SPEAKER:Dr. Richard HansenAdjunct ProfessorDepartment of AnthropologyUniversity of UtahABSTRACT:Excavations over four decades in the Mirador Basin have revealed perspectives of the origins, dynamics, and demographic collapse of the Preclassic Maya societies that flourished in northern Guatemala and southern Campeche, Mexico.  The identifications of the social, political, and economic catalysts that created the cultural complexities in the […]

SPEAKER:Dr. Willeke WendrichProfessorDept. of Near Eastern Language and CulturesUCLAABSTRACT:After five years of work in Ethiopia the UCLA Shire Archaeological Project has established close collaborations with four Ethiopian universities, national, regional and local offices and the population living around the site of Mai Adrasha. In December 2019 this culminated in a workshop to discuss the future […]

SPEAKER:John Cherry Professor of Archaeology and ClassicsJoukowsky Institute, Brown UniversityABSTRACT:Until quite recently, archaeologists have supposed that the seas and oceans represented a barrier to human dispersal, and that islands were among the last places on earth to be colonized by people, only fairly recently, as part of the worldwide spread of modern humans. But is […]

SPEAKER: Dr. Caroline SauvageAssociate ProfessorLoyola Marymount UniversityBellarmine College of Liberal ArtsABSTRACT:Sails were one of the most important fitting of Late Bronze Age ships, and yet, they are understudied because of the lack of archaeological remains. Although iconography has been largely scrutinized to gain knowledge concerning the shape of sails, their use and their riggings, sail manufacture […]

Due to the evolving public health situation surrounding COVID-19 this event has been cancelled. The well-being of our Cotsen community and all attendees at our events is of the highest importance to us.SPEAKERS:Dr. Jason De LeónProfessorUCLA Department of AnthropologyAustin ShipmanProgram Manager for the Undocumented Migration ProjectGabe Canter and Nicole SmithExhibition Coordinators for Hostile Terrain 94ABSTRACT: In 1994 […]

In 354 B.C., the ancient city of Methone, a close ally of Athens, was besieged by Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great. In the course of the siege, Philip not only destroyed the city, but he famously lost his right eye, struck by an arrow or bolt from Asteros of Methone. Excavations at […]

SPEAKER:Dr. Willeke WendrichProfessor, Dept. of Near Eastern Language and CulturesDirector, Cotsen Institute of ArchaeologyUCLA After five years of work in Ethiopia the UCLA Shire Archaeological Project has established close collaborations with four Ethiopian universities, national, regional and local offices and the population living around the site of Mai Adrasha. In December 2019 this culminated in a […]

SPEAKER:Alessandro VanzettiUniversity of Rome “La Sapienza”, ItalyAssociate Professor in Pre- & ProtohistoryShort-term Visiting ScholarThe lecture will present the main evidence for the symbolic representation of the celestial domain in the European Bronze Age, with some extension to the former Late Neolithic (also named Copper Age) and to the ensuing Iron Age. An iconographic analysis is […]

SPEAKER:Rosemary A. JoyceProfessor and Chair of AnthropologyUniversity of California, BerkeleyThis talk builds on feminist scholarship criticizing a tacit distinction between household labor (as intimate, domestic, and ruled only by naturalized relations of sex and age) and extra-domestic labor to help advance understanding of gender and labor in societies of ancient Central America. Household production, the […]

SPEAKER:Dr. Herbert ColeUniversity of California, Santa BarbaraProfessor Emeritus, Art HistoryIn writing my latest (and probably last) book: Maternity: Mothers and Children in the Arts of Africa, two stereotypes emerged that I ran into more or less often as I researched the topic, and these ended up as "pet peeves" that I felt the need to address in […]