Speaker: Dr. Emily Lindsey, University of California, BerkeleyFor decades a debate has raged over the relative contributions of human activities and environmental change in driving the extinction of most of earth’s large mammals near the end of the last ice age. Recent research by our group in South America draws on archaeological, paleontological, paleoclimatological, quantitative modeling, and geochemical studies in order to […]

Speaker: James Brady, Cal State University, Los AngelesDuring the last decade of the 19th century, four cave studies of exceptional quality were produced. The best was Eduard Seler’s report on Quen Santo in Huehuetenango, Guatemala because of the exceptional finds still associated with the cave at that time. As a grad student at UCLA, Brady […]

Speaker: Marilyn Kelly Buccellati, UCLA2010 was our last excavating season in the ancient city of Urkesh in the northeastern corner of Syria although we went to the site in December 2011 to meet with the local staff to assure continuing their work on conservation and site presentation. With the impossibility of excavating at Urkesh during […]

Speaker: Dr. Heather Miller, University of TorontoArchaeological interest in technological change focuses on both invention and production by craftspeople, and on social issues related to adoption of new technologies. We recognize that technological change involves both motivations and mechanisms for change, with respect to both the invention and innovation/adoption ends of the spectrum. The possible motivations and mechanisms for […]

Speaker: Jacob Bongers, PhD Candidate, UCLAThis talk addresses local mortuary practices in the mid-Chincha Valley, Peru dating from the Late Intermediate Period, or LIP (AD 1000 – 1476) to the Late Horizon (AD 1476 – 1532). Ethnohistorical documents state that a complex, centralized state known as the Chincha Kingdom dominated the Chincha Valley from the […]

Speaker: Dr. Owen Doonan, California State University, NorthridgeAncient Sinop was the crossroads of the ancient Black Sea, which has been itself described by the distinguished historian Georges Bratianu as the "Turntable of Eurasia."Owen Doonan has led an interdisciplinary archaeological expedition to the Sinop region since the mid-1990s and through that research program has established a basic sequence […]

Fowler OutSpoken TalkTua Pittman on Traditional Sea Voyaging and NavigationSaturday, April 30, 1:30 pm Internationally recognized as a traditional voyaging seafarer, Tua Pitman has navigated canoes for over thirty years without the use of modern instruments. He uses a traditional navigation system based on observations of the stars, sun, moon, the ocean swells, the flight […]

Speaker: Scott Fitzpatrick, University of OregonFor many island societies worldwide, the acquisition and exchange of prized resources was fundamental to developing and maintaining social, political, and economic relationships. The patchiness of resources like stone, clay, tempering agents, shell, and animals often led to differential access which then helped to fuel the rise of social complexity. This […]

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 […]