Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard
In memoriam Malcolm H. Wiener (1935-2026)
Along with the broader scholarly community of which he was an integral part, we have lost in Malcolm H. Wiener a generous friend and a wise companion on Ocotber 12, 2026. On multiple levels, Malcolm has been one of the important supporters of The Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean (MHAAM) and its Harvard platform, the Science of the Human Past.
Welcome to the Initiative for the Science of the Human Past at Harvard (SoHP)
We are a supra-departmental, cross-divisional and inter-school network that brings historians, archaeologists and other scholars together with scientists to chart bold new answers to the age-old question: what is history? Synthesizing the liberal arts and the sciences, SoHP serves as a center for scholarly programming and innovative new courses and fosters a network of new research collaborations across departments and disciplines.
The Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for Archaeoscience is one pillar of the new intellectual ecosystem emerging from cascading archaeoscientific advances and these collaborations. We hope to develop a certificate program and/or an undergraduate major or minor as well as postgraduate degree programs that will attract students interested in redrawing the map of the human past with the tools of 21st-century science and history, archaeology, and all the liberal arts.