Archaeological Research Facility

The Bade Museum at Pacific School of Religion, the Palestine Exploration Fund, and the Archaeological Research Facility at UC Berkeley are proud to announce an ...online, Zoom-lecture series: "Unsilencing the Archives," talks will begin on November 4 and go through June 2nd. Check out the specifics: See more

Occurring now: The ARF Brownbag for this week has been postponed but please join ARF graduate student Lucy Gill. Her lunch talk at Stanford University is being streamed on Zoom https://stanford.zoom.us/j/93685337830, Passcode: 306603....Continue reading

Upcoming Events WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2021 Unsilencing the Archives: Laborers at the Tell en-Nasbeh Excavations (1925-1936) Virtual conference | September 22 | 9:00 am Pacific Time Register here (this is a free event). ...Continue reading

The registration deadline for SAA 2022 is tomorrow at 3pm Eastern Time

Happening next Wednesday!

Occurring now online New interpretations of human dietary patterns for the inhabitants of southern Lake Titicaca, Bolivia using bulk and compound-specific amino acid stable isotope data (1500 BCE 1100 CE) Lecture: ARF Brownbag | September 8 | 12:10-1 p.m. | Virtual event Speakers: Melanie J. Miller; Christine A. Hastorf https://youtu.be/LakOPU6vxq4... Sponsor: Archaeological Research Facility This virtual event is open to the public. View the lecture and ask questions on our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/arf-channel Decades of archaeological research on the Taraco Peninsula (Lake Titicaca, Bolivia) have provided detailed data sets indicating dynamic subsistence practices including farming, herding, and fishing. Stable isotope analysis of human skeletal tissues has focused on bulk isotope data (primarily bone collagen C and N isotope data) to track general dietary habits. Compound-specific amino acid stable isotope analysis provides a further level of detail, allowing identification of foods from freshwater, marine, and terrestrial environments. Using a multi-isotope approach, we analysed human teeth (enamel and dentin) for bulk carbon and nitrogen isotope data and compound-specific amino acid carbon isotope data. The d13C values of Taraco Peninsula peoples rise over time, driven by increased consumption of maize, not lake fish. Additionally, terrestrial foods such as quinoa and camelids were the primary dietary protein sources, with less consumption of lake fish than anticipated. This research demonstrates the importance of using multiple isotope data sets to reach more nuanced understandings of dietary practices in human history. Speakers: Melanie J. Miller and Christine Hastorf, with collaborators Maria Bruno, José Capriles, Iain Kendall, Richard Evershed See more

Bill Tripp (Karuk) and others featured in this radio story about the California landscape and issues around fire management https://revealnews.org/podcast/fighting-fire-with-fire/

Today beginning at 1:30 pm Telling and Teaching the Truth of the California Missions UC Critical Mission Studies Conference on Northern California Missions Friday August 27, 2021, 1:30 - 5:00 PM at the Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park... VIEW THE LIVESTREAM https://video.ibm.com/channel/42n2syRmC9b Sponsored by University of California Critical Mission Studies Project, Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, Ohlone/Costanoan-Esselen Nation, UCSC American Indian Resource Center, and the Santa Cruz Mission State Historic Park. Read more about this program https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=30648

Classics Professor emeritus Stephen Miller (1942-2021) has passed away in Greece. He is known in particular for his work to establish the modern International Nemean Games https://news.berkeley.edu//stephen-miller-who-led-berkele/

Occurring online at noon Pacific Time tomorrow

ARF Affiliated Faculty member Bill Dietrich (Dept of Earth and Planetary Sciences) in the news https://news.berkeley.edu//in-predicting-shallow-but-dang/

Join us as we illustrate how different societies think of womanhood and gender, and see how women are represented and self-represent across time and space! This... virtual program explores ways to find women through archaeology and anthropology, tracing stories of women in the Penn Museum, as well as tales of adventurous female archaeologists. Fri 3/5 | 7:00 - 9:00 pm ET | $10 Learn more: https://bit.ly/3s85jyZ

