Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Open House

ConnectionsArchaeology is a collaborative field and archaeological teams always consist of specialists from many disciplines. This interconnectedness is an integral part of a holistic understanding of our past. Join us for an open house that illuminates the relationship between the Fowler Museum and archaeological research, beginning with two gallery talks in the Fowler Museum. These […]

Pizza Talk: “An American Icon in Plastic: The Technical Analysis, Study, and Treatment of a First Edition 1959 Barbie”

Speakers: Morgan Burgess and Marci Burton, M.A. Students, Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials, UCLAThis study focuses on a privately owned, autographed, first edition (c. 1959) BarbieTM doll made from poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) plastic. Contrary to “sticky-leg syndrome”, where plasticizer migrates from the PVC and deposits to the surface as a tacky liquid, this doll […]

Friday Seminar: “Taboo topics: Exploring absences in the faunal remains from Çatalhöyük, Turkey”

Speaker: Dr. Nerissa Russell, Professor, Department of Anthropology, Cornell UniversityEthnography shows us that every society has some form of food taboos, often focused on the meat of particular animals. While the pig taboo, in particular, has received considerable archaeological attention in the eastern Mediterranean, there is little discussion of taboo in prehistory. The obvious reason is that, lacking textual […]

Pizza Talk: “3-D Digital Model of the Egyptian Fortress at Jaffa”

Speaker: Jeremy Williams, Ph.D. Candidate, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, UCLAThe practice of digitally modelling archaeological sites has grown more and more common in recent years. Well-known ancient sites such as the Temple of Karnak, Khirbet Qumran, and the Roman Forum have benefited from such models.The recent digital model of the Late Bronze Egyptian fortress […]

[CANCELLED] Friday Seminar: “Blood Weddings: the Inkas, the Habsburgs, and Royal Incest”

NOTE: This Friday Seminar has been cancelled. Speaker: Dr. Jeremy Mumford, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Brown UniversityIn 1558, in Spanish Peru, the Inka princess Cusi Huarcay married her brother, Sayri Thupa, with the blessing of the Catholic bishop of Cuzco, carrying the Inka tradition of sibling marriage into the colonial era. In 1570, King Philip V of […]

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, […]