Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

PIZZA TALK: Uncertainty and Ethics
2019-02-27 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Los_Angeles)
Dr. Jonathan Ashley-SmithGetty Conservation Guest ScholarAbstract:This presentation will discuss the inevitability of prediction in conservation activities.Routine activities such as condition assessment and risk assessment rely on the ability topredict future environments and future physical and chemical states of objects. Yet for theresults to be useful they have to be presented as positive statements that hide the hugeuncertainties in such predictions. Codes of conservation ethics imply predictions about thefuture behaviours of people and objects. Despite the inherent uncertainties of suchpredictions, such codes have become the bedrock of the conservation profession.

FRIDAY SEMINAR: The ancient town of Edfu from the Old Kingdom to the early New Kingdom: New discoveries of the 2017 and 2018 seasons
2019-02-22 16:00 - 18:00
Nadine Moeller Associate Professor of Egyptian ArchaeologyUniversity of ChicagoAbstract: The ongoing excavations by the Oriental Institute team directed by Nadine Moeller and Gregory Marouard have during the most recent seasons focused on settlement remains dating to the Old Kingdom. Located 20 m to the west of the much later Ptolemaic temple of Horus of Edfu, excavations revealed several phases of domestic installations from the second part of the 6th Dynasty that covered an older administrative complex with several massive mudbrick structures dating to the late 5th Dynasty that had been installed directly onto the natural Nile sand deposits in an area never settled before that date. Based on their size, architectural details and related finds, the two large buildings are of official nature and constitute a newly founded settlement quarter in the ancient town of Behdet (Edfu). Among the finds are more than 220 clay sealings naming king Djedkare-Isesi (late 5th Dynasty, ca. 2434 BC), in addition to official titles that regularly mention a group of specialized workers involved in prospection and mining activities, the so-called sementiu. Additional finds such as numerous pieces of copper ore, important traces of metallurgical activities, Red Sea shells and a significant amount of Nubian ceramics found on the floor levels during the excavation further confirm the link to royal expeditions and mining activities in the Eastern desert areas. The second area that has been the focus of fieldwork since November 2018 provided new evidence for a vast domestic quarter dating to the beginning of 18th Dynasty. Excavations have focused on a large urban villa of about 400 square-meters, which dates from the early Thutmoside period (ca. 1500-1450 BCE). This building is characterized by several rooms with columns. The largest and main room, a 6-columned hall, contained in one of its corners a well-preserved domestic sanctuary dedicated to the cult of the family ancestors. Numerous elements attesting to the cult activity have been found near a small fire place and offering table, including a very rare example of an ancestor bust and a statuette of a seated scribe

PIZZA TALK: LA MINA A LOOTED MOCHE TOMB
2019-02-20 12:00 - 13:00
Christopher Donnan, Ph.D.UCLA Professor EmeritusAbstract:This talk focuses on an extraordinarily rich Moche tomb that was looted on the north coast of Peru, the efforts that were made to record the objects that came from it, and how it was possible to learn about its location, construction, and embellishment.

FRIDAY SEMINAR: The Tyranny of Ethnonyms in Multiethnic Worlds
2019-02-15 16:00 - 18:00
Dr. Stacie KingAssociate Professor of AnthropologyAssociate Faculty for the Center forLatin American and Caribbean StudiesIndiana University BloomingtonAbstract:This talk explores the challenges that ethnonyms create when trying to reconstructhistories of multiethnic landscapes in the ancient world. My larger project in the Nejaparegion of Oaxaca, Mexico addresses various aspects of conquest and colonialism alonginteregional trade routes, including identifying fortresses in mountain landscapes, themeaning of unoccupied land, the relationships entailed by trade and exchange, andreconciling archival documents, oral history, and archaeology. In this talk, I use my workto demonstrate how ethnonyms have pervaded interpretations of the past, archaeologicalreconstructions, and Colonial period registers, such that it remains difficult to envision adifferent kind of thriving, multiethnic world. Taken together, archaeological data, archivalinformation, and oral history from rural multiethnic Nejapa, Oaxaca show us thatdifferent indigenous communities across this landscape experienced Aztec, Zapotec, andSpanish conquests and colonialisms differently between the years A.D. 1350 and 1650, andthat these differences do not fit well with traditional reconstructions of Nejapa’sindigenous ethnic groups (Mixe, Chontal, and Zapotec). Instead, the data complicateentrenched notions of ethnicity and challenge their basic formulation. The long-standingmultiethnic past of ancient Nejapa set the stage for a different form of indigeneity thatNejapa’s resident experience in the present.

