Friday Seminar: “Pottery as Information Technology on the North Coast of Andean South America”

Speaker: Dr. Cathy Costin, California State University, NorthridgeAlthough some have suggested that North Coast ceramics are characterized by a stable technological style over thousands of  years, evidence indicates that several aesthetic and technological styles "coexisted" with one another; they waxed and waned in popularity depending in large measure on the social and political environments in […]

Wep Wa-ut in Westwood: Ancient Technology

The ancient world is characterized by technological innovations and the creation of beautiful objects of art and daily life. On this public lecture day UCLA graduate and undergraduate students will explore who the people were that made these, what techniques they used, and how we can learn about their social circumstances.This event is free and […]

Pizza Talk: “Pars pro toto: Prehistoric Pottery Fragments and Archaeological Narratives at Ancient Methone, Northern Greece”

Speaker: Dr. Marriana Nikolaidou, UCLAMarianna Nikolaidou holds a Ph.D. in archaeology from the University of Thessaloniki in Greece, and is a research associate at the Cotsen Institute since 1994. Her research and fieldwork focus on the Neolithic and Bronze Ages of the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean. She has published extensively on gender issues, symbolism […]

Friday Seminar: ” ‘What is the Past But a Once Material Existence Now Silenced?’ Understanding the Archaeology and History of Egypt’s First Intermediate Period”

Speaker: Dr. Thomas Schneider, University of British ColumbiaThe First Intermediate Period has presented archaeology and historiography with significant epistemological problems. Gaps in the evidence available to us and the uncertainty about how to interpret a variety of material and textual sources, have as much led to widely different views as modern paradigmatic shifts, depicting theFIP either as a […]

Pizza Talk: “Ceramics from Mai Adrasha, Ethiopia: A First Look at the Western Highlands”

Speaker: Rachel Moy, PhD Candidate, UCLAThis talk will summarize the preliminary results of the first season of excavation and research of the UCLA Shire Project at the site of Mai Adrasha in the northwestern Ethiopian highlands. I will discuss how Mai Adrasha fits into what we know of a larger pre-Aksumite to Early Aksumite cultural […]

Friday Seminar: ” ‘Mycenae, Rich in Silver’: Silver, Gold, and Maritime Trade in the Early Mycenaean World”

Speaker: Dr. Jorrit Kelder, University of OxfordThis presentation aims to provide an overview of the earliest contacts between the Greek (Mycenaean) world and Egypt, between ca. 1600 BC and 1100 BC. By highlighting a number of objects that have been found in Egypt and the Aegean, this paper proposes that the earliest contacts between these two regions may […]

Pizza Talk: “Soto: 2,300 Years of Evolving Ritual Architecture and Practice at a Monumental Paracas Huaca”

Speaker: Ben Nigra, PhD Candidate, UCLA'Paracas’ refers to a polychromatic fine-ware tradition, a canon of architectural elements, a set of specific mortuary practices, and a rich textile tradition associated with Peru's southern coast during the first millennium BCE. Despite decades of research dedicated to Paracas 'art', craft goods and iconography, south coast archaeologists struggle to […]

Pizza Talk: “Reclaiming Heritage: Community and Indigenous Archaeology in Ifugao, Philippines”

Speaker: Dr. Stephen Acabado, Cotsen Institute of ArchaeologyRecent trends in the practice of archaeology have seen the emergence of the active involvement of descendant communities in the research process. This is an important development since the relationship of archaeologists and communities that they work with has been tenuous, particularly, when archaeological findings have the potential to contest ethnic […]

Pizza Talk: “Hubei Road Trip: A Tour of Sites and Museums in Central China”

Speakers: Richard Ehrich, PhD Candidate, Cotsen Institute of ArchaeologyDr. Hans Barnard, Cotsen Institute of ArchaeologyIn June 2016, Cotsen affiliates Hans Barnard and Richard Ehrich briefly visited a number of archaeological sites and museums in Wuhan, Jingzhou, Xiangyang and Suizhou in the Hubei Province in Central China. Richard is a graduate student who lived in Wuhan to conduct research […]