Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

Pizza Talk: "Hubei Road Trip: A Tour of Sites and Museums in Central China"
2016-10-05 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Speakers: Richard Ehrich, PhD Candidate, Cotsen Institute of ArchaeologyDr. Hans Barnard, Cotsen Institute of ArchaeologyIn June 2016, Cotsen affiliates Hans Barnard and Richard Ehrich briefly visited a number of archaeological sites and museums in Wuhan, Jingzhou, Xiangyang and Suizhou in the Hubei Province in Central China. Richard is a graduate student who lived in Wuhan to conduct research for his dissertation. He will provide some background information on the sites and collections that they were able to see. He will also give a bit of insight into how it was like doing research in this region. Hans is an archaeologist who has worked in different regions of the world, but this was his first trip to China. He will discuss his first impressions of archaeological practices in China as an informed outsider.

Pizza Talk: "Reclaiming Heritage: Community and Indigenous Archaeology in Ifugao, Philippines"
2016-09-28 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Dr. Stephen Acabado, Cotsen Institute of ArchaeologyRecent trends in the practice of archaeology have seen the emergence of the active involvement of descendant communities in the research process. This is an important development since the relationship of archaeologists and communities that they work with has been tenuous, particularly, when archaeological findings have the potential to contest ethnic identities. As a case in point, the findings of the Ifugao Archaeological Project (IAP) (Ifugao, Philippines) force the rethinking of history and question the bases of Ifugao identity, particularly on how they have been presented in Philippine historical narratives. Ifugao identity is based on wet-rice production and the historical narrative that the Spanish never conquered them. Previously, the dating of the inception of the Ifugao rice terraces was placed at 2,000-3,000 years ago. The findings of the IAP however, suggest a later inception of the terraces, which coincided with the arrival of the Spanish in the northern Philippines. Initially, this finding did not sit well the larger Ifugao descendant communities, but as experience exemplifies, the pursuit to actively involve the communities and stakeholders in the research process resolved this issue. We further argue that the inclusion of the voices of different stakeholders in the interpretation of the past is inadequate since it denotes that indigenous stakeholders are simply contributors to, and not codevelopers or co-investigators of, research projects. Doing so empowers indigenous stakeholders to take control of their heritage.

Pizza Talk: "Soto: 2,300 Years of Evolving Ritual Architecture and Practice at a Monumental Paracas Huaca"
2016-06-03 16:00 - 17:00
Speaker: Ben Nigra, PhD Candidate, UCLA’Paracas’ refers to a polychromatic fine-ware tradition, a canon of architectural elements, a set of specific mortuary practices, and a rich textile tradition associated with Peru’s southern coast during the first millennium BCE. Despite decades of research dedicated to Paracas ‘art’, craft goods and iconography, south coast archaeologists struggle to understand the basic sociopolitical character of Paracas and the social and material conditions that drove its development through time. Excavations at Huaca Soto (2014-2015) re-calibrate this narrative by examining the evolution of monumental ceremonial architecture in the Chincha Valley. Our investigation further suggests that Paracas platform mounds became widely recognized as huacas, or sacred spaces, that garnered attention from later Wari, Chincha and Inca groups. Huaca Soto thus provides a case study on the appearance and evolution of coastal monuments in the long-term – spanning the first millennium BCE to today.

Friday Seminar: " 'Mycenae, Rich in Silver': Silver, Gold, and Maritime Trade in the Early Mycenaean World"
2016-05-27 16:00 - 18:00
Speaker: Dr. Jorrit Kelder, University of OxfordThis presentation aims to provide an overview of the earliest contacts between the Greek (Mycenaean) world and Egypt, between ca. 1600 BC and 1100 BC. By highlighting a number of objects that have been found in Egypt and the Aegean, this paper proposes that the earliest contacts between these two regions may have started in the context of long-distance trade in precious metals (with silver coming from the Aegean, and gold exported from Egypt). From the 14th century BC onwards, these early trading encounters developed into a much closer, ‘special relationship’, which involved the exchange of goods, plants, and possibly mercenaries.

