Himalayan Wonders Unearthed

Himalayan Wonders Unearthed30 Years of Discoveries in India and TibetFor thirty years, Peter van Ham has been researching regions in the Himalayas that had been closed for research for over half a decade. His major research focus is the life and achievements of one of Tibet's greatest masters - Lotsava Rinchen Sangpo, the 'Great Translator' […]

Visit to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History

Dr. John Jonson, Curator of Anthropology, Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, will meet us at the museum and discuss Native American artifacts in their collection. An excursion to the Chumash Painted Cave is also planned to be included.For more information about becoming a Friend, please visit our membership page.

Pizza Talk: “Construction, Use and Repair: Late Neolithic Pottery from Southeastern Albania”

Speaker: Gazmend Elezi, Ph.D. Candidate, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLAThe large amount of ceramic sherds in archaeological contexts and the variety of ceramic wares, shapes and dimensions during the Late Neolithic period in the Balkans is an indication that pottery was involved in many social activities. As such, it is among the best proxies to […]

How Many People Does it Take to Understand a Maya Pot?

Willeke Wendrich, Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, cordially invites Friends of Archaeology members to a special dinner and lecture on April 17, 2018 with Drs. Megan O'Neill, Associate Curator in the Art of the Ancient Americas, LACMA and Laura Maccarelli, Andrew W. Mellon Fellow in Conservation Science, LACMA. The reception will begin at […]

Pizza Talk: “The Bronze Age Cargo of the Cape Gelidonya Shipwreck: New Data on Maritime Trade and Metal Production in the Mediterranean”

Speaker: Dr. Joseph (Seppi) Lehner, Assistant Professor, Department of Archaeology, University of SydneyThe ship that sank at Cape Gelidonya (Turkey) ca. 1200 BC is one of only three known wrecks dating to the Late Bronze Age, though this was an era of intensive overseas exchange in the Mediterranean. It was also one in which metals […]

Persian and Greek Participation in the making of China’s First Empire

Speaker: Professor Duan Qingbo, Northwest University School of Cultural Heritage, Xi'an.Followed by a concert of Chinese and Persian music by UCLA faculty, Li Qi and Amir Pourjavady.Terra-cotta warriors, bronze chariots and horses are among the iconic artifacts associated with China's first imperial dynasty, the Qin (221-206 BCE). Chinese archaeologist Duan Qinbo shares new evidence that […]

Friday Seminar: “A Critique of Archaeological Reason”

Speaker: Dr. Giorgio Buccellati, Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLAThe recent publication of a book on theory (same title as this talk, Cambridge 2017), has its roots in a long and intense confrontation with the experience of field work, which began for me in Iraq and Turkey in the '60s: it was […]

Pizza Talk: “Community Archaeology from Below: Major New Developments from Tell Mozan in Syria”

Speakers: Dr. Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati & Dr. Giorgio Buccellati, UCLADuring the last seven years when war has raged in Syria, foreign archaeological projects have come to an almost total standstill. But then, the question arises: what were the presuppositions that, instead of allowing archaeology to disappear or, worse, to be kidnapped by a violent iconoclastic fundamentalism, […]