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 […]

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 […]

Speaker: Dr. Philippe Walter, Sorbonne Universités, Université Pierre et Marie CurieThe precious character of the Cultural Heritage artifacts and their uniqueness imply particular cautions and require instruments, which may give the maximum of information directly on the objects, in-situ in the museums or in the archaeological sites. The implementation of new analytical tools, including mobile instruments, […]

Speaker: Dr. Caroline Cartwright, Department of Scientific Research, The British MuseumDr Caroline Cartwright is the Senior Scientist and Wood Anatomist in the Department of Scientific Research at the British Museum. Her primary areas of scientific expertise cover the identification and interpretation of organics such as wood, charcoal, fibres, macro plant remains, shell, ivory and bone from all areas […]

Speakers: Dr. Jane Buikstra, Dr. Gordon RakitaDr. Gordon Rakita will be delivering a lecture titled "Vignettes of a Mentor: A Bioarchaeological Lineage"Dr. Jane Buikstra will then deliver a lecture titled "Ancient Tuberculosis in the Americas: A Career-Long Quest"

Speaker: Dr. Dorie Reents-Budet, Boston Museum of Fine ArtsThis talk employs distributional patterns of pottery, determined by archaeology, ceramic typology, artistic style and nuclear chemistry, to discern Classic Period (250-850 CE) economic interaction spheres among the Maya. The research points to the crucial role played by cotton production in the political economy of the Maya and throughout ancient Mesoamerica, […]

Speaker: Willeke Wendrich, Director of the Cotsen Institute of ArchaeologyUCLA has started a close collaboration with the Museo Egizio in Turin, which holds the most important collection of material culture from ancient Egypt after the museum in Cairo. This pizza talk will highlight the research that has been started in the summer of 2016.

Speaker: Thanik Lertcharnrit, Department of Archaeology, Silpakorn UniversityAn event sponsored by the UCLA Center for Southeast Asian Studies and the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

Due to unforeseen circumstances, this Friday Seminar has been CANCELLED.Speaker: Dr. Rubina Raja, Aarhus University, DenmarkSince 2011 a Danish-German team has been conducting archaeological fieldwork in ancient Gerasa, Jerash in the Northwest Quarter. The site was one of the famous Decapolis cities mentioned by Pliny and has a rich archaeological record. The large scale excavations of the 1920s […]

Speaker: Jared Diamond, UCLA Department of GeographyPart of the Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture (BEC) Speaker Series

Willeke Wendrich, Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, cordially invites Friends of Archaeology members to a special dinner on October 25, 2016 with Professor Janine Gasco, Cal. State Dominguez Hills. The reception will begin at 6:00pm and be followed by dinner at 6:45pm. Beginning with the earliest known evidence for cacao consumption almost […]

Speaker: Alessia Amenta, Vatican MuseumsThe Vatican Coffin Project gathers an international team of scholars who are divided into three groups with three different areas of expertise: Egyptology, Diagnostic and Conservation. The project has three objectives: the study of the construction and painting techniques of coffins, the identification of workshop patterns and the understanding of the […]

Speaker: Dr. Mark Aldenderfer, UC MercedFrom where and when did people first move into and live permanently the High Himalayas? What role did climate change have in the early peopling of the High Himalayas and in subsequent population movements? These questions are explored in three regions of Nepal: Upper Mustang, the Khumbu, and the Rasuwa […]

Speaker: Dr. Mary Louise Hart, Getty MuseumThe last several years have seen extensive research and conservation of the Getty Villa’s collection of Romano-Egyptian panel paintings, which contain a good collection of mummy portraits dating from around AD 50 to about AD 220, the in situ portrait of a red-shroud mummy, and a “group” of Isis […]

Speaker: Dr. Laurie Wilkie, UC BerkeleyWhile the black regulars (otherwise known as Buffalo Soldiers) have been a compelling subject in popular culture, scholarly study into the lives of the African American men who chose to serve in the frontier military has been comparatively sporadic and unsustained. This is particularly true in the field of archaeology, […]