Past Events
Interested in Cotsen events? Sign up for our mailing list.Speaker: Dr. Derek Turner, Connecticut College
Over the last fifteen years or so, philosophers of science have made a lot of progress toward understanding how researchers in fields such as paleontology, geology, and archaeology re-construct the past. One neglected issue, however, is counter-factual reasoning. An historical counterfactual claim has the form: “If condition C had been different at some time in the past, then the downstream outcome O would have been differ-ent.” Counterfactual claims are closely related to the idea that history is contingent—an idea that Stephen Jay Gould made popular in paleontology with his famous thought experiment of replaying the tape of history. However, counterfactual rea-soning remains controversial among historians, some of whom see no value in speculating (for example) about how things would be different if Al Gore had won the presidential election in 2000. One major challenge is explaining what would count as evidence for or against counterfactuals. In this talk, the speaker will (1) provide an overview of some of the relevant philosophical work on the epistemology of historical counter-factuals, and (2) argue that counterfactual reasoning does have a legitimate, if limited role to play in archaeologists’ efforts to reconstruct the past.
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Speaker: Susanna McFadden, Assistant Professor, Fordham University; Getty Museum Scholar
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Featured Speakers: Dr. Marco Brambilla, Prof. Touraj Daryaee, Ms. Kristine Martirosyan-Olshansky, Prof. Bert Vaux
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Speaker: Dr. Adam Watson, American Museum of Natural History
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Speaker: Dr. Edward Pollard, British Institute in East Africa
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Speaker: Henry Colburn, Postdoctoral Fellow, Getty Museum; Curatorial Fellow, Harvard Art Museums
This study uses identity to examine the experience of Achaemenid Persian rule in Egypt (c. 526-404 BCE). Individuals in Egypt chose the material culture that they believed best suited their identities in the context of votive statues and seals. Some chose traditional Egyptian types, while others drew on a wider array of forms, some of which clearly referred to the Achaemenid royal court. The variation in these choices suggests that contrary to prevailing views there was not a clear divide between subjects and subjugators in Achaemenid Egypt. Rather, different people experienced Achaemenid rule in different ways. The identities examined in this talk attest to a social environment in Egypt in which multiple cultural traditions were valued and employed side by side. Indeed, this finding is consistent with the ecumenical character of Achaemenid ideology, as represented in the sculptural program at Persepolis.
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Speaker: Mauricio Hernandez, Postdoctoral Scholar, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA
This presentation shows the results of the preliminary analysis of long-term patterns of nutrition and activity as a result of climatic shift, subsistence changes and increased inter-cultural contact along a prehistoric exchange route across arid mountain passes and oasis towns, linking the Central Eurasian Plains with the Yellow River valley 2,000 years before the founding of the Silk Road trading networks. It is during this period that a climate cooling event began to drive Eurasian groups eastward to establish trade networks in order to obtain agricultural products and raw material for metalworking. Northern Chinese communities in turn benefited from Central Eurasian jade, introduction of new western cultigens, grazing animals, and cultural innovation with Inner Asian motifs. The goal is to investigate whether shifts in subsistence practices and perhaps kinship structure as a result of longterm cultural interaction with Eurasian peoples affected the livelihood and health of populations residing in the intermediate zone, covering the region of eastern Xinjiang, Gansu and eastern Qinghai – both as entire communities, as well as along gender lines.
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Speaker: John Dietler, Principal Investigator, SWCA Environmental Consultants
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Speaker: David Scott, Professor, Art History, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA
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Speaker: Karl Taube, Professor and Department Chair, Anthropology, UC Riverside
Archaeological fieldwork performed by the Proyecto Chichen Itza under the direction of Peter Schmidt during 1999 to 2002 uncovered a remarkable series of bas-relief friezes from the upper portions of palace and temple structures. The focus of this study will be buildings featuring avian and floral imagery, including abundant representations of cacao. Many of the friezes contain scenes portraying an avian-headed figure playing music surrounded by floating elements pertaining to music and dance. The relation of music to precious birds is well known for Late Postclassic Central Mexico, however it is becoming increasingly clear that a very similar complex existed among the more ancient Classic Maya, including the wind deity — god of music and closely related to flowers as well as the embodiment of the breath soul. In this study, I argue that the avian figure in the Initial Series at Chichen Itza constitutes an Early Postclassic form of the wind god and as such, can be considered as an ancestral form of Ehecatl. Moreover, the Initial Series Group has the most developed monumental program dedicated to the production of cacao in ancient Mesoamerica, with the immediate topography strongly indicating why.
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