PIZZA TALK: Lost Narratives: New Directions in the Post-1850 Historical Archaeology of Southern California
2020-02-05 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
SPEAKER:James E. SneadProfessorDepartment of AnthropologyCal State NorthridgeABSTACT: Historical archaeology in the western United States has traditionally focused on either the colonial-era “missions” or 19th century mining sites in remote locations. Recently, however, historical archaeology itself has undergone a major conceptual shift, emphasizing the ways that the study of material culture can shed light on a wide range of historical topics dating to relatively recent times. These often bear on contemporary social issues, including ethnicity, identity, labor, and heritage. The diverse communities of Los Angeles present a remarkable template for such research: this talk will describe current scholarship at CSUN focusing on specific “lost narratives” of the city’s post-1850s inhabitants as examined through archaeology. Particular emphasis will be placed on the dynamics of “community engagement” that are the organizational center of these efforts.

8th UCLA Archaeology Research Conference
2020-02-07 08:00 - 2020-02-08 17:00
The Graduate Student Association of Archaeology, an affiliate of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, will host the 8th Graduate Archaeology Research Conference. This conference will take place on the UCLA campus in Los Angeles, California, on February 7th and 8th, 2020. Accepted applicants will give 20-minute presentations followed by brief question-and-answer sessions. Program with Abstracts – 8th Graduate Archaeology Research Conference.pdfThe talks will cover interdisciplinary approaches to this year’s theme on “Experiencing Destruction and Regeneration in Archaeology.” Speakers will discuss the many contexts in which uncontrolled or deliberate destruction—as well as regeneration, reconstruction, and re-use—plays a part in the archaeological past and present. Destruction lies at the heart of archaeological inquiries, seen in every context from the collapse of civilizations to the deliberate breaking of ceramics in ritual settings. Destruction of archaeological remains also occurs in the present through the neglect or eradication of material heritage for economic, sociopolitical or environmental reasons. Simultaneously, reconstruction and regeneration penetrate every aspect of archaeology—seen in current heritage management practices as well as in the material traces of ancient and modern peoples’ efforts at recovery, rebuilding and re-use.Speakers are encouraged to approach this topic from an experiential perspective, as moments of destruction and reconstruction or regeneration provide communal sensorial experiences, producing and reproducing social memory and shared identities. Archaeology, as a discipline rooted in materiality, can access these senses at their most basic level. Exploring such experiences of destruction and regeneration allows us to better understand the mindsets of past and present peoples alike as they destroyed, rebuilt and remembered.Keynote speaker Dr. Patricia Rubertone, Professor of Anthropology at Brown University, will address instances of destruction and regeneration through the intersecting lenses of archaeology, history and ethnography. She will discuss commemoration and erasure of Native American monuments in New England in the context of colonialism, as well as the implications of documentary genocide and urban renewal for recovering indigenous pasts.Please RSVP by February 3rd here. Email any questions to archaeogradcon@ioa.ucla.edu. The call for papers can be downloaded here.

The Land of Open Graves: Making Undocumented Migration Visible
2020-02-11 19:00 - 20:30
Since the mid-1990s’, the U.S. federal government has relied on a border enforcement strategy known as “Prevention Through Deterrence.” Using various security infrastructure and techniques of surveillance, this strategy funnels undocumented migrants towards remote and rugged terrain with the hope that mountain ranges, extreme temperatures, and other “natural” obstacles will deter people from unauthorized entry. Thousands of people have perished while undertaking this dangerous activity. Since 2009, the Undocumented Migration Project has used a combination of archaeological, forensic, and ethnographic approaches to understand the various forms of violence that characterize the social process of clandestine migration. In this presentation, De León will discuss how the “archaeology of the contemporary” can help make this process visible and argue that the types of deaths that migrants experience in the desert are both violent and deeply political. The Land of Open Graves will challenge audiences to confront the complexity of international migration and American policy choices. Reservations requested. Click here to RSVP by February 5. For more information call 310-825-4004.Friends of the Cotsen Institute are invited to a private reception with Professor De León at 6pm. To learn more about the Friends visit their page or contact Michelle Jacobson at mjacobson@ioa.ucla.edu.Jason De León, Ph.D.Professor of Anthropology and Chicana/0 Studies University of California, Los Angeles Executive Director, Undocumented Migration ProjectJason De León, 2017 MacArthur Fellow, is Professor of Anthropology and Chicana/o Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles with his lab located in the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. His multidisciplinary approach to the study of migration from Latin America to the United States is bringing to light the lives and deaths of clandestine migrants crossing the U.S.–Mexico border into the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. He combines ethnographic analysis of migrant stories, forensic science, and archaeological research in his efforts to understand this process—who makes the journey, the routes, the means of survival and manner of death—and the human consequences of immigration policy.