PIZZA TALK: All the Small Things: Artifacts in Urban Context
2019-02-13 12:00 - 13:00
Dr. Leigh LiebermanDepartment of HistoryClaremont McKenna College AbstractIn recent years, the study of ancient artifacts has moved beyond straightforward typologies, descriptions, and quantifications. New approaches to the analysis of material culture – including methods of geospatial referencing, artifact agency, object biography, and statistical analysis of large datasets – have drawn attention to the myriad ways in which objects could be used and reused, deposited and redeposited in the ancient world. These new approaches have consequently given new life to materials that have been long overlooked in busy storerooms, from iron nails to loom weights, from ceramic wasters to unidentifiable coins. However, no matter the classification method, scholars still by and large fail to situate all the artifacts from a site fully within their archaeological contexts, a term that is frequently discussed in published reports but often thoroughly misunderstood. In both excavation publications and museum displays, the intended use of an object is almost always prioritized when in fact a contextual approach to the study and presentation of artifacts and assemblages can better illustrate the multiple, varied roles that objects served in the ancient world.As the Manager of Data and Information Resources for the University of Cincinnati’s Pompeii Archaeological Research Project: Porta Stabia (PARP:PS), the Data Supervisor for the American Excavations at Morgantina: Contrada Agnese Project (AEM:CAP), and the Head of Materials for the University of Cincinnati’s Tharros Archaeological Research Project (TARP), I have facilitated the development of a robust data organizational scheme that guides our innovative approach to material culture. I argue that by prioritizing context in the analysis of artifacts and assemblages, we can come to a more nuanced interpretation of how everyday objects were used, discarded, and recycled in urban spaces in antiquity. In my presentation, I’ll be highlighting some of the important lessons that I have learned along the way.

A Painted Landscape: Myth and Ritual in Lower Pecos Rock Art
2019-02-12 18:00 - 20:30
The Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwest Texas and Coahuila, Mexico house some of the most spectacularly complex rock art of the ancient world. Approximately 4000 years ago, hunter-gatherers began transforming this region into a painted landscape. Perhaps the greatest of these masterpieces is the White Shaman mural, an intricate Pecos River style painting that spans twenty-six feet in length and thirteen feet in height. Drawing on twenty-five years of archaeological research, as well as insight from ethnohistory and art history, Carolyn Boyd identifies patterns in the art that relate, in stunning detail, to the mythologies of Uto-Aztecan speaking peoples, including the Aztec and the contemporary Huichol. Analysis of these patterns led to the identification of the White Shaman mural as an ancient visual narrative relating a story of the birth of the sun and the beginning of time.California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA570 Westwood Plaza Building 114Los Angeles, CA 90095Reception on Tuesday, February 12, 2019 at 6:00pm with the program at 7:00pm RSVP here Carolyn E. Boyd, Ph.D.Founder of Shumla Archaeological Research & Education CenterResearch Professor at Texas State

PIZZA TALK: Long-term Settlement Histories and Early Village Formation in the Northern Southwest
2019-02-06 12:00 - 13:00
Gregson Schachner & Reuven SinenskyAbstract:Ancestral Pueblo communities in the American Southwest underwent dramatic transformations in the mid-1st millennium AD, including rapid population growth and the widespread adoption of social structures that remained in place over the next millennium. We explore to two key moments in this process: the widespread adoption of sedentary agriculture in the mid-6th century and the founding of the earliest aggregated villages during the 8th century. While the former transition is marked by abrupt changes in architecture, storage facilities, and technological traditions region-wide, the latter displays remarkable diversity. Drawing on recent excavations and high quality chronometric and paleoclimate data, we suggest that a severe climatic downturn brought about by a series of massive volcanic eruptions is in part responsible for the abrupt changes associated with the onset of the Neolithic Demographic Transition in the northern Southwest during the mid-AD 500s, while a myriad of entangled economic and social factors contributed to the formation of early population aggregates a little over a century later.