On April 5, 2018 we were treated to a Spring Lecture by Jason Ur from Harvard University. He presented "The Imperial Landscape of Assyria, from the Ground and Above". Abstract: Since 2012 a new Harvard University archaeological research project began in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq. This area was the core of the Neo-Assyrian empire (ca. 900-600 BC), which at its greatest stretched from Egypt to Iran. The Erbil Plain Archaeological Survey (EPAS) is identifying and map...ping sites from the Neolithic to the 20th century AD around the modern city of Erbil (ancient Arbail, capital of an inner Assyrian province). The project is focused particularly on the landscape impacts of the Neo-Assyrian empiremassive walled cities, enormous irrigation systems, and a countryside filled with deportees from distant conquered lands. This presentation describes project’s methods and preliminary results, with a particular focus on its use of historical remote sensing sources: declassified intelligence aerial photographs (U2) and satellite imagery (CORONA and HEXAGON) and drone-based aerial imagery. These sources present remarkable advantages but also substantial challenges to research in landscape archaeology in the Middle East and beyond. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7-nmMqisTQ See more

This lecture is starting now on bit.ly/arf-channel !

Enjoy this ARF Brownbag lecture from 18 April 2018 "A Question of Design: Gender in Hawaiian Kauhale" presented by Kirsten Vacca when she was a graduate student in the UC Berkeley Anthropology Ph.D. program Abstract: This talk reviews the results of a research project conducted in Nu‘u, Kaup, Maui. The focus of this project was an examination of the kauhale (house complex) construction phenomena researchers in Hawaiian archaeology postulate reflect a gender-segregated use ...of space and gender-segregated activities. Previous work in Hawaiian archaeology has relied on late 19th and early 20th century ethnohistoric documents that outline a hierarchy between binary male and female genders, reinforced by spatial separation of certain activities. The question remains to what degree these interpretations already reflect the adoption of a Eurocentric gender binary. Moreover, these sources clearly stem from a particular intersection of identity-- men of the dominant class in Hawaiian society. Drawing on excavations of seven house complexes in Nu‘u that date to the 16th to 17th centuries, the approach utilizes geoarchaeological methods to assesses the degree to which activities of everyday life were separated in space; the correspondence or lack of correspondence between activities that were evident in separate spaces; and the degree to which any spatial segregation of activities aligns with other evidence indicating the salience of class stratification. By using new methods which allow recovery of micro-residues, the difference in use of space within and between sites becomes increasingly visible. The results promise to provide a foundation for conceptualizing how daily practices in 17th century Hawai‘i shaped the landscape, with reverberating effects for the creation, maintenance, and subversion of hegemonic social structures. https://youtu.be/E4B0U_BV7kE See more

The Call for Sessions for TAG 2021 @ Stanford is now open! We are happy to announce that TAG 2021 will go forward as a virtual conference and that the event will take place from Friday, April 30th to Sunday, May 2nd, 2021. https://web.stanford.edu//cgi/wordpress/call-for-sessions/

Today at 2pm! Use the link below to register in advance. If they only knew: Ways of Knowing through Native Californian Belongings with Dr. Carolyn Smith Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow , UC Berkeley Monday, Dec 7, 2-4 PM... In order to attend this talk, you must register in advance. REGISTRATION https://berkeley.zoom.us//tJ0pce6qrzMiG9zNCh0JBlR_lF8KbJ8H Around the day of the talk, you will receive an email with information about joining the Zoom meeting. If you have any questions, please contact Kamala Russell ([email protected]) Abstract: Through stories of the lived experiences of three, early 20th century northwestern Native California women, this paper reveals the inextricable strength that ties belongings to families, histories, and tribal nations. Reading archival materials and museum collections through a Karuk way of knowing, the stories that arise complicate narratives of the alienability of Native American belongings. This paper takes a holistic research practice grounded in indigenous methodologies, illuminating how Native Californian belongings encompass knowledge beyond the tangible object. It speaks of the world of past and present, endeavoring into an indigenous futurity. Bio: Carolyn Smith (Karuk) is the Da’luk Program Coordinator for the Northern California Indian Development Council, and recently served as the interim Executive Director for the California Indian Basketweavers Association. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from UC Berkeley and is a basketweaver and artist. In exploring indigenous ontological understandings of baskets and their roles, her research addresses how baskets are intertwined with ways of knowing and being in the world. Most recently, she and a group of Indigenous and allied scholars collaborated with Ad Astra Comix to produce the series, So you care about Indigenous scholars?, illustrating Indigenous survival, resistance and resurgence.