PIZZA TALK: Migrations, Marginality, and Maritime Landscapes A New World Paleocoastal Occupation
2020-02-12 12:00 - 13:00
SPEAKER:Dr. Amy E. GuisickAssociate CuratorNational History Museum of Los Angeles CountyABSTRACT:Methodological advances and innovative research are reshaping how we look for and understand human dispersals and adaptations on maritime landscapes. Refinements in paleoenvironmental reconstructions and search techniques have resulted in discoveries that challenge outdated theories of island and coastal regions as marginal to human migration, settlement, and subsistence. The Northern Channel Islands of California have become a focal point for this maritime research as new discoveries have shown this region to be integral for understanding initial human dispersals and early occupations in the New World. This region has also become a proving ground for methodological advances that are refining how we integrate land- and seabased data into project designs that recognize both the landscape and seascape as a complex maritime space integral to maritime societies. Recent research has focused on the terrestrial and submerged portions of the island landscape that were intact and subaerial during initial human dispersal to the islands and during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene island occupations. By integrating paleoenvironmental reconstructions, archaeology, historical ecology, and terrestrial and marine geology researchers are striving to recreate the paleoenvironment and paleolandscape present during initial island occupations. These data may be critical to clarify early island colonization and adaptions strategies of the first Americans.

Del árbol a la canoa: surcando el mar en Mesoamérica
2020-02-13 12:00 - 14:00
Mariana Favila VázquezArcheological studies regarding pre-Hispanic mechanisms of environment appropriation have been crucial to explain the complexity of Mesoamerican societies. However, an ontological dichotomy of water and land has permeated these investigations for decades. The activities practiced on the mainland, such as agriculture, among many others, are the preferred focus of interest for explaining indigenous social and historical processes. The activities and the role of the aquatic spaces are generally considered subordinate or secondary concerning the former. Through archaeological, iconographic and historicalevidence this paper argues that Mesoamerican cultures, such as the Olmec, Maya, and Aztec, had a perception of the environment in which, although water was of course distinguished from the mainland, it was not seen exclusively as an opposite space, liminal and independent to the political, social, economic and religious dynamics of the indigenous people. Evidence of this is the development of a complex nautical technology that was permeated by the religious and ideological configurations of the societies that produced it. Consequently, navigation was practiced as a landscape connectivity system that integrated the use of waterways, coastal lagoons, wetlands, and estuaries, along with roads and activities in the mainland. This study allows for rethinking the valuation of aquatic spaces and getting closer to the local perception of the environment, in which the aquatic spaces are no longer the limit of the territories inhabited by humans.This talk is part of the El Mar Y Sus Metáforas Series and will be in Spanish. For more information about this talk or series, please contact Jimena Rodriguez.Mariana Favila Vázquez is a Professor of Archeology at the ENAH (National School of Anthropology and History, México) and a research associate in the project “Digging into early colonial Mexico: a large-scale computational analysis of 16th century historical sources” of the University of Lancaster, United Kingdom and the Museo de Templo Mayor in Mexico. Her research has focused on indigenous pre-Hispanic and colonial navigation traditions in the Mesoamerican cultural area.This talk is co-sponsored by the UCLA Latin American Institute, the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

PIZZA TALK: Three Thousand Years of the Cultural and Natural Legacy in the Mirador Basin, Guatemala
2020-02-19 00:00 - 13:00
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 Maya Lowlands have allowed new explanatory models responsible for the rise of cultural complexity during the Middle and Late Preclassic periods of Maya civilization (1000 BC-A.D. 150). Mapping and excavations in 51 ancient cities of various sizes throughout the entirety of the Basin have also revealed the ideological, logistical and economic dynamics that created a homogeneous society that merged to form one of the earliest state level societies in the Western Hemisphere. Yet, even in light of the economic, political, and ideological complexities of the Preclassic Maya in the Mirador Basin, a series of multicausal factors contributed to the long term demographic collapse of civilization in the area. The synthesis of the entire panorama of cultural process in the Mirador Basin provides new understandings of the saga of humanity found in emergent Maya civilization that is now being revealed for the first time.