Pizza Talk: "Ceramics from Mai Adrasha, Ethiopia: A First Look at the Western Highlands"
2016-05-25 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Rachel Moy, PhD Candidate, UCLAThis talk will summarize the preliminary results of the first season of excavation and research of the UCLA Shire Project at the site of Mai Adrasha in the northwestern Ethiopian highlands. I will discuss how Mai Adrasha fits into what we know of a larger pre-Aksumite to Early Aksumite cultural and political context. Due to how few excavated sites date to these periods, research needs to start with basic descriptions before we can make any firm broader conclusions. My dissertation will focus on the ceramic data from Mai Adrasha. I plan to start with the raw data to create four typologies each with a different method. I will then compare the four typologies taking into account the strengths and weakness of each. From these results, I will develop a more robust method to describe the ceramic data, and from this base, we can begin to describe more broadly the site of Mai Adrasha, its surroundings, and its broader cultural and political context.

Friday Seminar: " 'What is the Past But a Once Material Existence Now Silenced?' Understanding the Archaeology and History of Egypt's First Intermediate Period"
2016-05-20 16:00 - 18:00
Speaker: Dr. Thomas Schneider, University of British ColumbiaThe First Intermediate Period has presented archaeology and historiography with significant epistemological problems. Gaps in the evidence available to us and the uncertainty about how to interpret a variety of material and textual sources, have as much led to widely different views as modern paradigmatic shifts, depicting theFIP either as a time of crisis or to the contrary, a time of regional innovation. This paper will look at the methodological problems with which archaeologists and historians of the FIP are faced today. What can we know today and what are possible avenues of future research?

Pizza Talk: "Pars pro toto: Prehistoric Pottery Fragments and Archaeological Narratives at Ancient Methone, Northern Greece"
2016-05-18 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Dr. Marriana Nikolaidou, UCLAMarianna Nikolaidou holds a Ph.D. in archaeology from the University of Thessaloniki in Greece, and is a research associate at the Cotsen Institute since 1994. Her research and fieldwork focus on the Neolithic and Bronze Ages of the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean. She has published extensively on gender issues, symbolism and ritual, ceramic iconography and technology, adornment, and the history of archaeology. Projects with the Cotsen include: the publication of ornaments and ceramics from Sitagroi, study of ceramic technology at Tell Mozan in Syria, and currently the analysis and study of prehistoric pottery at the excavations at Ancient Methone. The pottery from Methone is the topic of her talk. Dating to the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, the material illuminates three millennia of prehistoric occupation at this key site on the Northern Aegean coast, and provides insights to the prehistory of the region.”

Wep Wa-ut in Westwood: Ancient Technology
2016-05-15 10:00 - 17:30
The ancient world is characterized by technological innovations and the creation of beautiful objects of art and daily life. On this public lecture day UCLA graduate and undergraduate students will explore who the people were that made these, what techniques they used, and how we can learn about their social circumstances.This event is free and open to the public. Schedule:10.00-10.20 Carrie Arbuckle Wood10.20-10.40 Adam Dibattista Bone10.40-11.00 Cara Lam Slaughtering as a Religious Act11.00-11.20 Salah Halim Bread11.20-11.30 questions11.30-11.40 coffee break11.40-12.00 Vera Rondano Faience12.20-12.40 Chelsi Dimm Pottery12.40-1.00 Sam Gonzalez Pottery1.00-1.10 questions1.10-2.15 Break2.20-2.40 Timberlyn Woolf Mud brick2.40-3.00 Ceanna Van Eaton Quarrying3.00-3.20 Idi Okilo Stelae3.20-3.30 questions3.30-3.40 tea break3.40-4.00 Nadia Ben-Marzouk Metal4.00-4.20 Dani Candelora Hyksos4.20-4.40 Heidi Hilliker Textile4.40-5.00 Luke Breinig Time5.00-5.10 questions

