Upcoming Events

This lecture is part of the series Migration, Borderlands, and Social Boundaries in Antiquity. This program of public lectures takes place monthly on Thursdays at 9:30 AM Pacific, from September 2024 through May 2025. See the list of lectures and dates below.

Watch on the ARF YouTube channel here: https://bit.ly/arf-channel or watch later on the ARF & Badè YouTube channels.

Why is it important to develop local collaborative archaeology programs? Collaborative research is a relatively niche but growing component of modern archaeological practice; it can take several forms. While academic institutions and professional societies highlight the importance of Indigenous, collaborative, and decolonizing research strategies, opportunities to train students in these techniques are still generally lacking in the field. In this talk, we share insights from a collaborative field school bringing together archaeology students from the Univ. of Oregon (comprised of students from UCB, SFSU, Fresno State, Santa Clara Univ.) and young adult Tribal members from the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and their Land Trust. We learned about Tribal history, past relationships between anthropologists and Tribes, and how Archaeology plays an increasing role in contemporary land management. We also learned archaeological field methods developed by the Tribe and archaeologists over the last decade to study and preserve Indigenous cultural heritage on the landscape, bringing together "low impact" archaeological techniques, as well as multidisciplinary field methods (e.g., ethnobotany and wildlife monitoring). In this talk, I highlight "Indigenous led" efforts in central coastal California archaeology that focuses on site stewardship, access, research, and education. My goal is to provide an example of how Universities can strengthen relationships with local Tribes, and how such components in field schools are mutually beneficial for training our next generation of professionals and scholars.

The ARF 2024 Field School was a six-week program that was incorporated in a way to teach young aspiring archaeologists the needed physical and ethereal tools of the trade needed when pursuing careers in archaeology. Tailored to aid students who were in some form of economic or financial need, this field school was unique in that students were given paid stipends upon completion. Given that most post education and careers require a field school, this allowed all students the opportunity to gain needed experiences and training within the field. This program taught the process of conducting archaeological fieldwork including aspects of historical research, pre-excavation equipment training, field-based data collection, artifact analysis, and above all public engagement by creating meaningful consultation with the local community to allow potential future collaborations and iterations of the project to exist. Students learned how to engage with issues of presentation and representation, and became familiar with the political and ethical challenges in archaeology, while learning about material culture and how to integrate historical and archaeological sources within their research. The program conducted fieldwork at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park, utilizing geospatial techniques, archival and historical analysis of documents and maps, and targeted low-impact archaeological excavations methods to examine the long-term history of Rancho San Antonio and the 20th century history of the Peralta Hacienda within it.

The Archaeological Institute of America, San Francisco Society, is thrilled to welcome Dr. Camille Acosta (UC Irvine) to campus to share her research on immigrant communities in Classical Athens and archaeological evidence for their burials. 

The Archaeological Institute of America, San Francisco Society, is thrilled to welcome Dr. Camille Acosta (UC Irvine) to campus to share her research on immigrant communities in Classical Athens and archaeological evidence for their burials. 

This lecture is part of the series Migration, Borderlands, and Social Boundaries in Antiquity. This program of public lectures takes place monthly on Thursdays at 9:30 AM Pacific, from September 2024 through May 2025. See the list of lectures and dates below.

Watch on the ARF YouTube channel here: https://bit.ly/arf-channel or watch later on the ARF & Badè YouTube channels.

Potter's marks affixed to ceramic vessels are common throughout the Ancient Near East, but have a special nature when they appear further east among ancient Central Asian pastoral cultures. Called tamga, a set of over 200 marks were discovered on pottery in the Sistan region of southwest Afghanistan by the Helmand Sistan Project, far from to the bulk of known tamga sites. This presentation will outline the perplexing context of these artifacts in Sistan and suggest some possible contributions to our understanding of Central Asian tamga practices and meanings.

Epipalaeolithic (c. 10-20 kya) hunters-gatherers in Southwest Asia experimented with plant and animal management and developed long-ranging, complex networks of exchange and movement, but little remains known of this period in Cyprus. The Ancient Seafaring Explorers of Cyprus Project (ASEC) extends the broader understanding of Epipalaeolithic wayfinding, placemaking, and technological use among the earliest occupants of the island. Geoarchaeological evidence suggests that both coastal and inland locations were extensively used by these hunter-gatherer groups, although much remains elusive about movements between these regions. Taking a landscape learning approach, I present new Epipalaeolithic occupations in Cyprus, contextualized within an ever-growing inventory of hunter-gatherer sites and palaeo-coastline data, that contribute to our broader understanding of landscape use and movement of these groups during the initial phases of occupation and exploration of Cyprus.

The annual Pritchett Lecture brings to campus a distinguished scholar in Mediterranean history and archaeology. This year's lecturer is John Ma, Professor of Classics, Columbia University.

