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. 

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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.

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. 

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6pm Lecture
7pm Reception 

Parking Information

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). 

ABSTRACT: The Tang dynasty (618-907 CE) undoubtedly marks a special period ofChinese history for its cultural inclusiveness, marvelous artistic achievements, andunprecedented international influence. This talk will examine a special category of Tangimperial art: the funerary stone sculptures placed in front of the mausolea of emperors andtombs of high-level officials. By looking at the precedents of these finely produced anddeliberately displayed statues, both from Han to Tang, and from East Asia to Inner Asia, Iargue that all the categories of Tang funerary stone sculptures had come into being in aregionalist manner at least since the Southern and Northern Dynasties period (420-589CE), whereas the effort to incorporate these distinct regional traditions reflects this newlyborn empire's ambition of creating a "Culture of Ours."

BIO: Zichao Wang is currently a Ph.D student at the Archaeology InterdepartmentalProgram at UCLA. He graduated from the Chinese University at Hong Kong and McGillUniversity for two masters' degrees. Therefore, he is now a complete historian and a partialarchaeologist. With a focus on the political and cultural history of early China, he has beenwriting broadly on various topics of Chinese history. At UCLA, he attempts to fullyincorporate different sources and approaches to achieve a more comprehensiveunderstanding of Chinese history, which is, inevitably, also a part of world history.

This workshop will provide participants with first-hand experience of the complete process of creating, importing and interacting with 3D digital assets in collaborative Virtual Reality. Photogrammetric and LiDAR scans of archaeological contexts and artifacts will be used to walk workshop participants through the process of creating collaborative research spaces in the Metaverse. Metaquest Virtual Reality headsets will be available on site for a limited number of participants. This hybrid workshop will take place in person, online over Zoom, and partially on Spatial.io, a web-based metaverse platform that allows participants to engage with content in Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and through their web browser on desktop and mobile devices. Registration is required to be granted access into the virtual presentation space. Those with access to Metaquest Virtual Reality headsets of their own are welcome and encouraged to attend as fully immersed participants for those sections of the workshop. Space is limited to 30 participants; prior registration is required. Registered participants will be contacted closer to the presentation date with detailed instructions and a Zoom link for those joining remotely.