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When I joined our students for their training excavation in September 2021 on the Swedish Island of Öland, it occurred to me that by focusing on the act of recovering objects and information, archaeology may be missing the most central aspect of the site. For the site was surrounded by lush vegetation and in the middle of an intense process of regeneration, involving everything from small creatures in the soil to huge trees reaching into the sky.
In this talk, I will trace the emergence of this insight and its implications for rethinking archaeology´s temporality and, in particular, the 1964 Venice Charter on Conservation and Restoration which has been the most influential 20th century document on policy guiding heritage conservation and restoration. I will also discuss implications for the response of archaeology to climate change, going beyond understanding long-term environmental change and safeguarding threatened sites toward developing strategies for increasing cultural resilience and sustainability. Archaeologists have long claimed to be working on the past for the benefit of future generations—now it is time to explicitly address the future and draw on the full potential of archaeology to make human societies more sustainable (while perhaps improving the life of non-human lifeforms too).
6pm Lecture
7pm Reception
Cornelius Holtorf is Professor of Archaeology as well as Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair on Heritage Futures at Linnaeus University, Kalmar, Sweden. He studied in Germany and the UK, received a Doctorate from the University of Wales in 1998 (supervised by Michael Shanks), and has been living in Sweden for more than two decades, since 2008 in Kalmar. Since 2015, he has been directing the Graduate School in Contract Archaeology (GRASCA) comprising 9 PhD projects. He is currently a Getty Scholar working on “Heritage in Transformation”. For more information about Holtorf see http://lnu.se/en/unescochair and http://corneliusholtorf.com.
Contact Michelle Jacobson
Email mjacobson@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone
Archaeology has been perceived as a discipline where experts are the authority of the past, often overshadowing local and Indigenous interpretations of history. However, archaeology is undergoing a transformative shift. Many archaeologists now understand that descendant communities are not passive recipients of archaeological insights but active collaborators and custodians of their own histories. This talk will showcase Acabado’s work in the Philippines where community engagement is foundational, not an afterthought. At sites like the Ifugao Rice Terraces and Bicol, methodologies weave in local knowledge, skills, and traditions, offering a layered understanding of the past. Furthermore, community involvement promotes a renewed sense of ownership and pride in local cultural heritage. It is a reciprocal relationship: archaeologists achieve richer interpretations, while communities strengthen their historical narratives. Join us in exploring the intersection of community and archaeology in the Philippines and discover how genuine collaborative research can reshape an entire discipline.
6pm Lecture
7pm Reception
Stephen B. Acabado is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at UCLA. He is recognized for his community-oriented work in the Philippines and has dedicated his career to the study of the Ifugao Rice Terraces, a site of significant historical and cultural importance that has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site. Dr. Acabado places community engagement at its core of his practice. He staunchly advocates for the involvement of local communities in archaeological endeavors, ensuring that their histories, perspectives, and insights are incorporated into the larger narrative.
Contact Michelle Jacobson
Email mjacobson@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone
Talepakemalai, in the Mussau Islands of Papua New Guinea, excavated by Patrick Kirch between 1985-1988, is the earliest and largest site of the Lapita Cultural Complex, which was ancestral to most of the later cultures of island Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. With a unique waterlogged component, Talepakemalai preserved the wooden posts of a stilt house dated to 1300-1100 BCE. Associated with the stilt house was a large assemblage of elaborately-decorated pottery, many of the vessels displaying human face motifs, along with a diversity of artifacts in shell, bone, and stone. Prof. Kirch will discuss these finds, and their significance for understanding the role of the Lapita people in the settlement of Oceania.
Patrick V. Kirch is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Hawai‘i, Mānoa, and Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Integrative Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. Born and raised in Hawai‘i, Kirch received his Ph.D. from Yale University. Kirch has held positions at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, the University of Washington, and from 1989-2014 taught at U. C. Berkeley. Kirch uses islands as “model systems” for understanding both cultural evolution and the complex dynamics between humans and their island ecosystems. He has carried out archaeological fieldwork in the Mussau Islands, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Samoa, Futuna, the Cook Islands, Society Islands, Mangareva Islands, and Hawaiian Islands. Kirch has published some 25 books and monographs, and more than 300 articles and chapters on the results of his research. Among his honors are the John J. Carty Award for the Advancement of Science (NAS), the J. I. Staley Prize (School for Advanced Research), and the Herbert E. Gregory Medal (Pacific Science Association). In 2022 he was named a “Living Treasure of Hawai’i” by the Honpa Hongwanji Mission.
Contact Michelle Jacobson
Email mjacobson@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone
Mexico of five centuries ago was witness to one of the most momentous encounters between human societies, when a group of Spaniards led by Hernando Cortés joined forces with tens of thousands of Mesoamerican allies to topple the mighty Aztec Empire. The violent clash that culminated in the Aztec-Spanish war of 1519-1521 and the new colonial order it created were millennia in the making, entwining the previously independent cultural developments of both sides of the Atlantic. In this talk, Carballo provides a deep history of this encounter based in archaeology and material culture to consider the richly layered cultures of Mexico and Spain and their interweaving in and encounter characterized by conquest and colonialism but also strategic action and resilience on the part of Native peoples.
