Backdirt 2009

BACKDIRT

Ba

ck

dirt

an

nu

al r

eview

2009

Cotsen Institute of ArchaeologyUniversity of California, Los Angeles405 Hilgard Ave A 210 Fowler, Box 951510Los Angeles, CA 90095-1510AL-31Address Service Requested

Non-ProfitOrg.

U.S. PostagePaid

UCLA

COTSENæ INSTITUTEæOFæ ARCHAEOLOGY

2009

Annual Review of theCotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA

NEW TITLES FROM THE COTSEN INSTITUTE PRESSAndean Civilization: A Tribute to Michael E. MoseleyEdited by Joyce Marcus and Patrick Ryan WilliamsMonograph 63 • $80 cloth, $50 paperISBN: 978-1-931745-54-3 cloth, 978-1-931745-53-6 paper

These new studies cover the enormous temporal span of Moseley’s own work from the Preceramic era to the Tiwanaku and Moche states to the Inka em-pire. And, like Moseley’s own studies — from Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization to Chan Chan: The Desert City to Cerro Bául’s Brewery — these new studies involve settlements from all over the Andes — from the far northern highlands to the far southern coast. The papers in this book demonstrate the enormous breadth and influence of Moseley’s work and the vibrant range of scholarship by his former students and collaborators in fieldwork.

The South American CameldsBy Duccio BonaviaMonograph 64 • $110 cloth, $75 paperISBN: 978-1-931745-41-3 cloth, 978-1-931745-40-6 paper

Bonavia’s landmark study of the South American camelids is now available for the first time in English. This new edition features an updated analysis and comprehensive bibliography. This book will be of broad interest to archaeolo-gists, zoologists, social anthropologists, ethnohistorians, and a wide range of students.

Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000–250 BC): The Archaeological EvidenceBy Lothar von FalkenhausenIdeas, Debates, and Perspectives 2 • $80 cloth, $50 paperISBN: 978-1-931745-31-4 cloth, 978-1-931745-30-7 paper

The Late Bronze Age (ca. 1000-250 BC) was a crucial period during which the Chinese Classics came into being and famous thinkers such as Confucius (ca. 551-479 BC) laid the intellectual foundations of traditional Chinese civiliza-tion. Complementing and often challenging the surviving writings, Lothar von Falkenhausen develops a self-consciously archaeological perspective on the social conditions in this time.

Winner of the 2009 SAA Book Award!

For a complete list of titles, visit: www.ioa.ucla.edu/publications/browse-books.To place an order contact our distributor, David Brown Book Company, at (800) 791-9354. For more information, contact the Cotsen Institute Press at (310) 825-7411 or email [email protected].

A MONUMENTAL TASK ON EASTER ISLAND

COTSEN VISITING SCHOLAR LECTURE SERIES

Recent Advancements in the Archaeology of Jerusalem

Dr. Ronny ReichHaifa University

Dr. Ronny Reich, a faculty member of the Department of Archaeology at Haifa University, is the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology 2008–2009 visiting scholar. In his capacity as a Senior Archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority he has been conducting excavations in the City of David in Jerusalem since 1995. He has published numerous articles on Second Temple Period archaeology in Israel and is well known for his co-edited volume on The Architecture of Ancient Israel.

A New Interpretation of the Canaan-ite Water System of JerusalemThursday, January 8

New Epigraphic Discoveries from Iron Age JerusalemThursday, January 15

Of Fish-Bones and Clay Chips in Iron Age JerusalemThursday, January 29

“Gathered to their forefathers”: Death and Burial in Jerusalem in the Iron AgeThursday, February 12

COTSEN INSTITUTE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES

Searching for Older Women:Women’s Lives and Women’s Work ca. 25,000 Years Ago

Professor Emerita Olga SofferUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignTuesday, February 24, 2009

The Women in the Middle: Inka concepts manifested in Farfan Burials

Professor Emerita Carol MackeyCalifornia State University NorthridgeTuesday, March 10, 2009

The Discovery of the Nimrud Treasures

Donny George Youkhanna, Ph.D.Visiting Professor at Stony Brook University; Former Director General of Baghdad’s National MuseumThursday, April 16, 2009

Co-sponsored with Archaeological Institute of America and Fowler Museum at UCLA

Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Open HouseSaturday, May 16, 2009

Manipulating the Imaginary: A Trip to the wonderland of Ancient Miniature Sculpture from Mesopotamia

Gregory Areshian, Ph.D.Research Associate and Adjunct Professor at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLATuesday, May 26, 2009

DIRECTOR’S COUNCIL/FRIENDS OF ARCHAEOLOGY DINNER LECTURES

Spending for Death: Egyptian Funer-ary Arts during Economic Recession

Professor Kara CooneyNear Eastern Languages and CulturesTuesday, October 21, 2008

Adventures of Illyria: Excavating the Prehistoric Tumulus of Lofkënd in Albania

Professor John Papadopoulos Department of ClassicsTuesday, January 27, 2009

Excavating the Shang Frontier in Eastern China

Professor Min Li Department of Asian Languages and CulturesTuesday, April 7, 2009

MESSAGE FROM THE ACTING DIRECTOR PUBLIC PROGRAMS IN REVIEW: 2008-2009

The Cotsen Institute proudly looks back on another year marked by many and diverse accomplishments. The present volume reports on archaeologi-cal projects on four continents—from China to Chile, from Chaco Canyon to Albania—but these constitute only a sampling of an even richer panoply of ongoing engagements by members of the Institute. Any visitor walking down the corridors can sense the whirr of creative minds producing cutting-edge scholarship. We feel privileged to be able to continue the work we love—and which we feel has an important contribution to make to today’s world—even under the current conditions of worldwide economic turmoil.

One recent highlight in the life of the Institute was a reception on March 3 in celebration of Mr. Lloyd Cotsen’s 80th birthday. Words cannot adequately express our thanks to Lloyd for his generosity over many years. It is only fitting that he was honored recently with UCLA’s highest honor, the UCLA Medal (see p. 11).

Two of the Institute’s founding figures were recently honored for a lifetime of achievement in archaeology. Christopher B. Donnan, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, received the Trowel Award from the Cotsen Institute (see p. 13), and just before this issue of Backdirt went to press, news reached us that UCLA has named Giorgio Buccellati this year’s Dickson Emeritus Professor. Our congratulations to both of them. In addition, my Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000-250 BC): The Archaeological Evidence won the 2009 Society for American Archaeology Book Award in the academic category; this is particularly gratifying as the book is a Cotsen Institute publication. This award is an apt recognition of the tremendous recent improvement of Cotsen Institute Press publications under the able leadership of Shauna Mecartea.

Another extremely exciting development is the exponential growth in our UCLA Archaeology Field Program, capably directed by Dr. Ran Boytner (see p. 6). Capitalizing on the manifold connections of its members all over the world, the Cotsen Institute has taken the lead in building opportunities for under-graduate and graduate students from institutions all over the world to obtain high-quality training in archaeological field techniques while experiencing life in exotic places. This program is a cornerstone in the Institute’s ongoing ef-forts to broaden its impact beyond UCLA.

Happy reading!

Lothar von Falkenhausen

Professor of Art History and Acting Director of the Cotsen Institute

Lothar von Falkenhausen at the reception honoring his award-winning title Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius at the 2009 meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

FEATURES

PHOTO ESSAYS

PATTY CIVALLERI

GREGORY ARESHIAN


EASTER ISLAND PHOTO ESSAY

EMPIRES OF DIVERSITY: ANCIENT AND MODERN IRAN

JO ANNE VAN TILBURG & CRISTIÁN ARÉVALO PAKARATI

62

66 84

A Cotsen Institute research project seeks to understand the mysterious moai of Easter Island by going to the source – the volcanic quarry where the statues were made.

ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE CONFUCIAN LANDSCAPELI MIN

72

The politics of remem-brance at work in the an-cient landscape of Qufu, home of Confucius.

EXPLORING OPPORTUNITIES: STAFF TRIP TO SOUTH AMERICASHAUNA K. MECARTEA & ELIZABETH KLARICH

78

Institute staff travel to Peru and Bolivia to observe international projects and launch new initiatives.

METAL & LANDSCAPE IN ANCIENT ANATOLIAJOSEPH LEHNER

92

Researching Iron-Age technology at Kerkenes Dag, once known as Pteria.

DEPARTMENTS

BETWEEN THE LINES

NEW CIOA PRESS TITLES

LIST OF CORE FACULTY

DONOR LIST

PUBLIC PROGRAMS IN REVIEW

INSTITUTE NEWS

3

PROFILES17

REFLECTIONS ON RESEARCH

29

98

104 113

106

111

BACKDIRTDirectorCharles S. Stanish

Acting DirectorLothar von Falkenhausen

Assistant DirectorElizabeth Klarich

Director of Publications & CommunicationsShauna K. Mecartea

EditorsShauna K. MecarteaElizabeth KlarichEric GardnerDaril Bentley

DesignEric Gardner

Contributing WritersHelle GireyEvgenia GrigorovaEllen PearlsteinRichard LesureRan BoytnerDean GoodmanMac Marston

For more information or to request a subscription, please contact the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press at:310-825-7411 or email [email protected].

Read Backdirt online at:www.ioa.ucla.edu/publications/backdirt

Copyright © 2009 UC Regents

ANNUAL REVIEW 2009COTSEN INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY

Cover Photo: Moai of Easter Island over-looking the stone quarry of Rano Raraku. Photo courtesy of Jo Anne Van Tilburg.

3 | Backdirt 2009

INSTITU

TE N

EWS

ARCHAEOLOGY FIELD PROGRAM LAUNCH

ANCIENT TREASURES, MODERN SPACES

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE FOWLER

SOCONUSCO CONFERENCE AT UCLA

ANNUAL CIOA OPEN HOUSE

LLOYD COTSEN HONORED BY UCLA

HONORING CHRIS DONNAN

CHRIS DONNAN RECEIVES TROWEL AWARD

REMEMBERING MIKE GOTTESMAN

STAFF ACHIEVEMENTS

CIOA STORAGE SYMPOSIUM

FIELD NOTES

RAN BOYTNER

ELIZABETH KLARICH

ELIZABETH KLARICH

RICHARD LESURE

RICHARD LESURE

SHAUNA K. MECARTEA

ELIZABETH KLARICH & SHAUNA K. MECARTEA

SHAUNA K. MECARTEA

ELIZABETH KLARICH

ELIZABETH KLARICH

ELLEN PEARLSTEIN

MAC MARSTON & DEAN GOODMAN

NEW ARCHAEOLOGY GRADUATE STUDENTS 4CONSERVATION STUDENT UPDATES 5

6

8

9

910

1112

13141415

16

4 | Backdirt 2009

Student News »

NEW STUDENTS ENROLL IN ARCHAEOLOGY PROGRAM

historical sites in upstate New York. While at UCLA, he will focus on the expansion of the Phoenician empire across the Mediterranean Basin. His specific interests include examining the metal microstructure of Phoenician weaponry in order to discern technological advances spanning both the Bronze and Iron Ages. He will be studying under the direction of his academic advisor, Aaron Burke, Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures.

HILLARY PIETRICOLAreceived her B.A. in Art History/Archaeology and German from Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine. After graduation, she spent a year in Germany as a Fulbright scholar and studied at the University of Hamburg. She has undertaken

fieldwork in Italy, including one season in Pompeii and two with the San Martino Project in Torano. At UCLA, Hillary will work with Kathryn McDonnell, Assistant Professor of Classics, on Roman burial practices, with a particular focus on Roman Egypt, and will explore the effect of cross-cultural contact in the form of grave goods and burial imagery. Her other research interests include personal adorn-ment and Pompeii.

CATHERINE PRATTgrew up in New Jersey and received her B.A. in Classical Archaeology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her undergraduate work was well rounded, with a focus on Greek archaeology and language. During the summer,

Catherine spent time doing fieldwork on a Cretan Iron Age site, where she worked as the architect’s assistant. While at UCLA, she will be pursuing studies related to the interactions between different cultures during the Late Bronze Age and Dark Age.

In particular, she will investigate how these interactions shaped the customs, ideas, and innova-

IN THE FALL OF 2008, five new students began studies in the Interdepartmental Archaeology Graduate Program: Karl La Favre, Brett Kaufman, Hillary Pietricola, Catherine Pratt, and Stephanie Salwen. The Cotsen Institute welcomes them, and looks forward to their contributions.

KARL LA FAVRE hails from Ohio, and received his B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago in 2007. For his master’s research, Karl is currently working on the lithic material collected during a survey he participated in during the summer of 2007. This

survey was conducted in the highland region between the southern Lake Titicaca Basin and the Moquegua Valley. For his doctoral work, Karl plans to conduct a survey in the northern part of the Puno Region, in Carabaya Province and/or Sandia Province. These provinces north of Lake Titicaca contain an ecological transition from highland montane grassland to yungas (montane moist forests) to Amazonia. Karl is primarily interested in the Formative period there and in the possible economic role this distinct region played in the development of northern Lake Titicaca Basin societies. In the summer of 2008, under Charles Stanish, Professor of Anthropology and Cotsen Institute Director, Karl participated in a few days of preliminary reconnaissance in Carabaya Province. More generally, Karl is interested in the Formative period in the south-central Andes, economic anthropology, and geographic methods and theory.

BRETT KAUFMAN grew up in Wilmette, Illinois. He received his B.A. in Near Eastern Studies (with a minor in Economics) from Brandeis University. In addition, he has completed post-baccalau-reate studies in Chemistry at Columbia University. He has gained experience

in the field excavating and surveying American

5 | Backdirt 2009

CONSERVATION STUDENT UPDATES

tions of early Greek society and how these influ-ences continued through Greek history. Catherine is also interested in the major population collapses and dispersals occurring after that time period and the foreign influences gained from it in both art and culture. During her time here, she will be working with John Papadopoulos, Professor of Classics, and Sarah Morris, Steinmetz Professor of Classical Archaeology and Material Culture in the Department of Classics.

STEPHANIE SALWENcomes to UCLA with a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She has experience with underwater maritime archaeology and worked to locate and identify three nineteenth-century shipwrecks in Lake Huron

as part of her honors thesis. Over the past three summers, she has gained additional archaeological experience working on the excavations at a Bronze Age Tell site in Pecica, Romania. At UCLA, she will work with materials from the Channel Islands to explore the role of transportation technology and trade in the development of complex societies. She plans to focus on the way regional interaction works to promote or inhibit the emergence of social inequality and political complexity, with an emphasis on the development of maritime technol-ogy. Stephanie will work under the direction of her academic advisor, Jeanne Arnold, Professor of Anthropology.

SISKA GENBRUGGE – Last summer Siska worked as an intern conserving archaeological objects from the Athenian Agora Excavations in Athens, Greece, as well as on a collection of African knives in the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren, Belgium.

LAUREN HORELICK – Lauren spent the summer working the tomb of the Last Phrygian King “Midas” and reconstructing ancient iron, bronze,and ceramic vessels at the Gordion Excava-tion Project in Turkey. During the later part of the summer she treating several Sri Lankan dance masks at the Field Museum in Chicago, Il. Current projects include an investigation into ethnographic manufacturing techniques of Haitian Vodou charms and their long-term care in museum collections.

JIAFANG LIANG – Last summer Jiafang worked on Chinese wall paintings at the Freer Gallery of Arts, as well as did on-site conservation at the Liangdaicun Archaeological Site (Zhou Dynasty) in Xi’an, China.

LINDA LIN – Linda examined and treated a Massim canoe model at the de Young Museum of San Francisco during her summer internship. She then spent the second half of her summer in Xi-an China working at the Shaanxi Archaeological Institute.

SUZANNE MORRIS – Suzanne participated in the Tarapaca Valley excavation in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile where she worked with human remains and identified storage problems of composite materials. She then interned at the Conservation Center of the Buffalo Bill Historic Museum in Cody, Wyoming where she worked on objects in the museum’s collection.

for more information about the interdepartmen-tal archaeology graduate program or the ucla/getty master’s program in the conservation of

archaeological and ethnographic materials, please visit us on the web at www.ioa.ucla.edu.

6 | Backdirt 2009

Institute News & Events »

BY RAN BOYTNER

CREATION OF THE UCLA ARCHAEOLOGY FIELD PROGRAM

UNTIL RECENTLY, UCLA archaeology field schools were run independently of one another and with limited success. Between 2000 and 2007, UCLA established fewer than three field schools yearly. In early 2007, however, a new initiative at the Cotsen Institute took shape, and an attempt to reshape how students experience fieldwork in archaeology was launched. Influenced by longtime benefactor Lloyd Cotsen’s suggestion to “transform the way archaeology is practiced in the twenty-first century” and by a desire to make field schools intensive and life-changing learning environments, the UCLA Archaeology Field Program (AFP) was created.

Building on innovative pedagogy and training at UCLA projects in Chile, Ecuador, and Panama, the AFP attempted to create shared standards for stu-dent field training, consolidation of resources, and an expanded range of field school offerings. In 2007, UCLA sent 25 students to its three field schools. For 2008, we thought we could at least triple the number of students and significantly increase the number of field schools. As this article is written, the last 2008 program (in Egypt) is wrapping up

its work and the success of the AFP far surpasses anything imagined.

During 2008, the AFP included 13 field schools in 11 countries around the world. All of the pro-grams were filled to capacity, and almost 140 stu-dents spent five to six weeks (program dependent) engaging in intensive field research and training. We insisted on a low faculty/student ratio, with no program having more than seven students for each staff member. In many programs, the ratio was closer to 1:3. Our students worked in four conti-nents, from Egypt in the east to Peru in the west. Visits to field schools by AFP and Cotsen Institute staff yielded enthusiastic responses by participat-ing students, and evaluation forms emphasized the intensive learning that took place.

Some of the statistics are quite impressive. More than 51 UCLA students participated in the pro-gram. Of the remaining students, some were from other UC campuses and about 40% were from 48 different universities across the US, including some of the most prestigious schools in the country (such as the University of Chicago and Columbia Uni-

Excavations at San Ber-nardino National Forest, California.

7 | Backdirt 2009

Left: Survey work at Catalina Island, California.

Right: Remote Sensing at Campaña Pucara, Ecuador.

ran boytner is director of international

research at the cotsen institute. for more infor-mation about the ucla archaeology field pro-gram, please visit www.archaeology.ucla.edu.

versity). Whereas most of the students attended the field school at the undergraduate level, 11 students attended as graduate students. Many of the students report that the time in the field allowed them to gain important insights not only about archaeology, but also about themselves.

The 2008 season success encouraged and allowed us to continue and expand the pro-gram. For 2009, we have 20 field schools in 14 countries and in almost every continent (see www.archaeology.ucla.edu for current offerings). We will have multiple field schools in California and Peru, where UCLA presence is particularly strong. We hope to send 260 students to the field and provide superb training across the program offerings.

The economic realities are of considerable concern but also offer grand opportunity. Because each of field school offers 12 UCLA credit units and UCLA allows us to keep overhead fees low, our programs are inexpensive and competitive while at the same time at the highest intellectual standard. The large credit offerings allow students to take the

program and dramatically accelerate their gradu-ation rate. The relative low cost allows students to experience cultural immersion outside the US in safe and nourishing environments. UCLA field di-rectors offer students unparalleled access to leading scholars. In addition, the AFP is directing a signifi-cant portion of its budget to grants and fellowships that offer financial support to deserving students.

We hope to grow further and to soon offer field schools in every continent of the world. We are aiming to become a global leader in archaeologi-cal training for students at the undergraduate and graduate levels. We believe that thanks to the aca-demic leadership of our faculty and the generous support of our donors a UCLA leadership position in global archaeology is not only our mission, but also our destiny.

Ceramic Sorting at Lyminge, England.

8 | Backdirt 2009

WITH BREATHTAKING VIEWS of the Acropolis and a 360-degree panorama of modern and historic Athens, the New Acropolis Museum was designed by world acclaimed architect Bernard Tschumi to house the wealth of recovered antiquities on the Acropolis and reunify the surviving pieces of the unique architectural sculptures of the Parthenon. To celebrate the construction of this new museum, the Consulate General of Greece in Los Angeles, the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, and the UCLA Classics Department cosponsored a public lecture and photo exhibition at the Fowler Building in May of 2008. The staff of the Cotsen Institute col-laborated with D. Caramitsos-Tziras (then-Consul General of Greece) and John K. Papadopoulos (Professor and former Chair of Classics) to develop an exhibition space for more than a dozen incred-ible large-scale photos of the new museum during its construction.

The photos were on display at the Cotsen Insti-tute on the A level of the Fowler Building from late April through mid May and received many visitors during that time. On May 5, 2008, at least 200 visi-tors from the Los Angeles Greek community and archaeology enthusiasts viewed the photo exhibi-tion and attended the public lecture in the Lenart Auditorium. Guest speakers for this event included Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis, President of the Organization for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum, with opening remarks by both Caramitsos-Tziras and Papadopoulos.

Architect Bernard Tschumi was scheduled to lecture with Pandermalis, but remained in Europe due to a scheduling conflict. Following the lecture, guests remained for a reception and had an oppor-tunity to talk with the speakers and mingle in the amphitheater of the Fowler building. As the New Acropolis Museum is not scheduled to open until early 2009, the photo exhibition and lecture at the Cotsen Institute provided the public with an excit-ing behind-the-scenes preview of the construction phases of the spaces and collections.

BY ELIZABETH KLARICH

ANCIENT TREASURES IN MODERN SPACES: THE NEW ACROPOLIS MUSEUM

elizabeth klarich is assistant director of the cot-sen institute of archaeology. for more informa-tion about cotsen institute events, please visit

www.ioa.ucla.edu/news-events.


Photos courtesy of the Organization for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum.

9 | Backdirt 2009

News Brief »

BY RICHARD LESURE

CONFERENCE ON SOCONUSCO REGION (MEXICO) HELD AT THE COTSEN INSTITUTE

IN FEBRUARY of 2008, the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology hosted a research seminar on the early archaeology of the Soconusco region on the Pacific Coast of Mexico and Guatemala. The impetus for the conference was recent work on the transition to settled village life in lowland Meso-america that has undermined traditional under-standings based on highland regions. There turns out to have been variability from region to region in hunter-gatherer adaptations, the importance of maize, and social change in the earliest villages. If we are to advance understanding of the transition to agriculture and its consequences in Mesoamer-ica generally, we require concentrated specialized work on particular areas.

Archaeological work in the Soconusco re-gion has played a significant role in the growing recognition of differences between lowlands and

highlands. The UCLA seminar brought together archaeologists actively working on materials from the period of transition (4000–400 B.C.) between nomadic hunter-gatherers and settled village soci-eties. An international group of participants from the United States, Mexico, and Canada pre-circu-lated data-rich papers that ranged in topic from the role of gender in food collection to the emergence of the area’s first proto-urban centers. The papers served as the basis of two days of stimulating discussions. The results will be published by the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press.

richard lesure is associate professor of

anthropology at ucla.

A BEHIND-THE-SCENES TOUR OF UCLA ARCHAEOLOGY COLLECTIONSBY ELIZABETH KLARICH

THE FOWLER MUSEUM AT UCLA has an ar-chaeological repository of more than 600,000 arti-facts acquired during research conducted by UCLA faculty, staff, and other professional archaeologists. What most people do not realize is that the vast majority of collections are curated at the recently renovated Kinross Building in Westwood Village. In early June of 2008, the Friends of Archaeology (FoA) had the opportunity to spend a Saturday afternoon touring the Fowler Museum Archaeol-ogy Collections Facility at Kinross. For this special tour, Wendy Teeter, Curator of Archaeology at the Fowler Museum and Research Associate of the Cotsen Institute, and several volunteers spent their afternoon showing the 25 guests and Cotsen Insti-tute staff members the research collections stored at the facility.

The group visited the permanent storage areas, which house collections from regions as diverse as California, the American Southwest, many areas

of Mexico, and Sudan. Several collections were also on display to illustrate active research proj-ects taking place at Kinross. For example, several volunteers working on materials from the Rainbow Bridge Monument Valley Expedition (1933–1938) showed FoA members the artifact catalogs, excava-tion notes, photographs, maps, and archaeological collections from this historically significant project from the American Southwest.

Many members of the group commented that they had no idea such collections existed on the UCLA campus and expressed interest in getting involved in their curation and related research projects. The Cotsen Institute would like to thank Teeter and the many volunteers that afternoon for taking the time to share these rich archaeological resources with our supporters of archaeology at UCLA. For information about joining FoA, visit us online at www.ioa.ucla.edu/support/foa.

10 | Backdirt 2009

ALWAYS A SUCCESS: THE ANNUAL OPEN HOUSE AT THE COTSEN INSTITUTE


BY HELLE GIREY

BY NOW the many visitors to the Cotsen Insti-tute of Archaeology know what to expect from the annual Open House held in May. The laboratories proudly exhibit the new information that has been gathered since the last Open House, short public lectures are presented in the Lenart Auditorium, the Experiential Technologies Center presents in-teractive Virtual Reality models, and children have a chance to try their hand at producing art work on archaeological topics in the Children’s Activ-ity Center—such as forming clay figures of Easter Island’s wonderful statues, the moai. Last year, chil-dren could also get temporary tattoos inspired by designs of the Polynesian Islands and color pictures of Easter Island.

The importance of the Cotsen Institute Open House is manifold, but its main purpose is to inform the public about archaeology—what really happens to the materials from excavations and what information can be gleaned from these data. School children can learn about the excitement of archae-ology and in many cases learn about the histories of their own cultures. This is also a wonderful time to encourage undergraduate students from Los An-geles schools to continue their study of archaeology and to apply to UCLA.