Pizza Talk: "Black Lives Matter: Reflecting on the Development of African American and African Diaspora Archaeology"
2016-05-11 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Merrick Posnansky, UCLA Professor EmeritusBlack Lives Matter has been a contentious political and Social concern in recent years but most of the heat has concerned the present situation of Police violence on Black youth in the USA. My own concern is with the general decrease of interest in the lives of poorly documented Blacks before the 1960’s. Archaeology has been the key for understanding much of the nature of the transplantation and acculturation of Africans in the New World. This presentation seeks to review the history of and growth of African American archaeology from the 1940’s when it was realized that much of African culture and behavior survived the Atlantic Slave Trade. UCLA doctoral research has been in the forefront of American research and has covered plantation societies in the Caribbean and Louisiana, the nature of free maroon societies in remote parts of the Caribbean and South America, the nature of free African life in both the Caribbean and the United States and the excavation of landmark sites such as the Harriet Tubman house. Though reference will be made to current research, including biogenetic studies and the extension of Diasporan archaeology to both maroon (runaway slaves) societies in the New World and to the West African points of departure, the talk seeks to emphasize that more work urgently needs to be done in Africa American Archaeology. It is vital that African American archaeology, as well as the archaeology of other American minorities, be integrated into University courses both in Anthropology and History courses dealing with the early histories of peoples in North America.

Friday Seminar: "Pottery as Information Technology on the North Coast of Andean South America"
2016-05-06 16:00 - 18:00
Speaker: Dr. Cathy Costin, California State University, NorthridgeAlthough some have suggested that North Coast ceramics are characterized by a stable technological style over thousands of years, evidence indicates that several aesthetic and technological styles “coexisted” with one another; they waxed and waned in popularity depending in large measure on the social and political environments in which ceramics were made and used. In this presentation, I consider how choices made in the production of decorated ceramics on the North Coast of Peru influenced and were influenced by the use of these vessels as information technology. Choices about forming, decorating, and firing processes conditioned how pottery looked and felt and affected the efficacy and efficiency of wares used to convey information about individual identity, social group affiliation, and important ideological concepts. I discuss those technological and aesthetic choices that relate specifically to appearance within their broader sociopolitical contexts, focusing on how pottery was used to encode symbolic messages and visually transmit significant messages.

Stones of the Butterfly: Archaeological Investigation of Yapese Stone Money Quarries in Palau, Micronesia
2016-05-05 19:00 - 21:00

Pizza Talk: "Currents and Commodities: How Oceanographic Effects Influenced the Prehistoric Colonization of Islands"
2016-05-04 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Scott Fitzpatrick, University of OregonFor many island societies worldwide, the acquisition and exchange of prized resources was fundamental to developing and maintaining social, political, and economic relationships. The patchiness of resources like stone, clay, tempering agents, shell, and animals often led to differential access which then helped to fuel the rise of social complexity. This presentation considers questions of resource acquisition as mediated by oceanographic and wind conditions, comparing results from archaeological projects in the Pacific and the Caribbean.

Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Open House
2016-04-30 13:00 - 16:00
Fowler OutSpoken TalkTua Pittman on Traditional Sea Voyaging and NavigationSaturday, April 30, 1:30 pm Internationally recognized as a traditional voyaging seafarer, Tua Pitman has navigated canoes for over thirty years without the use of modern instruments. He uses a traditional navigation system based on observations of the stars, sun, moon, the ocean swells, the flight patterns of birds and other natural signs.

Friday Seminar: "Archaeological Expedition to Sinop, Turkey: Exploring the Origins of Trade at the Nexus of Eurasian Civilizations
2016-04-29 16:00 - 18:00
Speaker: Dr. Owen Doonan, California State University, NorthridgeAncient Sinop was the crossroads of the ancient Black Sea, which has been itself described by the distinguished historian Georges Bratianu as the “Turntable of Eurasia.”Owen Doonan has led an interdisciplinary archaeological expedition to the Sinop region since the mid-1990s and through that research program has established a basic sequence of settlement, economic and cultural history in the region. The research has significant implications for the understanding of: (1) the entanglement of colonial and indigenous communities (ca. 630-200 BC); (2) the establishment of Roman infrastructure (1st – 3rd centuries AD) in a remote region of Asia Minor (the Roman term for modern Turkey); (3) the impact of the establishment of Constantinople (modern Istanbul) as the seat of a world empire, ca. 330-600 AD; and (4) the mysterious collapse of the flourishing Byzantine rural system ca. 650 AD.Starting in the summer of 2015 Dr. Doonan’s team has initiated a long-term program of excavations at Sinop kale, the heart of the ancient port and colony. He will speak on the new excavations in the context of the systematic survey and broader cultural and economic trends in the region.