PIZZA TALK:Climate Change, Cultural Heritage and Human Social Trajectories: An Archaeological Perspective from Holocene Central Sahara
2019-01-30 12:00 - 13:00
Savino di LerniaDirector, The Archaeological Mission in the SaharaDirector, The Archaeological Mission in the Kenyan Rift ValleySapienza University of Rome, ItalyAbstractClimate changes are a serious threat to cultural and natural heritage. Although many contexts are today seriously endangered, recent studies highlight how “archaeology and cultural heritage threatened by anthropogenic climate change are not just victims but part of the solution” (Hambrecht & Rockman, 2017. American Antiquity). Long-term archaeological projects could provide evidence to better understand the nature of the relations between climatically driven environmental changes and social trajectories. Aim of this talk is to present a synthesis of the main Holocene climate and environmental variations from a privileged geographical context – the central Sahara, where the magnitude of these changes was huge –, with a special focus on the Tadrart Acacus and Messak region (SW Libya). Here, cultural and social trajectories go together with resilient mechanisms of adaptations. Archaeological evidence reveals that social strategies were pivotal in coping with environmental changes. Although it is certainly true that climate changes are in fact central elements in cultural trajectories, in the past as today, this is even truer for marginal ecosystems such as the changing landscapes of the Holocene central Sahara. However, the continuity of many cultural practices until historical times and even later shows how the Saharan tradition is indeed an extraordinary way of life that deserves specific attention.

PIZZA TALK: Epigraphy in the Block Yard at Tell Edfu: Problems and Result
2019-01-23 12:00 - 13:00
Jonathan WinnermanLecturer, UCLA Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures ABSTRACT:Begun in 2012, the goal of the Block Yard Project at Tell Edfu is to organize, conserve, and document the wealth of epigraphic material discovered in the settlement site to the west of the well-known Ptolemaic temple. Prior to the present study, many of the objects were simply abandoned at the base of the site, deemed unworthy for inclusion in a museum by early excavators. Yet, these objects reveal a great deal about Egyptian religious practices, especially in the community outside of the temple itself. This talk first discusses epigraphic methodology and the options available for the documentation of this or other, similar material. It next provides an overview of some of the most interesting results, focusing specifically on the remains of a distinctive structure of unknown design and purpose.

PIZZA TALK:Early globalization? Isotopic evidence of food practices in Prehistoric Italy
2019-01-16 12:00 - 13:00
Early globalization? Isotopic evidence of food practices in Prehistoric Italy Mary Anne TafuriDepartment of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of RomeThe cultural and social importance of food goes far beyond the mere necessity of nutrition, yet archaeologists have been slow to tackle issues of the sociality of food in prehistory. This is a great loss particularly as the economic transformations, which structured human diet took place in prehistory. One reason for lack of attention to this question has been limited methodologies for investigating not only what foods were produced but also exactly what foods people consumed.The increasing application of biomolecular investigations of skeletal tissues offers an exceptionally valuable approach for directly assessing aspects of an individual’s life, including their diet, geographical origin as well as the climate they inhabited.In the Central Mediterranean a number of important economic questions can be addressed through isotopic investigations: we can explore the balance between plant and animal sources of food in the diet of prehistoric people and how this change between the onset of the Neolithic (ca. 6000 BC) and the end of the Bronze Age (ca. 900 BC). We can assess the relative contribution of marine resources to diet the Central Mediterranean and, further, we can identify mode and tempo for the use of new foods.This talk will present new isotopic data on a large set of sites from prehistoric Italy that span from the earliest phases of the Neolithic to the later Bronze Age. A pattern of great complexity emerges, showing profound differences between the northern and southern regions of the Peninsula, which can be associated with environmental aspects but mostly should be interpreted as different cultural practices across space and time.