A number of faculty at nearby institutions who are UCLA alumni—including Dr. Laurel Breece of

Long Beach City College; Dr. Bill Breece of Orange Coast College; Dr. Brandon Lewis of Santa Monica College; Dr. Mark Allen of California State Univer-sity, Pomona; and Dr. Phil De Barros of Palomar Community College—bring their students to the Open House in order to expose them to the wealth of research topics in the discipline and to meet Cotsen Institute faculty. The following laboratories were open to the public this year:

• Anatolian Laboratory• Ceramics Analysis Research Group• Channel Islands Laboratory • Chilean Research Laboratory• Classics Laboratory• Conservation Laboratory• East Asia Laboratory• Egyptian Laboratory• European Laboratory• Mediterranean Laboratory• Moche Archive• Rock Art Archive• South Asian Laboratory• Southwest Archaeology Laboratory• Virtual Reality Display• Zooarchaeology Laboratory

helle girey is director of public programs

at the cotsen institute.

11 | Backdirt 2009

ALWAYS A SUCCESS: THE ANNUAL OPEN HOUSE AT THE COTSEN INSTITUTE

Awards & Acknowledgements »

MR. LLOYD COTSEN RECEIVES THE PRESTIGIOUS UCLA MEDALBY SHAUNA K. MECARTEA

IN MAY OF 2008, Mr. Lloyd Cotsen was awarded the UCLA Medal—the university’s highest honor—in recognition of his leadership in the field of ar-chaeology. As one of four recipients, Cotsen, former chair and CEO of Neutrogena Corporation and current president of the Cotsen Management Cor-poration, received his medal on May 27 at a special ceremony at the UCLA Chancellor’s Residence.

Cotsen, who has been supporting archaeology at UCLA for more than 40 years, began by donating in 1996 to the Institute of Archaeology’s Friends of Archaeology after joining several field trips sponsored by the group. In 1999, the Institute was renamed in honor of Cotsen for his contributions, which included a $7 million gift in support of fac-ulty, students, publications, laboratories, academic programs, and public outreach. In 2006, he donated an additional $10 million to the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology to support graduate fellowships, undergraduate research, publications, and a field prize. Cotsen’s generosity has established him as the largest individual donor in the history of UCLA’s College of Letters and Science.

Cotsen is also president of the Cotsen Fam-ily Foundation and has served on the boards of numerous educational and cultural organizations, including the Huntington Library, the Getty Trust, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Los Angeles Public Library, and the Music Center of Los Angeles County.

A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School, Cotsen worked in Greece as a field architect on archaeological digs for the University of Cincinnati and the American School of Classi-cal Studies at Athens for more than 20 seasons. He is also a fellow of the American School of Classical Studies and a premier collector of folk art from around the globe. The Cotsen Institute faculty, stu-dents, staff, and affiliates congratulate Mr. Cotsen on this major award from UCLA.

shauna mecartea is director of publications and

communications.

Lloyd and Margit Cotsen at the Chancellor’s Resi-dence during the award ceremony. Photo by Kari Wilton.

12 | Backdirt 2009


CHRISTOPHER B. DONNAN: A TREASURE OF THE COTSEN INSTITUTE BY ELIZABETH KLARICH AND SHAUNA K. MECARTEA

CHRISTOPHER B. DONNAN’S history at UCLA goes back to 1960, when he first worked as a Field Assistant with the Archaeological Survey while completing his bachelor’s degree at the University of California, Berkeley (1962) and 48 years later we celebrate his outstanding career and service at his retirement. After his undergraduate experience, Donnan continued his UCLA education, receiv-ing his master’s degree in Anthropology (1965). He then returned to Berkeley, where he completed his doctorate in 1968. That same year, he moved back to Los Angeles to begin a faculty position in the Department of Anthropology and we are now celebrating his fortieth year at UCLA.

During his UCLA career, Donnan has served as Acting Director of the Archaeological Survey (1971–1975), Director of the Fowler Museum (1975–1996), Director of the Moche Archive at the Cotsen Institute, and Chair of the Cotsen Institute Execu-tive Committee. His classes in Andean prehistory have always drawn huge numbers of undergraduate and graduate students, as do his public presenta-tions. Donnan is a dedicated mentor to generations of students, a consummate collaborator, and an integral part of the Anthropology Department and the Cotsen Institute at UCLA.

Research

Donnan is best known for his work in Peru, where he has dedicated his career to the study of the Moche culture of the north coast through archaeo-logical fieldwork, collections research, and thou-sands of hours of material analysis. Donnan has spent many years living and directing field projects in Peru at such well-known sites as Chan Chan, Chotuna-Chornancap, Pacatnamú, Sipán, San José de Moro, and Dos Cabezas.

Although he has focused primarily on iconogra-phy and the rich history of pottery production in the Andes, Donnan has also published on stone tools, murals, numbering systems, metallurgy, architec-ture, burial traditions, and many other elements of Andean prehistory. In recognition of his contribu-tions to Peruvian archaeology, Donnan was awarded the Great Cross of the Order of Merit for Distin-guished Services by the President of Peru in 1995.

Grants and Awards

Donnan has received research grants and awards from numerous national and international agen-cies, including Fulbright, Ford Foundation, Nation-al Science Foundation, Kress Foundation, National Geographic Society, and National Endowment for the Arts. He has served as an Advisory Committee Member at the Center for Pre-Columbian Studies at Dumbarton Oaks (1976–1983), Senior Research Fel-low at the Getty Institute for the Study of Art and the Humanities (1996–1997), University Lecturer at UCLA (2003), and Distinguished Lecturer in Art of the Ancient Americas at Johns Hopkins University and the Walters Art Museum (2005). In 2005, Don-nan was elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences—one of the most prestigious awards honoring excellence in academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs for more than 225 years.

Museum Exhibitions and Documentaries

In addition to serving as Director of the Fowler Museum for more than 20 years, Donnan has curated a number of museum exhibitions: Moche Art of Peru (1977–1978), Ceramics of Ancient Peru(1992), and Royal Tombs of Sipán (1993). These have all been very well attended in a number of museums beyond UCLA. He has also brought his research to the public through participation in the production of documentary films such as Moche Art of Peru (1974–1975).

Publications

Donnan has published well over 100 articles and books for both academic audiences and the public, including recent volumes published by the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press: Moche Fineline Painting from San José de Moro and Moche Tombs at Dos Cabezas. Donnan plans on continuing re-search in the Moche Archive at the Cotsen Insti-tute and we look forward to his involvement as a treasured Emeritus Professor.

13 | Backdirt 2009

CHRISTOPHER DONNAN RECEIVES TROWEL AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING SERVICEBY HELLE GIREY

ON MAY 10 2008, Cotsen Institute of Archaeol-ogy Director Charles Stanish presented Christopher B. Donnan with the Trowel Award—an award for outstanding service to the Institute—for his longtime dedication to and involvement in archae-ology at UCLA. Donnan, now Professor Emeritus of Anthropology since his recent retirement, is the foremost authority on the Moche civilization of Peru and is fondly nicknamed “Mr. Moche.” He is also known as the archaeologist with a golden trowel because wherever he excavates surely some magical artifacts, interpretation, and information will emerge!

This golden touch also brought a new museum facility to UCLA: the Fowler Museum of Cultural History (now named the Fowler Museum at UCLA). For many years, archaeological and ethnographic collections were housed in the basement of Haines Hall. In 1992, under the directorship of Donnan, a new museum building was opened for the many wonderful UCLA collections and temporary exhib-its. In 1993, the extraordinary excavation directed by Walter Alva and Donnan at Sipán in 1987 culmi-nated in the Royal Tombs of Sipán exhibition, which made its U.S. debut at the Fowler Museum.

Sipán, located on the north coast of Peru and boasting numerous tombs, is considered the rich-est site ever excavated in the western hemisphere. It was a truly exhilarating time at the Fowler Museum and the Cotsen Institute as entry lines snaked around the building at times. One Sunday afternoon during the exhibit, twice the number of people that could fit into Lenart Auditorium ar-rived for the Institute Public Lecture by Donnan. Wine and cheese were served to the people wait-ing patiently for the impromptu second presenta-tion provided by Donnan while lecture organizers scrambled to provide fare for the other audience group. Since that time, the Cotsen Institute knows that any lecture by Donnan will fill the auditorium with the public and scholars alike. Donnan served as the Fowler Museum’s director until 1996.

For the Cotsen Institute, Chris Donnan has been Acting Director, teacher, researcher, and friend. His favorite sentence is: “We are on the same team!” There are few scholars who bring together anthro-pology, archaeology, and the magic of discovery like Chris Donnan.

Christopher Donnan and Helle Girey at the trowel award reception, 2008.

14 | Backdirt 2009

GRADUATE STUDENT TRAVEL AWARD CREATED IN HONOR OF LONGTIME VOLUNTEER

STAFF ACHIEVEMENTS



THE COTSEN INSTITUTE lost a long-time supporter and former President of the Friends of Archaeology (FoA) when Michael Gottesman passed away in Janu-ary of 2008 at the age of 69. Mike was born and raised in Los Angeles, receiving his B.A. in Economics from UCLA and his M.S. from Pierce College in Inventory Management. During his undergraduate years at UCLA, he was in Navy ROTC. After leaving the Navy, he spent his career working in the aerospace industry, where he also met his wife Sonia. Mike’s involvement with archaeology began in the 1980s, when he started taking classes from UCLA Extension, studying with faculty such as Clem Meighan. He earned an Archaeology Certificate by writing a thesis on obsidian hydration studies.

After retiring from Hughes Aircraft Company in 1993, Mike and Sonia be-

came very active with the FoA—reported-ly being “drafted” by the group during a precolumbian potluck dinner. In addition to their many hours of volunteer work at the Institute, the Gottesmans opened their home to many UCLA archaeologists, providing a surrogate family for graduate students and a meeting place for the FoA for many years.

In Mike’s memory, Sonia and several members of the FoA began a new fund for graduate student support. The Mi-chael Gottesman Graduate Student Travel Award is available to archaeology graduate students attending academic conferences, which will contribute significantly to their professional development. The Cotsen Institute acknowledges this generous gift and thanks the Gottesmans for their many years of service and friendship to archaeology at UCLA.


It has been an exciting year for the staff of the Cotsen Institute. The following are among the highlights.

ERIC GARDNER, Publications Coordi-nator, received a UCLA Staff Scholarship Award “in recognition of continuing commitment to professional development and career growth.” The award provides $500 to the recipient for training. Eric will use these funds for a design class at UCLA Extension.

ELIZABETH KLARICH, Assistant Director, was awarded an International Collaborative Research Grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation to continue her archaeological research in Peru.

LAURA LLIGUIN, Administrative As-sistant, has been busy fundraising for Multiple Sclerosis research. She and her boyfriend, Efrain Gutierrez, participated in the Land Rover Bike MS Tour in Oc tober, raising more than $2,200 for the National MS Society, Pacific South Coast Chapter.

SHAUNA K. MECARTEA, Director of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, was selected to be a participant in the Professional Development Pro-gram, a one-year leadership development program sponsored by Campus Human Resources. This program provides par-ticipants with opportunities to enhance professional and management skills, build professional networks, and learn about the structure and culture of the university.

Michael Gottesman

Laura Lliguin and Efrain Gutierrez

15 | Backdirt 2009

STORAGE: PRESERVATION AND ACCESS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL COLLECTIONS

Cotsen Institute Symposium »

BY ELLEN PEARLSTEIN

THE COTSEN INSTITUTE and UCLA/Getty Mas-ter’s Program in Archaeological and Ethnographic Conservation hosted a symposium on June 6–8 2008 titled Storage: Preservation and Access of Ar-chaeological Collections, which explored issues sur-rounding the creation of stable, accessible storage of portable finds from excavations. The worldwide im-portance of this topic was indicated by attendance by 175 delegates from Canada, England, Greece, New Caledonia, Peru, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates—as well as from all over the United States. The presence of archaeologists, conservators, col-lections managers, archivists, bioanthropologists, cultural resource managers, digital documentation specialists, and imaging scientists demonstrates the interdisciplinarity of the topic.

The program began with a reception hosted by the Getty Conservation Institute at the Getty Villa, with tours of UCLA/Getty Master’s Program Laboratories. The symposium included 19 presenta-tions delivered by directors of centralized storage repositories for archaeological collections, archaeo-logical conservators who have achieved innovative and accessible storage methods, and archaeologists who have developed digital management systems for portable finds. The challenges and successes of negotiating within host countries for resources, examples of successful onsite storage, digital man-agement, and virtual collections and 3D scanning as tools for outreach, research, and conservation were described by the speakers.

Evaluated as a resounding success, the proceed-ings will be published as an open-access digital publication in early 2010. The symposium and pub-lication were funded by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

ellen pearlstein is assistant professor of infor-mation studies at ucla and faculty member of the

ucla/getty master’s program in the conservation

of archaeological and ethnographic materials.

Top: Pearlstein at podium during opening of symposium.Bottom: Symposium audience during one of the breaks.

Field Notes »

Fieldwork in the Gordion Region, TurkeyThis past summer I continued my doctoral dis-sertation fieldwork at the site of Gordion in central Turkey. One of my goals was to determine what types of trees grow at various elevations on mountains in the Gordion region. So, I rented a car, gathered some adventurous colleagues, and attempted to drive up a mountain on dirt roads in a 1980s Fiat. In our most memorable attempt at the peak of Başyurt Tepesi, which reaches a height of 2,280 m above sea level, we got stuck on our first attempt while trying to push the car up a nearly 30-degree slope. We backtracked out of the mountain chain and attempted another ascent—this time successfully reaching the top of the mountain above 1,900 meters, where we discovered the picturesque alpine lake shown here (left). This was well above the tree line, and our first sample of alpine vegetation in central Turkey.

—Mac Marston, Ph.D. Candidate, Archaeology

GPR Surveys at the Genghis Khan Avraga PalaceDean Goodman of the Geophysical Archaeometry Laboratory (www.GPR-Survey.com) has conducted ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys at the Genghis Khan Avraga Palace site in Eastern Mongo-lia. The research was done in conjunction with the Center for Iron Age Studies of Ehime University; Niigata University, Japan; and the Mongolia Academy of Science. The purpose of the survey was to help locate subsurface structures from one of the palace sites of Genghis Khan. GPR was able to locate subter-ranean house floors paved with flat stones that also had externally connected fire pits. The house floors were ingeniously designed for allowing hot air to rise under these thirteenth-century dwellings for heating in severe Mongolian winters.

Subsurface images made with GPR-SLICE software indicate that areas outside the excavation show similar patterns, whereby wall structures could be identified. Archaeologists have been able to extrapo-late the presence of a number of similar dwellings located in the immediate vicinity of the 2008 excava-tions. GPR imaging was also able to help locate a sacrificial area where many animal bones were found. This location may correspond with an area described in written Chinese documents, discussing the daily sacrificial burnings Genghis Khan’s wife ordered to occur each day for an entire year after his death. Ad-ditional chemical dating, GPR surveys, and follow-up excavations are planned for 2009.

—Dean Goodman, Research Associate, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology

17 | Backdirt 2009

PROFILESDEATH AND ART IN EGYPTIAN ANTIQUITY

SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION IN ANCIENT (AND NOT SO ANCIENT) CHINA

TRACKING THE ORIGINS OF AGRICULTURE ALONG THE RED SEA

INVESTIGATING CALIFORNIA PREHISTORY WITH ZOOARCHAEOLOGY

INTERVIEW WITH KARA COONEY

INTERVIEW WITH LI MIN

INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL HARROWER

INTERVIEW WITH JUDY PORCASI

18

21

24

27

18 | Backdirt 2009

Faculty Profile »

NEW EGYPTOLOGIST DISCUSSES LOVE OF DEATH AND ART

You received your Ph.D. in Near Eastern Stud-ies from Johns Hopkins University in 2002, and your research focuses on Egyptian art and archaeology. How did you become interested in ancient Egyptian culture and art?

Ever since I can remember, I’ve wanted to learn all I could about ancient civilizations—and for whatever reason ancient Egyptian material culture always resonated with me. I remember when I was six or seven years old, my mother bought me a book on Egyptian mummies from the British Museum and I just adored staring at all those ghoulish dead bodies, coffins, canopic jars, and books of the dead. Little did my mother know that I would become a specialist in funerary arts.

Even though I was enthusiastic about ancient civilizations at a very young age, I didn’t have much opportunity to study ancient Egypt in high school or as an undergraduate. Not many people do. It wasn’t until my junior year of college that I had the chance to take a class in Egyptian art. I just loved it, and it was then that I started to look into gradu-

An Interview with Kara CooneyBY SHAUNA K. MECARTEA

ate opportunities. Until then, it hadn’t seriously occurred to me that I could study Egyptian art and civilization as a profession.

You were Co-curator at the Los Angeles Coun-ty Museum of Art (LACMA) for Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, a Kress fellow at the National Gallery of Art, and have appeared as the team archaeology expert on the History Channel’s Digging for the Truth. With many interesting and diverse achieve-ments under your belt, what do you think has been the most compelling so far—and why?

A Kress fellowship and an NSF dissertation award were invaluable, allowing me to travel all over the world to study the primary evidence for my doctoral research (mostly examining coffins and ostraca in European museums and in Egypt). The Kress fellowship also funded me for a second year, during which I wrote the bulk of my thesis. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., was a supportive and diverse environment that encour-aged and reinforced the multidisciplinary style of research that I had been taught at Johns Hopkins.

I’m tremendously proud of my book The Cost of Death, which is an extension of the work I did while at the National Gallery—but I have to admit that it is a very academic book with a limited, Egyptologi-cal audience. On the opposite end of the spectrum, co-curating the King Tut exhibition with Nancy Thomas at LACMA was a great opportunity to work on a much more accessible project and to talk with and lecture to a much broader audience. Plus, it gave me the chance to work closely with some amazing objects and to learn about the complicated world of blockbuster museum exhibits.

While teaching may be my most compelling pursuit (whether it’s a graduate class on reading hieroglyphs or an undergrad survey of the ancient Mediterranean), if I had to name my most unex-pected project thus far it would be the television series I’m currently writing, producing, and hosting for the Discovery Channel. (In fact, as I type this I’m on a plane flying to Sri Lanka from Cambo-dia—where we just shot part of the show in ancient Angkor.) The series is called Out of Egypt, and my husband, Neil Crawford (who’s a filmmaker), creat-ed the show with me and is an executive producer.

19 | Backdirt 2009

While teaching may be my most compelling pursuit (whether it’s a graduate class on reading hiero-glyphs or an undergrad survey of the ancient Mediterranean), if I had to name my most unexpected project thus far, it would be the television series I’m currently writ-ing, producing, and hosting right now for the Discovery Channel.

Because it’s a comparative archaeology series, I’ve been given the extraordinary opportunity to step outside of Egyptology—and out of my own comfort zone—to learn about ancient and modern civiliza-tions all over the world.

Television is easily dismissed by some academ-ics, but as an Egyptologist I’ve learned that this medium is an important opportunity to commu-nicate to the public. And it gives me the chance to (informally) apply and test some of my ideas about ancient Egypt on other cultures as disconnected as Vietnamese Buddhists and the Moche culture in Peru. This kind of broad, comparative examination isn’t necessarily well suited for an academic peer-reviewed journal or a university press monograph, but the medium of television welcomes (and even demands) telling an accessible story in which I step out into the unknown—and out of my own area of expertise.

Your previous position was at the Getty Re-search Institute (GRI) as Research Associate. What projects did you focus on during your tenure there?

At the GRI, I ran the Villa Scholars Program. I read hundreds of applications and sat on a number of decision committees. I also ran the annual disser-tation workshop at the Getty Center—a three-day seminar for graduate students in the writing stages of art historical dissertations. One of the highlights of my time at the Getty Villa was working closely with Dr. Erich Gruen, implementing his scholar year focusing on cultural identity in the ancient

Mediterranean. I was the only Egyptologist at the Getty Villa, which brought a unique perspective to a place that traditionally focuses on Greco-Roman civilizations. Not only did I learn a great deal about other parts of the Mediterranean but many Getty colleagues and research fellows had the chance to learn about ancient Egypt from me. And I made some lifelong friends. And thankfully, because I was at the Research Institute, my own academic writing was a part of my job. I finished my book The Cost of Death there.

As a new faculty member in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures, what are some of your upcoming projects?

I’m knee deep into my second book, The Life and Death of a Coffin: How and Why the Ancient Egyptians Spent So Much on Their Funerary Arts, which will reach out to a larger audience than my first book. Most of the manuscript is finished, but it still needs polishing. This book will reach out to as many people as possible: fellow academics, stu-dents, archaeologists in other fields, and the general public with an interest in Egyptology. There are so

Opposite page: Kara standing in front of a queen’s pyramid on the Giza Plateau, Egypt.

Right: Kara in the temple of Medinet Habu, the mortuary complex of Ramses III, west bank of Luxor, Egypt.

20 | Backdirt 2009

Kara at a Coptic period cemetery near Karanis, Fayum.

many people out there with such enthusi-asm for the ancient world, and for ancient Egypt in particular.

I’m also actively researching another book project on spending for death in an-cient Egypt during a well-known econom-ic and political downturn—the late New Kingdom and the so-called Third Inter-mediate period. I’m very interested in the ways that economic recession and political insecurity affect the manner in which people prepare for something as culturally conservative as funeral rituals and burial. And I’ve got some amazing evidence with which to work, including tombs, coffins, mummies, and even receipts and letters that suggest less ostentatious and more defensive patterns of burial during this specific time period.

Finally, I’m working on a number of articles, including at least three submis-sions for the UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology (UEE)—a groundbreaking online resource (edited by my colleagues Willeke Wendrich, Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures,

and Jacco Dieleman, Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures) that will make academic Egyptological information accessible to the entire world, not just specialist libraries. I’ve just sub-mitted a UEE article on scarabs, and I’m rewriting another on burial deposits. Next up is an article on a little-known building in the Karnak complex that I’ve studied quite a lot, called the Edifice of Taharka.

How do you think ancient art informs specialists about ancient cultures?

If one defines “ancient art” quite broadly, then there is no question that it can provide a more complete picture of a civilization. It’s likely that less than five percent of ancient Egyptians were literate, so to learn about the bulk of the popula-tion we have to turn to non-textual, visual sources. Some of this material culture is well made by high-level craftsmen. Other examples were produced by lower-tier and poorly paid individuals. These value and quality differences are very informative about the makeup of ancient Egyptian society.

A broader perspective of “art” in the ancient world brings up two disciplinary problems. First, many art historians do not consider lower-quality visual culture to be “art.” And second, there has long been a schism in Egyptology (as in just about every other field of ancient studies) between those who study texts and those who study objects. Obviously, this divide is arbitrary and based on our modern disciplinary divisions and methods of organizing data. My work seeks to address these divisions, on the one hand, by inte-grating both text and art in my research projects—and on the other by including objects in my data sets that might not be considered “fine art” by some specialists.

You are interested in the cost of death (which is the title of your first book). Can your research in ancient Egypt lend insight into the funerary practices of today?

I just read a book called The Undertaking by John Lynch, a poet and undertaker in the northeast U.S. It’s a beautiful book, and it just reinforced that American funerary practices are fundamentally different from the ancient Egyptians. Where the elite Egyptians were aggressive and systematic in giving the dead all that they needed for a successful transition to the next world, we put off preparations—moving forward in our arrangements in a tentative and even embarrassed fashion.

The Egyptians were so obsessed with getting the necessary funerary materials for their dead, like coffins and amulets, that they often usurped objects that had been made for others. And we shouldn’t forget that the purchasing of funerary objects far in advance of death probably allowed psychological preparation for the Egyptian family as well. American funerals focus much less on the material-ity of death and more about denial of it. In fact, the more I study the ways that the Egyptians spent tremendous amounts of their income on preparations for death the more appropriate the analogy of a modern American wedding becomes. Both the Egyptian funeral and the American wedding involve a tremendous amount of money spent for one moment of ritual display—a display that can instantaneous-ly communicate status level, spending abilities, gender, and even geographic and cultural identities.

kara cooney is assistant professor in

the department of near eastern lan-guages and cultures. she began teach-ing at ucla in january.

21 | Backdirt 2009

Faculty Profile »

FROM NUMISMATICS TO CHINESE ARCHAEOLOGY An Interview with Li MinBY ERIC C. GARDNER

How did you first become interested in archaeology?

Archaeology was not an adulthood intellectual revelation for me. Having grown up in a small coastal city in China, I had become interested in history and archaeology in my childhood. After the traumatic experience of the Cultural Revolution, the early 1980s was a time of optimism and imagi-nation. There was a great desire among intellectuals to inspire the next generation. Archaeologists such as Tong Enzheng wrote science-fiction novels with archaeological themes, which captivated young readers like myself.

There was no public archaeology program available at the time to help the public. The city science education committee kindly took on the responsibility and invited a well-respected history teacher from a local middle school to coach me. I would visit him after school on a weekly basis after my classes at the elementary school for a conversa-tion in history. This volunteer intellectual support was provided to me on the basis of my interest, for which I am deeply grateful.

With the help of local engineers, I went to the copper foundry to compile a “research collection”

of bronze coins and objects from scrap metal before they were melted down. I started to publish my works on coins in China Numismatics when I was 12. I still care very much about the development of numismatics. When I heard John Papadopoulos, UCLA Professor of Classics, deliver a great talk on Greek coinage at Michigan many years ago, I thought it had the potential to transform our field. Although I developed broad intellectual interests in the following years, the appeal of archaeology—which allows you to have a conversation with the past through its actual remnants—never lost its hold on me.