PIZZA TALK: Lord of the Rings: Archaeology in Shire, Ethiopia
2020-02-26 12:00 - 13:00
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 of the archaeological site of Mai Adrasha. I will discuss the results of the excavations and survey in the tension field of different ideas and interests in both the past and the future.

Taking To The Water: New Evidence And New Debates About The Earliest Seafaring In The World
2020-03-01 14:00 - 16:00
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 that picture still correct? Startling new data have come to light just in the last few years, in parts of the Mediterranean and in island Southeast Asia, that have been claimed as evidence for a far longer antiquity for seafaring, reaching back hundreds of thousands, and perhaps as much as a million years. Naturally, these claims have attracted widespread attention and much discussion — and not only among archaeologists. This lecture outlines what we know, with reasonable certainty, about patterns of global maritime dispersal in the past few tens of thousands of years, before turning to present the new evidence and its strengths and weaknesses. In trying to understand it, we will need to consider information (amongst other things) from ethnographic analogy, experimental seafaring, and our current knowledge of the relative configurations of land and sea over the course of the Pleistocene era. Some of the bold assertions made in the past few years require more supporting data before they can be accepted. That cautious conclusion does not detract from the excitement and importance of this fast-moving field of research in archaeology. Contact Aaron A. Burke (aaburke@ucla.edu) for more information.

PIZZA TALK: The fabric of the sea – sail manufacture in the Late Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean
2020-03-04 12:00 - 13:00
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 has not yet been investigated properly. Tools for the production of textiles attest to their diverse forms and places of production, as well as to the types and dimensions of fabrics being produced, and the types of fibers being used. This talk proposes to address the question of sail manufacture throughout the eastern Mediterranean by studying textile tools within their archaeological coastal contexts, by exploring the necessary resources, skills and labor time, as well as by looking at ancient texts from the Aegean, the Levant and Egypt. We will include data from experimental archaeology used in maritime archaeology and in textile research in order to assess the logistics of sail production in the Late Bronze Mediterranean.

CANCELLED PIZZA TALK: Hostile Terrain 94: A Global Exhibition on Migrant Death
2020-03-11 12:00 - 13:00
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 the U.S. Border Patrol launched the immigration enforcement strategy known as “Prevention Through Deterrence.” This was a policy designed to discourage undocumented migrants from attempting to cross the border near urban ports-of-entry. With traditional crossing points closed off, it was expected that people would attempt to cross the border in more remote and depopulated regions where the natural environment would act as a deterrent to movement. It was anticipated that the difficulties people experienced while hiking dozens of miles across what the Border Patrol deemed the “hostile terrain” of places like the Sonoran Desert of Arizona would discourage migrants from attempting the journey. This strategy failed to deter border crossers. Instead, more than six million people have attempted to migrate through the Sonoran desert of Southern Arizona since 2000 and at least 3,199 people have died enroute. In the fall of 2020, the pop-up installation “Hostile Terrain 94” (HT94), designed by the Undocumented Migration Project, will be realized simultaneously in 150 locations around the globe. These installations are 25 foot long maps of the Arizona/Mexico border with ~3200 hand written toe tags representing the recovered bodies of people who have died between 2000 and 2020. In this talk we outline the development of this global exhibition, highlight our model for public facing anthropological work, and discuss the political and cultural implications of trying to visualize this type of archaeological and forensic data for a global audience.

VIRTUAL PIZZA TALK: Methone - The Movie
2020-04-15 12:00 - 13:00
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 the site by the Ephoria of Pieria since 2003, and as a collaboration between the Ephoria and UCLA under the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens since 2014, have uncovered a thriving settlement, continuously occupied since the Late Neolithic period. Methone: the Movie, shot during the last season of fieldwork in 2017, tells the story of Methone and its excavation.Register for the first Cotsen Virtual Pizza Talk here! You will recieve instructions on viewing the talk after registering.

VIRTUAL PIZZA TALK: Lord of the Rings: Archaeology in Shire, Ethiopia
2020-04-22 12:00 - 13:00
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 workshop to discuss the future of the archaeological site of Mai Adrasha. I will discuss the results of the excavations and survey in the tension field of different ideas and interests in both the past and the future.Register for this Cotsen Virtual Pizza Talk here! You will recieve instructions on viewing the talk after registering.