PIZZA TALK: The Challenges of Studying the Agricultural Landscapes of Petra
2019-01-09 12:00 - 13:00
Felipe Rojas SilvaAssistant Professor of Archaeology and the Ancient World and Egyptology and AssyriologyBrown University

FRIDAY SEMINAR: Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Why the Repatriation Wars Matter
2018-12-07 16:00 - 18:00
Dr. Chip ColwellSenior Curator of Anthropology, Denver Museum of Natural ScienceAbstract:Five decades ago, Native American leaders launched a crusade against museums to reclaim their sacred objects and to rebury their kin. This controversy has exploded in recent years as hundreds of tribes have used a landmark federal law to recover their heritage from more than one thousand museums across America. Many still question how to balance the religious freedoms of Native Americans with the academic freedoms of American scientists, and the arguments continue on about whether the emptying of museum shelves elevates human rights or destroys humanity’s common heritage. This talk presents Dr. Colwell’s new book and winner of a 2017 Choice Outstanding Academic Book Title Award, Plundered Skulls and Stolen Spirits: Inside the Fight to Re claim Native America’s Culture, a personal journey that illuminates how repatriation has transformed both American museums and Native communities. This story reveals why repatriation law has become an imperfect but necessary tool to resolve the collision of worldviews between scientists and Native Americans—to decide the nature of the sacred and the destiny of souls.

FRIDAY SEMINAR: "No es lo mismo llamar al diablo que verlo venir”: Climate Change, Changing Weather and Archaeological Heritage as Seen from Puerto Rico
2018-11-30 16:00 - 18:00
BIO:Isabel Rivera-Collazo is Assistant Professor on Biological, Ecological and Human Adaptations to Climate Change at the Department of Anthropology and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. Dr. Rivera-Collazo is an environmental archaeologist specializing on geoarchaeology, archaeomalacology, coastal and marine processes, maritime culture and climate change, with regional interests in Puerto Rico, the Caribbean Basin and the Neotropics (Pan Caribbean region); Israel and the eastern Mediterranean. Her research focuses on the effect that human activity has over island ecosystems through time, as well as how have people responded to climatic and environmental change in the past. Dr. Rivera-Collazo’s work focuses on resilience and adaptation, investigating what decisions enhance or reduce adaptive success. Taking an applied approach, Dr. Rivera-Collazo also works with local communities in the quest for understanding the current and expected impacts of climate change, including threats to coastal heritage. Dr. Isabel Rivera-Collazo has a MSc degree on Palaeoecology of Human Societies and a PhD on Environmental Archaeology both from the Institute of Archaeology,University College London. She is also Research Fellow of the Center of Tropical Ecology and Conservation (CATEC) and the Laboratory of Environmental Archaeology at the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus.ABSTRACT:A popular proverb in Puerto Rico warns that “it is not the same thing to call the devil than to see him come”. For many years, scientists have been warning about the potential impacts of climate change. In the last five to ten years archaeologists have been linking those impacts to heritage. These past two years, 2017 and 2018, have demonstrated the real-life meaning of changing weather – which eventually will add up to changed climate – and it is not the same to see the devil come. In the context of rapidly changing weather, heritage is a tool for adaptation, for recovery of lost knowledge, and for communication of locally relevant climate science. But at the same time, this reality puts heritage professionals at the front of a social, physical and cultural disaster that is simply overwhelming. This presentation will share the experiences of working with archaeological heritage and climate change research in Puerto Rico before, during and after a record-breaking catastrophic year of hurricanes and winter storms, and will contextualize the work of archaeology in the practicality of equity and justice from within the communities themselves.

PIZZA TALK: Restoration of Dazu Rock Carvings: An Ecological Perspective
2018-11-28 12:00 - 13:00
Bio:Dr. Sonya Lee is Associate Professor of Chinese Art and Visual Cultures at the University of Southern California, where she holds a joint appointment in the Departments of Art History, East Asian Languages and Cultures, and Religion. A specialist in religious art and architecture of pre-modern China, Dr. Lee has published widely on the material culture of Chinese Buddhism. Her reserach interests also include material culture of the ancient Silk Road, art and ecology, Asian art collecting, and heritage conservation. Abstract:The recent restoration of the Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara at Baodingshan in Dazu has generated a lively debate about the state of heritage conservation in modern China. This talk discusses this project from an ecological perspective that highlights the restorers’ sensitivity to the local climatic conditions and geological properties in preserving monumental cliff-side rock carvings. It also contextualizes the project as part of a long history of restoration in the region in which past restorers likewise pursued eco-compatibility in the materials and methods needed to repair cave temples for present and future visitors.