Pizza Talk: "Mortuary Practice in the Mid-Chincha Valley, Peru: New Discoveries and Emerging Models"
2016-04-27 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Jacob Bongers, PhD Candidate, UCLAThis talk addresses local mortuary practices in the mid-Chincha Valley, Peru dating from the Late Intermediate Period, or LIP (AD 1000 – 1476) to the Late Horizon (AD 1476 – 1532). Ethnohistorical documents state that a complex, centralized state known as the Chincha Kingdom dominated the Chincha Valley from the LIP until the Late Horizon, when the Inca conquered and consolidated the Chincha. Here, we summarize mortuary data from three years of fieldwork (2013-2015) in the mid-Chincha Valley. We demonstrate a mortuary landscape of over 600 well-preserved tombs. We recognize two broad tomb types: above-ground and semi-subterranean chullpas and subterranean cists. We will highlight differences in mortuary architecture and treatment of the dead between these tombs. Notable finds include peculiar evidence of postmortem body manipulation, including human remains with red pigment, cut marks, and reed posts with human vertebrae. Existing radiocarbon dates indicate that at least one cist is pre-Inca and one chullpa is Inca in date, suggesting possible diachronic changes in mortuary practice that coincide with Inca conquest. We will marshal these data in an effort to characterize and explain the nature and variability of local, late prehistoric mortuary practices in the mid-Chincha Valley.

Friday Seminar: "Motivations and Mechanisms in Technological Change: Examples from the Talc-Faience Complexes of the Indus Valley Tradition"
2016-04-22 16:00 - 18:00
Speaker: Dr. Heather Miller, University of TorontoArchaeological interest in technological change focuses on both invention and production by craftspeople, and on social issues related to adoption of new technologies. We recognize that technological change involves both motivations and mechanisms for change, with respect to both the invention and innovation/adoption ends of the spectrum. The possible motivations and mechanisms for the development and spread of the faience materials found across western Eurasia provides an excellent third millennium BCE case study.A bewildering assortment of materials utilizing siliceous pastes were used to make small objects such as figures, beads and containers, in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, the Mediterranean, and regions beyond and between. From very early beginnings in the sixth millennium BCE or earlier in some regions, the assortment of these materials reached great diversity of production technique and material in the third and second millennia BCE, with much less diversity of appearance. In places where these materials have seen more analytical study, such as Egypt and the Indus Valley, similarities but also striking differences occur in the regional assortments of materials and techniques employed to produce quite similar appearing materials, used to make objects clearly belonging to the local corpus of style and topic. The Indus Valley case will be the special focus of my talk, where we must speak of it as a talc-faience complex due to the entwined nature of these materials in the Indus Civilization corpus.What was involved in the spread of these materials and their manufacture? Technological change includes both new ideas or products, and the adoption of those new ideas or products, both invention and innovation (sensu Torrence and van der Leeuw 1989). For the example of the Indus case, can we find clues to the social process involved in the innovative development of these materials from analysis of the objects and their production?

Pizza Talk: "The Centrality of the Outer Fertile Crescent: A View from Aradetis Orgora"
2016-04-20 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Marilyn Kelly Buccellati, UCLA2010 was our last excavating season in the ancient city of Urkesh in the northeastern corner of Syria although we went to the site in December 2011 to meet with the local staff to assure continuing their work on conservation and site presentation. With the impossibility of excavating at Urkesh during the war, and in view of the affinities between the third millennium at Urkesh and the Kura-Araxes culture I decided to actively return to my early interests in the southern Caucasus and join an excavation in the Republic of Georgia. In 2013 I began to participate in the Aradetis Orgora excavations of Ca’ Foscari led by Elena Rova. Elena is excavating the third millennium strata and her Georgian partner, Iulon Gogoshidze continues the Georgian excavations of the Late Hellenistic-Early Imperial period palace on the summit of the mound. The strata from the end of the fourth millennium and the early third millennium consist in a number of dwellings containing the characteristic Kura-Araxes ceramics and hearths. The talk will highlight the contributions being made by this area of Shida Kartli (Inner Georgia) to the concept of the “Outer Fertile Crescent.”

