strikes a city of two million people, sickening half a million and killing more than 12,000 in just six weeks and 16,000 in two months? During fall 1918, in the last months of World War I, Philadelphia hosted the largest par...
Length: 55:49
Overturning of Space and Time: The End of the Inca Empire
Explore the collapse of the Inca Empire- once the most powerful in the America- caused by civil unrest, European expansion, and disease. Clark L. Erickson, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology, Curator, American Section, Penn Museum...
Length: 55:05
Great Catastrophes in Earth History
In human history we have witnessed impressive natural disasters. These mis-events pale in comparison with great events in earth history. Disasters may seem dire challenges to life on earth but ultimately, they proved to be great opportunities for new...
Length: 46:54
The Great Flood and Its Aftermath
In the Great Flood of ancient Mesopotamian mythology, the gods cower from the storm as humanity teeters on the brink of extinction. What saves humanity? A subversive act: when the god of wisdom and magic tells a flood survivor to build an ark. While ...
Length: 51:08
An Earthquake That Shook the World: Seismicity and Society in the Late Fourth Century CE
A concentration of late fourth- and early fifth-century sources seem to suggest that a massive earthquake shook the eastern Mediterranean in the second half of the fourth century CE, precipitating a tsunami that reached as far as Croatia, Northwester...
Length: 1:14:38
The Classic Maya Collapse: New Evidence on a Great Mystery
The Maya of the Classic Period 150–900 CE created one of the most dynamic and successful societies of the ancient Americas. Millions of people inhabited thousands of settlements, divided among more than a hundred kingdoms. By controlling water reso...