CONSERVATION FACULTY CANDIDATE SPECIAL LECTURE: The Application of Field Data to the Preventive Conservation of Archaeological Collections
2018-11-14 17:30 - 19:00
There will be a Special Lecture Wednesday, November 14th at 5:30 PM in Dodd 275 by Conservation Faculty Candidate Dr. Alice Paterakis, Director of Conservation Kamen-Kalehoyuk, Yassihoyuk, and Buklukale Excavations, Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology.

PIZZA TALK: Politics in Ancient Maya
2018-11-14 12:00 - 13:00
Bio:Professor Tsukamoto is an anthropological archaeologist who received his Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 2014. His research centers on the interplay between social relations and embodied practices that are reflected in the spatial and material settings of early complex societies. He seeks to refine different theoretical and methodological approaches in order to better understand the nature of power and ideology; the intersection of social change and theatrical performance; and the materiality of social inequality. Methodological interests include spatial analysis, material analyses through petrographic microscopy and particle-induces X-ray emission (PIXE), and epigraphic studies. He currently conducts fieldwork in the Maya lowlands of southern Mexico where he has directed the El Palmar Archaeological Project since 2007. This project examines the urbanization processes resulting from the mutual entanglement between public and private practices in El Palmar during the Classic period (ca. A.D. 250-950).

Archaeology of Ancient Israel Lecture Series: “Israel and the Samaria Highlands: A Nomad Settlement Wave or Urban Expansion during the Early Iron Age?”
2018-11-13 14:00 - 15:00
“Israel and the Samaria Highlands: A Nomad Settlement Wave or Urban Expansion during the Early Iron Age?”Dr. Yuval Gadot, Director of the Institute of ArchaeologyTel Aviv University Tuesday, November 13 at 2 PMKaplan (formerly Humanities) A51 Archaeology of Ancient Israel Lecture SeriesCo-sponsored by the UCLA NELC Department, Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, and the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology The Iron I period witnessed a wave of settlements in the highlands of Israel, mostly in Samaria and to some extent in the Upper Galilee and Judah. This wave is usually associated with the genesis of Ancient Israel and is interpreted in light of the collapse of Canaanite urban centers at the end of the 12th century BCE. This lecture reconsiders the reasons behind this wave of settlement throughout the Samaria Highlands during the Iron I (1200-1000 BCE) in light of new understanding of the social and economic reality on the coastal plain, the Jezreel, Jordan, and Hula Valleys, and the regions surrounding the Samaria Highlands.Please email Aaron Burke (aaburke@ucla.edu) to RSVP.

PIZZA TALK: Digging Ancient Egyptian Jewelry Mines
2018-11-07 12:00 - 13:00
Bio:Dr. Kate Liszka is Assistant Professor with the Department of History at California State University, San Bernardino, and holds her degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (Ph.D.), and from 2012 to 2015 was a Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer with Princeton University. Her areas of specialization are Nubians in Egypt, the Medjay, ethnicity and identity in Antiquity, multicultural Interactions in frontier regions, the Pangrave Archaeological Culture, and large-scale mining expeditions in Antiquity. Dr. Liszka is the Director of the Wadi el-Hudi Expedition in the Egyptian Eastern Desert.