There is the question of studying Chinese ar-chaeology abroad. The motivation comes from the appeal of anthropology. When I was in high school, I met a young local archaeologist who attended K. C. Chang’s lecture series on anthropological archaeology at Peking University. I was fascinated by Chang’s ingenuity in approaching early China in the broader context of early civilization and past human experiences. I aspired to study abroad and went to Canada for my B.A. and M.A. in Anthro-pology, and completed my Ph.D. at the University of Michigan. The program in anthropological archaeology at Michigan provided me with training on the emergence of states and early civilizations in a comparative framework. Faculty members there were keen to provide hands-on training and assistance for graduate students. Faculty members Henry Wright and Richard Redding participated in the fieldwork and contributed their expertise in archaeological science.

Tell us a bit about your own research. What areas or methods have you focused on in your work? What is it that attracts you to them?

My dissertation research (“Conquest, Concord, and Consumption: Becoming Shang in Eastern China”) investigates the ways aspects of symbolic, social, and natural worlds converged in human interactions with animals—particularly in the realms of food and religious communication on the frontiers of Shang civilization in the late second millennium B.C. The research consisted of excavation at the Bronze Age site of Daxinzhuang and zooarchaeological analysis of the excavated material from the site.

22 | Backdirt 2009

The attraction of archaeology is its ability to uncover diverse human experience through min-ute observations of contextual remains from the distant past. The reward of being a detective of past societies is the potential to bring the past alive and reveal the genealogy of our own ideas.

Now that you are part of the faculty at UCLA, what upcoming projects are you planning?

My forthcoming project will be a regional survey of the Qufu region in the Wen-Si River Basin of Southern Shandong, not far from where I did my dissertation fieldwork. Some of the important Chi-nese archaeological works were carried out in this region (for example, the excavations of Dawenkou, Wangyin, Yinjiacheng, and the Bronze Age Lu city at Qufu). A regional archaeological project would help to put everything together and address many unresolved questions in the broad framework of social evolution. I elaborate on the project in my article in this issue.

For much of China’s recent history, society—at least officially—has been more interested in the future than in the past. At times a great emphasis was placed on making a decisive break with old traditions and old ways of life. How does archaeology fit into contemporary Chinese culture (both academic and popular), given that history of tension with the past?

When one tries to make a break with the past, it involves investigating the past in order to say “We are so different.” There has been a lot of archaeology done in an evolutionary scheme in the twentieth century in order to demonstrate that we are in a different stage of society. In the 1970s, for example, prehistoric archaeologists emphasized gender inequality and wealth differences in their effort to understand changes from an egalitarian social structure to one with entrenched inequality—lead-ing to social stratification and the rise of early states.

In contemporary China, the image of the future is often represented as somewhat resembling the

Above: view from a Han king’s tomb in Qufu, Shandong.

My major field research centers on two major themes. The first is the transformation of regional society in the context of early state formation and expansion. It involves understanding regional site distribution through survey, and changes in everyday life through excavation. The second is the transformation of regional society in the context of early global trade and colonialism. It involves studying maritime societies and their connections, which explains my research on coastal China and southeast Asia.

The questions of the two realms are not dissimi-lar. How did local conceptions and pursuit of power figure into the workings of the larger framework? How did the political dynamics at the local scale work through existing structures and transform them? One adjusts the research strategy in response to the changing scale and nature of interaction, from interregional to global. The attraction of archaeology is its ability to uncover diverse human experience through minute observations of contex-tual remains from the distant past. The reward of being a detective of past societies is the potential to bring the past alive and reveal the genealogy of our own ideas.

23 | Backdirt 2009

Golden Ages of Chinese society in the past—when the people lived in peace and society prospered. The past is a potent conceptual tool for political expres-sion in making arguments about what has been achieved or what should be achieved. Attitudes toward archaeology and traditions in contemporary society seem contradictory. On the one hand, the economic development and grand construction projects are rapidly destroying the cultural heritage across the country—and some local governments perceive cultural preservation as an obstacle to de-velopment. On the other hand, Chinese society—at both an intellectual and popular level—is increas-ingly fascinated by archaeology.

Recent emphasis has shifted more toward the cultural history of Chinese civilization, in contrast to the early research—when more focus was placed on evolutionary changes. The current interest in the past, however, is a double-edged sword—as some

local governments are rather heavy handed in their efforts to “develop” the cultural heritage for tour-ism, which could be equally destructive. There is more than ever a great need for an educated public genuinely interested in the inquiry of past societ-ies and appreciative of the intellectual journey of such inquiry. Therefore, archaeologists have to play an active role in defining what type of future lies ahead for Chinese society—in that diverse ways of representing the past would be a major part of that future.

What is the most important thing the study of the past can teach people today?

Wisdom, I would say. We make our decisions based on past experience, whether it is personal experi-ence or the long-term experience of our society written in history or preserved in memory. Under-standing the past, especially through archaeology, gives us a more nuanced understanding of human experience. Archaeology can help give us the wis-dom of understanding past failures or how things came about. We can use it to understand the past as well as to understand how our conceptual vocabu-laries about the past come about.

li min is assistant professor in the department of

asian languages and cultures and the interde-partmental archaeology graduate program.

24 | Backdirt 2009

Visiting Scholar Profile »

RESEARCHER STUDIES PATHWAYS TO AGRICULTURE IN ETHIOPIA AND YEMEN An Interview with Michael HarrowerBY ERIC C. GARDNER

Cotsen Institute gives them an opportunity for scholarly interchange.

Some of your research deals with transitions to agriculture in Ethiopia and Yemen, areas that are not traditionally well represented in many American institutions. What drew you to this part of the world?

As an undergraduate I became very interested in Near Eastern agricultural origins. I started con-tacting people who were scholars in that field, one of whom was Joy McCorriston—who became my Ph.D. advisor. She was starting a project in Yemen at the time, and although that isn’t one of the core regions where agriculture first begins for a vari-ety of different reasons I became interested in the beginnings of agriculture there and got involved in her project. Yemen has not been as well stud-ied as many other parts of the world for a variety of reasons, including that access has been diffi-cult (definitely until the 1960s, but also after that time)—so there has been a series of wide lacunae in the knowledge of the archaeological history of Yemen, and that makes it a particularly fascinat-ing place to work in part because some of the basic questions about what happened when and where are really open questions.

In some ways the same applies to Ethiopia. Because of political conflicts and access issues, it’s been a challenging place to work over the years—although things have improved recently. Of course there are lots of connections between these two parts of the world. The Horn of Africa is only 30 km away from southern Arabia, and their histories are unique but closely interconnected.

How do developments here compare to more familiar cases in Egypt, or the Levant?

That’s a very interesting question. Many are coming to recognize that our understandings of early agriculture have been dramatically shaped by a handful of regions that have been studied in considerable detail because they have the earliest evidence of crops and domesticated animals. Some of the patterns in surrounding areas really differ. For instance, in Yemen some of the earliest farm-ing doesn’t involve sedentary agricultural villages. It involved more what one sees ethnographically in

What is your background in archaeology?

I first became interested in archaeology after a year at Simon Fraser University as an undergraduate, while visiting museums and archaeological sites in Thailand. I was particularly fascinated that so little seemed to be known about sites and ancient history there. I came back and declared a major in archaeology, and really developed enthusiasm for it after that. Archaeology also appealed to me because it offered a mixture of sciences and humanities, which is something I remain very interested in. After graduating from Simon Fraser, I completed a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. in Anthropology from The Ohio State University.

What made you interested in coming to work as a visiting scholar at the Cotsen Institute?

The Cotsen Institute has a renowned history and reputation as an outstanding program and has hosted an impressive list of visiting scholars. Every-thing that excited me about the Institute has been confirmed in the time I’ve been here. There is a great community of people who are drawn together because of mutual interests. You have people from different departments that see a lot in common with archaeologists in other academic units. The

25 | Backdirt 2009

Many are coming to recognize that our understandings of early agriculture have been dramati-cally shaped by a handful of regions that have been studied in considerable detail because they have the earliest evidence of crops and domesticated ani-mals. Some of the patterns in surrounding areas really differ.

parts of Africa where people move quite frequently during the year and spend two or three months in one area raising crops (for instance, sorghum) and move with their animals to a different area in different times of year—returning cyclically rather than staying in one place. Sedentism was thought to be necessary for agriculture based on findings in the Levant, and we just don’t see that in other areas.

The other thing that really is quite striking is that agri-culture really appears quite late in the Horn of Africa and southern Arabia compared to these other regions. It’s not that people wouldn’t have been aware of the opportu-nities (they were in contact with peoples in other regions and knew that their neighbors were sustained by more than just hunted animals and gathered plants, that they had these different lifeways), but they, probably for a range of

different reasons, chose not to adopt agriculture for an extended period of time—so that’s a fascinat-ing issue about transitions. They seem to be quite

significantly delayed for reasons that are very different from those that inhibited the spread of agriculture in Europe.

What might account for this delay in the areas where you work?

Many archaeologists are recognizing that rather than an invention or technological advance agriculture entails societal transformation. That recognition makes

it clear that it’s very diverse and very unique in specific areas. So, if we do indeed think of agricul-ture as a societal transformation then we really need to rethink some of the ways we’ve been thinking

Mike trying his hand at plowing in Ethiopia while a local farmer laughs at the oxen’s attempted escape.

26 | Backdirt 2009

about its spread and about its reformulation or even reinvention in different parts of the world. That’s part of the reason I think these lesser-known areas are so important for future work in archaeology, because they really round out the picture that’s been relatively narrowed by a focus on a small handful of regions with the earliest and most spectacular finds.

Do you have an ongoing project in Yemen right now where you are studying this?

We are planning fieldwork in January to March in Oman, which is an outgrowth of collaborative work we’ve been doing with a team in Yemen involving McCorriston, Prem Goel, Dorota Brzezinska, Tara Steimer-Herbet, and others. We’ve been looking at tombs and other stone monuments in southern Ara-bia and how their spatial patterning reflects social relations among ancient tribes and emerging states in southern Arabia. One type of tomb (sometimes referred to as a “high circular tomb” or a “cairn tomb”) first appears during the late fourth millen-nium B.C., about fifty-two hundred years ago.

Many arid parts of Yemen are sparsely popu-lated, and there is an incredible level of preserva-tion of some of these tombs—fields of thousands of tombs in some places. Another prevalent type of monument, called a trilith, appears about 2000 years ago and is arguably linked to camel caravans which would have been taking incense (mainly frankincense) from eastern Yemen and carrying it to the capitols of desert kingdoms, including Ma’rib, and eventually transporting that incense to Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean. So, these monuments are part of an important material record of hinterland peoples and their activities in these highland desert landscapes.

You work extensively with GIS technology. How do you use GIS technology in the work you do? What impact has this technology had on archaeology as a discipline?

My work with GIS not only involves GIS computer software but also remote-sensing data such as satel-lite imagery, and GPS mapping technologies that are powerful tools for archaeological fieldwork and analysis. These three things appear as a triad that is sometimes referred to as geomatics or Geographic Information Science that encompasses a whole realm of technologies for collecting, managing, and analyzing spatial data. These tools have had important impacts in archaeology. Particularly in the last three years, with the unveiling of Google Earth, many have come to realize how important spatial perspectives can be for a variety of different reasons—not limited to archaeology but certainly including it. So, it is really a burgeoning specializa-tion and one that has an exciting future role to play.

It is interesting how GIS has also become em-broiled in some of the theoretical debates which have sprung up in archaeology over the last 20 years. You see a lot of archaeologists struggling to incorporate or reconcile GIS with their theoreti-cal orientations and interests. So, you have a group of people that have really emphasized quantitative analyses and statistics and the scientific aspects of archaeology who have been interested in GIS, and many people who have been more interested in the humanistic and interpretive and qualita-tive research also using GIS. How that plays out within the community of those interested in GIS is quite interesting to me—how it’s shaped by those orientations and how it in turn shapes peoples notions about where archaeology should be going, what kinds of questions are appropriate, and how we arrive at satisfying answers to the questions we decide to ask. So, that’s been one point that makes GIS very interesting to me.

michael harrower is the first two-year cotsen

postdoctoral fellow at the cotsen institute.

27 | Backdirt 2009

Volunteer Profile »

UNEARTHING CALIFORNIA'S PREHISTORY An Interview with Judy PorcasiBY ERIC C. GARDNER

How did you become interested in archaeol-ogy? What is your background in the field?

Archaeology is a second career for me. I worked for about 25 years in California’s aerospace industry before becoming an archaeologist. I was a special-ized technical writer and management analyst with several of the major aerospace companies, and so was my husband. Well, after he retired and was having fun taking courses at UCLA I decided that I wanted to do that too. We took paleontology, geol-ogy, and archaeology classes and enjoyed these very much. My first archaeol-ogy class was a rock art field class with Jo Anne van Tilburg, Research Associate of the Cotsen Institute. I had been out of college for decades, and I wondered if I could handle some “hardcore” academic work. But all went well and then I took a faunal analysis class with Dr. Roy Salls. It was a very inspiring class, es-pecially since it related to the life sciences—which were always an interest of mine.

After completing the class, I decided to volun-teer in the bone lab. The staff of the lab mentored me for awhile, and soon I was doing faunal identi-fications and analysis. In the meantime, my hus-band and I continued to take the other archaeol-ogy classes required to finish the UCLA Extension Certificate in Archaeology. My final project for that was a faunal report that now has been published. To become more professional, I entered the Cal State Northridge Master’s program in Anthropology—again focused on the faunal aspect of archaeology. As part of this program, I had the opportunity to do both excavation and faunal analysis on impor-tant sites on Catalina and San Clemente Islands. On Catalina Island I worked at Little Harbor and on San Clemente I worked at Eel Point.

Overall, I find archaeology to be very stimulat-ing—especially because it brings in so many diverse but related disciplines. When working with bone collections you invariably find an interesting aspect that needs additional research focus. This is my primary interest. If a question presents itself, I love to “dig” into it. Before studying archaeology I had been trained in investigative reporting as a journal-ism student at both USC and UCLA, so I’ve always been doing some type of research. Faunal analysis is like solving puzzles all day. I just recently finished my Ph.D. at Leicester University in the United King-

dom, again doing a very extensive faunal study.

Can you talk a little bit about the work you do in the bone lab? What kinds of puzzles are you able to solve there?

Archaeological bone collections come into the lab either from academic projects or from cultural resource management (i.e., com-mercial) projects, and it’s our responsibility to identify and analyze each bone or fragment to the most definitive level possible. We iden-tify the animal species and any modifications, such as burning or tool

making, that might have been made to the bone by people. This gives us insight into the dietary and other uses people might have been making of ani-mals in their environment. We can get an image of the ecological situation, ritual activities, and so on. Studying changes in use of animal products over long periods of time, we can determine when things were going well for site occupants or when there were economic or societal problems impacting their ability to get or use certain foods. The faunal record tells a lot about the people who have left little or no other evidence of their lifeways.

28 | Backdirt 2009

You mentioned that for your Master’s you did some work in the Channel Islands, and that you are currently working with Wendy Teeter. Tell us about some of the fieldwork you’ve done.

I’ve done fieldwork on Catalina, on San Clemente Island, in Baja California, and on the coastal main-land of California. I especially enjoyed working in some of the early Spanish missions in San Luis Obispo and Monterey Counties. In addition to my work at the Institute, I am also an independent faunal consultant. I work on commercial contracts for collections excavated all over California and a few from Mexico. While most of my work is done in a lab setting, I enjoy working in the field as much as possible.

Care to share any especially memorable expe-riences from any of your projects?

I think it is especially important to report and disseminate archaeological findings. I make it a point to publish any significant findings from my faunal projects. For example, at Catalina and San Clemente I was able to identify the remains of the enormous Mola mola ocean sunfish, which had not been previously identified at those islands. It turns out that prehistoric islanders exploited an intensive fishery of this species. This is rather amazing since the Mola is the size of a Volkswagen and can weigh more than 3,000 pounds. We found remains of thousands of these fish.

Another finding was that the islanders on both Catalina and San Clemente were big-time dolphin hunters. How these people captured the ocean sun-fish and hundreds of dolphins remains a mystery. Recently I co-published the story of the now-extinct flightless duck (Chendytes lawi). We were able to track when, where, and how long it took this animal to become extinct once people arrived on the Cali-fornia coast. Since the duck was flightless, it had no protection from terrestrial predators—whether human or animal.

Do you feel like you have a fair conception of what life was like for some of these popula-tions in prehistoric coastal California?

Much is known about the recent populations, the proto-historic people, and those occupying the coast when the Spanish arrived. My interest really goes back to the very beginning. My dissertation and the research I’m working on now goes back 10,000 years, and really nothing is known about the people of coastal California at that time. There are only a few faunal collections from that time period. Other than the faunal record, very little remains as evidence of these earlier occupations.

There are conflicting ideas about who these people might have been and how they arrived here. I believe that there was a significant maritime mi-gration along the coast between 13,000 and 10,000 years ago. We really don’t know much about these people other than what we can discern from the debris they’ve left behind. More recent populations have left a variety of artifacts and other evidence of complex societies. You don’t find any of that in the earlier sites. Part of the problem is that rising sea level over the millennia has drowned many of the oldest sites.

Right. You’re talking about a period when much of North America was in an Ice Age.

Yes. I believe that people were able to get to western North America by sea following along the coast from northwestern Asia. There were inlets called re-fugia, where they could sustain themselves and find resources. They knew how to make use of whatever the sea provided. It’s not as if there was nothing but ice along the coast. The open coastal areas and the kelp forests provided adequate resources for them. They also seemed to find early refuge on the islands.

Closing thoughts?

I’m very excited about being a Research Associate at the Cotsen Institute. Hopefully this will give me the opportunity to find new lines of inquiry and research. I hope to be able to join with and assist the other Cotsen researchers in any way I can.

judy porcasi is a new research associate at the

cotsen instutute and a long-time volunteer.

REFLEC

TION

SHANS BARNARD

NOMADS OF EGYPT’S EASTERN DESERT 30RAN BOYTNER

TARAPACÁ, CHILE: 2008 SEASON 32JAFFA CULTURAL HERITAGE PROJECT: REPORTAARON BURKE 34

SCALORIA DAY IN GENOAERNESTINE S. ELSTER 38THE POWER AND PITFALLS OF GISMICHAEL J. HARROWER 40BYZANTINE ART IN THE MAKINGIOANNA KAKOULLI & CHRISTIAN FISCHER 42FIELD RESEARCH IN PUKARA, PERUELIZABETH KLARICH 46CONSERVING AN ANCIENT FEATHER BLANKET

ELLEN PEARLSTEIN 48

LOFKËND, ALBANIA: AFTER EXCAVATIONSARAH MORRIS & JOHN PAPADOPOULOS 50RECONCILING WITH THE PASTMERRICK POSNANSKY 52ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE PETRIFIED FOREST

GREG SCHACHNER 56KAREN WISE

BEHIND THE SCENES AT THE LA NHM 58EXCAVATIONS AT SISUPALGARH

MONICA L. SMITH & RABINDRA KUMAR MOHANTY

60

SAM CONNOR & CHAD GIFFORD 36PAMBAMARCA, ECUADOR: FIELD SCHOOL

30 | Backdirt 2009

Nomadic people are not archaeologically or historically invis-ible, but leave traces that are discernable and often specific for a nomadic way of life.

A CONFERENCE ON THE HISTORY OF THE PEOPLES OF THE "EASTERN DESERT"From prehistory to the present BY HANS BARNARD

IN 1998, the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cai-ro (NVIC) published the proceedings of a meeting titled “Life on the Fringe,” organized by Olaf Kaper (now at Leiden University) and Willeke Wendrich, Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures at UCLA. The subject of the meeting and the volume was life in the desert areas of Egypt in Graeco-Roman times (332 B.C.E.–641 C.E.). In 2008, the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA published the combined proceedings of two meet-ings titled Nomads in Archaeology—organized by Wendrich and the author.

The subject of these meetings and the volume was the archaeology of mobile peoples, with a geo-graphical emphasis on Central Asia and the desert zone between the Red Sea and the Nile Valley in Egypt and Sudan. The mineral wealth of the latter area, usu-ally referred to as the Eastern Desert, has attracted miners and quarrymen from very early times onward. Their remains and those of the various harbors and trade routes that connected the Nile Valley with Arabia Felix, sub-Saharan Africa, India, and the enigmatic Land of Punt have attracted most of the atten-tion of historians and archaeolo-gists that study the region.

Despite environmental degradation, which started with the end of the Holocene pluvial period about 8000 years ago, and scholarly neglect the Eastern Desert has native inhabitants and a history of its own. The arrival in the Nile Valley of the hunter-herder-gatherers is one of the many factors that gave rise to Pharaonic civilization. Sometimes a hint of those that remained behind can be gleaned from the historical sources, such as the Medjay (around 2250–1800 B.C.E.) and the Blemmyes (around 600 B.C.E.–600 C.E.). At other times, their traces appear in the archaeological record, such as pan-graves (dating 1650–1500 B.C.E.) and Eastern Desert Ware (dating 300–600 C.E.), but informa-tion on the indigenous history and culture remains scarce and incomplete.

It is clear that the pastoral nomads in the East-ern Desert have always depended on the farmers in the Nile Valley, whereas the farmers needed the products of the desert dwellers in almost equal

measure. Many economic, environmental, and po-litical factors determine whether groups will move or settle—and a terminology with fixed categories for mobile and sedentary groups is no more ap-plicable to the ancient situation than to the present. Much like the ancient names (such as Medjay or Blemmyes) do not correspond with our modern use of such ethnic terms, so our understanding of words such as tribe, nomad, or Bedouin does not correspond to reality.

Apart from logistical problems, the study of the Eastern Desert is hampered by biases in the textual sources, by ambiguous ethnographic parallels, and by the low archaeological visibility of the remains of the desert dwellers. The vast majority of the his-torical sources were written by outsiders who never

visited the area. These were prejudiced toward a settled way of life and express negative at-titudes, which exist until today, toward mobile groups. Ethno-graphic and ethnoarchaeologi-cal information is limited and provides incomplete parallels between modern and ancient mobile groups. The emphasis of the archaeological research has been on the more visible and easier-to-interpret remains of

the mines, quarries, and trade routes of outsiders temporarily settling in the desert. Many stud-ies concentrate on Pharaonic and Graeco-Roman Egypt, disregarding Nubian, Napatan, and Meroitic sources of information.

It has recently been appreciated that nomadic people are not archaeologically or historically invis-ible, but leave traces that are discernable and often specific for a nomadic way of life. A new interpre-tation of existing data will lead to new insights, and new archaeological tools and techniques will dramatically increase the number of sites and artifacts—as well as the information gleaned from them. During the past decades, the anthropological theory on the relationship between the settled ma-jority and the mobile minority in the Near East has developed from the permanent conflict reflected in many historical sources to the symbiotic relation-ship that can be deduced from archaeological and ethnographical data.

31 | Backdirt 2009

Unfortunately, these insights come at a time in which access into the Eastern Desert has become increasingly difficult. A conference aimed to ad-dress the problems and possibilities of the study of the dwellers of the Eastern Desert, as well as to pro-vide an overview of the current state of our knowl-edge, took place at the NVIC on November 25–27, 2008. This meeting was organized by the author and Kim Duistermaat, the current director of the NVIC, with the assistance of staff members of the NVIC and financial support of the Royal Nether-lands Embassy in Cairo and the Cotsen Institute.

The first two days of the conference were filled with short presentations covering a wide variety of subjects and time periods. The first session concen-trated on the natural environment and the prehis-tory of the desert. A number of important sites with petroglyphs were presented and discussed, as well as the archaeology of some of the more ancient sites in the desert. The second session centered on current and future developments, both in the desert and in research strategies. It became evident that the area and its inhabitants have always been in flux and that although certain aspects appear constant there is no firm evidence of a true continuity in hu-man activities or even of human presence.

Ongoing climate change and development of the region for tourism are now transforming the East-ern Desert at a rapid pace and demand inventive input concerning archaeological and environmental preservation. Sessions on the second day of the con-ference centered on the area in Graeco-Roman times (during which the Eastern Desert saw more visitors from outside than ever before) and on the traces of similar visitors during other periods, including the Coptic monks who still retreat into the des-ert—where they inevitably compete with the native inhabitants for space, water, and other resources.

During the lively discussion that followed these sessions, as well as each individual presentation, it

was concluded that the distinction between outsider and insider information was not as clear as initially assumed and that as much information as possible needs to be taken into account if we want to further our knowledge efficiently. A lot can still be learned from existing material and texts, much of which are unpublished, as well as from the study of satel-lite imagery and reports and maps of the Colonial period. Special attention needs to be given to the understanding of the archaeoclimate and to land-scape archaeology, together with the development and testing of models for the movement of people.

As it would not have been appropriate to discuss the history of a people so close to their homeland without any of them present, the morning of the third and last day of the conference was spent talking to representatives of several Bedouin tribes from the Sinai and the Egyptian Red Sea coast. This part of the program was made possible by the logistical and linguistic assistance of Karin van Opstal, Rudolf de Jong, and Amir Gohar. The Bed-ouin appeared well aware of the changing of their environment and lifestyle. All mentioned the push of the deteriorating desert (with its lack of possibili-ties for improvement) and the pull of the city, with its schools, jobs, and televisions.

At the same time, all were worried about losing their customs and traditions, which feature promi-nently in their oral history and personal identity. In the evening, the conference was summarized and its preliminary conclusions discussed by Dr. J. L. Bintliff (Professor of Classical Archaeology at Leiden University) during the yearly Cleveringa Lecture. This lecture is held in Leiden and many other places worldwide to commemorate the brave stance taken on November 26, 1940 by Dr. R. P. Cleveringa, at the time Professor of Law at Leiden University, when he denounced the firing of his colleague Dr. E. M. Meijers by the Nazi government solely due to his Jewish upbringing. The Cleveringa Lecture in Cairo and the subsequent reception were well attended by men and women of many different backgrounds. The final proceedings of the confer-ence on the history of the peoples of the Eastern Desert, together with contributions of invited au-thors, will be submitted and hopefully accepted for publication with the Cotsen Institute. For now, they may be found at www.archbase.org/ED/.

hans barnard is a research associate

at the cotsen institute.

