Lunch Club provides affiliates of the Stanford Archaeology Center with a community-oriented forum for engagement with current issues in archaeology. On November 5, 2025,  we will host Dr. Katie Jarriel from Purdue University.

Abstract:

On the digital sea, computational models offer a virtual laboratory for testing how people in the past sailed between islands, building communities across the water. This talk showcases two examples of how digital modeling helps us understand ancient seafaring. From the Aegean Bronze Age, spatial analysis offers clues to where people may have fled after the eruption of one of the largest volcanoes in history. From Oceania, paleoclimate data let us explore how past sailors navigated, while their experience offers insight into our present age of rising sea levels and vulnerable supply chains.