FRIDAY SEMINAR: Conservation Actions and Reactions: Matter of Fact or Perception?
2018-11-02 16:00 - 18:00
AbstractEvolution in conservation practice generally reflects wider contextual developments. These, whether scientific or societal, can however overshadow other developments within conservation which could inform scholarly studies of the objects and improve effective management of heritage assets. Awareness of these influences is nevertheless critical since any conservation action, regardless how small and seemingly unimportant can potentially affect how objects are perceived and interpreted. This talk will focus on research aimed at understanding object perceptions and professional cognitive dissonances and biases. Starting from the alteration and deterioration of surfaces as a natural process and cleaning as a professional reaction to this, I will discuss how small, often unaccounted for activities result in changes at both micro and macro levels which can dramatically alter an object.Damien Hirst’s The Miraculous Journey made of fourteen silicon bronze statues projecting the development of a foetus from conception to birth located in Doha, Qatar will be used as an example of how to monitor change in a highly polluted coastal environment. This involves monitoring of corrosion, particulates and pollutants as well as humidity and temperature to understand how these processes affect perception and appreciation of the artwork. The second part of the talk will focus on professional decisions in conservation with particular a focus on cleaning. Cleaning can influence both professional and public perception of objects. The results of the research project Coming Clean which investigated factors affecting decision making in relation to cleaning will be presented. This includes research on public perception of dirt and cleanliness at two National Trust properties and two exhibition galleries at the British Museum, analysis of literature surveys and review of treatment records. The research findings are revealing in relation to professional justification of cleaning and the way public values the museum experience. Statistical analysis of the data and innovative methods including machine learning data mining methods will be presented. Recognising and raising awareness of our biases within conservation is important to change attitudes, and can have a direct impact on other scholarly fields.Short bioStavroula Golfomitsou (BA, PhD, FIIC) is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Conservation, University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Prior to this she was a lecturer in conservation studies at UCL Qatar where she set up and coordinated the MSc in Conservation Studies, an innovative, student-led, inquiry- and research-based degree. She has over twenty years of international working experience in Europe, Middle East and Latin America. Her research interests focus on corrosion and conservation of metals and the broader implications of conservation on the perception and valorisation of heritage. She is coordinator of the Coming Clean research project which investigates decision-making processes in cleaning of cultural heritage and the factors affecting them. She was also PI in the Materiality and Preservation in Islamic Contexts project (2015-2017). Stavroula holds a PhD in Conservation of Metals from University College London (UCL) and is a Fellow of the International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (IIC) and a Trustee and member of the IIC Council.

PIZZA TALK: Decoding Andean Formative Iconography: Didactic Images, Esoteric Knowledge, and the Emergence of Complexity on the North Coast of Peru
2018-10-31 12:00 - 13:00
Dr. Cathy Lynne Costin, Professor, Department of Anthropology, CSU NorthridgeRevisiting North Coast Formative Period Ceramic Iconography: the Case for Foundational Ritual PowerIn my current research, I am building an argument that a larger proportion of North Coast Formative ceramic iconography reflects the consumption of therapeutic and psychoactive substances than is generally acknowledged in recent scholarship and that both the content and mode of these images inform us about the processes through which emerging elites began to consolidate their power. First, I propose that far more of the three dimensional forms reference psychoactive substances than current interpretations enumerate and that many images allude to mental and bodily experiences associated with altered states of consciousness. Then, I suggest that two dimensional motifs rendered in faint, postfire incisions discernable only to those in close proximity to the vessels record tightly-controlled esoteric knowledge concerning the preparation and ingestion of psychoactive substances and/or the interpretation of visionary experiences. All told, I demonstrate how ritual specialists controlled and deployed sacred imagery and ritual knowledge during the time in which social complexity first developed in the Andean region.

FRIDAY SEMINAR: Ethics in Archaeology Panel Discussion
2018-10-26 12:00 - 13:00
Ethics in Archaeology Panel DiscussionWith Drs. Willeke Wendrich, John Papadopoulos, Lothar Von Falkenhausen, and Steven Acabado This workshop will focus on the importance of what is coming out of the ground and what happens to it afterwards. The following questions will be among the topics discussed:Who is responsible for ancient artifacts and what are they responsible for?What are the grey areas?What is the difference between personal responsibility of individuals and professionals working at universities vs. individuals working with private or public collections?What relationship should there be between public and private stake holders?How do other countries handle issues regarding cultural heritage? Attendance is highly recommended for 1st and 2nd year Cotsen Students

PIZZA TALK: Meroitic Kush and Rome: The Politics of Temple Piety and Religious Identities
2018-10-24 12:00 - 13:00
Dr. Salim Faraji, Professor, Department of Africana Studies, CSU Dominguez Hills