Collaborative and community-based paths in humanities and social scientific Native American Studies research are long, winding, and fraught with risk, especially for consulting tribal nations. This presentation is a narrative account of one such journey. It follows the initially tenuous and sometimes comically bumpy path of negotiation between Dr. Albert Gonzalez, anthropological archaeologist at Cal State East Bay, and representatives of the Seminole Tribe of Florida in establishing a mutually satisfactory understanding of Seminole foodways and health at the turn of the twentieth century. This narrative retelling incorporates as much behind-the-scenes color as scientific data, highlighting not only the results of several years' worth of relevant documentary analysis, but the power of contemporary tribal institutions to shape the course of archaeological and historical research in the era of decolonization. It explores the contours of Seminole food consumption and general health in South Florida between 1855 and 1917, discussing findings that may serve to inform Seminole archaeological and tribal public health strategies in the future. It works also to showcase the muddying of boundaries between archaeological and documentary research, high impact pedagogies, and affirmative tribal consultation that produced the project's results in addition to positive university-tribal relations. The project described in this presentation is ongoing, reflexive, and aspires to be self-correcting, making this talk less a statement of best practices than a workshop for developing better ones with the aim of improving the quality of the journey.

What has Europe got to do with a Danish Myth and Legend database, repatriation and future museum perspectives? The answer seems to be "not much" and "everything!" at the same time. Come and meet the new faculty at the Department of Scandinavian Studies, Asta Mønsted (UC Berkeley), and hear her viewpoints and experiences on various discussions coming as an Indigenous archaeologist.

This conference engages in a comprehensive examination of the long-term historical processes that have shaped Eurasia. Focusing on the intersection of climate change, agricultural innovation, genetic evolution, and nomadic networks, among others, it aims to unravel the complex dynamics that have influenced the development of societies across this vast continent.

Key discussions will explore the impact of climate fluctuations on constructed landscapes, the domestication and dissemination of crops that underpinned agricultural and economic transformations, the role of genetic diversity in human migration and adaptation, and the intricate networks established by nomadic communities that facilitated trade, communication, and cultural exchange across immense distances.

Through a multidisciplinary approach, this conference seeks to illuminate the deep interconnections between environmental, biological, and social factors in shaping Eurasia's historical trajectory.

Prof. Monsted's work seeks to challenge the Eurocentric historical narrative, which is deeply tied to colonialism and has resulted in the disempowerment of Kalaallit (Greenlandic Inuit) oral histories in favor of Western Christian perspectives. Monsted' research aligns with an academic approach that prioritizes Indigenous knowledge and narratives, exploring how they may be integrated with scholarly theories and methods.

In this talk, the oral testimonies of the Kalaallit will be juxtaposed with the archaeological record to demonstrate how these can offer new interpretations of Kalaallit objects and landscapes. In doing so, we explore how the archaeological discipline and oral tradition interact, challenging one another, while raising new questions for future research and its applied fields methods.

ARF's Special Fall Lecture by Dr. Barbara L. Voss (Stanford University) presents work-in-progress from a new book project about Chinese diaspora archaeology that connects archaeological research on historic Chinese American communities with parallel studies of qiaoxiang – home villages of Chinese migrants – in Guangdong Province, China. Through close analysis of the production, circulation, and use of selected artifacts, this project traces the material practices through which Chinese migrants and their kin in China developed and sustained social and economic networks across the Pacific. 

The late Dr John M. Fritz was the first American archaeologist to survey the ruins of Hampi Vijayanagara. Trained at the University of Chicago as an anthropologist with a special interest in prehistoric, Native American sites in New Mexico and Arizona, Fritz brought an entirely new perspective to South Asian urban studies. Together with Dr George Michell, Fritz directed a team of volunteer architects and archaeologists to investigate the meaning of Hampi's city plan. Building on more than twenty years of fieldwork during the 1980s and 1990s, he concluded that the Hindu god Rama dominated the layout of Vijayanagara's Royal Centre by acting as a mediator in the everyday activities and ceremonial life of the Vijayanagara rulers. It is this innovative interpretation that Michell will discuss in this illustrated lecture.

People tend to talk about the "meaning" of objects and events in everyday life, and this tendency extends to inquiries regarding the imagery of the European Ice Age. "What does cave art mean?" is a common question. Archaeologists also refer to "meaning" with great regularity, but they rarely attempt to define what "meaning" is.

In this talk I would like to examine the concept of "meaning" as it is applied to the imagery and representations of the European Ice Age, discussing "the meaning of meaning," and proposing one approach we might take in thinking about "meaning" in our work. I will draw on pragmatist philosophy and theories of cognitive science in addition to archaeological materials.

The Archaeological Institute of America, San Francisco Society, is thrilled to welcome Dr. Lissette Jiménez back to campus to discuss her recently published book, Teaching Ancient Egypt in Museums: Pedagogies in Practice, and her work with museum collections in the Bay Area, including the Hearst Museum of Anthropology at Berkeley. 

This lecture is part of the series Migration, Borderlands, and Social Boundaries in Antiquity. This program of public lectures takes place monthly on Thursdays at 9:30 AM Pacific, from September 2024 through May 2025. See the list of lectures and dates below.

Watch on the ARF YouTube channel here: https://bit.ly/arf-channel or watch later on the ARF & Badè YouTube channels.

The Pompeii Artifact Life History Project (PALHIP) conducted its final field season this past July, bringing to a close 10 years of fieldwork at Pompeii and some of the sites in its environs. Each of these seasons was supported by funding generously provided by the ARF's Stahl Fund. This talk considers some of the more interesting artifacts that have been described by the project manufactured in a variety of materials (ceramic, glass, wood, bone, iron, lead, bronze, silver gold), as well as compound artifacts with components manufactured in multiple materials. Discussion focuses on manufacturing technique, artifact function, artifact life history, technological change and the organization of craft production at Pompeii and some of analytical challenges that the project has encountered in its efforts to address these issues.