Pizza Talk: " 19th Century Archaeology Meets Sacred Landscape: A Second Look at Quen Santo"
2016-04-13 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: James Brady, Cal State University, Los AngelesDuring the last decade of the 19th century, four cave studies of exceptional quality were produced. The best was Eduard Seler’s report on Quen Santo in Huehuetenango, Guatemala because of the exceptional finds still associated with the cave at that time. As a grad student at UCLA, Brady became fascinated with the site after Ted Gutman of the Friends of Archaeology translated the report from German. In 2006 new road construction opened this remote area of the Maya Highlands and permitted a restudy of the caves. Combining 21st century cave archaeology with Seler’s 19th century reporting provides rich portrait of an important Chuj Maya pilgrimage site.

Friday Seminar: "Human-environment Synergies in Driving Late Quaternary Megafaunal Extinctions in South America"
2016-04-01 16:00 - 18:00
Speaker: Dr. Emily Lindsey, University of California, BerkeleyFor decades a debate has raged over the relative contributions of human activities and environmental change in driving the extinction of most of earth’s large mammals near the end of the last ice age. Recent research by our group in South America draws on archaeological, paleontological, paleoclimatological, quantitative modeling, and geochemical studies in order to investigate how these extinctions progressed through space and time across the continent. These studies reveal complex synergistic interactions between climatic and anthropogenic pressures, and highlight the need for integrating multiple regional-scale analyses in order to understand how large-scale extinction events transpired in the past, and how they are likely to proceed in the context of ongoing climate change and growing human impacts today.

Medieval Ireland: An Overview of 1,000 Years from the Archaeological and Historical Record
2016-03-30 19:00 - 21:30
The Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA and the Institute of Field Research present a public lecture:Medieval Ireland: An Overview of 1,000 Years from the Archaeological and Historical RecordDr. Stephen MandelVice Chairperson of the Royal Irish Academy Committee for ArchaeologyThe Medieval Period in Ireland is often defined in terms of specific events, from St Patrick lighting the Pascal fire to bring Christianity in 432 AD to the first Viking Raids on Lambay Island in 795 AD to the Anglo-Norman invasion led by Strongbow in 1169 AD. However, whilst these dates dominate the discourse, in isolation they are a simplistic classification and can take focus from a far more complex story. This presentation will give an overview of the medieval history of Ireland through the archaeological and historical record, demonstrating that this small island nation has always held significance far greater than its size.

Pizza Talk: "The Ancient Site of Zita in Southern Tunisia"
2016-03-30 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Dr. Ali Drine, Archaeological Researcher and Director of Archaeological Mapping, Institut National du Patrimoine in TunisiaThe site of Zita was a political and economic hub situated on the Zarzis Peninsula in the region of Tripolitania, southern Tunisia. Historical sources make reference to the site, including the Itinerarium Antonini and the Tabula Peutingeriana. A Carthaginian foundation, the urban area was incorporated into the Roman Empire with monuments such as a forum, capitol, and likely also a basilica and bath complex. The Carthaginian population persisted in its adherence to Punic identity and religion well into the Roman occupation. A Punic sacrificial precinct (tophet) has yielded over 600 stelae hewed from the limestone on which Zita sits, dozens of urns, and diverse iconographic representations. Neo-Punic graffiti and inscriptions to the goddess Tanit (Calaestis) further indicate the Carthaginian ancestry of the population, which thrived primarily on the production and export of olive oil. Most of the archaeological features are still buried under olive and almond orchards. Since 2012 research is ongoing through a collaboration between the Institut National du Patrimoine (Tunis, Tunisia), UCLA and Brown University.This lecture is co-sponsored by the Silsbee Chair in African Cultural Archaeology.