Ahmanson Lecture: “Pictures of the Past: Introduction to the Rock Art of Western North America”
2018-10-20 14:00
An Ahmanson lecture, co-sponsored by the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and in recognition of International Archaeology Day, will be on Saturday, October 20th at 2PM at the Fowler Museum Room A222 at UCLA. David Lee, an independent scholar, will present “Pictures of the Past: Introduction to the Rock Art of Western North America”

Graduate Student Workshop and Public Lectures: Urban Animals Past and Present
2018-10-20 09:00 - 17:00
Urban Animals Past and PresentGraduate Student Workshop and Public LecturesSaturday October 20, 2018UCLA La Kretz GardenPavilionCities are full of animals: wild and domestic, tame and feral. In this workshop, we will focus on all of the ways that animals exist within human urban ecosystems as sources of food, companionship, and aesthetic pleasure, and how animals also act as scavengers, nutrient recyclers, and vectors for the transmission of diseases such as plague, rabies, and monkeypox. Given the global and rapid pace of urbanization, these phenomena constitute a critical component of urban studies as well as animal management strategies.Schedule9:00-12:00 Graduate student presentations (if you would like to participate, please submit a five-page,double-spaced summary of your dissertation research no later than October 1, 2018)Lunch break2:00-5:00 Public presentations by Judy Stamps (University of California, Davis) Levent Atici (University of Nevada-Las Vegas) Ian MacGregor-Fors (INECOL Institute of Ecology, Veracruz, Mexico)Reception to followFor further details please contact co-organizersMonica L. Smith (smith@anthro.ucla.edu) and Pamela Yeh (pamelayeh@ucla.edu)Sponsored by:UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA Department of Anthropology,UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Navin and Pratima Doshi Chair in Indian StudiesUCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden, UCLA Department of Urban Planning

FRIDAY SEMINAR:The Origins and Spread of Agriculture in SW Asia: A Zooarchaeological Perspective from Anatolia
2018-10-19 16:00 - 18:00
Dr. Levent Atici, Associate Professor, University of Nevada, Las Vegas The revolutionary socioeconomic transformation of societies from foraging to farming in Southwest Asia shortly after 10,000 calibrated years BC and the subsequent spread of emergent agropastoral lifeways across Anatolia and into Southeast Europe (a.k.a., Neolithization) have been one of the most ruminated topics in archaeology. Recent archaeological research in Anatolia have greatly contributed to a better understanding of the origins and dispersal of agricultural economies. Körtik Tepe is a Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA; 10th millennium B.C.) complex forager site in the Upper Tigris Valley with a well-dated stratigraphy, hundreds of human burials, hundreds of round architectural structures, and a highly sophisticated symbolism. Uğurlu Höyük is a Neolithic settlement on Gökçeada, the largest Turkish island situated between Anatolia and the European continent in the Aegean Sea, and currently the only site with an early Neolithic component (ca. 7000 cal BC) in the eastern Aegean. This talk combines the results of zooarchaeological research at two Anatolian sites, representing two distinct points on the animal exploitation continuum, and offers new insights into the origins and dispersal of domesticated animals in SW Asia and adjacent areas.

PIZZA TALK:The Bubasteion and its New Kingdom Tombs at Saqqara. Results and Challenges.
2018-10-17 12:00 - 13:00
The Bubasteion and its New Kingdom Tombs at Saqqara. Results and Challenges.Dr. Alain Zivie, Director, French Archaeological Mission of the Bubasteionat Saqqara