VIRTUAL PIZZA TALK: ICONOGRAPHY AND SYMBOLISM OF THE CELESTIAL DOMAIN AND THE PERCEPTION OF SPACE IN THE EUROPEAN BRONZE AGE
2020-05-06 12:00 - 13:00
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 necessary in order to decode (or try to) the representations.In order to do it, we should consider the way in which 3-dimensional space is represented, for the production of symbolic images.The discussion involves both phenomenological, conceptual, cognitive and religious aspects, often difficult to disentangle.A simple grammar of the representations, of their rules and occurrences, can help, but it is still only a starting point for further insightsRegister for this Cotsen Virtual Pizza Talk here! You will receive instructions on viewing the talk after registering.

VIRTUAL PIZZA TALK: WEALTH, WOMEN'S LABOR, AND FORMS OF VALUE: THINKING FROM THE STUDY OF ANCESTRAL CENTRAL AMERICA
2020-05-13 12:00 - 13:00
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 role of specific products of women’s labor as standards of value and media of exchange, and the role of indigenous ontologies in which material animacy and animating spirits occupied central places in exchanges we might otherwise think of as economic will be considered.Full abstract:As renewed interest in inequality sparks a turn to the archaeologically documented past as a source of data for generalizing models explaining the roots of the contemporary economic reality, it is worth pausing to question how pasts that were shaped under far different social conditions can be treated as equivalent to the contemporary world of nation states and global economies. In this paper, I examine three sources of incommensurability that should be taken into account in any attempt to think from the past of economic relations to the present. The first of these examines how labor is conceived of, counted, and understood in these different situations. As feminist scholars of the contemporary economy have long noted, large areas of economic activity by women are routinely excluded in modern analyses. Such household maintenance work rests on a tacit distinction between household labor (as intimate, domestic, and ruled only by naturalized relations of sex and age) and extra-domestic labor. For the societies of ancient Central America, such a division simply did not exist. Not only did a large part of the organization of agricultural labor build on household relations; women’s specialist craft production, in particular, was critical to economic relations. This leads to the second aspect of incommensurability that I consider: the identification and mobilization of standards of value and exchange. In these societies, cloth produced by women working in domestic spaces was one of the enduring standards of value, specifically important in tribute payments that established and perpetuated political hierarchies. Cloth’s use in this fashion cannot be disentangled from the social relations in which it was embedded. Nor can the social relations which gave value to other key media used to measure value in economic exchanges be equated, even when the same social agents, women, have key roles in production, for example, in the cultivation of cacao, a second standard of value. By considering these two media, and the way that they relate to women’s economic activities extending from domestic space to cosmopolitan marketplaces, I identify a third contradiction to conceptualizing the ancestral Central American economy in terms drawn from the current situation: the important of ideologies of material animacy and the role of animating spirits in exchanges we might otherwise think of as economic.Register for this Cotsen Virtual Pizza Talk here! You will receive instructions on viewing the talk after registering.

VIRTUAL PIZZA TALK: MY TWO PET PEEVES IN AFRICAN ARTS: FERTILITY GODDESSES AND "DOLLS"
2020-05-20 12:00 - 13:00
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 my text: “fertility goddess” as a descriptor of Africn images of mothers with children, especially those shown suckling, and the word “doll” as applied to images of children used by many potential mother to help them conceive, or if pregnant, to make sure the pregnancy goes well and a healthy, handsome child is born. I will explore both of these stereotypes and show that both are ultimately racist words when applied to maternity and child images.Suggested reading for the talk available here.Register for this Cotsen Virtual Pizza Talk here! You will receive instructions on viewing the talk after registering.