Join us for today's talk! http://bit.ly/arf-channel Implications of Black Feminist Thought for Archaeology Speaker: Kathleen Sterling, Associate Professor and DGS, Anthropology, Binghamton University ARF Brownbag | December 2 | 12:10-1 p.m. | Virtual event... Black feminist theory has had some impact in North American historical archaeological interpretation, but its influence and applications beyond have remained somewhat limited until recently. As institutions are increasingly facing demands from students, faculty, and other stakeholders to respond to or contribute to the goals of Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, the time is overdue for archaeology to respond. Black feminist thought can positively impact archaeological interpretation and practice, broadly construed, regardless of the setting in question. https://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/arf.html

The Society for American Archaeology (SAA) is inviting proposals for the H. and T. King Grant for Precolumbian Archaeology competition. The deadline is December... 16, 2020. Guidelines and other required documents are here, in both English and Spanish: https://www.saa.org//h.-and-t.-king-grant-for-precolumbian La Sociedad para la Arqueología Americana (SAA) solicita propuestas para las Becas H. y T. King para la Arqueología Precolombina. La fecha límite es el 16 de diciembre de 2020. Las instrucciones y otros documentos necesarios se encuentrán aquí, en inglés y español: https://www.saa.org//h.-and-t.-king-grant-for-precolumbian

Inequalities in the Ancient Mediterranean TODAY at 12:10 PM PDT Watch live on YouTube: http://bit.ly/arf-channel Inequalities in the Ancient Mediterranean is a panel discussion moderated by Meg Conkey, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, featuring three presentations.... "Jews in the Roman Empire: A Persecuted Minority?" by Erich Gruen, Professor Emeritus of History The talk will look at Jewish experience in light of Roman attitudes toward alien religions generally. It asks whether Rome's normally tolerant reception of sects and cults from various parts of the Hellenic and Near Eastern worlds gave way to prejudice and persecution when it came to Jews. "Interpreting Gender Inequality in ancient Greece" by Kim Shelton, Associate Professor, Classics Evidence of gender inequality from ancient Greece presents a dichotomy. The visual record is remarkably different from the archaeological and historical evidence while gender roles among the gods are in contrast to those in the society that worships them. I will illustrate some examples from the prehistoric and historic period to discuss possible interpretations. "Slavery in the Roman Empire" by J. Theodore Peña, Professor, Classics The population of the Roman empire consisted of persons who were free-born, enslaved and ex-slaves who had been emancipated, and the fact of slavery was a defining characteristic of Roman social and economic organization. Although we know a great deal about some aspects of Roman slavery from evidence such as funerary epitaphs, the experience of Roman slaves remains obscure to us in many regards, and it is only in recent years that scholars have made a concerted effort to find slaves in the archaeological record. One facet of this work has involved the analysis of Roman residential structures carried out with a view to understanding the dynamics of the interactions between slaves and their owners on a day-to-day basis. The presenter will illustrate some of the possibilities and challenges involved in work of this kind by highlighting research that he is currently carrying out at Pompeii that examines the disposition and circulation of material culture within residences at the boundary between households where slaves were likely present and households in which they were likely absent.

Dear ARF friends, On this Giving Tuesday, please consider making a donation to the ARF to support archaeology at UC Berkeley! https://give.berkeley.edu/fund/FU0703000 Donations provide general support for field and lab work by affiliated faculty and students, shared equipment, public lectures and events, and archaeological publications. Specific uses of your donation include support for the ARF Field School, which will provide valuable local opportunities for students to gai...n training and experience necessary to pursue careers in archaeology. Employment opportunities in archaeology require field experience, but field schools often take place in other countries and can be expensive, making them inaccessible to many students, particularly those from underrepresented groups. The ARF Field School will include training with archaeological equipment, field-based data collection, analysis of excavated remains, and stipends for participants. With your support, this will take place as a pilot program in 2021. We also hope you can join us for two events tomorrow: Implications of Black Feminist Thought for Archaeology at 12:10 pm https://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/arf.html and "For the Welfare of the Whole People": Heritage Stewardship in Indigenous and Black Communities at 1 pm. https://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/arf.html Thank you! See more

