Past Events
Interested in Cotsen events? Sign up for our mailing list.Hear eight of the world’s leading Egyptologists, who will appear together for the first time to share their expertise on life in Ancient Egypt. These experts are all editors of the UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology (UEE), a prestigious resource of in-depth articles on Ancient Egypt that has been a decade in the making. Accessible by the public, these articles cover language, religion, history, art, and a wide variety of other important topics on this critical civilization.
Please join us for this special event which will emphasize the role of women and how they helped shape Ancient Egypt as we know it.
Reserve tickets now or view the full program here.
Contact Michelle Jacobson
Email mjacobson@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone
The Annual Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Open House will take place on
May 18, 2019 from 11:30 to 4:00pm
with the theme
Technology: Ancient and Modern
Explore the breadth of ancient technologies through a mosaic of talks by Drs. John K. Papadopoulos, Gregson Schachner, Monica L. Smith, and Willeke Wendrich. Then visit the labs within the Cotsen to learn more and see these technologies up close!
Contact Michelle Jacobson
Email mjacobson@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone
The Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwest Texas and Coahuila, Mexico house some of the most spectacularly complex rock art of the ancient world. Approximately 4000 years ago, hunter-gatherers began transforming this region into a painted landscape. Perhaps the greatest of these masterpieces is the White Shaman mural, an intricate Pecos River style painting that spans twenty-six feet in length and thirteen feet in height. Drawing on twenty-five years of archaeological research, as well as insight from ethnohistory and art history, Carolyn Boyd identifies patterns in the art that relate, in stunning detail, to the mythologies of Uto-Aztecan speaking peoples, including the Aztec and the contemporary Huichol. Analysis of these patterns led to the identification of the White Shaman mural as an ancient visual narrative relating a story of the birth of the sun and the beginning of time.
California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA
570 Westwood Plaza Building 114
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Reception on Tuesday, February 12, 2019 at 6:00pm with the program at 7:00pm
Carolyn E. Boyd, Ph.D.
Founder of Shumla Archaeological Research & Education Center
Research Professor at Texas State
Contact Michelle Jacobson
Email mjacobson@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone
Since our humble beginnings, human’s have created and discarded unwanted objects: garbage is a human universal, and the archaeological record is brimming with it. Indeed, the everyday human experience – the routine domestic tasks we perform, the foods we process and eat, the goods we consume – is arguably best documented with our discards. Rarely glorified and difficult to romanticize, trash can challenge the dominant historical narrative, give voice to those without, and complicate our understandings of quotidian behavior. But an archaeology of trash is also situated to foster unique and often impactful perspectives on the ways that consumption and discard practices – both normative and fringe – implicate a myriad of phenomena not always easily gleaned from curated possessions, including ideologies of dissent, socially performed identities, dispossession, and ecological toxicity. Secretly aspiring to deepen your appreciation and awareness of garbage, this talk explores the curiously unpopular but promising fusion of archaeology and discard studies.
Harry and Yvonne Lenart Auditorium at the Fowler Museum, UCLA
6:00 pm, Thursday, October 11, 2018
With a reception in the Fowler Museum Courtyard to follow
RSVP by Friday, October 5, to Kelli O'Leary at koleary@support.ucla.edu
Anthony Graesch
Associate Professor of Anthropology
Chair of the Anthropology Department
Connecticut College
This event is co-sponsored by:
Director Willeke Wendrich, UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology and The Institute for Field Research
Contact Tanja Hrast
Email tanja@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone
The Annual Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Open House will take place on
May 12, 2018 from 12:00 to 4:00pm with the theme Celebrations.
Join us at 12:00 pm in the Fowler Museum for two gallery talks followed by a feasting forum in the Lenart Auditorium (A-Level) at 1:00 pm.
