Dr. Elizabeth (Lisa) Matisoo-SmithProfessor of Biological Anthropology and ChairDepartment of Anatomy, University of OtagoThe Powers and Pitfalls of Molecular ArchaeologyIn 1989 it was announced in Nature that DNA could successfully be extracted fromarchaeological bone, and thus was born the field of molecular archaeology. The lastdecade has seen the field flourish with the development of Next […]

Dr. Jennie EbelingAssociate ProfessorDepartment of ArchaeologyUniversity of Evansville in IndianaAbstract:Bread and other grain-based foods were not only staples in the ancient Israelite diet; they were also staples in the ritual acts that accompanied the worship of several deities in ancient Israel. In addition to the state god YHWH, who required regular offerings of lechem hapanim […]

Speaker:Dr. Sonia ZarrilloPostdoctoral FellowCotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLAAbstract:Throughout human history, from our earliest ancestors through to modern societies, plants were of vital significance. They have been essential to diet, used as medicines and in ceremonies, fashioned into a myriad of tools, containers, adornments, and musical instruments, depicted in artwork and used as emblems, and relied on […]

Speaker:Dr. Kathleen LynchUniversity of CincinnatiAbstract:Athenian pottery was exported throughout the Mediterranean in the Classical Period. Perhaps surprisingly, it found eager consumers in the Persian Empire, or rather, in territory controlled by the Persians during the Greek Classical period. The presentation will consider what the imported Greek pottery meant in the context of the Achaemenid empire, with […]

Alexander Ahrens is a Senior Researcher with the Damascus Branch, Orient Department of the German Archaeological Institute. Currently, he is a Visiting Scholar at the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World at Brown University (as recipient of a 2019 AIA/DAI Study in the U.S. Fellowship). He holds a PhD in Near Eastern Archaeology […]

Ahmanson lecturer, Professor Filomena Limão of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa, will give her talk, “The Late Roman Villa of Santiago da Guarda (Ansião,Portugal): Architecture and Mosaics in a living palimpsest”,  Sunday April 28th 2019, at 2PM in the Fowler Museum, Room A222 at UCLA.

Please join the Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies in “The Dig,”.  This award-winning one-woman play, accompanied by live music written and performed by Yuval Ron, follows an American archeologist's journey to discover the truth about an artifact in Israel that could have transformational implications for Israel, the Middle East and the world.To RSVP, visit https://www.international.ucla.edu/israel/event/13721.

William B. Trousdale is Curator Emeritus at the Smithsonian Institution and Principal Investigator of the Helmand Sistan Project. Trousdale served both at the National Museum of Natural History and at the Freer Gallery in his 35 year career in archaeology.Mitchell Allen is a Research Associate at the Smithsonian and the Archaeological Research Facility at UC Berkeley, […]

Speaker:Dr. Stella NairAssociate ProfessorUCLA, Dept of Art History 

Speaker and Bio: Elizabeth Brite is a clinical assistant professor in the Honors College, Purdue University. She is also co-director of the Khorezm Ancient Agriculture Project in Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan. Dr. Brite received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from UCLA in 2011.Abstract:This talk explores the recent proliferation of studies on the plant-people relationship in ancient Central Asia. Over the last 25 […]