Life in the Eastern Desert: As a symbol of hospitality and recreation, enjoying djabana (coffee with ginger and sugar) is an important part of Beja life (cf. The Archaeology of Mobility, pp. 518-520; photo by W.Z. Wendrich).

32 | Backdirt 2009

COMING FULL CIRCLE: THE 2008 SEASON AT TARAPACÁ, CHILEBY RAN BOYTNER

AS SOME OF THE MORE AVID read-ers of Backdirt know, the Tarapacá Valley Archaeological Project is taking place in one of the harshest places on earth: the heart of the Atacama Desert. Four years of work there revealed an astonishing range of adaptations and great concentration of sites. One in particular, named Caserones (see Figure 1), is so large that is difficult to imagine how the valley could have sup-ported its population. As data were pour-ing in from our multidisciplinary research team, we had to dramatically adjust our initial understanding of the area and confront the new realities exposed in the material record.

Before beginning research at Tara-pacá, we thought that the valley played an important role in the resource acquisition by the emerging Tiwanaku polity during

the first millennium A.D. We believed that the administrative innovations of Tiwanaku elites allowed the transporta-tion of rich minerals from places such as Tarapacá to the Titicaca Basin in signifi-cant quantities and that these resources provided enough wealth to allow Tiwan-aku to spread its political and economic domination throughout the southern An-des. We were wrong. Of more than 5,000 ceramic sherds collected in our extensive survey, only 3 may have been Tiwanaku. Not only was there no evidence for Tiwan-aku at Tarapacá, there was little evidence for contact with the highlands at all prior to the Late Intermediate period (ca A.D. 1000).

So what is going on? Like you, we were scratching our heads. The literature sug-gests that a huge polity, likely a chiefdom,

Figure 1: Satellite image of Caserones.Figure 2 (below): Overview of TR 1024.

33 | Backdirt 2009

emerged at Tarapacá at the exact time en-vironmental conditions worsened dramat-ically throughout the Andes. It has been suggested that even as major civilizations collapsed elsewhere (Wari, Moche, Tiwan-aku) the extreme desert environment was supporting increased complexity and even the creation of a vast irrigation canal and field system.

These observations were difficult to accept. A more intensive examination of the literature revealed that this theory is based on dates extracted from ceramic fragments using thermoluminescence (TL) dating technology, a notoriously difficult technique with a wide margin of error. In addition, radiocarbon dates collected from Caserones in the 1960s suggested occupation between A.D. 500 and 1000. But the context of the dated materials was lost and it is impossible to know what was dated exactly.

Thus, the 2008 season was dedicated to solving the chronological sequence. We focused our efforts on two different locations. The first was the careful strati-graphic excavation of a site previously identified by the 1967 Chile–California expedition and by our own survey. The 1024 site (also known as TR 13) is of very similar architecture to Caserones, lies only 3 km to its north, and includes three different architectural styles (see Figure 2).

We excavated eight different units at the sites, carefully documenting the different layers and extracting well-pre-served organic samples for radiocarbon analysis (see Figure 3). Our second effort was focused on the large irrigation canal originating at the mouth of Tarapacá and ending at a very complex field system

almost 7 km to its south (see Figure 4). We excavated three different cuts of the canal, collecting organic samples from its construction layers and observing heavy microstratigraphy at the canal bed. It is clear that water flowed at the canal multiple times, which likely indicates an extended period of use.

At the time of this writing, our radio-carbon samples are still being processed for export permit by the Chilean authori-ties. We are still unable to offer results and address the chronological problem. However, ceramics recovered from the lower layers at 1024 and the irrigation canal are of the same style as those found at Caserones. It seems that all three loca-tions are contemporaneous and therefore built when Caserones reached its zenith. If confirmed by our radiocarbon results, this will make a lot of sense.

As rainfall increased almost 20% over time across the Andes, larger amounts of surplus crops were produced—which supported and strengthened an ever-in-creasing elite. State-level societies emerged across the Andes, with Tiwanaku the southern manifestation of such increased complexity. Increased rainfall allowed local residents of Tarapacá to expand their subsistence activities, which led to the cre-ation of larger sedentary sites. Local social complexity evolved into a large chiefdom, and when caravans of Tiwanaku merchants traveled into the valley its inhabitants (hav-ing become more locally centrist) began to reject Tiwanaku merchant wares and ideas.

Similar to the rejection of Hellenistic ideas spread in the ancient Near East prior to Alexander the Great, some com-munities chose to resist and protect local

identities and traditions. Caserones was built as a response to the threat from the highlands, with a large public building at its center symbolizing its vast area of influence. It became the center of the Pica-Tarapacá culture and thrived by engag-ing in the large-scale public works (the canal and fields) that led to a phenomenal increase in food production.

However, the Tarapacá Valley was impacted by climate changes that under-mined the subsistence and growth—and thus the scope and influence—of the major civilizations of the Andes. The large, unified, and proud cultural tra-dition of Pica-Tarapacá collapsed and endemic violence and war over very scarce resources ensued. Kin-based small groups abandoned Caserones and its large irriga-tion project and moved upriver, where accessible water was still available. Even there, competition for water and other re-sources was fierce—and thus settlements were highly fortified and well protected to guard against threat of violence.

The interpretations presented here are far from our initial assumptions of the cul-tural evolution at the Tarapacá Valley. Not for the first time, the data recovered from actual archaeological investigation forced archaeologists to dramatically alter pre-conceived ideas—but precisely these types of intellectual challenges are what make archaeology so fascinating and intriguing to scholars and the public worldwide.

ran boytner is director of internation-al research and a research associate at

the cotsen institute.

Figure 5: Satellite image of irrigation canal and agricultural fields. Image by H. Barnard.

Figure 3: Excavations at TR 1024. Image by Ran Boytner

Figure 4: Excavations of the irrigation canals. Image by H. Barnard.

34 | Backdirt 2009

THE 2008 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE JAFFA CULTURAL HERITAGE PROJECTBY AARON BURKE

THE JAFFA CULTURAL HERITAGE PROJECT(JCHP), which was founded in early 2007 by its co-directors Aaron Burke, Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures (NELC) at UCLA, and Martin Peilstöcker of the Israel Antiquities Authority has completed its second full year of activity. The activities of the JCHP in 2008 included work on the first volume of the JCHP series as well as on the publication of Jacob and Haya Kaplan’s excavations (1955–1981), the initiation of research excavations on the mound, and continued work on the publication of the Ganor Compound and Qishle excavations, which ended in 2007. Post-season work continued during the 2008/2009 academic year on publication and computer modeling of its remains.

2008 Field Season

Excavations, under the supervision of Kyle Keimer and George Pierce (NELC Department graduate students), were conducted during four weeks in July of 2008 focusing on work within the Visitor’s

Center in Qedumim Square. At the start of the season, our goal was to undertake a deep sound-ing within the lowest levels of Area C—Kaplan’s excavation area that is now enclosed within the Visitor’s Center. Upon closer assessment of the area and reflection upon references in Kaplan’s prelimi-nary reports, we felt that it would be necessary first to clarify further the remains of what was conse-quently revealed by our work to be a well-preserved structure in Area C, which Kaplan had dated to the third century B.C.E.

We were able to open four probes to explore this structure, which revealed that the structure is far more substantial than Kaplan ever realized—actu-ally underlying the entire excavation area. Our efforts focused on the first probe, which traced the north wall of the central room to the west until the west wall (which had never been excavated) was exposed. The probe was dug down more than 2 m and eventually reached the bottom of the ashlar masonry walls in this corner (see reconstruction in the image below).

Plan of Jaffa showing loca-tion of Kaplan excavation areas (by George Pierce).

35 | Backdirt 2009

These walls (probably of Hellenistic date, as indicated by Kaplan) rest upon an earlier, possibly Persian-period, wall of slightly different orientation but that clearly served as the foundation for the ashlar wall. Traces of the plaster floor in this room were detected below the mass of early Roman fill, including abundant ceramics used to backfill this room.

Kaplan Publication Project

Most of our publication efforts were invested in the preparation of a collection of 26 studies for the first volume of the JCHP series for submission in late 2008. However, considerable work was also invested in preparation for the publication of Jacob Kaplan’s excavations, which is now being funded by the Shelby White–Leon Levy Program for Archaeologi-cal Publications. Analysis and ceramic readings of the excavated remains from Areas B, D, G, and F were completed in the field—and pottery readings for Area A, which were initiated, were completed for the early seasons (1955–1958). Members of the JCHP team also continued the creation of a digital archive of materials needed for the publication project.

These electronic resources are now available to all team members via the Online Cultural Heri-tage Research Environment (OCHRE) developed by David and Sandra Schloen of the University of Chicago. This data entry work continued in the fall of 2008 with the hiring of undergraduate and graduate students. The goal is the completion of the basic data entry, including links to all electronic re-sources (i.e., photographs, drawings, and museum records), by the spring of 2009—before returning to the field for a resumption of analysis of these materials.

Virtual Reality Modeling 2008

With the assistance of Robert Cargill, a recent NELC graduate at UCLA, work was also begun during September and October of 2008 on a virtual reality model of the Hellenistic structure that was partially exposed by Kaplan in Area C during his 1965 excavations and (as mentioned previously) was the focus of our excavations in 2008. This work was funded by the Kershaw Chair of Ancient Eastern

Mediterranean Studies, which is currently held by William Schniedewind in the NELC Department.

A number of reasons made this structure the best starting point for virtual reality modeling efforts in Jaffa. First, this area consists of a well-pre-served structure—the walls of which can be traced over much of the area. Second, a large assemblage of Hellenistic wares is available from the Kaplan collection that can be accessed, scanned or mod-eled, and included within the model of this build-ing. Third, because the area is already enclosed within the Visitor’s Center it presents a unique opportunity for improving the presentation of ar-chaeological finds at Jaffa and thereby demonstrat-ing the potential for investment in modeling efforts. Finally, the area is also a good choice because of the planned excavations for 2009 and 2010 that will permit us to integrate our findings with the model as it continues to develop.

Summary

The second year of work by members of the JCHP established a new milestone for the project. The renewal of research excavations at the site in Area C and combined work toward publication of older excavations provide the project with a firm foun-dation for continued progress toward its primary objectives: research, publication, presentation, and conservation of Jaffa’s cultural heritage. The support of the Cotsen Institute and the Israel Antiquities Authority will ensure the longevity of the project as it continues to attempt to meet the challenges posed by an archaeological project in a city undergoing urban renewal.

aaron burke is assistant professor of archaeol-ogy of ancient israel and the levant at ucla.

Virtual reality model by Robert Cargill of Hellenis-tic structure in Area C.

36 | Backdirt 2009

PAMBAMARCA AND UCLA FIELD PROGRAM STUDENTS:

BY SAMUEL CONNEL AND CHAD GIFFORD

WE ARE THRILLED to highlight our relationship with the Cotsen Institute, which has supported our archaeology field school in the northern highlands of Ecuador since 2002. The most valuable aspect of this relationship is easy to summarize: with the Institute’s support we have been able to develop and implement a new model for field school education. In short, we ask every student who joins the Pambamarca Archaeology Project (PAP) through the UCLA Archaeology Field Program to pursue original re-search of some type that focuses on the Pambamarca region—home to the largest pre-Columbian fortress complex in the New World. What began as a small field school in 2002 has blossomed over the years into an incredibly diverse and successful endeavor, with more than 60 students, staff, and volunteers in 2008, including many from Ecuador.

Because of this requirement that each student pursue original research, the greatest moments of each field season inevitably occur when students step into the unknown world of Ecuadorian ar-chaeology and begin to think like scientists. In the early years, students tended to focus on low-impact ethnoarchaeology research, but as we recognized the value of engaging students directly in the research process we have encouraged students in

A match made in the Ecuadorian Andes

recent years to tackle larger questions involving significant amounts of data coming out of the field and into the lab. By design, then, our field program has evolved into a teaching-focused research project involving students in many levels of decision mak-ing and analysis.

What does this look like in practice? For start-ers, we are always pleased that many of the students arrive on the project with their own research ques-tions already formed—having read through much of the relevant literature. In these cases, our task as project directors on the project is simple: encourage the students to complete “micro research projects” on subjects tailored to their interests. Thus was born the central pillar of our academic program.

Obviously, the demands on the project direc-tors and staff are significant—as each student needs to be carefully supervised and monitored. Basic research scheduling is therefore often the most important first step: each student needs to set aside time every day and every week to conduct investi-gation and analysis. Like any scientist, they have to think about the research design, logistics, feasi-

Left: Looking west from Quitoloma across the basin of Quito.

Right: Dancing during las Fiestas del San Pedro y San Pablo.

37 | Backdirt 2009

bility, and implications of their project. During the early weeks on the project, most students spend time executing their research plan. During the later weeks, more and more turn in long hours in the lab trying to amass and analyze as much data as possible. Their final reports are then written when they return home. They have approximately a month to finalize the report and hand it in, often bringing in outside sources and data from library research at their home institution.

The results have been impressive. In re-cent years, we have had papers submitted on a wide range of topics—including Inca roads, ground-penetrating radar, tactics in warfare, GIS viewshed analysis, obsid-ian studies, weaponry, pottery, human remains, and more. This past summer, some projects expanded into the use of contacts with the Banco Central Museum in Quito, where students built on com-parative collections. Currently, we have three home-grown Ph.D-track students working on the project, two M.A. theses, and countless honors projects for institu-tions worldwide. For the first time, many of these students have also presented their research at professional meetings, which has allowed them to gain professional experience to complement their academic pursuits.

We feel this teaching model has been a success because it keeps everything fresh each field season. It can also help drive the overall research of the project, provide new ideas, attract smart students, create good work, help to organize mate-rial quickly as it comes to the lab and is washed, and provide much of the pre-liminary analysis that should be required

in order to complete a field season. That is how it helps the project. But it also helps the students, who are part of a new generation that is thirsty for meaningful research. We have amazing return rates, with many students coming back to be staff members. Students who have shown the motivation to return to archaeology for a second summer are the future of our field.

In subsequent years, these staff members take on expanded leadership roles. At times, we feel that training new staff members can become even more time consuming than research—yet the rewards are immeasurable, with a built-in staff ready to contribute in the years to come with knowledge of the system (from everything to do with housing and food to the artifact provenience string). So, even if they are not destined to be archaeologists in the end the leadership experience our students take with them becomes another critical part of our program.

When students are allowed to take more of an ownership stake in a project, good things happen. We take the best pa-pers and incorporate them into our own informes (reports) and promote presen-tations at conferences. For a look at the results, check out the PAP session at the Society for American Archaeology meet-ing in Atlanta in 2009! In our experience, field programs that have moved away from seeing students as nothing more than a paying labor force have produced the best results. We take as a pathbreak-ing model the Naco Valley Project run by Ed Schortman and Patricia Urban from Kenyon College. This single program has produced an unimaginable number of

scholars who are working in archaeol-ogy, including the senior author and our relatively recent Ph.Ds Andy Kindon and Chris Attarian (to name a few UCLA graduates).

Tom Wake, Director of the zooarchae-ology lab, and Jeanne Arnold, Professor of Anthropology have successful labs at the Cotsen Institute because they pro-vide a similar model for undergraduate education that is critical to its long-term success. We know that the UCLA Ar-chaeology Field Program is a great way to continue doing this, but we want to put in a plug for other projects to try the same model. If you are running a program, con-sider expanding the role of your students. They have more to offer than you origi-nally could have imagined.

Our summer program will run from June 21 – July 25, 2009, in Ecuador. The senior author also begins a program investigating the Maya site of Aguacate in Belize, employing the same teaching model, from June 26 – August 29, 2009.

sam connell is assistant professor of

anthropology at foothill college and

a research associate at the cotsen insti-tute. chad gifford is a dean at columbia

university.

The entrance to Quitoloma (reconsolidation by Rudy Larios and Ana Coronado).

Laying out a unit.

38 | Backdirt 2009

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GENOA, Italy, I had the pleasure and privilege of welcoming almost two dozen archaeologists and archaeological scientists to “Scaloria Day” on October 24, 2008. The event was organized by Eugenia Isetti and Antonella Traverso of the Instituto Arkeologica Sperimentale and cosponsored by the Cotsen Institute. Scaloria Day 2008 was the culmination of a collaboration I initiated two years ago with Drs. Santo Tiné, John Robb, Isetti and Traverso with the express goal of gathering and organizing all data from previous excavations at Scaloria between 1932 and 1979 and applying new approaches and/or scientific technol-ogies never dreamed of during these earlier Grotta explorations. Our goal: publication of a scholarly monograph, various articles for Italian and English journals, and design of a web site in English and Italian.

Scaloria, in southeast Puglia, is a double-chambered prehistoric cave (carbon-14 dated to ca. 6000–5000 B.C.) of great interest to scholars and students because it was heavily used for burial and other types of ritual. It is an especially rich (see fig-ures) and evocative “site” with considerable appeal to the public at large. However, its finds have never been fully documented or published. The Cotsen

GROTTA SCALORIA IN GENOA WITH AN INTERNATIONAL CASTBY ERNESTINE S. ELSTER

Institute is historically involved in Grotta Scaloria because the last official excavation (1978/79) had been organized by one of UCLA’s archaeologists, the late Marija Gimbutas (jointly with Santo Tiné). Their collaboration ceased after the 1980 study season, and the only publication is a preliminary report by the 1978 season field supervisors the late Dr. Shan Winn and Dr. Dan Shimabuku (now a member of our Scaloria team).

Years later, Robb (who has long had a research excavation in Calabria) reminded me of my re-sponsibility to Scaloria (I was the only member of the excavation still at UCLA)—and together we brought the unique quality of the Grotta to the attention of Chip Stanish, Cotsen Institute Direc-tor. By then, we could outline the commitment of Tiné, Isetti, and Traverso and our plans to involve collaborators.

In 2006, Professor Stanish approved a Cotsen Institute pilot grant used to evaluate the viability of the Scaloria Project—and in the spring of 2008 I received a National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Grant to support the participation of an international group of scholars whose input would bring to conclusion the full publication of Grotta Scaloria. In addition, John Robb recently an-

Left: “Impresso” sherd with perfora-tion; context: burial 11, Early Scaloria.

Right: Pottery sherd, red paint on rose base; “Passo di Cor-vo” Lower Scaloria. All photos courtesy of Ernestine Elster and Linda Mount-Williams.

39 | Backdirt 2009

nounced that the Oxford Radiocarbon laboratory has agreed to test another 19 samples. These awards underscore our peers’ recognition of the impor-tance of the cave and its publication.

Tiné, Isetti, and Traverso (Genoa)—along with Robb (Cambridge) and myself—have been able to involve collaborators from Italy, Hungary, England, and the United States. The majority of Scaloria Day PowerPoint presentations were in Italian, but each contribution was also projected in English on the screen along with the images. Presentations covered paleobotany; lithic and bone technology and typology; paleoanthropology; paleozoology; pottery technology and typology from the upper and lower chambers; cave geology, geomorphology, and micromorphology; and the history of the cave’s excavations. The scholars represented the following universities: UCLA, Genoa, Lecce, Rome, Florence, Milan, Budapest, London, and Cambridge. Muse-ums represented included Manfredonia, Taranto, and Liguria. Scaloria Day, held in an ancient Geno-vese palazzo, was an extraordinary and exhilarat-ing event for all.

The site of Scaloria is an example of an old archaeological problem: many excavations go for-ward, but tragically many are never published. This is tragic because a great effort has been expended in terms of time, thought, planning, work, and funds only to result in unavailable information. Care-fully packed boxes and shelved artifacts archived in storage are important, but as materials age access is compromised. We need the careful documenta-tion that print and electronic publication provides.

The Cotsen Institute has a commitment to urge our discipline to deal with this situation.

Last year the Cotsen Institute and the UCLA/Getty Master's Program in the Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials cohosted an international conference at UCLA on the conservation, storage, preservation, and access of archaeological materials. I had the honor of opening the conference on the issue of “publication as access” and used Scaloria as one example of the Cotsen Institute’s commitment to aging research, which for any number of reasons had been left behind. As it happens, a number of other research-ers here at UCLA are involved in “rescuing” aging excavations. All of these are listed in the forthcom-ing eScholarship publication of the Preservation and Access of Archaeological Materials conference.

And as for Scaloria, we ended the meeting in Ge-noa thanking the participants and providing them each with a timetable for manuscript presentation. I hope to include some abstracts from these manu-scripts in my next report for Backdirt. Stay tuned!

ernestine s. elster is a research associate at the

cotsen institute.

Left: Pottery sherds; rose base painted in red and black; Late Scaloria.

Right: Burial in situ, upper chamber, with arms raised.

40 | Backdirt 2009

ARCHAEOLOGICAL GERRYMANDERING: THE POWER AND PITFALLS OF GIS BY MICHAEL J. HARROWER

DURING AND SINCE THE 1990s, applica-tions of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in archaeology have expanded dramatically. Alongside analysis of lithics, ceramics, faunal, and archaeo-botanical remains, GIS has rapidly become a new disciplinary speciality. The utility of GIS lies not only in the importance of spatial perspectives—as long ago reflected in the term spatial archaeology (Clarke 1977)—but in related increased access to satellite imagery, Global Positioning System (GPS) mapping technologies, and the multiscalar nature of spatial perspectives offered by computer map-ping software.

The rapid rise of Google Earth as a tool of archaeologists dem-onstrates the value of computer mapping (Ur 2006), yet Google Earth’s ease of use is perhaps only matched by its inherent unreli-ability as a “wiki” application to which any user can add content. New iterations of Google Earth and other online and offline computer mapping applications will undoubtedly help archaeologists slice and dice spatial data in an exciting variety of new ways. However, these opportunities require caution, and perhaps a warning label that is missing in the recent first generation of GIS-in-archaeology textbooks.

Issues of scale and the definition space and objects in GIS present some important yet incon-spicuous pitfalls, among them those described by Openshaw (1983) as the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP). The MAUP describes a type or category of capricious analytical results that occur because of discretionary (or arbitrary) data aggre-gation, categorization, and scale choices (Openshaw and Taylor 1979). Indeed, problems encountered when aggregating or categorizing observations into areal units of different shapes and sizes (and therefore manipulating spatial scale) were identified by geographers as early as the 1930s but were never recognized as a collective problem nor explicitly addressed.

Similarly, the significance of the MAUP for archaeological spatial analyses has been mentioned (e.g., Kvamme 1990:269; Lock and Harris 2000:xx-xxi; and McCorriston and Harrower 2005)—in-cluding amid wider discussion of scale issues

(Harris 2006; Lock and Molyneaux 2006). However, MAUP has yet to be examined in detail. Although a more extensive treatment is certainly warranted, this short contribution briefly draws attention to scale, categorization, and spatial aggregation issues related to the MAUP.

The political phenomenon known as gerryman-dering can help illustrate the importance of the MAUP and associated pitfalls exasperated by GIS. The term gerrymandering was coined by the Boston Globe in 1812 to describe spatial manipulation of constituency boundaries to gain inappropriate

electoral advantage. By redrawing electoral districts to include or ex-clude particular groups of voters, politically motivated mapmakers can dramatically alter (even virtu-ally engineer) election outcomes. The impacts of size and shape in the delineation of areal units—in this case often long, sinuous, and meandering electoral districts—can be relatively easily over-looked. The Redistricting Game

created by the University of Southern California, Annenberg School (www.redistrictinggame.com)—produced to illustrate the influences of gerryman-dering—strikingly (and entertainingly) exemplifies the malleability of election results when the same voters are regrouped in districts of different shapes and sizes.

What is the significance of such spatial mallea-bility in archaeology? Archaeologists are constantly making discretionary or arbitrary choices in defin-ing and delineating spatial phenomena. Choosing a survey area and defining particular areas as sites during survey; selecting the size, shape, and depth of excavation units; and determining the number and defining the range of slope, landcover, and drainage network categories can all have dramatic effects on the outcomes of archaeological analyses. Unfortunately, there are no simple solutions to the MAUPand plasticity is often compounded when conducting multivariate statistical analyses (Foth-eringham and Wong 1991) or categorizing multiple overlapping map data layers in GIS.

The spatial malleability of results, however, is not merely an encumbrance, but probably just as importantly can be an important source of insight

Google Earth’s ease of use is perhaps only matched by its inherent unreliability as a “wiki” application to which any user can add content.

41 | Backdirt 2009

and information. Just as modern correlations be-tween income and crime, for instance, can and do vary from the scale of the city block, census district, county, or state level (Openshaw 1983:10–12) so too can correlations between ancient variables ana-lyzed at different scales. Understanding how results change as a function of scale can yield critical new insights and multiscalar spatial understanding. Although archaeologists have recently recognized and begun to address the unique range of scalar is-sues that arise in archaeological applications of GIS, many (perhaps most) of the power and pitfalls of spatial analyses in archaeology—including poten-tial instances of accidental archaeological gerry-mandering—remain to be explored.

References:

Clarke, David. L.1977 Spatial Archaeology. Academic Press, London.

Fotheringham, A. Stewart, and D.W.S. Wong1991 The Modifiable Areal Unit Problem in Multivariate Statistical Analysis.Environment and Planning 23:1025–1044.

Harris, Trevor2006 Scale as Artifact: GIS, Ecological Fallacy, and Archaeological Analysis. In Confronting Scale in Archaeology: Issues of Theory and Practice, edited by Gary R. Lock and Brian L. Molyneaux, pp. 39–54. Springer, New York.