Decoding textiles: the transmission of traditional knowledge with Dr. Sonali Gupta-agarwal
and
Archaeology and representation: empowering descendant communities through museum-based education with Dr. Stephen Acabado
Celebrations across the world and throughout time usually involve feasting: consuming elaborate and plentiful food (and drink) in the company of others. The important social, religious and political roles of feasting will be presented and discussed by three core members of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, Drs. Elizabeth Carter, Alan Farahani, and Monica Smith. After their brief introductions the panel will discuss this subject with the audience, an exchange of thought moderated by Dr. Willeke Wendrich, Director of the Institute.
After the forum, come explore our labs and interact with archaeologists from 2:00 - 4:00 pm.
Contact Sonali Gupta-agarwal
Phone
Himalayan Wonders Unearthed
30 Years of Discoveries in India and Tibet
For thirty years, Peter van Ham has been researching regions in the Himalayas that had been closed for research for over half a decade. His major research focus is the life and achievements of one of Tibet's greatest masters - Lotsava Rinchen Sangpo, the 'Great Translator' from the eleventh century CE. The few surviving religious establishments founded under his aegis are the oldest temple sites of the entire TIbetan cultural realm. Their works of art, mostly preserved in their original state, are of great importance not only for TIbetan culture but also for India, Central and even Middle Asia, revealing influences reaching as far as the Mediterranean. Supported by H.H., the Dalai Lama, the Archaeological Survey of India, and the UNESCO, van Ham has made important art historical and archaeological discoveries and was the first to document these unique sites that for centuries eluded public attention.
The event was livestreamed and the recording is available below.
April 2nd, 2018, 5:00 - 7:30pm
Lecture and Reception at the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI) Auditorium at UCLA
570 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90095
Parking available at Lot 9
Contact Sonali Gupta-agarwal
Email sonaliga@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone (310) 206-8934
Contact Sonali Gupta-Agarwal
Email sonaliga@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone
Since 2015 Jason De León has been involved in an analog photoethnographic project focused on documenting the daily lives of Honduran smugglers who profit from transporting undocumented migrants across Mexico. In this talk, he will discuss the relationship between transnational gangs and the human smuggling industry and outline the complicated role that photography plays as a field method and data source in this violent and ethically challenging ethnographic context.
Jason De León
Associate Professor of Anthropology,
University of Michigan
Director, Undocumented Migration Project
California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI)
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
5:00 p.m.
Reception to follow
Please RSVP to this event here.
This Public Lecture is co-sponsored by:
Professor and Director Willeke Wendrich, UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology
The Mellon Foundation’s Urban Humanities Initiative at UCLA
Professor and Chair Jason Throop, UCLA Department of Anthropology
Professor Richard Lesure, Marilyn Beaudry-Corbett Endowed Chair in Mesoamerican Archaeology
Contact Tanja Hrast
Email tanja@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone
Connections
Archaeology is a collaborative field and archaeological teams always consist of specialists from many disciplines. This interconnectedness is an integral part of a holistic understanding of our past. Join us for an open house that illuminates the relationship between the Fowler Museum and archaeological research, beginning with two gallery talks in the Fowler Museum. These talks will be followed by a lecture, Connections Ancient and Modern: Reflections on Fieldwork in India by Dr. Monica L. Smith and will include a panel discussion with the audience. After the discussion the archaeological labs will be open to the public, giving visitors the chance to explore how archaeologists work together on many different levels to contribute to our appreciation of cultural heritage through interdisciplinary, cutting edge research.
For information call 310-209-8934. No reservation required.
Contact Sonali Gupta-Agarwal
Email sonaliga@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone
Speaker: Dr. Christian Greco, Director, Egyptian Museum in Turin, Italy
The Museo Egizio in Turin, Italy has the second largest collection of Egyptian Antiquities in the world (after the museum in Cairo). In this lecture Dr. Christian Greco highlights connections between its artifacts, through the history of their discovery, the reunification of burial assemblages, and investigating the common characteristics of historical groupings. In his talk, Dr. Christian Greco, Director of the Museo Egizio, discusses how a collaboration of Egyptologists and scientists enables the recreation of archaeological and historical contexts of the stunning objects housed in the collection.
Co-presented with the Fowler Museum
Contact Sonali Gupta-Agarwal
Email sonaliga@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone
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