Virtual Chauvet Cave: Masterworks of the Paleolithic
2020-05-27 12:00 - 13:00
We are excited to announce that our event Chauvet Cave: Masterworks of the Paleolithic will now be held virtually!In conjunction with the global digital film premiere of The Final Passage, a 28-minute immersive experience of the Chauvet-Pont d’Arc Cave and its paintings, the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology will be hosting a virtual discussion and Q&A session with Jean-Michel Geneste, General Curator of Cultural Heritage for the Ministry of Culture in France and former curator of the Lascaux caves, and the film’s producer, Martin Marquet. Participants are invited to watch the film online prior to the event. Questions can be submitted in advance when registering or during the event. Since its discovery in 1998, the extraordinary rock art of the Chauvet-Pont d’Arc cave in south-central France has been celebrated for its remarkable realism and demonstration of skill never before seen in cave art. Dating back 36,000 years, the myriad paintings of horses heads, mammoths, bears, cave lions, rhinoceroses and more use “the knobs, recesses, and other irregularities of the limestone to impart a sense of dynamism and three-dimensionality to their galloping, leaping creatures,” according to Smithsonian magazine.(only available from May 7 – June 7)Wednesday, May 27, 2020 12:00 – 1:00 PM Space is limited. Please register by May 25.This event is co-sponsored by the UCLA Rock Art Archive. Email Michelle Jacobson at mjacobson@ioa.ucla.edu for more information.

PXRF Analysis Workshop: You've collected your data. Now what?
2020-06-25 10:00 - 12:00
Vanessa Muros, Director of the Experimental and Archaeological Sciences LabThursday, June 25th 2020 10:00am – 12:00pm (PT)Portable x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy has become a widely used analytical tool in the fields of archaeology and conservation for the non-destructive elemental analysis of cultural heritage materials. But once you’ve collected your data, how do you interpret it? This workshop will provide a general introduction to the three types of pXRF data that can be generated (qualitative, quantitative, and semi-quantitative) and through the use of case studies, illustrate how the data can be interpreted and used to answer research questions about cultural heritage.Register here (Registration is limited to Cotsen affiliates)

Photogrammetry Workshop: Creating 3D Models from Photographs
2020-07-02 10:00 - 12:00
Anthony Caldwell, Assistant Director of the UCLA Digital Research ConsortiumThursday, July 2nd 2020 10:00am – 12:00pm (PT)Photogrammetry, or Structure-from-Motion, is a technique for constructing three dimensional models from a series of photographs. This technique can be utilized by archaeologists to record objects, features, and sites both quickly and relatively inexpensively. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to systematically photograph objects and the steps to processing these photographs into a 3D model with Agisoft’s MetaShape (previously named PhotoScan).Register here (Registration is limited to Cotsen affiliates)

Statistics: Basic Data Management and Regression
2020-07-09 10:00 - 12:00
Alan Farahani, Assistant Professor in Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las VegasThursday, July 9th 2020 10:00am – 12:00pm (PT)This workshop will cover the basics of contemporary data manipulation using the R statistical programming language as well as provide an introduction to approaches to regression for archaeological applications. Topics covered will include philosophy of regression, model specification, parameterization, and evaluation, as well as the different distribution families used to analyze count (poisson, negative binomial, etc.) and continuous (gaussian) data. Participants should walk away (aka turn off their web cameras) with at least a basic understanding of the issues as well the ability to undertake some of the analyses using the R platform.Register here (Registration is limited to Cotsen affiliates)

Vector Illustrations with Adobe Illustrator
2020-07-16 10:00 - 12:00
Deidre Whitmore, Digital Archaeology LabThursday, July 16th 2020 10:00am – 12:00pm (PT)Vector illustrations are common in archaeological publications and field documentation. In this workshop we’ll cover how Adobe Illustrator and vector illustrations can be used for site maps, trench and elevation drawings, and artifact renderings. Participants will be introduced to the interface and tools associated with these types of illustrations. We’ll cover how to bring scanned drawings into Illustrator and set up a drawing for digital tracing as well as tricks to speed up the process. Additionally, we’ll walk through creating artifact drawings using common techniques including stippling.Register here (Registration is limited to Cotsen affiliates)

Keep it Secret! Keep it Safe! Hidden Magic and Coffin Construction in Ancient Egypt
2020-07-22 13:00
Caroline Arbuckle MacCleod, Ph.D. Fellow, University of British ColumbiaWednesday July 22, 2020 – 1:00pmIn ancient Egypt, the wooden coffin was considered one of the fundamental elements of a burial for wealthier individuals. It was a magical vessel that protected the deceased, and ensured that the owner could be transformed into a divine being in the afterlife. Due to the importance of these objects, potent magical talismans and symbols were placed around and in the coffin, and were often included in the decoration. Magical spells and rituals were also performed throughout the burial ceremony. In this talk, a new layer of ritual and magic is considered, hidden within the invisible joints of wooden coffins. In these areas, secret spells and magical red paint were added during construction. This may suggest the presence of educated carpenter priests, trained in the rituals needed to prepare the wood, as the first step in the creation of these potent vessels for the dead.Register herePlease note, the talks will start at 1:00pm PT during the summer.