Kvamme, Kenneth1990 The Fundamental Principles and Prac-tice of Predictive Archaeological Modelling. In Mathematics and Information Science in Archaeology, edited by A. Voorrips, pp. 257–295. Holos-Verlag, Bonn.

Lock, Gary R., and Trevor Harris2000 Introduction: Return to Ravello. In Be-yond the Map: Archaeology and Spatial Tech-nologies, edited by Gary R. Lock, pp. xiii–xxv. IOS Press, Amsterdam.

Lock, Gary R., and Brian L. Molyneaux (editors)2006 Confronting Scale in Archaeology: Is-sues of Theory and Practice. Springer, New York.

McCorriston, Joy, and Michael Harrower2005 Annales History, Geographic Informa-tion Systems, and the Analysis of Landscape in Hadramawt, Yemen. In Temps et Espaces de l’Homme en Société: Analyses et Modèles Spatiaux en Archéologies, edited by J.-F. Berger, F. Bertoncello, F. Braemer, G. Dav-tian, and M. Gazenbeek, pp. 31–41. Éditions APDCA, Antibes.

Openshaw, Stan1983 The Modifiable Areal Unit Problem. Geo Books, Norwich, U.K.

Openshaw, Stan, and P. J. Taylor1979 A Million or So Correlation Coefficients: Three Experiments on the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem. In Statistical Methods in the Spatial Sciences, edited by N. Wrigley, pp. 127–144. Pion, London.

Ur, Jason A.2006 Google Earth and Archaeology. Society for American Archaeology: Archaeological Record 6(3):35–38.

michael harrower is a cotsen postdoctoral

fellow at the cotsen institute.

42 | Backdirt 2009

BYZANTINE ART IN THE MAKING

BY IOANNA KAKOULLI AND CHRISTIAN FISCHER

“...may I arrive in Cyprus, the island of Aphrodite,

where the heart-healing Erotesare mixing with the mortals,

in Paphos where the hundred-mouthedravines of the barbarous river

without rain bear fruit...” [Vakhai: 402–408]

—Euripides

THE ENKLEISTRA OF ST. NEOPHYTOSresearch project supports the development and application of an innovative multidisciplinary ap-proach in the interface of science and art history toward the study and interpretation of important twelfth-century wall paintings (see Figure 1) in the Enkleistra (the place for reclusion) of St. Neophytos in Paphos—in the context of Byzantine painting tradition and practices in Cyprus and other places of the Byzantine empire.

The goals of the project are to put forward hypotheses about the significance of technical

findings in understanding the relationship between stylistic patterning and technological production in the context of the religious and social structure of monastic communities in the twelfth century in Cyprus immediately prior to the Latin occupa-tion, to make a full technical stylistic analysis of the paintings of the Enkleistra in relation to other twelfth-century paintings in Cyprus1, to identify patterns of trade and intercultural exchanges with the capital and other parts of the Byzantine empire, and to aid in the classification and attribution of ambiguously dated paintings in the Enkleistra (Mango and Hawkins 1966; Winfield 1970, 1971; Weyl-Carr and Morrocco 1991; Nicolaides 1996). Another aim of this research is to foster cutting-edge research using noninvasive technologies for the study of wall paintings in situ, where conven-tional methods of analysis requiring the consump-tion of samples to yield results may be limiting factors (Chiavari et al. 1999).

1 Paintings of the twelfth century in Cyprus are found in the painted churches of Asinou (1105/6), St. Chrysosto-mos (ca.1115 or slightly earlier), Lagoudera (1192), and Perachorio (ca.1160–1180). Closer stylistic comparisons to the St. Neophytos paintings in the Enkleistra are those at Lagoudera (Mango and Hawkins 1966).

Figure 1:Detail of the painting in the Bema depicting St. Neofytos among the archangels Michael and Gabriel, who hold him by the shoulders. An inscription explains the picture: “I fervently pray that I may indeed be en-rolled among the angels by virtue of my habit.”

A Study of the Wall Paintings at the Enkleistra of St. Neophytos, Cyprus

43 | Backdirt 2009

Paintings in the Enkleistra of St. Neophytos, Paphos, Cyprus

Among the most important Byzantine painting schemes in Cyprus is the mural decoration in the Enkleistra of St. Neo-phytos in Paphos (Mango and Hawkins 1966; Stylianou and Stylianou 1985). The unusual rock-cut structure of the cell (Figure 2) and the unique surviving painting of high artistic quality impress visitors, pilgrims, and scholars.

According to written testimonies, the Enkleistra (Figure 3) was painted in 1183 by Theodore Apseudes2—whereas the final phase of the paintings (mainly in the Naos) has been identified as work done after about 1196. The caves are all covered with wall paintings (Mango and Hawkins 1966), which were restored in 1503 by another monk of Neophytos (but this intervention is visible mainly in the Naos and the Bema). There are important stylistic differences between the earlier and later wall-painting schemes of the twelfth century. Whereas the earlier style is characterized by a rococo-like style of painting that appears to have evolved in Constantinople in the last quarter of the twelfth century (Figure 4), the later style is more austere and could be characterized as “monastic” or “Comnenian provincial” (or “linear”) (Figure 5; Mango and Hawkins 1966).

2 The fact that Apseudes was familiar with the newest Byzantine style of painting and that he signed his work suggests that he was not local but a metropolitan painter who was working in Cyprus at that time.

Methodology

This research takes a holistic approach to material culture studies. Its methodology takes the form of a comprehensive techni-cal study of the paintings that will include comparative data from in-situ scientific analyses by harnessing the analytical capabilities of a field ultraviolet/visible/near-infrared (UV/Vis/NIR) spectrometer covering a spectral range of 350 to 2,500 nm, combined with those of a handheld XRF (X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy) and multispectral imaging spectroscopy (Fischer and Kakoulli 2006). In coordi-nation with this work, research on art historical and technical literature and an-cient treatises on Byzantine and medieval painting techniques and materials will be brought to bear.

Preliminary Results

With the generous support by Dumbarton Oaks, a first visit to the site to conduct preliminary scientific investigations of the paintings using noninvasive technologies took place in September of 2008. During this phase, the research at the Enkleistra of St. Neophytos involved an introductory visual inspection of the paintings, photog-raphy of a few selected panels using dif-fuse tungsten light, spectral imaging, and preliminary spectroscopic measurements of paint layers from two of the painting schemes that were easily accessible (the 1183 and the post-1197 phase) using the UV/Vis/NIR spectrometer.

The aim of this exploratory phase was to establish the methodology for a poten-tial full-scale research on this important painting scheme of the twelfth century in Cyprus and to assess the feasibility of the methods and approaches for a holistic study.

In-situ noninvasive spectroscopic analysis using the UV/Vis/NIR spectrom-eter during the preliminary examination of the paintings in the Enkleistra showed very promising results with the identifica-tion of lazurite—the main component of lapis lazuli (possibly imported in Cyprus from Afghanistan through Constanti-nople)—red ochre, and other natural pigments (Figure 6). Of significant impor-tance was the detection (using portable instrumentation) of organic materials often difficult to identify even with highly sophisticated analytical techniques (Chia-vari et al. 1999).

The organic spectral signature identi-fied could correspond to a surface protec-tive layer clearly visible in some areas (owing to its high gloss), which could be attributed to previous conservation treat-ments or to the original binding medium used to make the paint. Future detailed investigations will, however, address these questions. Discolorations of paint layers (especially those containing red pigments) are evident, and research will be carried out to identify the products and mecha-nisms of the alteration processes. Addi-tional data using multispectral imaging and XRF in forthcoming campaigns will enhance and complement these results.

Figure 2 (left): Context view of the Enkleistra of St. Neophytos in Paphos.Figure 3 (above): Plan of the Enkleistra of St. Neophytos showing the caves: the Naos, Bema, and Cell with the tomb of the saint (from Mango and Hawkins 1966).

44 | Backdirt 2009

spectra of original paint layers that can be used as a standard library that will provide scholars interested in technical studies of wall paintings the capability to differentiate and identify paint variability by comparing the unknown reflectance spectra to a variety of standard samples. This database will be available through a dedicated web site.

The proposed project will further assist in the development and use of nonin-vasive and nondestructive techniques capable of investigating the surface or the bulk of an artifact in a manner that has statistical significance and that can accommodate studies of the processes of deterioration even when a slow rate of change is involved. Owing to the multi-disciplinary nature of this research, the results will be published in peer-reviewed scientific journals as well as in special-ized volumes of Byzantine studies. The project also promotes multidisciplinary approaches and cross-discipline collabo-ration of scholars from different fields, ranging from the natural sciences to the humanities and social sciences.

ioanna kakoulli is assistant professor

in the ucla department of materials

science and the ucla/getty conservation

program. christian fischer is a cotsen

institute research associate.

References:

Vakhai by Euripides, http://www.enos-tos.net/cdrom/aphrodite.html

Chiavari, Giuseppe., Daniele Fabbri, Silvia Prati, Rocco Mazzeo, Dimitrios Bikiaris, Sister Daniilia, et al.1999 Analytical Pyrolysis: Application to the Chemical Characterisation of Byzantine Painting Layers. Proceed-ings of the 6th International Confer-ence on Nondestructive Testing and Microanalysis for the Diagnostics and Conservation of the Cultural and Environmental Heritage Vol. 2, pp. 1147–1162.

Sister Daniilia , Elpida Minopoulou, Fr. Demosthenes Demosthenous, and Georgios Karagiannis2008 A Comparative Study of Wall Paintings at the Cypriot Monastery of Christ Antiphonitis: One artist or two? Journal of Archaeological Science 35:1695–1707.

Dionysius of Fourna1974 Hermeneia: The Painter’s Manu-al of Dionysius of Fourna. Translated by Paul Hetherington. [publisher], London.

Major Contribution of the Project

Whereas previous studies of the tech-niques of Cypriot wall paintings have concentrated on the relatively late (fifteenth and sixteenth centuries) paint-ings of Askas (Howard 1992; Kakoulli 1994; Frieden 1997), on those (eighteenth century) of Monagri, and on those (late fifteenth century) of the monastery of Christ Antiphonitis (Sister Daniilia et al. 2008)—with the only exception that of the recent study of the contemporary Byz-antine paintings at the church of Virgin Phorviotissa at Asinou (Kakoulli et al., forthcoming)—the study of the paintings in the Enkleistra of St. Neophytos will be focused on the more important but less well studied period of the late twelfth century.

The technical study of the paintings in the Enkleistra of St. Neophytos at Paphos is therefore critical to an understanding of the native artistic traditions (Dionysius of Fourna 1974) that survived the end of the eleventh century in Cyprus and the direct (with the influx of painters) and indirect (through Palestine and Asia Minor) influ-ence from the capital in the twelfth century.

Part of the deliverables of this study is the development of a spectral library of UV/VNIR reflectance and fluorescence

Figure 4 (left): Painting in the Bema of St. Neophytos dated to the 1183 painting phase and characterized by the rococo-like style developed in Constantinople.

Figure 5 (right): Painting in the Nave of the Enkeistra dated to the 1196/7 phase and characterized by the austere “monastic” or “Comnenian provincial” style.

45 | Backdirt 2009

the Church of Asinou, Cyprus. In The Church of Asinou, edited by Annema-rie Carr and Andreas Nicolaides. Har-vard University Press, Cambridge.

Mango Cyril A., and Ernst J. W. Hawkins1966 The Hermitage of St. Neophy-tos and Its Wall Paintings. Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Harvard University Press, Washington, D.C Vol. 20, pp. 119–206.

Nicolaides, Andreas1996 L’église de la Panagia Arakio-tissa à Lagoudera, Chypre: Edute iconographique des fresques de 1192. Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Harvard University Press, Washington, D.C Vol. 50, pp. 383–395.

Schwartzbaum, Paul1986 Appendix 1 of Tokali Kilise: Tenth-century Metropolitan Art in By-zantine Cappadocia by Ann Wharton Epstein, Dumbarton Oaks Studies Vol. 22, pp. 52–59, Washington, D.C.

Stylianou, Andreas, and Judith Stylianou1985 The Painted Churches of Cyprus.[Trigraph Ltd.], London.

Weyl-Carr, Annemarie, and Laurence J. Morrocco1991 A Byzantine Masterpiece Recov-ered: The Thirteenth-century Murals of Lysi, Cyprus. [University of Texas Press], Austin, Texas.

Winfield, David C.1970 The Church of Panagia tou Arakos Lagoudera: First Preliminary Report. [with an appendix by Cyril Mango], Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Harvard University Press, Washington, D.C Vols. 23/24, pp. 377–380.

Winfield, David C.1971 Reports on Work at Monagri, Lagoudera, and Hagios Neophytos, Cyprus. Dumbarton Oaks Papers, Harvard University Press, Washington, D.C Vol. 25, pp. 259–264.

500 750 1000 1250 1500 1750 2000 2250 2500

Wavelength

Re�e

ctan

ce

0.05

0.10

0.15

0.20

0.25

0.30

Spectral DataLapis Lazuli (blue) and Red Ochre (red)

CW.000.sco CW.013.sco

Fischer, Christian, and Ioanna Kakoulli2006 Multispectral and Hyper-spectral Imaging Technologies in Conservation: Current Research and Potential Applications. Reviews in Conservation 7:3–16.

Frieden Vanessa1997 The wall paintings of the church of Agios Ioannis Prodhromos, Askas, Cyprus: a technical study. Diploma dissertation,Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London 1997.

Howard, Helen1992 Church of Archangel Michael, Monagri, Cyprus: Scientific Examina-tion of the Wall Paintings. Unpub-lished report, Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London.

Kakoulli, Ioanna1994 Philaretos’ Akra Tapenoses at Monagri: Its Technique, Condition, and Cleaning on the Context of Late Byzantine Wall Paintings in Cyprus. Diploma dissertation, Courtauld Insti-tute of Art, University of London.

Kakoulli, Ioanna, Michael Schilling, and Joy Mazurek[Forthcoming] Techniques and Materials of Byzantine Paintings in

Figure 6: Characteristic reflectance spectral of lapis lazuli and red ochre, two mineral pig-ments used in the twelfth-century paintings of the Enkleistra of St. Neophytos. The spec-tra were taken using the portable UV/Vis/NIR spectrometer during the 2008 campaign.

46 | Backdirt 2009

THE PUKARA ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECTBY ELIZABETH KLARICH

THE LAKE TITICACA BASIN of Peru and Bolivia is not a place that inspires ambivalence. First-time visitors are either captivated by the vast frigid landscape and sparkling blue lake or experience the immediate urge to flee to warmer, oxygen-rich val-leys of lower elevations. My first trip to the region was in 1994, when Chip Stanish (then–Curator of South American Archaeology at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago) agreed to let me vol-unteer on his archaeological project in the town of Juli (Department of Puno), Peru. I have such vivid memories of arriving at sunrise to the airport in El Alto, which is located at 13,600 feet above sea level and overlooks the sprawling city of La Paz, Bolivia.

I stepped onto the runway and immediately felt like I had been kicked in the chest from the lack of oxygen and freezing cold temperature. Even the presence of machine-gun–toting Bolivian military personnel could not distract me from the early morning glow of the snowcapped mountain of Il-limani, a sacred peak that seemed to dwarf the city below. At that moment, standing on the runway to catch my breath and waking up from the overnight

flight, I knew that the altiplano (high plain) would be my research base and second home.

In the late 1990s, after working on a variety of projects in Peru and Bolivia, I began to explore topics for my dissertation research. I decided to excavate at Pukara, which is a well-known site nestled at the base of a massive pink sandstone outcrop in the northwestern Lake Titicaca Basin. Pukara was an early population center in the region during the Late Formative period (200 B.C.–A.D. 200), contemporaneous with the initial occupations at the famous Middle Horizon site of Tiwanaku—a neighbor to the southeast. At its largest extent, Pukara covered at least 1 km2, which included a central district of monumental stone constructions and an extensive peripheral area with evidence of commoner habitation and craft production. The material culture from Pukara is quite impressive—including beautiful polychrome and incised pottery in many forms, intricate stone sculpture, and a wide variety of bone tools for weaving, ingesting snuff, and other activities.

View of the Central District of Pukara, featuring the Qalasaya complex.

47 | Backdirt 2009

Were early Pukareños motivated by economic opportunity? Access to ritual activities? Fear of local conflict?

There have been a number of archaeological field projects at Pukara, but the site seems to be cursed when it comes to publication. Pukara first gained the attention of Peruvian scholars in the 1920s, was excavated in several areas by Alfred Kidder II of the Peabody Museum in 1939, was revisited for limited testing in the 1950s, and was the site of a multi-year restoration project by Plan Copesco (Peru’s branch of UNESCO) in the late 1970s. Fortunately, quite a bit of documentation from these projects is archived or available through scholars who have generously shared their field notes and drawings. Many of the artifacts are also stored in the local site muse-um—the Museo Lítico Pukara, located in the modern town of Pucará—and are available for future research projects.

Pukara will keep our re-search team busy for at least the next decade (if not for the rest of my career!). Due to its massive size, the variety of monumental constructions and occupation areas, and multiple occupations (it was reoccupied by the Colla during the Late Intermedi-ate period and the Inca during the Late Horizon) it has the potential to host a number of projects with distinct research goals. For example, my own re-search has explored changes in leadership strategies during the Late Formative—specifically through the study of public architecture in the central district.

We have also conducted a partial geophysical survey (2000) and a mobile GIS mapping project (2006) to define site boundaries and identify areas of subsurface occupations. Our next project, begin-ning in 2009, is directed at understanding the ini-tial reasons populations began to aggregate in Pu-kara. This will be done by tracking the timing and directionality of site growth. Were early Pukareños motivated by economic opportunity? Access to ritual activities? Fear of local conflict? These ques-tions will be explored through excavations both in the central district and on the site periphery, which

will be supervised by Luis Flores (my project codirector), a number of Peruvian colleagues, and me during July and August.

We have received a gener-ous International Collaborative Research Grant (ICRG) from the Wenner-Gren Foundation for An-thropological Research that will sponsor our excavations, analysis,

and artifact curation and will provide funds for an educational program at the local museum for Peruvian students and community members. Last, we will have the opportunity to train a number of undergraduate and graduate students through the UCLA Archaeology Field Program—which is an exciting opportunity to train the next genera-tion of Titicaca Basin specialists and supporters of archaeology.

elizabeth klarich is assistant director of the

cotsen institute. for more information about

the ucla archaeology field program, please visit

www.archaeology.ucla.edu or www.pukara.org.

Left: Excavations, 2001.

Right: Feline pottery fragments on surface, 2006.

48 | Backdirt 2009

RESTORING PROVENIENCE TO A NATIVE AMERICAN FEATHER BLANKETBY ELLEN PEARLSTEIN

CONSERVATION TECHNICAL STUDIES are commonly carried out to illuminate materials and methods of manufacture, and to assist in assigning provenience. However, technical studies are rarely used in support of post-Colonial museum goals of benefiting traditional owners and indigenous com-munities. A technical examination was conducted on an unprovenienced feather blanket purchased by the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum (ACCM) in Palm Springs, California. The presence of turkey feathers, yucca fiber cordage, human hair, associated botani-cals, and a documented twining technique indicate that the blanket is likely to derive from a prehistoric Southwest culture rather than from a specifically California culture—as originally believed.

The ability to correctly reattribute this blanket shifted its value from a rare and elaborate wearing blanket (McLendon 2001:133) to a child’s wear-ing blanket typically found in mortuary contexts associated with funerary material. This reattribu-tion changes not only conservation treatment and display but the disposition of this object in the museum’s collection.

Feather blankets under consideration are those in which cordage is made by wrapping vegetable fiber yarn with whole or split feathers or with strips of bird skin, capturing tufts of feathers between twined cords, or rolling feather down into cordage without plant fiber support. Ample literature exists about prehistoric fur and feather blankets from the Southwest, the majority of which were excavated in the first half of the twentieth century (Fewkes 1912:148; Hough 1914:71–73; Kidder and Guernsey 1919:174; Guernsey and Kidder 1921:65; Harrington 1930:116; Guernsey 1931; Harrington 1933:156–157; Haury 1950:fig. 93). A rich resource is provided by revival practices of contemporary Pueblo weavers who have studied and replicated feather blankets (Bellinger 1983).

Historical feather blankets from California have also been studied, and McLendon (2001:132) at-tributes the only 14 known examples to tribes in the north-central Sacramento River Valley. Prehistoric examples of feather blankets have been found as far west as Oregon and Nevada, but sites in California have not provided preservation of archaeological examples. Physical examination of the ACCM blan-ket and comparison with historic feather blankets from California indicate similarities and differ-ences in materials and construction methods.

Methods used in the study of the ACCM blanket include visual analysis of construction along with X-radiography and comparative microscopy of fibers, feathers, hair, and seeds to reveal aspects of manufacture. Morphological examination of fiber and hair materials, including the prepara-tion of surface and cross sections of fibers followed by viewing with polarized light microscopy and environmental scanning electron microscopy, was conducted for comparison with reference materials. Feathers and botanicals were examined by collabo-rating specialists.

The presence of turkey feathers on a leaf fiber from the Agave family, the method of wrapping the feathers on the fiber supports, and the presence of a human hair bundle distinguished the ACCM feather blanket as prehistoric Southwest rather than from California. Similarities exist between the open twining methods and the pre-loom supports documented in use in California (Kroeber 1929; McLendon 2001:143) and those postulated for the prehistoric Southwest (Kent 1983:116–117) and used by contemporary Pueblo revivalists (Bellinger 1983; personal communication with R. Sakiestewa November 3 2008).

Although the identification of materials and techniques is decisive in understanding the origin of an object, the differences in context are more important than the physical similarities when con-sidering museum stewardship. There are complex cultural differences between Pueblo and Califor-nia American Indian feather blankets. California feather blankets, currently found in both art and natural history museum displays, are valued as rare nineteenth-century examples of elaborate wearing blankets given as gifts to Europeans to confer status (McLendon 2001:133).

This contrasts sharply with prehistoric feather blankets from the Southwest that exist in history and natural history museum collections but are off display and largely inaccessible on web sites. While originally functional, Pueblo feather blankets have been found in human burials and have been requested for repatriation as associated funerary objects through the Native American Graves Pro-tection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Despite the similarity in materials and construction which suggests a historical connection, tribal California and Southwest feather blankets in museums require different approaches to management.

49 | Backdirt 2009

ellen pearlstein is assistant professor

of information studies at ucla and a

faculty member of the ucla/getty mas-ter’s program in archaeological and

ethnographic conservation.

References:

Bellinger, Cindy1983 Recreating the Anasazi Tur-key Feather Blanket. Written and produced by Cindy Bellinger, VHS, Southwest Productions, Los Alamos, N.M.

Fewkes, Jesse W.1912 Antiquities of the Upper Verde River and Walnut Creek Valleys, Arizo-na. 28th annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology,1906–1907, Washington, D.C.: 181-220

Guernsey, Samuel J.1931 Explorations in Northeastern Arizona: Report on the Archaeologi-cal Fieldwork of 1920–1923. Papers

of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 12, No. 1. Harvard University, Cambridge.

Guernsey, Samuel J., and Alfred V. Kidder1921 Basket-Maker Caves of North-eastern Arizona. Papers of the Pea-body Museum of American Archae-ology and Ethnology Vol. 8, No. 2. Harvard University, Cambridge.

Harrington, Mark R.1930 Paiute Cave. Southwest Museum Papers No. 4 part 4:106–126.

Harrington, Mark. R.1933 Gypsum Cave, Nevada. South-west Museum Papers No. 18.

Haury, Emil W.1950 The Stratigraphy and Archaeol-ogy of Ventana Cave, Arizona. Univer-sity of Arizona Press, Tucson.

Hough, Walter1914 Culture of the Ancient Pueblos of the Upper Gila River Region, New Mexico and Arizona. United States National Museum Bulletin 87. Smith-sonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Kent, Kate Peck1983 Prehistoric Textiles of the South-west. School of American Research, Santa Fe–University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

Kidder, Alfred V., and Guernsey, Samuel J.1919 Archeological Explorations in Northeastern Arizona. Bureau of American Ethnology Bulletin 65. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Kroeber, Alfred L.1929 The Valley Nisenan. University of California Publications in Ameri-can Archaeology and Ethnology Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 253–290. University of California Press, Berkeley.

McLendon, Sally2001 California Feather Blankets: Objects of Wealth and Status in Two Nineteenth-Century Worlds. In Stud-ies in American Indian Art: A Memori-al Tribute to Norman Feder, edited by C. Feest. European Review of Native American Studies (ERNAS) Mono-graph 2, pp. 132–161. Vienna, Austria.

The above article is excerpted from:Pearlstein, Ellen2009 Restoring Provenance to a Na-tive American Feather BlanketMuseum Management and Curator-ship, Vol.24, No. 2.

Upper left: Detail of the Agua Caliente feath-ered blanket. Photos courtesy of E. Pearlstein.

Upper right: Braided red border cord typically found on California feather blankets as sup-ports for wefts connected by half-hitch knots.

Middle left: X-radiograph image of the Agua Caliente blanket permits a clear image of the twined construction.

Middle right: Photomicrograph in which three orange fiber bundles directly above the scale are cross-sections of the plant fiber used as the support for the feathers. Crescent shape clusters are typical for yucca.

Lower left: Photomicrograph in which surface view of a fiber bundle indicates features con-sistent with yucca.

50 | Backdirt 2009

LOFKËND, ALBANIA: AFTER EXCAVATIONBY SARAH MORRIS AND JOHN PAPADOPOULOS

EXCAVATIONS AT THE BURIAL TUMULUSof Lofkënd in Albania concluded in 2007, when a team from the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology; the Institute of Archaeology, Albania; and the Interna-tional Center for Albanian Archaeology in Tirana reached grave 100 (see Backdirt 2008, pp. 36). Buri-als ranging in date from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age, along with a few recent interments, yielded 150 skeletons and 883 finds—including 17 whole pots. Grave goods also consisted of jewelry of bronze, iron, gold, bone, glass, semiprecious stone, and some iron weapons, as well as many fragments of ceramics, fired clay, and stone tools found in fill.