This Wednesday! Inequalities in the Ancient Mediterranean Panel Discussion: ARF Brownbag | October 28 | 12:10-1 p.m. | Virtual event Speakers: Erich Gruen, Professor Emeritus, Department of History, UC Berkeley; Kim Shelton, Associate Professor, Department of Classics, UC Berkeley; J. Theodore Peña, Professor, Department of Classics, UC Berkeley Moderator: Meg Conkey, Professor Emerita, Department of Anthropology, UC Berkeley... Sponsor: Archaeological Research Facility WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2020 Note: This talk starts at 12:10 PM Pacific Time Watch live on YouTube: http://bit.ly/arf-channel Inequalities in the Ancient Mediterranean is a panel discussion moderated by Meg Conkey, Professor Emerita of Anthropology, featuring three presentations. "Jews in the Roman Empire: A Persecuted Minority?" by Erich Gruen, Professor Emeritus of History The talk will look at Jewish experience in light of Roman attitudes toward alien religions generally. It asks whether Rome's normally tolerant reception of sects and cults from various parts of the Hellenic and Near Eastern worlds gave way to prejudice and persecution when it came to Jews. "Interpreting Gender Inequality in ancient Greece" by Kim Shelton, Associate Professor, Classics Evidence of gender inequality from ancient Greece presents a dichotomy. The visual record is remarkably different from the archaeological and historical evidence while gender roles among the gods are in contrast to those in the society that worships them. I will illustrate some examples from the prehistoric and historic period to discuss possible interpretations. "Slavery in the Roman Empire" by J. Theodore Peña, Professor, Classics The population of the Roman empire consisted of persons who were free-born, enslaved and ex-slaves who had been emancipated, and the fact of slavery was a defining characteristic of Roman social and economic organization. Although we know a great deal about some aspects of Roman slavery from evidence such as funerary epitaphs, the experience of Roman slaves remains obscure to us in many regards, and it is only in recent years that scholars have made a concerted effort to find slaves in the archaeological record. One facet of this work has involved the analysis of Roman residential structures carried out with a view to understanding the dynamics of the interactions between slaves and their owners on a day-to-day basis. The presenter will illustrate some of the possibilities and challenges involved in work of this kind by highlighting research that he is currently carrying out at Pompeii that examines the disposition and circulation of material culture within residences at the boundary between households where slaves were likely present and households in which they were likely absent. See more

ARF Affiliated Professor emerita Meg Conkey is elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Congratulations Meg! https://news.berkeley.edu//five-berkeley-top-scholars-nam/

Middle-range theory, globalization, and the COVID-19 pandemic: A problem in historical ecology Dr. Bill Balée, Tulane University Hosted by UC Berkeley Anthropology 290 Lecture | Monday October 26 | 2 - 4:00 p.m. | Virtual Lecture In order to attend this talk, you must register in advance.... REGISTRATION: https://berkeley.zoom.us//tJYvc-6rqD4vHdLQobYOBHJnR2KZpIam Around the day of the talk, you will receive an email with information about joining the Zoom meeting. Historical ecology (HE) is an interdisciplinary research program in search of solutions to human-environmental problems. The problems are definedand sometimes causedby society itself. People disturb and manage landscapes in two fundamental ways: by either primary or secondary landscape transformations. These effects are not normally completely neutral, but rather increase or decrease biological diversity (which implies two further dimensions of both types of these fundamental transformations), and may involve either substantive change to substrates and biota throughout several types of habitats. These are indices of human-mediated disturbance. HE is not a theory of everythingit’s best understood as a body of middle-range theory. It’s middle range theory in an interdisciplinary matrix. The interdisciplinary toolkit that comes with HE can be used to identify not only what one expects in human-environmental relationshipshistorically common and well-knownbut also ironic, unexpected entailments and even genuine paradoxes of these relationships and impacts. The biota affected by human behavior include microbes, and the smallest of these are viruses. The opportunity here presents itself to see the COVID-19 pandemicapart from its tragic consequences with more than 1,000,000 dead worldwideas a problem subject to conscious containment or eradication, both of which imply effects on biota that transcend local, or alpha indices of species diversity. Its behavior is both similar to and different from the historical ecology of viruses in the Americas, Australia, and Oceania that destroyed entire populations and hence impacted the ways those that weren’t destroyed utilized environmental resources. It is behaving differently from those viral syndromes, mainly because of the way the host speciesushas become globalized, which can be seen from a historical-ecological lens. See more

