Spring/Summer 1998
Richard Leventhal	DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE Funds for Field Research Awarded and Outreach Program with Seeds Elementary Planned by Richard M. Leventhal AS WE APPROACH the end of the school year, I am completing my sixth year as Director of the Institute of Archaeology. Although the job is time consuming and at times frustrating and overwhelming, I continue to enjoy its challenges and appreciate its opportunities. I am particularly pleased about some of the new initiatives that have come to fruition this year with new funds available and new programs developing throughout the Institute. Within this Backdirt, some of the articles focus upon new programs that have been developed over the past several months. The Digital Archaeology Lab has now been funded with a generous grant from the Ahmanson Foundation. The lab is moving rapidly toward the electronic publication of archaeological field data. In addition, we have opened a reading room that will help provide access to important archaeological literature material often not available on campus. This reading room has been named for a longtime supporter of the Institute and of the Friends of Archaeology, Ted Gutman. We have started out with a great donation of a large collection of books from William Simpson. We expect to receive more donations of books and journals and funds from all our generous supporters. Another upcoming development within the Institute is important for all of us involved in archaeology. We have initiated an outreach program in association with the Corinne A. Seeds University Elementary School. This program involves teaching teachers how best to present and teach about archaeology and the ancient civilizations of the world. This program will focus on helping teachers throughout the LA Unified School District to present information about past societies. Finally, I want to highlight some recent support for new and ongoing field research throughout the world. Several years ago, we received funds from the Ahmanson Foundation to support field research by faculty, staff, and research associates. This year, for the first time, we gave out six grants totaling over $11,000 for archaeological research in California (Tom Wake), Peru (Glenn Russell), China (Lothar von Falkenhausen), Turkey (Elizabeth Carter), Sudan (Stuart Smith), and Togo (Philip de Barros). This funding excites me greatly. The bottom line within the Institute must be to support primary archaeological research both in the field and in the laboratory. It is only through this type of support and research that we can continue to be considered one of the top archaeological research centers in the United States.
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