Introduction to 3D Digital Reconstructions using SketchUp
2020-07-23 10:00 - 12:00
Anthony Caldwell, Assistant Director of the UCLA Digital Research ConsortiumThursday, July 23rd 2020 10:00am – 12:00pm (PT) This workshop will introduce 3D modeling through the use of SketchUp, an intuitive modeling application that lets you create and edit 3D models. The workshop will cover: navigating and understanding 3D space, drawing basics, textures, tags, importing and exporting, and much more.Note: This workshop will be using Sketch-up free. If you would like to follow the workshop, please make sure you have signed up for a SketchUp free account at https://www.sketchup.com/plans-and-pricing/sketchup-freeRegister here

Data Cleaning with OpenRefine
2020-08-06 10:00 - 12:00
Deidre Whitmore, Digital Archaeology LabThursday, August 6th 2020 10:00am – 12:00pm (PT)Data are messy. Nearly all datasets require cleaning and processing before they can be analyzed and interpreted. This workshop will cover how to use the free, open-source tool OpenRefine to more quickly and easily understand and clean your data. Participants will learn how to correct typos and misspellings, standardize terms and dates, and break complex data into usable formats. We will also cover how to share your data and cleaning steps with collaborators and export a script that details the steps taken which can be applied to future datasets.Register here (Registration limited to Cotsen affiliates)

Managing References and Citations with Zotero
2020-08-13 10:00 - 11:00
Deidre Whitmore, Digital Archaeology LabThursday, August 13th 2020 10:00 – 11:00am (PT)This workshop will prevent headaches and save hours of work. The open-source tool Zotero not only makes gathering and organizing references fast and easy but also simplifies the process of adding citations and bibliographies to your publications. This workshop will cover how to add articles, books, chapters, periodicals, and web resources with a single click. Participants will also learn how to add in-text citations directly in Word and LibreOffice as well as adding and formatting a reference cited and bibliography to publications. Lastly, we will cover how to collaborate with colleagues and easily share research materials using Zotero libraries. Register here (Registration limited to Cotsen affiliates)

Virtual Pizza Talk: Shimásání Dóó Shicheii Bi’ólta’ - My Grandmother’s and Grandfather’s School: The Old Leupp Boarding School, a Historic Archaeological Site on the Navajo Reservation
2020-08-19 13:00 - 14:00
Davina Two Bears’ research documents the history of the Old Leupp Boarding School (OLBS), a Federal Indian boarding school on the Navajo Reservation, from 1909 to 1942, as it explores Diné (Navajo) survivance within the context of this school. Two Bears employs decolonizing research methods framed by postcolonial theory to investigate the OLBS, which currently exists as a historic archaeological site. She explores how Diné children forced to attend the OLBS utilized their cultural foundations to meet the challenges imposed upon them by a settler society and relates the positive stories of Native survivance and resistance to assimilation achieved within the OLBS. Utilizing oral history interviews she conducted with Navajo elders and a critical review of archival records and historic photographs, Two Bears explores the history of the OLBS and the memories of Navajo students who attended the OLBS. Her research contributes to postcolonial anthropology as a study of culture change, decolonizing research, and Native American and Indigenous studies.Davina R. Two Bears is Navajo from northern Arizona. She recently graduated from Indiana University (2019) with a PhD in anthropology with an emphasis in archaeology, and a PhD minor in Native American Indigenous Studies. Register for this Cotsen Virtual Pizza Talk here! You will receive instructions on viewing the talk after registering.Photo courtesy of the Old Trails Museum/Winslow Historical Society. The photo is of the front entrance of the OLBS, which later became the girls and boys dormitory. This picture was taken around 1915.