FRIDAY SEMINAR: Material History: New Insights from the Study of Ancient Binding Media, Tutankhamun’s Dagger, and Red Lake Pigments
2018-10-12 16:00 - 18:00
Dr. Austin Nevin CNR Researcher, Politecnico MilanoBinding media, metals and pigments in works of art are material history – and are evidence of technology, artist practice, exchange and trade. Through the study and identification of materials, crucial data can be collected regarding physical and chemical stability thus informing conservation decisions. Three case studies of works of art and archaeological materials will draw on current research using portable instrumentation and cutting-edge analytical methods. Investigations on wall painting fragments from the ancient Canannite capital Tel Kabri allowed the identification of degraded binding media from the Aegean style wall paintings that date to the 18th C. B.C.E. The discovery of traces of organic media in the characteristic blue paint is significant for the conservation and treatment of the paintings, for understanding of the sophistication of painting practise and the use of egg-based binding media in the Eastern Mediterranean, and more broadly also questions the presence of domestic animals in the region. The second case study focuses on Tutenkhamun’s dagger that was analyzed using portable instrumentation at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. New data established conclusively that the well-conserved ornamental blade was fashioned from finely worked meteoritic iron. The identification was possible though the comparison of data acquired from the dagger with known meteor samples, and the calculation of ratios of Nickel and Cobalt. Organic red lake pigments are the focus of the third case study. Analysis demonstrates how deep crimson pigments from European insects were adopted by Leonardo in the Last Supper, and how, by contrast, Veronese adopted newly introduced Mexican pigments from cochineal insects. The molecular characterization of cross-sections demonstrate the use of similar kermes-based lakes in paintings by Leonardo and Masolino, and carmine-based reds in paintings by Tintoretto and Veronese, while also revealing soluble uncomplexed dyes in samples that has direct implications for conservation, cleaning and lighting. Research will ultimately demonstrate the benefits of synergistic collaborative studies across disciplines.

An Enduring Legacy of Discard: The Archaeology of Garbage
2018-10-11 18:00 - 20:30
Since our humble beginnings, human’s have created and discarded unwanted objects: garbage is a human universal, and the archaeological record is brimming with it. Indeed, the everyday human experience – the routine domestic tasks we perform, the foods we process and eat, the goods we consume – is arguably best documented with our discards. Rarely glorified and difficult to romanticize, trash can challenge the dominant historical narrative, give voice to those without, and complicate our understandings of quotidian behavior. But an archaeology of trash is also situated to foster unique and often impactful perspectives on the ways that consumption and discard practices – both normative and fringe – implicate a myriad of phenomena not always easily gleaned from curated possessions, including ideologies of dissent, socially performed identities, dispossession, and ecological toxicity. Secretly aspiring to deepen your appreciation and awareness of garbage, this talk explores the curiously unpopular but promising fusion of archaeology and discard studies.Harry and Yvonne Lenart Auditorium at the Fowler Museum, UCLA6:00 pm, Thursday, October 11, 2018With a reception in the Fowler Museum Courtyard to follow RSVP by Friday, October 5, to Kelli O’Leary at koleary@support.ucla.eduAnthony GraeschAssociate Professor of Anthropology Chair of the Anthropology DepartmentConnecticut CollegeThis event is co-sponsored by:Director Willeke Wendrich, UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and The Institute for Field Research

PIZZA TALK: Architectural Models from 6th century BC Selinunte as Votives: Reconstruction, Dating, Function
2018-10-10 12:00 - 13:00
Dr. Henner von Hesberg, Visiting Scholar, Getty VillaFragments of the imitations of smaller buildings are known from different sites in archaic Selinunte: the agora, the sanctuary of Demeter and from the acropolis. They can be reconstructed in three different types, or as a sort of open or closed box, or as a small temple with columns. The dating is possible in one part from the context, f.i. in the agora, where there are mainly strata from the archaic period until the end of the 5th century (destruction by the Carthagians). The main problem is the function. There is no doubt they are votives, but what kind do we have to consider? Interesting in the configuration of the models is the use of elements of the Doric order to express a special sort of monumentality.

Annual AIA Los Angeles County Society Fall Garden Party
2018-10-07 14:00 - 16:00
The Annual AIA Los Angeles County Society Fall Garden Party will be in the amphiteaterat the Fowler Museum on the UCLA campus on Sunday, October 7th from 2-4pm. Afterrefreshments and conversation we will move into Fowler A222 to hear reports from our two 2018Field School Scholarship awardees: Alexander Lin and Samantha Stott both of USC. Aaron Burkeand I will both present updates on our excavations as well. Please RSVP to Kristina Reed(kristina.s.reed@gmail.com) to reserve your place.