Berekian Family Manuscripts Donation to the Armenian Archives at UCLA
2016-03-11 19:00 - 21:00
Join us on Friday, March 11 at 7PM, as we celebrate the donation of the Berekian Family archive to the Chitjian Research Archives and the Armenian Research Program in Archaeology and Ethnography at UCLA.See the flyer below for details.Reception to follow.Please RSVP at kristineolsh@ucla.edu by March 9th, 2016.

Friday Seminar: "Stories from the Skeleton: Masculinity, Old Age, & Disability in Ancient Bahrain"
2016-03-11 16:00 - 18:00
Speaker:Alexis Boutin, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Sonoma State UniversitySince 2008, the Dilmun Bioarchaeology Project has been studying and publishing the materials from Peter B. Cornwall’s 1940-41 expedition to Bahrain and eastern Saudi Arabia, which now reside in the Hearst Museum of Anthropology at UC Berkeley. This multi-disciplinary team is adding to anthropologists’ understanding of how life was experienced and death commemorated in ancient Dilmun (ca. 2050-1800 BCE). In this talk, Dr. Boutin will explore how human skeletal remains and associated grave goods can reveal transformations in identity (e.g., gender, age, and physical ability) across the life course. She will also explain how experimenting with alternative modes of interpretation can improve bioarchaeological praxis and communicate effectively and accessibly with diverse audiences.

[CANCELLED] Pizza Talk: "Settlement Patterns and LiDAR in Central Yucatan: Evaluating the Potential of Remote Sensing in Conditions of Comples Canopy"
2016-03-09 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker:Travis Stanton, Associate Professor, UC RiversideNote: this Pizza Talk has been cancelled.

[CANCELLED] Friday Seminar: TBA
2016-03-04 16:00 - 18:00
Speaker: Ian Morris, Stanford UniversityNote: this Friday Seminar has been cancelled.

Pizza Talk: "Modeling Strategies of Risk-Reduction in the Kuril Islands"
2016-03-02 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker:Erik Gjesfjeld, Postdoctoral Fellow, UCLAHuman populations in the past and present have shown a remarkable ability to inhabit diverse and unpredictable environments. This research explores how archaeological remains can examine the use of risk-reducing strategies, such as social networking and technological innovation, in the remote Kuril Islands of Northeast Asia. Results from this research suggest that social safety nets may be an important mechanism for mitigating the effects of environmental unpredictability and that populations tend to become more technologically conservative in unpredictable landscapes. These findings help to highlight some of the misconceptions surrounding the concept of risk and support the future analysis of risk-reducing adaptations using material culture.

Friday Seminar: "Epistemological Issues Raised by Theories of Entanglement"
2016-02-26 16:00 - 18:00
Speaker:Dr. Ian Hodder, Stanford University

Pizza Talk: "Excavations at the Sanctuary of Poseidon in Boeotian Onchestos (Greece): Report on the First Two Campaigns"
2016-02-24 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Ioannis Mylonopoulos, Associate Professor, Columbia UniversitySince 2014, Columbia University’s Department of Art History and Archaeology has conducted excavations and geophysical survey at the sanctuary of Poseidon in Onchestos, the seat of the Boeotian Confederacy and a major sacred site of Central Greece, under the auspices of the Athens Archaeological Society. Excavation focuses on two large areas between Thebes and Haliartos, where geomagnetic survey also provided much information on subsurface architectural remains. The excavation has already yielded a rich array of finds: vases and vase-fragments (several bearing graffiti), numerous bronze objects (including several strigils), bronze and silver coins, weapons (among them a fully preserved sword), objects associated with horse- and chariot races, and many architectural elements (including several architectural terracotas bearing floral and abstract decoration in black, white, and red color on a beige background).

Friday Seminar: "Long-distance Networks in Neolithic Europe"
2016-02-19 16:00 - 18:00
Speaker:Dr. Caroline von Nicolai, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich

Pizza Talk: "Transport Amphoras, Symposia, and Early Iron Age Economies"
2016-02-17 12:00 - 13:00
Speaker: Mark Lawall, University of Manitoba