6pm Lecture
7pm Reception
David Carballo is Professor of Anthropology, Archaeology, and Latin American Studies at Boston University. He completed his graduate training (2001 MA, 2005 PhD) at UCLA and specializes in the archaeology of Latin America, especially central Mexico and with topical interests in households, urbanism, religion, social inequality, and working with contemporary communities in understanding ancient ones. Current investigations focus on Teotihuacan’s Tlajinga district, a cluster of non-elite neighborhoods on the periphery of what was then the largest city in the Americas. Recent books include Urbanization and Religion in Ancient Central Mexico (2016), Teotihuacan: The World Beyond the City (ed., 2020), Collision of Worlds: A Deep History of the Fall of Aztec Mexico and the Forging of New Spain (2020), and Collective Action and the Reframing of Early Mesoamerica (2023).
Contact Michelle Jacobson
Email mjacobson@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone
Archaeology and anthropology were once closely related fields of research. Today, they have drifted apart. David Wengrow reflects on his book, co-authored with David Graeber: The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, which is an attempt to see what happens when you put them back together again, after a period of mutual estrangement. The results are surprising, and have significant implications across the social sciences, presenting an overall picture of human history and development that is starkly at odds with received theories and conventional wisdom.
June 8, 2023
In-person at the Lenart Auditorium, Fowler Museum
6pm Lecture
7pm Reception
Email mjacobson@ioa.ucla.edu to RSVP for the in-person lecture and reception (required).
David Wengrow is Professor of Comparative Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London (UCL) and has been a visiting professor at New York University, the University of Auckland, and the University of Freiburg. David has conducted archaeological fieldwork in Africa and the Middle East. He is the author of three books including What Makes Civilization?, and co-author with David Graeber of The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity.
Contact Michelle Jacobson
Email mjacobson@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone
The newest publication from the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, Archaeology Outside the Box, intends to make contemporary archaeology germane to the general public as well as researchers in other disciplines. In thirty-one richly illustrated chapters, a variety of projects is presented by an international group of archaeologists, anthropologists, architects, and artists. These aim to broaden the applicability of archaeology by reflecting on archaeological remains in novel ways or addressing contemporary concerns with archaeological theory and research methods. Demonstrating the fascinating and pertinent nature of archaeology, the authors go far beyond its definition as a discipline that unearths obiects of ancient material culture.
June 1, 2023
In-person at the Luskin Conference Center
6pm Lecture
7pm Reception
Online (Zoom)
6pm Lecture
Email mjacobson@ioa.ucla.edu to RSVP for the in-person lecture and reception by May 25 (required) or register for Zoom here.
Hans Barnard has both an MD, and a PhD in archaeology from Leiden University in the Netherlands. Since 1990 he has participated in archaeological field projects throughout the world. He has published more than a hundred articles and book chapters, as well as several books, among which are the edited volumes The Archaeology of Mobility: Old World and New World Nomadism, with Willeke Wendrich; The History of the Peoples of the Eastern Desert, with Kim Duistermaat; and most recently, Archaeology Outside the Box, all published by the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press.
Contact Michelle Jacobson
Email mjacobson@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone
A conversation with
Giorgio Buccellati
Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati
Maryanne Wolf
February 16, 2023
6:00 PM PT
Remote via Zoom
Join us in unearthing the secrets of a 5,000-year-old civilization when cities first began to take shape. In northeastern Syria, the Hurrian city of Urkesh had been excavated and studied for twenty-five years before the work was halted by war. Learn how the study of Urkesh has been impacted by plundering and defacing but continues to engage the local community and provide impactful records even beyond archaeology. Archaeologists Giorgio Buccellati and Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati will be joined by neuropsychologist Maryanne Wolf for a conversation where cognitive psychology meets archaeology.
Registration Required
Giorgio Buccellati is professor emeritus of the departments of History and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures and the founding director of the Institute of Archaeology at UCLA (now the Cotsen Institute). He is also the Director of the Mesopotamian Laboratory. Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati is professor emerita of archaeology and art history, California State University–Los Angeles. Both are researchers affiliated with the Cotsen Institute. Maryanne Wolf is a scholar, a teacher, and an advocate for children and literacy around the world. She is the Director of the newly created Center for Dyslexia, Diverse Learners, and Social Justice at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies
Contact Michelle Jacobson
Email mjacobson@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone
The Cotsen Institute of Archeology Press invites you to the latest Author Spotlight with
Stephen Dueppen
Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
University of Oregon
Mounded sites (tells) are common throughout West Africa, including in western Burkina Faso where clusters of mounds dating to the past three millennia are common. Extensive fieldwork at the long inhabited and well-preserved site of Kirikongo (ca. 100—1650 AD), has established that the community started as a small farming settlement, grew to a large community centered on the village’s founders, rejected inequalities in an egalitarian revolution, and survived the Black Death pandemic. This talk explores patterns in architecture, material culture and organic remains (animal bones and botanical remains) to argue that the mounds at Kirikongo are not only residential, but also stratified ancestor shrines whose ritual deposits inform on the divine associations of different houses in a ritual landscape.