What's possible with the Lux Lab? 3D scanning, printing, LiDAR and more!
2020-08-27 10:00 - 12:00
Doug Daniels, Emerging Technologies LibrarianThursday, August 27th 2020 10:00am – 12:00pm (PT) Doug Daniels is the Emerging Technologies Librarian at the UCLA Library and director of the Library’s Lux Lab. The Lux Lab is a suite of emerging technology services, including 3D printing, 3D scanning, laser cutting and etching, large format printing, 3D mapping, and a developing VR service. This workshop will highlight some past work that the Lux Lab has done. These past projects reflect the diverse use-cases of these technologies in an archaeological context. Immediately following the presentation, a live demonstration of the Lux Lab’s 3D scanner(s) will take place, with plenty of time for questions and answers.Register here

Academic Publishing in Archaeology
2020-09-03 10:00 - 12:00
Aaron Burke (CIoA Press Editor in Chief) and Randi Danforth (Publications Director)Thursday, September 3rd 2020 10:00am – 12:00pm (PT)CIoA Press Editor in Chief Aaron Burke and Publications Director Randi Danforth will present a session on academic publishing in two parts. First, “how do I decide where to publish something? Who should I publish it with? Should it be an article or a book?” This presentation will provide an overview of the publication process with advice concerning how to approach publishers, select journals, prepare proposals and manuscripts, respond to and address peer review, and promote your work once published. Part Two will present an inside look at the process, from book proposal to board review to acceptance and production (copyediting, author review, design, printing, and distribution). Deidre Whitmore will give an overview of electronic publishing possibilities, both those linked to a book in print, and those in independent digital forms. Register here (Registration limited to Cotsen affiliates)

Virtual Pizza Talk: The Earliest Farmers of the Caucasus: A View from Masis Blur
2020-09-16 13:00 - 14:00
Kristine Martirosyan-Olshansky, Postdoctoral Scholar, CIoA, UCLAAlan Farahani, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, UNLVSeptember 16, 2020, 1:00pm – 2:00pm PSTVirtual Pizza Talk Series This talk is a summary of research conducted at the archaeological site of Masis Blur, an early farming community located in the Ararat plain of Armenia and occupied continuously for nearly a millennium from ca. 6200 cal. BC – 5200 cal. BC. While much is known about how communities in west Asia adopted a farming way of life, much less is known about the Caucasus. The Masis Blur Archaeological Project explores the rhythms of everyday life at the Neolithic village in this understudied region using high resolution techniques to recover, record, and analyse the material remains of day-to-day activities. The talk highlights recent fieldwork and preliminary results from Masis Blur with specific focus on enhanced photographic techniques (photogrammetry), archaeological plant remains , animal husbandry, obsidian procurement, and a few key discoveries such as calcified basket remains, evidence of thatched roofs, and pigment processing workshops which, to date, are singular for the region.Kristine Martirosyan-Olshansky is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology where she is directing the Research Program for Armenian Archaeology and Ethnography. She earned her PhD in Archaeology from UCLA in 2018 and she has been directing the Masis Blur Archaeological Research Project since 2012. As an anthropological archaeologist she uses geochemical characterization of materials to study past human behavior. In particular, she looks at how early farming communities of the Southern Caucasus made use of the available natural resources and how these behaviors influenced the spread of technological innovation and social change. Alan Farahani is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is an anthropological archaeologist whose research focuses on how ancient agriculture was embedded in and influenced the social, political, and cultural practices of people in the past. His methodological expertise is paleoethnobotany, or the analysis of archaeological plant remains, as well as in the use of contemporary computational tools such as Python and R to effectively manage archaeological data. He has conducted fieldwork throughout the world, and has been working on the Masis Blur project since 2018.Register for this Cotsen Virtual Pizza Talk here! You will receive instructions on viewing the talk after registering.

4Liz Symposium
2020-09-25 12:00 - 2020-09-26 15:00
Download the full event program here.

History, Memory And Conservation: Preserving The Past For Future Generations
2020-09-30 11:00 - 12:00
Dr. Glenn WhartonChair, UCLA/Getty Program in the Conservation ofArchaeological and Ethnographic Materialsinvites you to attendUCLA/Getty Program’s Distinguished Speaker SeriesfeaturingDr. Spencer CrewActing Director of the National Museum of African AmericanHistory and Culture speaking onHistory, Memory and Conservation:Preserving the Past for Future Generationswith opening remarks byDr. Darnell HuntDean, UCLA Division of Social SciencesProfessor of Sociology and African American StudiesWednesday, September 30, 202011:00 a.m. – Noon PDTOnline Webinar Instructions to join the webinar will be provided once your registration has been confirmed.About the speaker: Dr. Spencer R. Crew has worked in public history institutions for more than thirty years.  He is currently the Acting Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Click here to read more.