Once the final grave was removed, difficult tasks still faced us. First and foremost was the recon-struction of the tumulus, using selected soil com-ponents from its fill and new mud-bricks manufac-tured by our local workmen—a process completed in 2007 (see Backdirt 2008, pp. 36–37, and a fuller report in the September 2008 issue of Antiquity). In 2008, we experienced the satisfaction of seeing the site restored to its landscape and secured by nature’s own stabilizers—local weeds and plants—after a year’s interval (Figure 1).

Thus, the tumulus has regained its shape—and a local monument rejoins its original environment. Dr. Samantha Martin-McAuliffe of University College, Dublin, spent two seasons at the site as an expert in architecture and landscape—and Dr. John Foss joined us once more to complete his study on the soils of the region. Their reports will greatly enrich the final publication of the site.

Thanks to intensive work by our team of photog-raphers, conservators, and artists, all of the graves and most of their contents were registered, restored, drawn, and photographed by the end of the 2007 season. What remained was to find further joins among artifacts, especially ceramics, and to make connections across graves to trace the narrative his-tory of the tumulus. Seth Pevnick and Alda Agolli, Archaeology graduate students, collaborated on a ceramic typology of whole vessels and then worked closely with artists and conservators to restore pots from tumulus fill. They are responsible for publish-ing all pottery from the site, and their presentation of it at the January 2009 meeting of the Archaeo-logical Institute of America (AIA) received the best student poster award.

Objects of metal, bone, glass, and stone were catalogued by Rovena Kurti of the Institute of Archaeology in Tirana—and a typology was estab-lished by John Papadopoulos based on comparanda from Albania and its neighbors. Meanwhile, a catalog of tombs, their occupants, and archaeologi-cal content was assembled by Sarah Morris and Papadopoulos—with skeletal identifications made by Dr. Lynne Schepartz of Florida State University.

Papadopoulos’s arrangement of the burials into five chronological phases of cemetery use inspired a day-long session with our Albanian colleagues, Mu-zafer Korkuti and Skender Aliu, who have excavated many tumuli in Albania (Figure 2). Finally, Lyssa Stapleton, Archaeology graduate student, analyzed mortuary customs throughout the tumulus—for her M.A. paper and as a contribution to a chapter to be coauthored by Schepartz and Papadopoulos. As physical anthropologist for the project, Schepartz will publish a full analysis of the human remains.

Absolute chronology is crucial to anchoring our discoveries, and thanks to Brian Damiata, Research Associate at the Cotsen Institute, we initiated a comprehensive project for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dating of organic samples at the Keck Laboratory at UC-Irvine (UCI).

Figure 1: View of Lofkënd tumulus from the north, one year after reconstruction (2008).

1

51 | Backdirt 2009

Thirty-two samples yielded the first absolute dates for this area of the Balkans, from Bronze Age to Ottoman periods, including samples from Classical and Hellenistic cemeteries at the Greek colony of Apollonia. An article in preparation will present these groundbreaking scientific dates as a baseline for the chronology of ancient Illyria, and future research will apply stable-isotope ratios (extracted in the same UCI lab) toward a study of paleo-diet and subsistence strategies.

Soil samples were floated and sorted by our field school (Figure 4) and analyzed by Mac Marston (Archaeology Graduate Student), who will be publishing the few faunal remains (animal bones) along with the floral material. Two Greek experts on mollusks and fossils, Drs. Evi and Gior-gios Theodorou, examined our shell and geological finds for publication.

Perhaps the most exciting development of the past two summers was the expan-sion of the treatment of artifacts with the sophisticated analytic techniques brought to bear by Vanessa Muros, Staff Research Associate in the UCLA/Getty Master’s Program in the Conservation of Archaeo-logical and Ethnographic Materials. A portable handheld XRF unit brought from UCLA in 2007 yielded the first chemi-cal profiles of our metal and glass finds, followed by sampling of these finds in 2008 for ICPMS analysis in Los Angeles. This will link our copper alloy and glass/faience artifacts to those being analyzed

from other sites around the Mediter-ranean, and will inform us about prove-nience and manufacturing techniques of non-ceramic finds. Microphotography has also revealed a rich set of textile impres-sions preserved in corrosion products on iron pins and fibulae—the start of a promising research project on ancient textiles of the Balkan region. Muros will also prepare a full report on the conserva-tion and storage of Lofkënd artifacts for the final publication.

Since our first visit to the site in 2003, prehistoric stone tools dating much earlier than the burials have been prominent in surface collection and tumulus fill. Such finds are common at other tumuli in Albania, and were abundant in surface survey conducted around Apollonia by the University of Cincinnati and the Institute of Archaeology, Albania [Mallakastra Regional Archaeological Project (MRAP)]. What type of long-term history, and pre-history, shaped the landscape around the tumulus?

To obtain one answer to this question, since 2006 we have sought to expand our exploration of Lofkënd with a surface survey of the surrounding slopes and valley. We invited Jamie Aprile, Archaeol-ogy graduate student, to initiate such a project in 2007. The following summer, thanks to the Cotsen Institute’s portable GPS unit and the participation of our first field school in Albania, saw four weeks of intensive surface collection and process-

ing of finds covering more than 450 tracts of land. The Gjanica Valley emerges as an artifact-rich landscape in the Old Stone Age, with hundreds of stone tools—espe-cially of the Middle Paleolithic era. Aprile will publish the results of the survey, as well as the lithics from tumulus fill.

The ancient environment around the tumulus must have been heavily forested and rich in abundant game for Stone Age hunters exploiting the slopes above the river. Yet settlements (or even pot-tery sherds) of the Bronze or early Iron Age were rare, just as they were over five MRAP seasons—a challenge to our quest for occupation sites contemporary with the Lofkënd tumulus. However, the other plentiful category of tumulus fill was fired clay impressed with reeds and plants. The redeposition of this material points to substantial remains of wattle-and-daub architecture that once formed structures somewhere in the surrounding area.

For many team members, the most dif-ficult task lies ahead. Although prelimi-nary catalogs are in place and individual reports in progress, the stratigraphy, comparative analysis, and final interpre-tation lie in the hands of the excavation directors. Pulling it all together makes “postproduction” the most challenging as well as important stage in archaeological research, requiring prolonged study leave away from the field—in the library and on the computer, and in close communica-tion with our codirector in Tirana, Dr. Lorenc Bejko, who will visit the United States and the Cotsen Institute next year as the AIA Kress Lecturer. Our reward for many hours of writing and editing will be to publish a monograph with the Cotsen Institute devoted to the Lofkënd project.

sarah morris is steinmetz professor of

classical archaeology and material

culture at ucla. john papadopoulos is

professor of classics.

Figure 2: Team Lofkënd is all smiles after a hard day negotiating chronology (left to right: Seth Pevnick, Sarah Morris, Skender Aliu, John Papadopoulos, and Muzafer Korkuti).Figure 3: Jamie Aprile and field school stu-dents (Alison Adams and Serena Vartazarian) consult with Muzafer Korkuti on lithics found in the Lofkënd survey. Figure 4: Field school students Shauna Kull-mann and Eugen Ruzi floating soil samples.

2

3

4

52 | Backdirt 2009

Can we wipe out the past that we do not want to remember? Ancient Egyptians destroyed the cartouches of pharaohs, such as Akhnaten, considered unorthodox in religion.

RECONCILING WITH THE PAST

BY MERRICK POSNANSKY

IN RECENT YEARS archaeologists have begun to consider the impact of their work on public policy, on education, and on our feelings about our identi-ties and those of the communities we investigate. Many archaeologists are concerned about the ethics of their work. How important is our research for national identity? Tak-ing into consideration the cultural values of the areas where we work, how should we adjust our archaeologi-cal priorities? Archaeolo-gists are aware, as have been historians for many years, that there is an essential historiographical dimen-sion to our work.

We can only speak from our present dimension in time and space—a dimension colored by our own social, political, and cultural environment. Our vision of the past is shaped as much by that identity as by what we describe. We prioritize what we think is impor-tant. We are subjective in our interpretations even though we may strive to be objective in our tech-niques and approaches to the past.

Africanist archaeologists have had to justify excavating, interpreting, and integrating Imperial- and Colonial-era sites into the histories of newly independent countries. These sites are places that were clearly identifiable with conquerors who spoke different languages, followed diverse strange reli-gious practices, and possessed social and cultural identities very different from the people with whom they came into contact. This is not a new problem. It is only in the last few years that sites and the oral histories of indigenous Americans have been inte-grated into American history.

American history for many Americans had pre-viously meant the history of European settlement, beginning with either the Italian Christopher Co-lumbus or the Christians who sought a new society in what became known as New England. Recently I traveled in the Balkans, where the Ottoman Turks ruled for more than 300 years. When one visits national museums there is not even lip service given to that occupation, even though the minarets of mosques and unique styles of walling among national ruins vividly indicate their presence.

The Ottomans have been chosen to be forgotten in the same way that Lenin and Communist rule is seemingly “forgotten” in many eastern European countries. Can we wipe out the past that we do not want to remember? Ancient Egyptians destroyed the cartouches of pharaohs, such as Akhnaten, con-

sidered unorthodox in reli-gion. Although appealing to our patriotic and emotional feelings, the total destruc-tion of the monuments of Saddam Hussein fall into the same category. His regime existed. We cannot wipe out the memory with tanks and hawser wires.

The past is contested territory. In pre-1939

Europe, theories of racism and cultural superior-ity were intimately linked to specific populations, such as Aryans. In Africa, the monumental ruins of Zimbabwe were believed by popular historians and politicians to be the work of south Arabians (Sabaeans), Phoenicians, or Indians even though ar-chaeological evidence had from the early twentieth century indicated that they were the work of local populations. Ancient Egyptians, west Africans, and Chinese were credited with Olmec figures and central American ruins.

We now think of such conclusions as fringe archaeology in much the same way we regard pos-tulations about lost Atlantis, but at the time reputed scholars pressed the authenticity of what we now regard as impossible theories. In South Africa, it suited the Afrikaner rulers to teach that Black agricultural iron-working settlers in the Transvaal postdated their own seventeenth-century arrival at the Cape. This was at a time archaeologists were demonstrating that the Bantu agriculturalists preceded the white Boer farmers by at least a mil-lennium.

On the western coast of Africa, monuments from the era of the Atlantic slave trade (during which more than 12 million Africans were trans-ported to the Caribbean, Brazil, and North Ameri-ca) are now being contested. Fortified trading sites were relatively neglected in the early Independence days (pre-1965) as colonial relics and favored as regional prisons. They have now become places as-sociated with the spirits of the transported Afri-

53 | Backdirt 2009

Imperial sites cannot be fully legitimized as part of African history. They were clearly outposts of empire and as such comprise part of the archaeology of those empires.

cans. Shrines were established, and African visitors regarded them as “points of departure” special to their history of desperation and loss of identity.

Forgotten, in the case of Ghana (the old Gold Coast), was their original purpose as trading sta-tions—when they were established as a “frontier of opportunity” between the foreign traders and local people, who were often highly involved in the later slave trade.

The past of the people of present-day coastal Ghana is not as much honored by an outside public as the past of those Africans who were displaced from the Gold Coast during the Atlantic slave trade. Many of those so displaced came from areas quite far away from the actual sites from which they were shipped. It is the descendants of the slaves, whose ancestors may have come from other parts of west and west central Africa, who visit the forts in disproportionate numbers.

In Gorée, Senegal, an eighteenth-century struc-ture originally built as a merchant’s large town-house has been identified as La Maison des Esclavesand provided with a mythical identity as the point from which the largest number of Africans (num-bered in millions) were exported to what later be-came known as the U.S. History has been distorted by changing the use and identity of monuments as well as the numbers of individuals involved to suit the emotional needs of their visitors. An invented past has been shaped into a more acceptable part of the heritage of Africa.

Whereas forts and castles are easily identifiable monuments of the Atlantic slave trade on the west African coast, in east and central Africa little is known about the descendants of the slaves and thus there has been no comparable emo-tional interest in discovering their points of departure. This is not due to a deficiency in knowledge, because we know from written records that the slave trade flourished and was condemned by mis-sionaries such as David Liv-ingstone. Few of the slaves’ offspring visit ports such as Kilwa, from which many Africans were shipped. For this reason, there is no “shrine” complex at Kilwa. Slaves in great

numbers were also taken from southern Sudan and northern Uganda, the area of the Upper Nile, as recently as the last half of the nineteenth century—during which upward of 30,000 a year came into the great slave markets of places such as Khartoum.

For every slave sold, another eight or nine had been killed in raids (not dissimilar to the raids presently taking place in Darfur) or on the arduous journey by foot from the Upper to the Middle Nile area. Explorers such as Samuel Baker described the deleterious effects. Their descendants, mostly women and children, were absorbed into Arab clans and Islam and have lost the recollection from whence they came. These slaves were held in thorn

bush enclosures (zeribas) for up to three months just north of the Congo Nile watershed, awaiting caravans to the north. It is imperative that archaeologists locate such en-closures and excavate some of them so that we know more about the life of the slaves at the points of their departure.

The forts of the Upper Nile (such as Dufile) that I excavated in the winter of 2006 and 2007 were built by

officers (such as Charles Gordon, immortalized in the film Khartoum) of the then-Egyptian Govern-ment—subsidized by Great Britain, the superpower

Ugandan students excavating a Belgian building at Dufile. Photo courtesy of Merrick Posnansky.

54 | Backdirt 2009

of the time. One of their principal functions was to stem the nefarious slave trade from Uganda and southern Sudan. The system collapsed with the rise of the Mahdi, who seized control of the Sudan. Henry Morton Stanley led an expedition from 1887 to 1889 to relieve Gordon Pasha’s successor Emin Pasha, who had managed to hold onto the most southerly forts. These forts were not like those on the west coast (built as trading stations with only a handful of soldiers in each) but were substantial military stations, often housing up to a thousand troops and conducting farming in surrounding areas.

Dufile covered more than 11 acres and had sur-rounding banks and ditches that were probably at least 18 feet from ditch bottom to rampart top. They were the emblems of Imperial rule. What should be done with such substantial monuments? In countries where the victorious forces built the forts, as in the west-ern U.S., the forts have been developed as monuments run by state or federal park services. But what do we do with such monuments in Af-rica (from which the Imperial powers departed in the face of African nationalism)?

Imperial sites cannot be fully legitimized as part of African history. They were clearly outposts of empire and as such comprise part of the archaeol-ogy of those empires. Their form reflected the ideas of the military men responsible for their construc-tion. Analysis involves comparisons with similar contemporary structures elsewhere in the respec-tive empire. Analogies can often be attempted with extraterritorial structures from other empires, such as those of Rome and China—empires that brought large areas under a single authority, provided new

religions, and introduced infrastructural develop-ment and social services such as education and health care.

Transport networks and travel technology (such as steamboats and railways) brought people closer together, and helped secure entry into a wider eco-nomic world system. Imperial authority, however, destroyed previous social orders and displaced cultural systems without adequate consideration of their effectiveness. Nevertheless, most Imperial sites ultimately had to operate as parts of a complex related to both the land and the peoples among whom they were located. In many studies, the essential local element has been ignored; namely, the local labor who built and maintained the forts, provided food to support the intruders, and served as interlocutors with peoples outside the bounds of

the foreign establishments.The sites were clearly

military in the initial period, and some were missionary and colonial as the years progressed. The local cultural maps were redrawn, and the scholar cannot provide an ac-curate accounting unless the Imperial sites are included. Inclusion, however, does not mean that such sites should

in any way be overemphasized—even though they may be more monumental in the landscape or their location may have shaped later history. The African proverb “Until the lions have their own historians, the stories of hunting will always glorify the hunt-ers” is relevant.

The task at hand is to put the African perspec-tive clearly into Imperial history. The whole picture has to include both the lions and the hunters facilitating an integration of archaeology with both oral and documentary history. Only if this integra-

When it comes to the con-servation of Imperial sites, the African component has to be presented—even though it may be the more difficult to disentangle.

Left: European pottery found at Dufile.

Right: Madi potters making pottery similar to the abaundant finds of rouletted earthen-ware at Dufile.

55 | Backdirt 2009

tive approach is adopted can the descendants of those Africans whose lands were ravaged, whose social and cultural identity was shredded, feel that there is a purpose in looking at the archaeology of globalization in which on first sight the past of the Imperialists is glorified at the expense of those they conquered.

The study of Imperial sites cannot be ignored, as there were more local people than outsiders as-sociated with such structures during their heyday. Documentary sources, often archived outside Africa, provide most of the information about the Imperialists—who left written accounts. Thus, information on those who performed the drudge work on Imperial sites has to rely on archaeological data. The association of the intruders with the local population was a significant factor in acculturation processes. At Dufile, we discovered little about the Egyptian and Nubian population except that they relied largely on a meat diet in which cattle and sheep were important (a diet familiar to them in the Middle Nile) rather than on local fish and game.

What we did discover, however, was the preva-lence of local ceramics—indicating that cooking was performed by local women. Upper Nile wom-en and their offspring brought south to Kampala, the capital of Uganda, by Captain Lugard in 1891 and 1892 outnumbered the soldiers by ten to one. They brought down distinctive mat-making and basketry activities that persist in the substantial Nubian communities of the present day. Impe-rialists initiated the military stations, but their occupants became an essential component of the northern Ugandan towns as traders and ulama(holy men, doctors, and lay preachers). What we would of course like to know more about was the pattern of resistance to Imperial control. This we cannot look for at the forts but in the surrounding region, where local chiefs resisted. Such archaeol-ogy is difficult under the best circumstances, but particularly so in an area where we are dealing with societies that possessed a minimum of mate-rial culture and lived in houses that even today are pretty ephemeral.

When it comes to the conservation of Imperial sites, the African component has to be presented, even though it may be the more difficult to disen-tangle. It is for this reason that I regard it as essential that selected sites be preserved not as memorials to past invaders but as sites where the process of

globalization occurred. Trying to project the image that is most acceptable is all part of the work of cul-tural conservation. This is a process that follows af-ter excavation and publication. In 2007, I went back to Uganda to discuss cultural conservation with the Uganda Museum and government officials.

Early in 2009, I will go again to Uganda to draw up a management plan for a sustainable historical monument. Sites such as Dufile should showcase aspects of the integration of new ideas and of the acculturation of the invading forces, and should explore the ways in which a new African identity was being forged. An emphasis has to be placed on how the Imperial sites fit into the cultural land-scape. This is probably best attempted through a regional visitor’s center, bearing in mind that few people in the locality (particularly school children) ever have the opportunity of visiting the museum in the capital. Sustainable monuments thus have a vital role in education.

In some measure, such monuments compensate for the wrongs of Imperialism that robbed popula-tions of the fullness of their dynamic heritages. The larger the site the easier it becomes to create a regional cultural center that not only provides in-formation about the site itself but serves as a milieu for cultural activities, including music, dance, and the demonstration of regional craft activities. In this sense, a single site can be used to inform the local population about the cultural heritage of the local population. These are the stakeholders of that heritage with whom we have to closely work—co-operating with chiefs and village elders to ensure that what is presented is acceptable to them and to visitors from within and without Uganda.

merrick posnansky is former director of the

cotsen institute and professor emeritus of

history and anthropology at ucla.

author’s note:parts of this article were adapted from a paper

“justifying imperial sites: a dilemma for ex-colonialists” given in a panel (on “which pasts

for what future? political, ethical, and scientific

dimensions of salvage archaeology and cultural

heritage management in africa”) at the nineteenth

biennial meeting of the society of africanist ar-chaeologists in frankfurt in september of 2008.

56 | Backdirt 2009

SURVEYING THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE PETRIFIED FORESTBY GREG SCHACHNER

THE PETRIFIED FOREST of Arizona is one of the iconic landscapes of the American Southwest. Renowned for the exposed remains of thousands of iridescent petrified logs, the Petrified Forest has been a destination for countless travelers over the last century—first via the Santa Fe Railway, then Historic Route 66, and now Interstate 40. Although the Petrified Forest has captured the public’s imagi-nation, the area has received comparatively little attention from Southwest archaeologists. Collec-tors from East Coast and European museums often visited the nearby town of Holbrook to purchase prehistoric pottery in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but archaeologists were drawn to the more spectacular remains found at Mesa Verde, Chaco, and in the Rio Grande Valley.

In the 1900s, archaeologists visited the Petrified Forest sporadically (some of the earliest archaeology in the region was actually conducted by the natural-ist John Muir), but their findings were never central to ongoing syntheses of Southwest archaeology being developed by Alfred Kidder, Emil Haury, and others. Even today, few Southwest archaeologists would be able to provide a verbal summary of the archaeology of the Petrified Forest—despite having often voluminous knowledge of surrounding areas.

In cooperation with the National Park Service (NPS) and local landowners, I have recently begun a long-term collaborative project intended to reinvigorate studies of Petrified Forest archaeology and contribute to ongoing preservation efforts in this fast-developing region. Despite its foreboding appearance today, there is ample evidence that the Petrified Forest was continually and densely occu-pied throughout most of the prehistoric period (see image following).

Archaeological studies in the area are well situ-ated to contribute to a number of current debates in Southwest archaeology, including investiga-tions of regional systems and migration during the late prehistoric period (A.D. 1275–1400) and the founding of year-round farming villages in the centuries prior to the rise of Chaco (A.D. 500–900). An expansion of Petrified Forest National Park has recently been authorized (although not yet funded) and will provide new opportunities for research, preservation, and education that will require more resources than the NPS alone can provide. Archae-ologists from UCLA and other institutions will be an important part of these developing efforts.

The first phase of a new UCLA project, the Puerco Ridge Archaeological Survey, began in the

NPS archaeologist Jay Theuer and Greg Schachner at a Chaco-period great kiva in Petrified Forest National Park. Photo by Wes Bernardini.

57 | Backdirt 2009

summer of 2008. I visited sites in Petrified Forest National Park with Jay Theuer (the park archaeolo-gist) and conducted a surface survey of Wallace Tank, a large Pueblo IV–period (A.D. 1275–1375) village located on a private ranch east of the park. I was assisted by Dr. Wes Bernardini of the Universi-ty of Redlands and Matt Peeples and Will Russell of Arizona State University in the latter efforts, which included the production of the first instrument map of the village, low-altitude aerial photography, and systematic surface collections aimed at recovering pottery (see images following).

Wallace Tank was a large village housing a few hundred people in four multistory adobe and ma-sonry pueblos surrounding an ancient man-made spring-fed reservoir. Diagnostic pottery collections suggest that it was occupied from the late thirteenth century A.D. until about A.D. 1350. In addition to a poorly known tradition of local pottery produc-tion, residents of Wallace Tank obtained pottery from villages in surrounding regions—including the Hopi Mesas, the Zuni area, and the region sur-rounding modern Snowflake, Arizona.

The great diversity of social relationships indi-cated by the pottery assemblage of Wallace Tank is characteristic of many villages during this time pe-riod, when frequent long-distance migrations refor-matted the social landscape following the depopu-lation of huge swaths of the Four Corners region to the north. Future chemical compositional studies of pottery from the Pueblo IV period Petrified Forest villages will contribute to the ongoing and surpris-

ingly effective efforts by Southwest archaeologists to understand the complexities of migration and social relationships during this period.

A second season is planned for the summer of 2009, which will focus on archaeological survey of the area surrounding Wallace Tank—includ-ing a detailed investigation of a contemporary village a few miles to the east that was partially excavated by Smithsonian archaeologists more than 100 years ago and then “lost” to the disci-pline until 2003. NPS staff and UCLA archae-ologists will also collaborate on a new project investigating ancient agricultural practices using a combination of field survey and GIS studies of environmental variables. The archaeology of the Petrified Forest is diverse and impressive and will hopefully be the location of productive research by UCLA faculty and staff for years to come.

greg schachner is assistant professor of

anthropology at ucla.

Above: Greg Schachner, Wes Bernardini, and Will Rus-sell retrieving the photography balloon at Wallace Tank. Photo by Matt Peeples.

Right: Central portion of the Wallace Tank ruin. The large tank is a twentieth-century expansion of a prehis-toric reservoir. The tank is now nearly 150 m in length. The round feature at the top of the photograph is a modern overflow tank. Two of the four pueblos in the village, containing roughly 100 rooms each, are visible as concentrations of white sandstone rubble and light-colored soil at the left-center and bottom-center of this aerial photo.

58 | Backdirt 2009

A NEW EXHIBIT has opened at the Natural His-tory Museum (NHM) of Los Angeles County. Born of necessity and developed and installed in only a few months, the new exhibit must fill multiple visi-tor and functional needs. We hope it is worthy of visiting again and again over the years it is open.

The NHM of L.A. County is in the middle of a major renovation and exhibit program. By the end of 2012, more than half of our public space will have been renovated, restored, and filled with new exhibits. Unfortunately, the first phase of any museum renovation is closing exhibits and mov-ing collections. One of the exhibits that had to be closed was our popular Ancient Latin American Hall (ALAH). The question of where to store the 600 objects on display in the hall needed to be answered urgently.

BEHIND THE SCENES:Developing the L.A. NHM's exhibit Visible Vault: Archaeological Treasures from Ancient Latin AmericaBY KAREN WISE

A conventional exhibit that had not been up-dated since the early 1980s, the ALAH was orga-nized by region and archaeological culture. The exhibit was popular with both schools and families. Teachers from across Los Angeles brought their sixth-graders to see objects from Aztec, Maya, and

Inca civilizations—which they study as part of the California curriculum on ancient history and civili-zations. Families of all backgrounds also visited the exhibit. Visitor surveys indicated that our visitors, particularly those with Latin American heritage, take pride in being able to come to the museum and explore the exhibit with their children. Although visitors typically seek out objects that come from what they consider their ancestral home regions, many express interest in being able to see objects from the entire region.

