Pizza Talk

Speaker: Dr. Alan Farahani, Postdoctoral Scholar, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

This talk is a summary of the research conducted by Postdoctoral Scholar Alan Farahani at the UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology over the past two years. His research has been focused on the long-term social and environmental consequences of agricultural production throughout the world using the method of paleoethnobotany, which is the study of archaeological plant remains to understand past human cultures.

Speaker: David Scott, Professor, UCLA Department of Art History and UCLA/Getty Conservation Program

Speaker: Alessia Amenta, Vatican Museums

The 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 'packaging' of a coffin. Our work is also aimed at elaborating a protocol for the conservation of the artifacts.

Speaker: Willeke Wendrich, Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

UCLA 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: Deidre Whitmore, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

The Digital Archaeology Lab (DAL) aims to support the technological needs of the Cotsen faculty, students and staff by providing facilities, advice, and training. This talk will provide an overview of the facilities including the equipment that is available and how to access it (both in-person and remotely), and the consulting services offered by the lab manager. The topics and dates for the first workshops and training sessions will be announced and the audience will have a chance to request additional topics.

Speaker: Dr. Richard Lesure, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

Lesure will report on the work of a team of archaeologists from the UCLA Anthropology Department and Cotsen Institute of Archaeology who are trying to understand the demographic impact of the transition to agriculture at a continental scale. The area of interest is Greater Middle America, roughly from southern Utah (USA) to the Panama Canal. We build on recent studies of the Agricultural Demographic Transition (or ADT) and on efforts to trace expansions by early farmers on scales approaching the continental.

Speaker: Dr. Stephen Acabado, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

Recent trends in the practice of archaeology have seen the emergence of the active involvement of descendant communities in the research process.

Speakers: Richard Ehrich, PhD Candidate, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

Dr. Hans Barnard, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

Speaker: Dr. Caroline Cartwright, Department of Scientific Research, The British Museum

Dr Caroline Cartwright is the Senior Scientist and Wood Anatomist in the Department of Scientific Research at the British Museum.

Speaker: Dr. Mary Louise Hart, Getty Museum

The 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 and Serapis flanking a square portrait of a mortal man (above).