Contact Michelle Jacobson
Email mjacobson@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone
You are cordially invited to The Vishap: From Fairy Tale to Reality (click on link for schedule)
Sunday May 15th, 2022 at 2:00 - 6:00pm PDT
The Narekatsi Chair in Armenian Studies presents "The Vishap: From Fairy Tale to Reality," by Dr. Arsen Bobokhyan. This event is co-sponsored by the Promise Armenian Institute, the Ararat-Eskijian Museum, and the National Association for Armenian Studies & Research with the participation of the Research Program in Armenian Archaeology and Ethnography at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and the Institute for Archaeology and Ethnography of the Armenian Academy of Sciences.
2:00 - 3:30 PM Royce Hall 314
Illustrated Lecture on documenting and preserving the dragon-stones of Armenia from the 2nd millennium BCE by Dr. Arsen Bobokhyan (PI of this project and Director of the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in Yerevan), followed by a documentary of the dragon-stones and the initial phase of their investigation and restoration.
3:30 - 6:00 PM Powell Rotunda
Presentation of Dr. Bobokhyan's latest monograph Atrpet’s “Scientific Adventures” and Discovery of the Vishap Stelae (in Armenian), followed by a guided tour of an exhibit of thirty high-resolution images of the dragon-stones by Dr. Bobokhyan and recital by the UCLA Armenian Ensemble. The event will conclude with a Wine and Cheese Reception.
The event will livestream on the Ararat-Eskijian Museum's Facebook and YouTube pages.
Arsen Bobokhyan is Directory of the Institute for Archaeology and Ethnography of the Armenian Academy of Sciences. He received his Ph.D. from the Institute of Prehistory at the University of Tuebingen (2008) and has since been an Asst. Professor of History at Yerevan State University and Lecturer at the American University of Armenia. The author of three books and over a hundred articles, he has served as editor of a number of scholarly journals and has been invited as visiting professor at several universities in the German-speaking world. His research interests include the early Archaeology of the Armenian Plateau and the Caucasus, the Near East and Asia Minor, Cultural Relations, Ancient Barter and Weight Systems and Religion and Cult.
Vishapakar (Photo: Sonashen via Wikimedia Commons, 2013; cropped. CC BY-SA 3.0)
Contact Kristine Martirosyan-Olshansky
Email kristineolsh@ucla.edu
Phone
Kristina Douglass, Sherwin Early Career Professor in the Rock Ethics Institute and Assistant Professor of Anthropology and African Studies
Research on how people interact with the environment has the potential to help us solve some of the most pressing challenges we face as a global society. For example, learning about how communities in the past coped with changes in climate may hold clues for how we can effectively address the climate crisis today. Drawing on examples from SW Madagascar, one of the world’s great biodiversity hotspots and a place where local communities are facing acute impacts of environmental change today, we will explore how environmental science can be made more inclusive and engage community stakeholders. Community-centered approaches to environmental science are crucial for science to have a positive impact on society.
Kristina Douglass
Kristina Douglass is an archaeologist who investigates how people, land-and seascapes co-evolve. She is the Joyce and Doug Sherwin Early Career Professor in the Rock Ethics Institute and Assistant Professor of Anthropology and African Studies at Penn State University. Sheis a Penn State Institutes for Energy and the Environment co-funded faculty member and a faculty affiliate of the Institute for Computational and Data Sciences. Douglass is also a Smithsonian Institution Research Associate. Her work is grounded in collaborations with local, Indigenous, and descendant (LID) communities as equal partners in the co-production of science, and the recording, preservation and dissemination of LID knowledge. Douglass and her collaborators aim to contribute long-term perspectiveson human-environment interactions to public debates, planning and policymaking on the issues of climate change, conservation, and sustainability. Since 2011 Douglass has directed the Morombe Archaeological Project (MAP), based in the Velondriake Marine Protected Area. This territory is home to diverse LID communities, including Vezo fishers, Mikea foragers and Masikoro herders. The MAP team is made up of Velondriake LID community members, and an international group of graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. The MAP is anchored at Penn State to the Olo Be Taloha Lab (@OBTLab andhttps://obtlab.la.psu.edu) for African Environmental Archaeology, which Douglass also directs. Douglass is a mother, singer, dancer, Capoeirista, SCUBA diver and avid gardener, all of which intersect in essential ways with her work as an archaeologist.
Contact Michelle Jacobson
Email mjacobson@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone
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