Pizza Talk: “The Shimmer of Bodies: Aztec Luxury in Context”

Speaker: Dr. Patrick Hajovsky, Associate Professor, Art History, Southwestern UniversityTaking a critical perspective, I argue that Aztec "luxury" objects worn or held on the body linked valor and value to tonalli, the heat-life energy that manifests personality and fate, and yollotl, the heart, source of blood and center of human life. The Aztecs explored the […]

Friday Seminar: “Keepers of Tradition, Harbingers of Change: Tracing Communities of Practice in Greco-Roman Karanis, Egypt”

Speaker: Dr. Sonali Gupta-Agarwal, UCLA Traditions are transmitted through teaching and learning. The manner in which knowledge relating to craft production gets transmitted can help us in understanding the causes behind cultural continuity and change. By using an anthropological approach to find teaching and learning patterns, I investigate the role of potters inmodern day pottery workshops of Egypt […]

Pizza Talk: “Rediscovering Masis Blur: A Neolithic Settlement in the Ararat Plain, Armenia”

Speaker: Kristine Martirosyan-Olshansky, Ph.D. Candidate, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLAThis talk is a summary of field research conducted by Cotsen/UCLA doctoral student Kristine Martirosyan-Olshansky at Masis Blur, Armenia, over the course of three seasons from 2012-2014. Excavations at Masis Blur have unearthed Neolithic habitation layers (ca. 6200 – 5400 cal.BC) belonging to the Shulaveri-Shomutepe culture, […]

Hidden Jewels, Forbidden Paths: Secrets of Rome and Turin

June 20 - July 1, 2017On this trip, Director's Council members saw behind the scenes of the Museo Egizio in Turin, Itlay—the second largest collection of Egyptian antiquities (after Cairo)—and explored Rome with the experts!Download the brochure here.   

Cuisine and cooking at the crossroads of civilization: new discoveries from Iraqi Kurdistan

Willeke Wendrich, Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, cordially invites Friends of Archaeology members to a special dinner and lecture on October 3, 2017 with Alan Farahani, Post Doctoral Scholar, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA. The reception will begin at 6:00pm and be followed by dinner at 6:45pm. This event is restricted to Friends […]

Pizza Talk: “Disability and Age in Ancient Greece: A Case Study”

Speaker: Debby Sneed, PhD Candidate, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLAIn this talk, Debby will use literary and archaeological evidence to argue that ancient Greeks notonly tolerated the birth of deformed and disabled infants, but also expressed optimism about their futures and actively attempted to accommodate their needs. Modern studies tend to resolve this issue quickly, relying heavily […]

Pizza Talk: “Digital Buddhism: 3D Modeling and Photogrammetry in the Study of Chinese Buddhist Architecture”

Speaker: Dr. Di Luo, Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Global Asia, New York University ShanghaiBuddhist architecture in China since the 11th century has often featured miniature pagodas and pavilions in the interior. These downsized "buildings," appearing in ceiling domes and murals and sometimes functioning as altars, bookcases, and reliquaries, assumed the role of the "holy of holies" of the […]

Friday Seminar: “New Perspectives on Ancient Trade”

Speaker: Dr. Norman Yoffee, University of MichiganOld Assyrian texts from Mesopotamia, ca. 1950-1750 BCE, shed light on merchants and markets in Mesopotamia and the relationship between merchants and the Old Assyrian state. In this lecture, I review recent research on Old Assyrian trade and the implications for understanding trade in other times and places in […]

Software Carpentry: R Workshop

Software Carpentry aims to help researchers get their work done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic research computing skills. This hands-on workshop will cover basic concepts and tools, including program design, version control, data management, and task automation. Participants will be encouraged to help one another and to apply what they […]

Pizza Talk: “Interlaced Scrolls and Feathered Banners: Markers of Culture in Teotihuacan (or, Whose Marcador is it, Anyway?)”

Speaker: Dr. Matthew Robb, Chief Curator, Fowler Museum, UCLAIn 1963, the chance discovery at the Teotihuacan compound known today as La Ventilla of a four-part composite sculpture marked with interlaced-scrolls more typically associated with sites like El Tajín firmly established connections between ancient Teotihuacan and its contemporaries on the Gulf Coast. The discovery of a smaller, intact object […]