Noteworthy

SONIA ZARRILLO presented “New Approaches to Tracing Cacao’s Dispersal from the Amazon Basin”

SONIA ZARRILLO, postdoctoral fellow at the Cotsen Institute, presented “New Approaches to Tracing Cacao’s Dispersal from the Amazon Basin” on January 23 at the first gathering of the year, and decade, of the Andean Working Group. Her presentation was co-authored with Michael Blake from the University of British Columbia, Canada. Throughout her informative presentation Zarrillo shed light on the origins and many characteristics of cacao, resulting from her years of investigation in Ecuador. While it was known that cacao trees grow within the cacao belt—about 20° on either side of the equator—more varieties of cacao appear endemic to South America than previously known. Zarrillo demonstrated that cacao likely came from the Amazonian Basin and was domesticated in present-day Equator. Only after it had been brought to Mesoamerica, however, what we now know as chocolate was invented. The Andean Working Group of the Cotsen Institute draws scholars from across Southern California to UCLA campus for meetings focused on current research in Andean archaeology, art history, anthropology, and history.

Figure 1. Graduate student Georgi Kyorlenski introduces the speaker.

Figure 2. Postdoctoral fellow Sonia Zarrillo prepares for her presentation on the dispersal of cacao.

Figure 3. Members and visitors of the Andean Working Group enjoy refreshments served before the beginning of the presentation.

CANCELLED: STELLA NAIR to talk at Princeton University's Heritage Structures Program Seminar Series

STELLA NAIR will speak as part of Princeton University’s Heritage Structures Program Seminar Series on
March 25, 2020. Her presentation is titled “In the Aftermath of Violence: Andean Stones and the Heroics
of Small Construction Details.” Nair is Associate Professor, Department of Art History, and a core faculty
member of the Cotsen Institute.

GAZMEND ELEZI presents "Never Let Go: Repaired Ceramic Vessels from the Neolithic Balkans" at the AIAs

GAZMEND ELEZI discussed “Never Let Go: Repaired Ceramic Vessels from the Neolithic Balkans” during Open Session 4D, “Regions, Households & Objects: New Research in Southeastern European Prehistory,” was held January 4, 2020 at the Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America in Washington, DC. Elezi is a PhD candidate at the Cotsen Institute.

KARA COONEY Awarded Popular Book Award by ASOR

Kara Cooney received the 2019 Nancy Lapp Popular Book Award, presented by the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR), for her book When Women Ruled the World: Six Queens of Egypt. The award recognizes the author/editor of a book published in the last two years that offers a new synthesis of archaeological or textual evidence intended to reach an audience of scholars, as well as students and the broader public. Founded in 1900, ASOR’s mission is to initiate, encourage, and support research into, and public understanding of, the history and cultures of the Near East and wider Mediterranean world. Cooney is professor of Egyptian art and architecture and chair of the Department of Near East Languages and Cultures at UCLA.

“Kara Cooney injects an important and timely topic into popular discourse,” noted ASOR’s Honors and Awards Committee Chair Laura Mazow when presenting the award. “Not only is When Women Ruled the World a fascinating book on its own—a tour de force of the highlights of Egyptian history from Dynasty 0 through the Ptolemies – but Cooney’s specific focus then invites us to reflect on broader questions about the historic role of female leadership and its implications in the modern world,” Mazow continued. “Cooney’s book serves as a great example of how studies of ancient societies can be made relevant and interesting to a general audience and, in doing so, can raise provocative questions that very much still matter today,” she concluded.