Past Events
Interested in Cotsen events? Sign up for our mailing list.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.
Contact Matthew Swanson
Email mswanson@ioa.ucla.edu
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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.
Contact Matthew Swanson
Email mswanson@ioa.ucla.edu
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Speaker: John Dietler, Principal Investigator, SWCA Environmental Consultants
Contact Matthew Swanson
Email mswanson@ioa.ucla.edu
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Speaker: David Scott, Professor, Art History, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, UCLA
Contact Matthew Swanson
Email mswanson@ioa.ucla.edu
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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.
Contact Matthew Swanson
Email mswanson@ioa.ucla.edu
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Speaker: James Potter, PaleoWest Archaeology, INC.
This presentation will discuss the formation, development, and dissolution of an early prehispanic community in Southwestern Colorado. At its height the Ridges Basin community, dating from A.D. 750-825, comprised approximately 75 households organized in pithouse clusters. Households in these clusters were diverse in their backgrounds and social identities, regularly exercised violence against one another, and were variably connected to other communities and the larger outside world. The result was a community that developed and changed rapidly, exhibited fluid boundaries and volatile social relations among households, and came to a quick and violent end. Various models will be explored to explain the final massacre at the Sacred Ridge site.
Contact Matthew Swanson
Email mswanson@ioa.ucla.edu
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CIoA Press Back-to-School Book Sale
Up to 50% off!
The CIoA Press is celebrating the start of the new school year with a book sale. New books on the last days of the Inca, an important site in Mesopotamia, and many more!
New titles will be 20% off
Slightly damaged books are 50% off
Bargain Bags! Buy a tote for $10 and fill with all of the bargain books you can fit!
And starting this year, the chance to win prizes including free books, water bottles, and individual electronic chapters!
CIoA water bottles, t-shirts, postcards, and hats will also be available.
A list of available titles with the sale prices can be downloaded here:
Contact Randi Danforth
Email ioapubs@ioa.ucla.edu
Phone (310) 206-9384
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Cotsen Institute of Archaeolgy at UCLA and Archaeological Institute of America
Present:
Dr. Andrea Ricci
German Archaeological Institute – Eurasia Dept.
2015 AIA-DAI Fellow at the Cotsen Institute (UCLA)
“Early settlement of the Southern Caucasus: recent discoveries of the German-Azerbaijani investigations in the Mil Plain (Southern Azerbaijan)”
The talk will address the latest results of the interdisciplinary project “Kura in Motion”, which has been investigating early sedentism along the Kura Valley since 2010. Focus will be on the landscape of survival of the Mil Plain of Southern Azerbaijan, where a series of late Neolithic (6th Mill. BCE) sites have been investigated with intensive survey and excavation.
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The UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology is holding its annual Open House this Saturday, May 2nd, from 1-4. Stop by and find out what current research the faculty is undertaking and visit the different labs housed at the Institute. Make sure to stop by room A410 to visit our lab and learn about the different methods we use to examine archaeological objects.
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