ARF among the Archaeology Centers Coalition In response to urgent calls to address systemic racism in all spheres of institutional life, a group of archaeology centers based in the United States have come together to identify avenues for concrete change. Since July, center directors and representatives have been meeting via Zoom to consider ways to move archaeology forward towards greater diversity, equity, and inclusion. Read more: http://blog.wennergren.org/2020/10/acc/

Today at 12:10 Pacific time Archaeological Desecration as Creation, with Trent Trombley In a small pioneer cemetery in Oroville, California a headstone marks the grave of Annie M. Silvers. Etched with the dates of her birth in 1676 and death in 1906, she purportedly lived to 230 years, which when paired with her distinctive headstone and ambiguous iconography in an otherwise modest cemetery, has led some to believe that she was a witch in local folklore. This presentation wil...l consider first how archival documents compare to the information inscribed on Annie’s headstone and larger cemetery context. This presentation will then illustrate how the members of the local community continue to engage with Annie Silvers’ headstone and the cemetery more broadly, with acts ranging from overt vandalism to care and offerings. Finally, we will consider how Annie Silvers can help to shed light on broader anthropological themes such as contestation in funerary spaces, and the continued ways in which the dead become entangled in concerns of the living, even post-mortem. Trent Trombley is a Ph.D. Candidate in the UC Berkeley Anthropology department. Help the Archaeological Research Facility at UC Berkeley get more educational content on the web! Support our work at http://arf.berkeley.edu/donate Want to know more about the ARF's programs? Join our weekly mailing list by clicking here: http://bit.ly/arf-events or sending an email request to: [email protected] https://youtu.be/7TfjQPMAiII See more

The British Museum is home to the world's most extensive collection of ancient Assyrian stone reliefs, 13 of which are on loan to the Getty Villa through 2022. ...Together these carved panels illuminate the detailed decorative art found in ancient Assyria’s palaces from the ninth through seventh centuries BC. Learn about the world of ancient Assyria and the images that glorified its kings in the new online exhibition Assyria: Palace Art of Ancient Iraq. See the exhibition in person when the Getty Villa reopens in 2021. https://gty.art/35VF2Mn

The Badè Museum in partnership with the Archaeological Research Facility (ARF) at UC Berkeley presents our new series New perspectives on Ancient Nubia. The s...eries brings together a diverse group of scholars whose research explores various aspects of the archaeology, art, and history of ancient Nubia, the region of modern-day southern Egypt to central Sudan. Join us for these lectures, which will run from October 2020 through May 2021, starting October 29th at noon PST. Watch live or catch up on recorded lectures on the ARF YouTube channel here: http://bit.ly/arf-channel

Upcoming Events Here is a list of archaeology-related events and exhibits taking place online in the coming week. Have a relaxing weekend! Brown Bag Lecture WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2020...Continue reading

Wednesday is a busy day next week! We hope especially that you can tune in to our brown bag talk, when we'll be joined by UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus Pat Kirch and alumna Dr. Jillian Swift talking about their research in Hawaii. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2020 Archaeological investigations of long-term sustainability: A case study from the loi kalo of Hlawa Valley, Molokai (Hawaiian Islands) https://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/arf.html Lecture: ARF Brownbag ...Continue reading

The UC Dronecamp 2020 workshop, normally a 3 day event during the summer, was entirely online this year. The 29 presentations on UAVs, precision mapping technology, and photogrammetry are available here https://dronecamp.github.io/2020/