Nayarit statue, Rio de Ixtlan Style 200 B.C.–A.D.500, featured object in Visible Vault exhibit Photo by Dan Watson.

59 | Backdirt 2009

Visitor interest and the needs of our school visi-tors motivated us to find a way to keep the collec-tion on display. We had neither time nor space to develop a conventional exhibit, but we decided to close a less popular exhibit to create a new home for the archaeological collections from Latin America. We decided to place the objects into visible storage. The new space is not appropriate for all objects, but it features ceramic, stone, and certain gold objects and includes some artifacts never before on display.

Visible storage exhibits provide museum visitors with a glimpse into a museum’s rich collections—and ideally imparting the flavor of what it feels like to be a scholar or a museum curator working behind the scenes. Many visible storage exhibits provide visitors with access to collections databases, allowing them to explore the information asso-ciated with the objects on display. Whereas such ex-hibits fascinate motivated visitors already interested in the topic, and who feel at home playing with computers, they do not always succeed with more casual visitors. To make our visible storage exhibit more accessible to all visitors, we decided to take a more multilayered and visitor-friendly approach.

The Visible Vault is organized by region. The sections holding the objects from the three best-known civilizations—Aztec, Maya, and Inca—are clearly labeled to allow teachers and others looking for objects from these civilizations to find them eas-ily. Responding to our visitors’ desire to see objects from throughout Latin America, we selected 39 featured objects for display in special display cases to provide full visual access and to incorporate standard printed labels. The remaining objects—approximately 650 artifacts—are shown in stor-age, and are only partly visible. For these objects, we modified our standard (custom-built) storage boxes to provide better visibility without risking the safety of the objects. The safety of the artifacts, particularly in the case of an earthquake, is always foremost in our minds—and our collections man-agers were very creative in thinking about visitor needs as well as collections safety.

Finally, we wanted to provide a rich visitor expe-rience with the image and information data about the objects held in our collections database. We de-cided to forgo standard keyboard-driven individual screens in favor of multiuser larger touch screens that allow visitors to explore the objects by country of origin, archaeological culture, and theme. For

example, visitors interested in personal adornment can browse a list of objects showing such features as tattoos and hairstyles.

The needs of our visitors, combined with limita-tions of time and space, inspired us to try a new approach to visible storage. We hope it will be a successful approach, and we look forward to invit-ing our visitors to enjoy the objects on many levels and to explore the collections in new ways. Visible Vault: Archaeological Treasures from Ancient Latin America opened December 19, 2008—with a public celebration of the exhibit held January 24, 2009. A series of three lectures related to the archaeology of Latin America, featuring Cotsen Institute of Archaeology scholars, will be held at the NHM over the next year.

karen wise is vice president of public programs

at the natural history museum of los angeles

county and a research associate at the cotsen

institute of archaeology.

Jennifer Saracino, Cura-torial Assistant, working on mounting an object for Visible Vault exhibit. Photo by Dan Watson.

Object mounted for ex-hibit. Ties placed around object and tied in back. Hot glue, archival foam block, board, and ties used for construction. Photo by Dan Watson.

60 | Backdirt 2009

EXCAVATIONS AT THE ANCIENT CITY OF SISUPALGARHBY MONICA L. SMITH AND RABINDRA KUMAR MOHANTY

This article is not authorized for electronic distribution. For a paper copy, please contact the cotsen institute publications office at [email protected] or 310-825-7411.

FEATU

RES

A MONUMENTAL TASK ON EASTER ISLANDJO ANNE VAN TILBURG & CRISTIÁN ARÉVALO PAKARATI

62EASTER ISLAND PHOTO ESSAYPATTY CIVALLERI

66ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE CONFUCIAN LANDSCAPELI MIN

72EXPLORING OPPORTUNITIES IN SOUTH AMERICASHAUNA K. MECARTA & ELIZABETH KLARICH

78EMPIRES OF DIVERSITY

GREGORY ARESHIAN

84METAL & LANDSCAPE IN ANCIENT ANATOLIAJOSEPH LEHNER

92

62 | Backdirt 200962 | Backdirt 2009

63 | Backdirt 2009

A MONUMENTAL

ON EASTER ISLANDBY JO ANNE VAN TILBURG AND CRISTI• N ARÄ VALO PAKARATI

EASTER ISLAND (Rapa Nui), Chile, is located in the southeast Pa-cific at the southern limit of the tropics. The monolithic stone statues (moai) of Easter Island are world-famous objects of artistic imagination and engineering ingenuity. Rapa Nui National Park is the world’s largest archaeological sculpture garden. It was registered as a World Heritage site in 1995. The Rano Raraku archaeological zone holds nearly 95% of the 1,000+ statues we have inventoried to date. A striking natural land-mark partially filled with a fresh water lake, Rano Raraku is located within Hotu Iti—the eastern and lower-ranked of two sociopolitical districts. Although statues were subsequently moved to ceremonial site destinations in the coastal and interior zones of the 163.6-km2 island, nearly 50% of the total corpus remains in Rano Raraku.

Left: Overview of Rano Raraku interior slopes and quarries.

64 | Backdirt 2009

Rano Raraku is formed of consolidated tephra ash or tuff arrayed in roughly horizontal bands. On the volcano’s interior, the tuff is exposed in irregularly

shaped flows (papa) on the north-facing side—which slopes to 28 degrees. Visually subdivided into two large and spatially discrete areas, the papa are all different in elevation, tilt, stone quality, accessibility, and workability.

Rano Raraku tuff is friable, porous, and suscep-tible to deterioration. It is a distinctive yellow-orange when freshly quarried (a color sought because of its cultural associations with the chiefly class), but weathers to black. These and other inherent weak-nesses of the stone material, coupled with the fact that Rano Raraku is a major tourist destination, cre-ate an urgent conservation imperative. Other threats include subtropical climate conditions, a failure to integrate archaeological survey and conservation data, uncontrolled livestock, and undirected com-munity action.

From 2002 to 2007, our Easter Island Statue Proj-ect (EISP, www.eisp.org) crews mapped the interior of Rano Raraku and all of the statues and quarries in it to the highest level of accuracy. Our field tools of choice were a Trimble 5700 GPS base unit with Zephyr Geodetic antenna, a Trimble Trimmark 3 radio unit with TSCE data collector, and a Trimble 5800 GPS rover unit. Dr. Peter Boniface of California Polytechnic University, Pomona, established our sur-vey on the geodetic monument created by Pasadena’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1992 and located about

10 km from our main base station and control point network in Rano Raraku.

Matthew Bates, EISP project surveyor, registered survey points on statues lying on slopes as well as on those free of the quarries. Statues standing upright and embedded in the ground lean at various angles from the vertical. Points were taken equidistant in front of and behind each of them, giving the facing directions as well as the XYZ locations. All data were downloaded to a laptop via the infrared connection and Thales Ashtec software. GPS points were imported to a Microstation design file. CAD files containing survey points and digitized versions of field sketches were imported into Adobe Illustra-tor and EISP database manager Alice Hom drafted the map based on field sketches by Cristián Arevalo Pakarati

For over 20 years, we have compiled standard-ized conservation observations on every statue. Initial analysis suggests an alarming rate of dete-rioration: every statue in Rano Raraku is in poor or extremely poor condition, with near-complete erosion and decomposition of stone surface and structural problems. A generous grant to EISP was recently announced by Larry Coben, cochairman of the Archaeological Institute of America’s (AIA) Site Preservation Task Force. “Our selection of the Easter Island Statue Project and our first preservation proj-ect, restoring and preserving the magnificent Temple of Athena in Turkey—which is well underway—ex-emplify the model of preservation the AIA seeks to promote,” says Coben.

Above: Rano Raraku interior slope with standing and fallen moai. Nineteen individual quarries reach to the volcano rim.

65 | Backdirt 2009

The newly funded Easter Island Statue Conserva-tion Initiative is being carried out in cooperation with CIOA’s Christian Fischer, visiting scientist Nathan Myhrvold, and Chilean conservators at the Centro Nacional de Conservación y Restuaración. Our goal is to focus initially upon the conservation of Rano Raraku’s interior quarry. In phase I of the project, selected statues will be laser scanned and two statues of high archaeological and iconographic interest will be examined in detail. Stone preserva-tion techniques to arrest the rapid deterioration of the target statues will be developed.

Our map, with its mass of linked and illustrative data, will serve as the organizing and presentation tool for all of our archaeological data. It will allow visualization of historical and ecological linkages, support the analysis of statue type data in the context of social theory and the semiotics of spatial organi-zation, and contribute to the understanding of the statues as components of ecological, political, and es-oteric systems. It will also provide a permanent home for conservation data, advance the understanding of the Rapa Nui cultural heritage, and permit informed management and maintenance of the community’s patrimony.

jo anne van tilburg is a research associate and

director of the rock art archive at the cotsen

institute. cristián arévalo pakarati is a native of

rapa nui, a professional artist and co-director

of the easter island statue project (eisp). he has

published widely with van tilburg.

Additional Readings:

Bahamondez, P. M.1990 Acciones de conservación sobre los moai de Isla de Pas-cua. Su evaluación en laboratorio. In Resúmenes presentados a la Reunión Internacional Isla de Pascua, Chile, edited by A. Elena Charola, Dirección de Bibliotecas, Archivos y Museos, Santiago.

Baker, P. E.1993 Archaeological Stone of Easter Island. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal 8(2):127–139.

Boniface, P., and Jo Anne Van Tilburg2004 Thales Promark 2 on Easter Island. Electronic document, www.eisp.org.

Cristino F., Claudio, Patricia Vargas C., and Roberto Izaurieta S.1981 Atlas arqueólogica de Isla de Pascua. Universidad de Chile Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo, Centro de Estudios Isla de Pascua, Santiago.

Van Tilburg, Jo Anne1990 Respect for Rapa Nui: Exhibition and Conservation of Eas-ter Island Stone Statues. Antiquity 64:249–258.

Van Tilburg, J., C. Arévalo Pakarati and A. Hom 2007 Mapping Features. In Recording, Documentation, and In-formation Management for the Conservation of Heritage Places: Illustrated Examples, edited by R. Eppich and A. Chabbi, pp. 32–36 Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles.

Above: Standardized conservation data collections include stone surface descriptions.

Above: GPS mapping crew registers points on statues in Rano Raraku.

66 | Backdirt 2009

EASTER ISLAND A Photo Essay by Patty Civalleri

The Director’s Council (DC) offers many wonderful perks for nonacademic “arm-chair archaeologist” types. The DC is the highest level of the Cotsen Institute of

Archaeology’s support group, Friends of Archaeol-ogy. Among these perks are invitations to lectures presented by some of the world’s specialists on a wide variety of archaeological topics, quarterly ca-tered dinner lectures with some of the most accom-plished and widely published experts from around the world, and of course many travel opportunities with these experts. However, this particular perk was truly special.

DC members were invited by one of the Cotsen Institute’s long-time Research Associates—Dr. Jo Anne Van Tilburg—to one of the most fascinating, mystery-shrouded, and remote places in the world: Easter Island [i.e, Isla de Pascua or Rapa Nui (“Navel of the Earth”)—as I later learned]. Van Tilburg, who has spent two decades on the island and published many wonderful books and articles (including my favorite, Easter Island: Archaeology, Ecology and Culture) is not only an internationally recognized expert on Easter Island, but a researcher who is amassing the largest digital archive on Rapa Nui

statues (moai). However, that is a topic for another article. Van Tilburg and Rapa Nui artist Crisitián Arévalo Pakarati—codirector of the Easter Island Statue Project—took us through the historical depths of the island that only they and a handful of locals truly understand.

Before going to Easter Island, my impression was of an arid desert island with big heads on it—and not much else. To gain such a deep understanding of the population, the history, and the locals was much more than I could have hoped for—and I assume that Easter Island and I will cross paths at least one more time during my lifetime.

The biggest surprise for me about the island was the moist tropical air and the lushness of the trees and flowers. For some unknown reason, I had ex-pected a much more arid environment. It is clear that the Polynesians knew exactly what they were doing when they settled on this island so many centuries ago.

Have you been thinking of joining the DC? Now is the time for you to enjoy life’s experiences such as this one! There are more trips like this planned for 2009. Please join us.

67 | Backdirt 2009

Ahu Tongariki

This group of 15 moai (statues) stand on Ahu Tongariki, one of the most famous ceremonial sites (ahu) on Easter Island. In 1960, this group was struck by a tsunami„ only to be raised by Chilean archaeologists in the 1990s for a second time. At approximately 30 feet tall, the fifth statue from the left is the second largest moai statue raised on an ahu. The Tongariki statues from the rear appear as though they may be watching over Rano Raraku, the statue quarry mountain in the background. In reality, there were many residences between these statues and the quarry—which today are difficult to see.

Orongo ï BirdmanÍ Tradition

The legend of the birdman is quite dramatic. As the story goes, young men representing 12 different lineages (tribes) would descend from this cliff into the blue waters below. They were to swim to the large islet in the distance (about a mile away) and fetch the egg of a sooty tern. The first one back with an intact egg became the new ruler. (And maybe his image was eventually turned into a moai statue for posterity?)


BirdmanÍ s Nest

These dwellings (top), at Orongo, perched with a beauti-ful view of the islet (see previous page), were temporary residences of the folks active in the Birdman ceremonies. These structures were built to protect the inhabitants from harsh subtropical weather conditions. Above, Ron Steensland and Charlie Steinmetz of the DirectorÍ s Coun-cil carefully examine these structures. Below, rock art from a cave used in the Birdman ceremony. The paintings depict sooty terns.

69 | Backdirt 2009

Lectures in the Sun

Van Tilburg tells delightful stories of the ancient islanders and how they managed to build and transport these huge statues. The statues of Tongarikiiki stand watching and listening in the distance.


Bikini Watch

This is Anakena (above), one of the most picturesque beaches on Easter Island. Our group was treated to a catered picnic lunch under the shade of the palm trees, and then we were off for a swim in the warm local waters. All the while, this lineup of truly beautiful moai kept watch over our frolicking. At first glance, these statues looked too good to be ancient. However, their burial in the clean sands for several hundred years kept them well preserved.

Courage of the Ancients

When driving across the island one afternoon, we came across this unbelievable scene. An ancient tradition, called haka pei, is practiced every year on the island (below). When given a signal from the costumed ñ warrior,î a competitor at the top of the hill climbs aboard a sled made of banana stalks and slides down this hill. The competition was in full progress, and the excitement of the onlookers was contagious (below).

71 | Backdirt 2009

Rano Raraku Crater

The moai were carved from the stone inside Rano Raraku, an ancient volcanic crater (pictured below). Today, the inside of the crater is littered with statues in various stages of completion. It was from here that the mega-ton statues were transported (utilizing various forms of manpower) and placed in their final settings on ceremonial sites all around the island. Top right: statues in situ on the craterÍ s exterior.

patty civalleri is a member of the director’s council (dc). for more information about the dc or the friends of archaeology, please visit www.ioa.ucla.edu/support/foa.


Archaeology of the Confucian Landscape

By Li Min

The Politics of Memory at the Shaohaoling Site

73 | Backdirt 2009

My forthcoming regional archaeology project is centered at the historic city of Qufu, where Confucius and more than 70 generations of his descendants resided since the mid first millennium B.C.E. Few places in China are like Qufu, where the past is intricately connected to aspects of everyday life. One could casually wander through the neighborhoods mentioned in the Analects and encounter a descendant of the philosopher.

This historic city also has an unusual configuration. What is now the urban core was once within the perim-

eters of a Ming walled city of the six-teenth century, which was dominated by temples and palatial compounds dedicated to the memorialization of the philosopher. The Ming city, however, was only a seventh the size of the Bronze Age city that enclosed it—covering an area of approximately 10 km2, which remains only partially inhabited due to protection efforts. To the north of the city lies the enor-mous cemetery for the Confucian lineage, which rivals the Ming city in size. Beyond the confines of the city wall, several of the very important sites in early China are located in the region. My aim was to understand the historical transformations of the cul-tural landscape in and around Qufu, particularly regarding preservation and incorporation of the past within a modern setting.

My first close encounter with this historic landscape took place at an eleventh-century cult center in the eastern suburbs. Research into its construction reveals an example of how monumental architecture figured into political negotiations and cultural competition. The story began with the 1004 invasion by the troops from the Khitan Empire, a traumatic experience for emperor Zhao Heng of the Song Empire in the south (reign-ing period 998–1023; temple name Zhenzong, “the true ancestor”). The proposal to move the capital to the south was rejected by officials, and the emperor reluctantly led a royal campaign to confront the Khitan army. When the two armies reached a stalemate after fierce battles, Zhao Heng seized the opportunity to end the conflict with a peace treaty under which the Song government had to forego claims over disputed territories in the northern Central Plains and make a substantial annual payment of

74 | Backdirt 2009

silk and silver to the northern empire. Although tax revenues collected from the cross-border trade more than funded the annual payment, for the “Son of Heaven” to yield to the northern barbarians brought about a sense of humiliation difficult to reconcile in financial terms.

There was also the unspoken agony of losing to the northern empire two recent royal ancestral tombs in the disputed territory. These are the only ancestral tombs that Zhao Kuangyin, the dynastic founder and uncle of the reigning emperor, could trace in his modest genealogy. In an effort to reduce the damage, Zhao Heng tried to back away from his uncle’s account on the whereabouts of these ances-tral tombs—but the officials simply refused to budge. In addition to the political hu-miliation from the treaty, the emperor now faced a serious legitimacy crisis in the ritual realm and was keen to search for creative solutions.

Wang Qinruo, Commis-sioner of Military Affairs, got the hint and masterminded a series of auspicious omens verifying the legitimacy of the Song imperial house. It was so well received by the emperor that Zhao Heng eventually changed his reign name to Da-zhong Xiangfu (the Auspicious Talismans of the Great Mean) to emphasize the significance of these super-natural blessings. On October 8, 1012, the Yellow Emperor (a legendary sage king attributed to the third millennium B.C.E. and a major figure of religious Daoism in historic China) presented himself in Zhao Heng’s dream as the great ancestor of the Song royal clan and endorsed the emperor’s benevolent career.

The choice of the Yellow Emperor in the politics of remembrance was a calculated move. In their effort of state building, the Khitan rulers across the north-ern border already engaged in appropriating potent cultural symbols from the Central Plains and started to present themselves as the heir of the legendary sage. Zhao Heng’s promotion of the Yellow Emperor not only upstaged Khitan in his exclusive claims to supernatural favor but bypassed the embarrassment of leaving behind the ancestral burials in occupied territory. The move shifted the time scale of the

ancestral remembrance from decades to millennia, from recent to remote antiquity, and from modest human ori-gins to the heroic and impec-cable. In essence, Zhao Heng embarked on an enterprise of creating ancestors—setting in motion a ritual reform.

Shift in temporal frame-work took place in tandem with a shift in ritual geogra-phy. Whereas his uncle barely remembered the location of his recent ancestral tombs,

Zhao Heng had very specific knowledge about the ancestral landscape of the legendary sage—from no less than the sage himself. In his dream, the Yel-low Emperor told Zhao Heng that he was born in Shouqiu, Qufu, which the court scholars could read-ily verify with extant textual accounts from the Han period. The rest was a matter of making the miracle visible with ritual elaborations, which consisted of monumental architecture and ritual performances—fixing the myth in grand material form and cultural memory that would render any doubts of fabrication irrelevant.

The choice of the Yellow Emperor in the politics of remembrance was a calculated move. In their effort of state building, the Khitan rulers across the northern border already engaged in appropriating potent cul-tural symbols from the Central Plains and started to present themselves as the heir of the legendary sage.

Above left and right: remains of stone foundations for the marble statue of the Yellow Emperor in the Jingling Temple.

75 | Backdirt 2009

Left: Map of Qufu drawn in the early twelfth century. The large walled enclosure on the map is the Bronze Age city wall of the first millennium B.C. The palatial complex in the smaller rectangule to its east (marked) is the Jingling Palace. The large palatial complex at the southwest corner of the old city is the Confucian temple, residential compound for the senior Confucian lineage, and the Duke of Zhou’s temple. The wooded area north of the old city is the Confucian lineage cemetery. (Image courtesy of Cao et al. 1990, pp. 51.)

Right, top: A pair of 17-m stelae were left uninscribed when the region was overrun by the Jurchin invasion in the early 1120s. Bottom: The pyramid-shaped burial mound known as the Shaohao Mausoleum.

The monumental structures at the Shaohaoling site attest to this huge effort. Zhao Heng ordered the construction of the Jingling Palace as a state cult center to pay homage to the Yellow Emperor at the site of his alleged birthplace. Everything was aimed at creating a sense of grandeur. Later historians re-lated that the majestic royal temple consisted of 1,300 pillars and took four years to complete. A marble sculpture of the sage was housed in the main hall. An earthen mound was built north of the royal temple, marking the resting place of the Yellow Emperor.

76 | Backdirt 2009

Zhao Heng decreed ritual sacrifice at the temple along lines similar to those of the royal ancestral temple. He ordered the construction of a new walled city next to the cult center in 1012 and named it the Xianyuan (“birthplace of the sage”). This was fol-lowed by the relocation of the county headquarters of Qufu to the new city. In 1111, Emperor Zhao Ji up-graded the earthen mound to a stone-covered pyra-mid with masonry of 2,662 polished stone blocks.

Zhao Heng also understood that his propaganda would be most effectively conveyed by having newly constructed monuments embedded within existing cultural traditions. Zhao Heng appointed the head of the Confucian lineage as administrator for the new city, as well as chief guardian of the cult center. Qufu, the central site of the Confucian landscape, was now incorporated into Zhao Heng’s grand scheme for a sacred landscape centered on the Yellow Emperor—the great royal ancestor. Although the event says little about the historicity of the legendary sage memorialized, the archaeology of this dynamic landscape reveals how memories of the ancient past were articulated into the contemporary international politics of the eleventh century.

Through Zhao Heng’s efforts to evoke cultural memories of the remote past to cope with the politi-cal crisis of the early eleventh century, Confucianism and Daoism—the two great religious traditions in-digenous to China—converged under extraordinary

circumstances and left impressive archaeological remains in the eastern suburb of the old Qufu. This is one of many dramatic episodes that transformed the cultural landscape of the region.

My investigation of the archaeological remains of this fascinating site, known as Shaohaoling, the Shaohao mausoleum, started in 2002 when I served as a project archaeologist in a historical conservation project sponsored by the Canadian International Development Agency (directed by Hal Kalman). The walled city at Xianyuan measures some 600 by 600 m, and traces of its moat and rammed earth wall are still visible on the surface. Although the northern gate and its watchtower were demolished in 1967, many architectural remains were scattered in the neighborhood.

The foundation of the main palatial structure measures 175 m on the east-west axis and 125 m on the south-north axis. Stone foundations and large fragments of the marble statue of the Yellow Emperor were found on the surface at the center of the site. In 1985, the Shandong Provincial Institute of Archaeol-ogy located the rammed earth palatial foundation that had incorporated well-arranged floor bricks and carved stone pillar bases at a depth of .5 m below ground level. The Song deposit measures 2.7 m in thickness and is filled with bricks and roof tiles of the period, which frequently can be seen on the surface.

Roof tiles from the Jinglinggong Temple at the Shaohaoling site.

77 | Backdirt 2009

Archaeological evidence reveals that the construc-tion of the Jingling Palace was not completed by the time of the Jurchin invasion in the 1120s, as neither of the two enormous steles (each measuring 17 m in height) had inscriptions from the Song period. A survey conducted by Qufu archaeologist Xiang Chunsheng and myself identified Neolithic pottery from the fourth to the third millennia B.C.E., Han stone-chamber tombs, Han projectile points, and glazed ceramics from Song and Yuan periods, which reveals the deeply layered history at the site.

The pyramid located at the very end of the palatial complex measures 12.2 m tall, and 28.5 m in width at the bottom and 11 m in width at the top. Its shape closely resembles that of the Song royal tombs located in Gongxian, Henan. The dedication of this elaborate tomb and surrounding tomb complex, however, was changed to another legendary sage king (Shaohao), which was the result of an empire-wide reconfiguration of ritual landscape by the dynastic founders of the Ming Empire during the fourteenth century. The imperial advisors had in mind differ-ent locations where the sage king should have been buried according to their perception of the ritual geography. The site’s association with the Yellow Emperor and the important ritual significance of this cult center site in the international relations of the relatively recent past was conveniently forgotten, and other sites rose to become dedicated cult centers for royal patronage of the Yellow Emperor.

The successive Ming and Qing rulers faithfully sent regular envoys to present ritual offerings to the sage Shaohao, as seen on the many stone inscriptions left at the site recording these events.

Preliminary research at the Shaohaoling site re-vealed a relatively small episode in the making of the local landscape, including the world known to Con-fucius and his time, the built world through which Confucius was known and memorialized, and evi-dence of the war, trauma, remembrance, and amnesia that left their imprints on the historical landscape. In the forthcoming field research on the archaeology of Confucian landscape, I am promoting regional sur-vey as the primary method of documenting long-term social and cultural transformations evidenced in the distribution of archaeological remains.

The project builds on the important contribution of earlier generations of archaeologists working in the region, particularly the systematic probing and excavation inside the Bronze Age and early Iron Age city of Qufu during the 1970s and 1980s under the directorship of Zhang Xuehai (Shandongsheng Wenwu Kaogu Yanjiusuo 1982). The rich data gathered from the urban quarter within the walled

city allow for comprehensive understanding of the urban development and the social structure of late Bronze Age society in China (Buck 1986; Xu 2000; Falkenhausen 2006). Together, these research efforts make the investigation at the regional level possible and necessary. The regional approach will make a potential contribution to an understanding of many episodes of convergence between the past and present under changing circumstances in a landscape richly endowed with history and constantly transforming itself through reinterpretation of the past.

li min is assistant professor of asian languages

and cultures, anthropology, and the interdepart-mental archaeology graduate program at ucla.

References:

Buck, David D.1986 Archaeological Explorations at the An-cient Capital of Lu at Qufu in Shandong Prov-ince. Chinese Sociology and Anthropology19(1):9–65.

Cao Wanru, Zheng Xihuang, Huang Sheng-zhang, Niu Zhongxun, Ren Jincheng, and Ju Deyuan (editors)1990 Zhongguo gudai dituji (Historical Maps of China), Vol. 1. Warring States to Yuan. Wenwu chubanshe, Beijing.

Falkenhausen, Lothar von2006 Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000–250 B.C.): The Archaeological Evidence. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles.

Hong, Xu2000 Xianqin chengshi kaoguxue yanjiu (An Archaeological Study of Early Chinese Cities). Yanshan chubanshe, Beijing.

Shandongsheng Wenwu Kaogu Yanjiusuo1982 Qufu Lu gucheng (The City Site of Lu in Qufu). Qilu shushe, Jinan.

78 | Backdirt 2009

Exploring OpportunitiesA Staff Trip to South AmericaBy Shauna K. Mecartea and Elizabeth Klarich

79 | Backdirt 2009

Exploring Opportunities

With a suitcase full o f Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press books, promotional material, and very warm cloth ing, L iz Klarich, Assistant Director and Andean archaeolog ist, and Shauna Mecartea, Director of Publications and Communica-tions, arrived in Lima, Peru, in July of 2008 to beg in a three-week trek throughout Peru and Bolivia. A lthough the trip was developed for the purpose of investigating potential publish ing and book d istribution options in Peru, as well as capturing video and still shots for upcoming communications projects, it ended up being so much more.

The trek created a context in which Shauna — a nonarchae-olog ist and first-time visitor to the southern hemisphere — could see firsthand the place of Cotsen Institute projects with in Andean archaeology. The opportunity to travel with an experienced archaeolog ist to sites that had been excavated by Cotsen Institute scholars and often published by the Cot-sen Institute Press was truly remarkable for Shauna.

Beginning in Lima, we arranged to meet with university publishers to explore copublishing opportunities in various formats, including bilingual editions of

Cotsen Institute books. We also scheduled appoint-ments to meet with academic book distributors, providing each with packets of promotional materi-als about our Andean archaeology titles. Because we were unsure of the level of interest, we toted numer-ous volumes to our meetings and found that we left empty handed after each visit. From these experi-ences, we realized that there was a significant mar-ket for our books and that we will be able to better serve our South American colleagues through ex-panding our distribution of titles outside the United States. In addition, there are exciting possibilities for developing copublishing relationships with Peruvian archaeology publishers to create bilingual volumes that reach more readers. It was hard to believe that we made so many productive connections in just the first week of arriving in Peru!

After our stay in Lima, our next stop was Cuzco—at an elevation of 9,000 ft. The arrival literally took our breath away as we adjusted to the beauty and elevation of the An-des. Although Shauna had read about the Andes through our publishing program, she had never witnessed the landscape and culture of highland Peru. With an expert leading the expedition, Shauna learned about the previous and ongoing projects throughout the Andes from Liz, who has been working in the region since 1994.

The first order of business was to visit the Sacred Valley Travel Study Program that was part of the UCLA Archaeology Field Program—a Cotsen Institute initia-tive directed by Ran Boytner. Our visit’s purpose was multifaceted. We were there to evaluate the program by interviewing the participants and project director to en-sure quality control and to accumulate picturesque video and photographs of the Sacred Valley to use in print and electronic media for future promotional materials.

We met with the program participants while they were staying in Ollantaytambo—a famous Inca site noted for its proximity to Machu Picchu and for being one of the last strongholds of the Inca Empire during the Spanish

conquest. The students stayed in both Ollanta and Cuzco during the program, which integrated course-work about ancient Andean history and culture with field trips to renowned sites throughout the Sacred Valley. On the night we arrived, we had the opportuni-ty to join in one of the cultural events. With the group at a local restaurant, we watched while experienced Peruvian chef and staff set up the pachamanca—a temporary earthen oven used throughout the Andes to cook large meals.

The head chef described how the pachamanca was created and what types of foods are cooked in it. We watched while various types of potatoes, beans, poultry, tamales, and other local foods were placed into the oven for cooking. After several hours, we were able to enjoy the divine meal that was taken out of the pachamancaand shared with Peruvian colleagues in attendance. The next morning the students headed off to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and we continued on our way.

After the field program experience, we packed our bags and headed for Puno, Peru—home to multiple Cotsen Institute projects and Shauna’s first glimpse of Lake Titicaca. At an even higher elevation than Cuzco (13,000 ft above sea level), it was a tough adjustment to both the altitude and cold in that it was winter in South America. The bus ride through the altiplano (high plain) was mesmerizing, as the huge mountains and dry land with various shrubs passed by on the landscape.

Above: School parade in Cuzco. All photos by Shauna Mecartea.

80 | Backdirt 2009

After arriving in the city of Puno, we headed straight to what is affectionately called the “Puno House.” It includes residential space, laboratories, and collections storage for the Programa Collasuyu, codirected by Charles Stanish, Professor of Anthro-pology and Cotsen Institute Director. The house and labs are managed by Cecilia Chávez, a Peruvian archaeologist who has been active in the Titicaca Basin for almost 20 years. At the house, we filmed the collections, lab spaces, and some of the active projects, which we hope to include in future fund-raising materials.

The Puno House was our home base as Liz led several excursions to nearby archaeological sites and active field projects. One of the hair-raising trips on the desolate and deteriorated Pan-American highway was to Pukara, the earliest population center in the region—which reached its largest extent during the Late Formative period (200 B.C.–A.D. 200). For more information on Pukara, please see Liz’s article on page 46. Along with the archaeological site, there is a small site museum—the Museo Lítico Pukara—that has been rehabilitated over the last decade through the support of several researchers working in the region, especially Stanish. We had the opportunity to film the facilities and collections, which we plan to use to promote the development of local archaeologi-cal site museums and community centers across the globe.

Between visiting archaeological sites, creating videos, taking photographs, and meeting with col-leagues, we were able to enjoy the local culture and

81 | Backdirt 2009

Above: Inca terraces at the site of Ollantaytambo.Right: Preparing the pachamanca.


food. We visited women’s weaving coopera-tives to see how traditional textiles are made today. Eager to share Peruvian cuisine with Shauna, Liz had her try at almost all of the typical dishes—including ceviche, hamburgers made of alpaca, and Peruvian-inspired Chinese food referred to as chifa.

We said goodbye to Puno as we left for the Boliv-ian border to visit Tiwanaku, La Paz, Copacabana,

and the Island of the Sun. At Tiwan-aku, the focus of an upcoming Cotsen Institute–edited volume, we filmed a video of both the site and an interview with a local Aymara maestro (expert excavator) about his experiences work-ing on archaeological excavations. To reach the Island of the Sun, the setting of a multiyear project directed by Stan-ish in the 1990s, we passed through the port town and pilgrimage center of Copacabana.

Upon our arrival, we saw hundreds of decorated cars waiting to be blessed during the festival for the Virgin of Copacabana. As cars poured in for the festivities, we took a boat to the island and had an opportunity to visit a local community center sponsored

by Stanish’s project and a number of important Inca pilgrimage sites. While Liz spent time with her col-leagues, Shauna huffed and puffed her way across the island—following a steep Inca trail. Surrounded by blue water as far as the eye could see, it felt more like an island in an ocean rather than in the middle of a slightly saline lake.


The Cotsen Institute has a long history of scholars working in the Andes, including Christopher B. Donnan, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and former Director of the Fowler Museum, who specializes in Moche art and iconography and has discovered famous sites such as Sipán and Dos Cabezas. Charles Stanish, Professor of Anthro-pology and Cotsen Institute Director, has also directed projects in the Lake Titicaca Basin for more than 20 years.

Spanning multiple time periods and regions, the breadth of Andean scholarship associated with the Cotsen Institute is also reflected in the Cotsen Institute Press’ list of publications—Excavations at Cerro Azul, Peru: The Architecture and Pottery by Joyce Marcus (2008); Chavín: Art,Architecture, and Culture edited by William J. Conklin and Jeffrey Quilter (2008); Moche Tombs at Dos Cabezas by Christopher B. Donnan (2007); Moche Fineline Painting from San José de Moro by Donna McClelland, Don McClelland, and Chris-topher B. Donnan (2007); Machu Picchu: Explor-ing an Ancient Sacred Center by Johan Reinhard (2007); Kasapata and the Archaic Period of Cuzco Valley by Brian S. Bauer (2007); Advances in Titi-caca Basin Archaeology–1 edited by Charles Stan-ish, Amanda B. Cohen, and Mark S. Aldenderfer (2005); and Archaeological Research on the Islands of the Sun and Moon, Lake Titicaca, Bolivia: Final Results from the Proyecto Tiksi Kjarka edited by Charles Stanish and Brian S. Bauer (2004).

Opposite page, top: Town of Pucará, Peru, location of the site of Pukara.Opposite page, bottom: Island of the Sun, Bolivia.Above: Shauna, left, and Liz, right, at Machu Picchu, one of the Field Program's destinations.


communications at the cotsen institute. elizabeth

klarich is assistant director of the cotsen insti-tute.

Andean Connections

With the trip almost over, we returned to the Puno House and passed through Cuzco before flying back to the United States. Armed with thousands of pictures and hours of video, and free of Cotsen Institute books, we were ready to leave Peru. The trip provided us with more than new media and potential international collaborations. It left us with wonderful memories, a new appreciation for and understanding of archaeology, and a lot of opportunity for future work once we returned to Los Angeles.

84 | Backdirt 2009

EMPIRES OF DIVERSITY

a Photo Essay by Gregory E. Areshian

By the time Xerxes the Great ascended the throne of his father Darius the Great in

486 B.C., the Persian Achaemenid Empire had subjugated most of the Middle East,

eastern Mediterranean, and the southern parts of Central Asia. On the western

margins of this gigantic empire tiny Greek city-states fought one another in the

name of democracy and glory and successfully resisted further expansion by

the Achaemenids. The northern frontiers of agricultural Central Asia were

periodically attacked by the Sakas and other nomads and to the

east, beyond the Indus River, Buddhism was emerging. How-

ever, the attention of the “King of Kings” and of his imperial

administration had decisively shifted toward the manage-

ment of an incredible sociopolitical, economic, ethnic, and

cultural diversity that was unified within the newly

established imperial world.

85 | Backdirt 2009

Figure 1: Naqsh-e Rustam: Achaemenid rock tombs and Sasanian reliefs.

86 | Backdirt 2009

4Figure 2: Persepolis: Relief on a door jamb of the Throne Hall started by Xerxes (485-465 B.C.)and completed under Artaxerxes I depicting armies from different peoples supporting the throne of the King of kings.

Figure 3: Baga-Stana (Old Persian “Place of God”), modern Bisitoun: The rock monument of Darius I (522-486 B.C.) with his trilingual cuneiform inscription in Old Persian, Babylonian, and Elamite.

Figure 4: Persepolis: Relief over the entrance to the rock tomb of Artaxerxes III (359–338/7 B.C.) depicting the peoples of the Achaemenid Empire sup-porting the platform on which the King of kings sacrifices to the eternal fire of Ahuramazda.

Figure 5: Persepolis: Tachara building of Darius I.

87 | Backdirt 2009

Contrary to the earlier Assyrian imperial reign of terror, the Achaemenids followed a new motto with regard to conquered people: “Live, and let others live.” This was expressed by many means including the monumental rock art propaganda depicting the organized support of the “King of kings” and of his supreme god Ahuramazda by the peoples incorpo-rated into an imperial “union” by means of force and of incentives.

For the first time in human history, even a special ritual-ideological capital of the empire (Persepolis) was built in order to promote the unifying imperial agenda. In the second century B.C., the new Parthian Iranian Empire gradually took over territories of the weakening Seleucid heirs of Alexander the Great. The heavily armed cavalry of the landed class (gathered from the subjected countries) became the new domi-nant military and sociopolitical force.

No dominant ethnic majority existed and minority elites became the pillars of support to the ruling im-perial dynasty. This trend persisted through the ages of the subsequent Sasanian Iranian Empire, during which the image of the shahanshah (“King of kings”) was transformed into that of a royal mounted hunter

and of a powerful knight riding legendary horses and defeating enemies in a tournament-like combat.

The iconography even of Ahuramazda was reinvented: the supreme god himself became a divine knight vesting kings in royalty and glory. The conquest by the Caliphate and conversion to Islam (seventh through ninth centuries) were unable to eliminate differences among ethnicities, social classes, and cultures. Specifically, Iranian forms of multiculturalism continued to thrive throughout the Saljuq and Mongol periods.

In addition, this period saw a successful search for a new all-Iranian identity, which began with the Safavid period in the sixteenth century. Millennia of Iranian history have created an unbelievably rich cultural heritage, which we would like to convey to Backdirt’s readers through a gallery of images taken during an archaeological trip to Iran in October and November of 2008. Let’s hope it will become possible to develop joint international archaeological proj-ects at such famous sites as Naqsh-e-Roustam and Bishapur. Many critically important questions con-cerning our human past await exploration through multidisciplinary research projects in Iran.

gregory e. areshian is a research associate and

visiting professor with the cotsen institute, the

department of history, and the department of

near eastern languages and cultures at ucla.

Figure 6: Persepolis: Relief on a door jamb in the “Council Hall” depicting the King of kings under an umbrella.

87 | Backdirt 2009

88 | Backdirt 2009

9

Figure 7: Naqsh-e Rajab: Rock relief depicting Shapur I (A.D. 241-272) on horseback followed by his courtiers and generals.

Figure 8: Taq-e Bostan: Relief depicting Khusraw II Parviz (‘the Victorious,” A.D. 590-628) riding his famous Armenian (according to the Persian poet Nizami of Ganja) horse Shabdiz. Another, less likely, hypothesis suggests that it may be a depiction of Peroz I (A.D. 457-484).

Figure 9 (right): Bishapur: Rock relief depicting Bahram I (A.D. 273-276) on his steed.

89 | Backdirt 2009

Figure 10: Yazd: Masjid-e Jami mosque founded by the Saljuqs and rebuilt by Mongol Ilkhans at the beginning of the 14th century.

Figure 11: Tabriz: Interior of Masjid-e Kabud (“The Blue Mosque”) completed in 1465 under Turkic Qara Qoyunlu Sultan Jahanshah and known throughout the Middle East as the “Turquoise of Islam.”

Figure 12: Hamedan: Tomb of Esther and Mordechai, a major Jew-ish holy place of pilgrimage; according to another version this is a mausoleum of Jewish queen Susan, wife of Sasanian King of kings Yazdgird I (A.D. 399-420). The extant building dates back to the Mongol Ilkhanid period.

90 | Backdirt 2009

Figure 13: Esfahan: The Armenian All Savior’s cathedral completed in 1663 presents a clear evidence of the Iranian Safavid architectural influ-ences on Christian architecture.

Figure 14: Esfahan: Chehel Sotun (The Forty Columns) Palace built by Shah Abbas II (1642-1666); 18th century wall painting depicting a Safavid lady wearing a European hat.

Figure 15: Shiraz: Inner courtyard garden of the Naranjestan Palace built in the 1870s under the Qajar Dynasty which housed the famous USA-Iranian Institute of Asia in the 1960s–1970s.

Figure 16-17: Shiraz: Reliefs in the Naranjestan Palace demonstrating attempts to revitalize the Achaemenid art after 2,400 years.

91 | Backdirt 2009

Figure 18: Yazd: General view of the modern Zoroastrian cemetery. Figure 19: Yazd: Altar of the Zoroastrian Atashkadeh fire temple; the legend holds that this sacred fire has been continuously burning since A.D. 470s even when trans-ported from one temple to another. The present temple was rebuilt six decades ago.

Figure 20: Esfahan: Mausoleum of the distinguished American researcher of Iranian art Arthur Upham Pope (1881-1969) and his wife Phyllis Ackerman built in Professor Pope Park on the bank of Zayandeh River.

92 | Backdirt 2009

&

Research in the development of complex technological systems in ancient Turkey has demonstrated that communities are often actively involved in a complex network of production, consump-tion, and exchange of raw materials and manufactured objects. This research has also shown us that these patterns of material use and exchange often develop together with socioeconomic, political, and religious aspects of ancient societies in both urban and rural landscapes.

Recent Research at Kerkenes DağBY JOSEPH LEHNER

at a short-lived iron age urban center in anatolia

Photograph of the ancient city on Kerkenes Dağ taken by hot air balloon during the 1993 field season. View from the north facing south. The heavily fortified city walls encircle the expan-sive remains of the city, where from this vantage point, urban compounds and streets are visible. Image courtesy of Geoffrey Summers.


How exactly technological systems are integrated into these landscapes, how-ever, becomes an increasingly difficult

feature to ascertain due to limitations in the archaeological record and methods of analysis. For example, many sites are fragmentary be-cause of later reuse, recycling, or natural causes of disturbance such as erosion—thus allowing only “palimpsest” perspectives of a site in both time and space. In addition, we are only recent-ly witnessing the rapidly developing field of archaeological chemistry. Developments in this field grant the extraordinary opportunity of garnering finer detail of not only the structural and compositional characteristics of materials but the decision-making processes involved in their exchange and manufacture on local and regional scales.

The heavily fortified urban center on the Kerkenes Dağ in central Turkey holds enor-mous promise for this research. Arguably the one of the largest pre-Hellenistic urban centers on the central Anatolian plateau, this short-lived Iron Age capital has been identi-fied as Pteria—a frontier capital among the expanding Lydian, Neo-Babylonian, and Persian Empires during the sixth and seventh centuries B.C. The site is traditionally thought to have been catastrophically destroyed by Croesus of Lydia in 547 B.C. Interestingly, re-cent research provides clear evidence for a city wide destruction, in addition to architecture, inscriptions, cult and material culture that are distinctly Phrygian in character. The ancient city was first surveyed and mapped by H. H. von der Osten and F. H. Blackburn in 1926,

The monumental entrance of the Palace Complex. The stone paved entranceway would have been flanked on either side by two massive columns and platforms before reaching a large wooden doorway. Image courtesy of Geoffrey Summers.

94 | Backdirt 2009

the Palatial Complex—located on a high flat ridge in the southern city—is evinced by the presence of a partial glaçis fortification, a monumental entrance, and a vast series of smaller internal structures. The architectural and material traditions so far evident at Kerkenes indicate that there existed a diverse series of buildings and possibly economically spe-cialized neighborhoods that existed simultaneously across the city.

Ongoing remote sensing has revealed nearly all of the 271-ha city plan, which has guided excavations in key areas in several urban contexts across the city. Other than a small Byzantine fortification, a small Late Roman/Byzantine-period village, and pastoral-ist usage of the site, virtually no other period of sub-stantial use is so far known to overlie the earlier Iron Age city. In addition, the two to three generations of urban occupation at the site provides for unusual chronological resolution. This affords us the op-portunity to treat the remains of the city as an urban laboratory where, unlike many urban sites, we can effectively begin to understand social and economic dynamics across most of the urban landscape within the city walls. For example, supercomputer-assisted agent-based models are currently being adapted by Branting and collaborators at the Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois to simulate pedestri-an movement, decision-making processes, and inter-action within the city. These data allow us to begin to reconstruct not only the city as it was abandoned but to begin to theorize and test how individuals once used and constructed urban space during the Iron Age in central Anatolia.

Extensive examination of the material remains from excavations is currently underway. In addi-tion to a unique array of intricately worked stone sculpture, inscriptions in Old Phrygian and frag-

and later examined by archaeological excavation by E. Schmidt in 1927 as part of the Hittite Expedition of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chi-cago. From 1991 to the present, Drs. Geoffrey and Françoise Summers of the Middle Eastern Technical University in Ankara and Dr. Scott Branting of the University of Chicago continue long-term research at the site involving extensive survey, remote sens-ing, and selective excavation.

The remains of the city cover the undulations of the low granitic mountain—not unlike other Anatolian sites, such as at Boğazkale, Göllüdağ, and Phrygian Ankara. The 7.5 km of city walls, con-structed entirely of uncut cyclopean masonry and a glaçis fortification, encircle the entire city and are punctuated by seven gates. The construction of the city indicates a certain degree of urban planning—with large rectangular urban blocks and compounds that are aligned according to an irregular though loosely radial network of long straight streets and pedestrian pathways.

The presence of at least two large open spaces in the northeast city near the so-called Cappadocian Gate and the Lower City may have been focal points of interaction. At the same time, restricted space at

Left: Map of Kerkenes Dağ.

Right: North central Anatolia with location of Kerkenes Dağ and

other important archaeological sites. Base map attributed ESRI 2008.

95 | Backdirt 2009

ments of ivory furniture inlay, a diverse assemblage of well preserved metal objects represent yet another facet of the highly specialized metallurgical tradi-tion well known in Anatolia. Stylistically, Phrygian metalwork is relatively well known. However, the technological processes involved in their production and which specific raw materials were used await further elaboration.

One aspect of my own research is the charac-terization of the techniques and materials used in the metallurgical traditions known to Kerkenes. By understanding the specific technologies employed, it will become increasingly possible to elucidate the relationship between technology and society at that time. One facet of this study involves the precise measurement of lead isotopes to assess probable pro-venience of the raw materials used to manufacture

the finished metal objects. Theoretically, every metal ore source has a unique composition that is charac-terized by its mineralization and geological age such that radiogenic and stable isotopes can be used to “fingerprint” each respective ore source.

By comparing the isotopic fingerprints of finished metal objects to the known ore sources, it is possible to infer with often high degrees of probability from which ore sources the raw materials came. Isotopic signatures may also be used to determine if metal-smiths recycled expended metal objects. Once these analyses are completed for all objects, larger patterns of metals exchange should no doubt emerge. These combined data will shed light on the ancient tech-nological practices once employed by the Iron Age craft specialists and no doubt form a crucial body of information that may allow the inference of social

Left: The city walls preserve even today a sense of monumentality.

At the rear of this image and built upon a rise of exposed bedrock

are the remains of the Byzantine fortification.

Top right: The view in this image is taken from near to the Cap-

padocian Gate, which has a clear view of the southern and eastern

horizons. A major east-west trade route passed through this

region, which guided merchants from Persia, Assyria, Babylonia

and Lydia to cities like that at Kerkenes Dağ. The high mountain in

the disance is the Erciyes Dağ, a 3916 m (12,847 ft) stratovolcano in

northern Cappadocia.

Bottom right: From within the city, one has a clear view of nearly

all horizons. To the north and east are several metal ore resources

in the Pontic and Akdağ Mountains that the residents of Kerkenes

Dağ exploited and used to manufacture finished metal objects.

96 | Backdirt 2009

Top left: A copper tin alloy plaque, pierced along the edges for its attachment to leather or

clothing. The top square contains the image of a lowering bull with an upwardly curved tail.

The bottom square, though heavily fragmented, contains the image of a griffon. Both images

are surrounded by a series of small stylized rivets that are separately attached. Conservation by

Noel Siver. Photo by Murat Akar.

Bottom left: Bun-shaped ingot of lead. Lead was readily available and commonly used in

ancient Anatolia. It was used for many aspects of metal technology, including alloying, casting

and in the manufacture of specific objects such as small trinkets and personal adornments.

Lead ingots were readily transported and exchanged in this convenient shape across much of

the ancient Near East. Photo by Murat Akar.

Bottom right: Copper tin alloy sheet metal cut and worked into the bottom portion of an ibex.

This example is one of two that were found buried at the Palace Complex monumental en-

trance. Small nail piercings indicate that these stylized metal ibexes may have been fastened

to the surface of the wooden palace doors. Conservation by Noel Siver. Photo by Murat Akar.

Metal Artifacts

97 | Backdirt 2009

and economic patterning within the urban makeup of the ancient city. In addition, we can also begin to understand how the residents of the ancient city on the Kerkenes Dağ participated in broad regional exchange networks during this period of large scale geopolitical negotiation and reconfiguration.

By combining materials analysis with the patterns inferred from the excavations and urban surveys of the ancient city on the Kerkenes Dağ, we come closer to understanding precisely how various communi-ties interacted and related not only within the city but with other regions. The chronological resolution of the site will allow for a broad pan-urban assess-ment of metal usage, providing for a unique look at how people took part in technological systems and exchange. This research will continue at Kerkenes Dağ as part of my master’s and dissertation research, and I look forward to continuing work at the site in the coming years. I owe many thanks to the Kerkenes Dağ project directors Geoffrey and Françoise Sum-mers and Scott Branting for their support in this research, to my academic advisor Elizabeth Carter, Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at NELC, and to Professor David Scott, David Scott, Professor of Art History and Chair of the UCLA/Getty Conserva-tion Program, who has offered much assistance and guidance in this project. The Kerkenes Dağ web site can be found at www.kerkenes.metu.edu.tr.

joseph lehner is a student in the interdepart-mental archaeology graduate program at ucla.

Further Reading:

Branting, Scott A., Yanwei Wu, Rangamani Sri-krishnan, and Mark R. Altaweel

2007 SHULGI: A Geospatial Tool for Modeling Hu-man Movement and Interaction. Proceedings of the Agent 2007 Conference on Complex Interaction and Social Emergence. Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois.

Draycott, Catherine, and Geoffrey Summers2008 Sculpture and Inscriptions from The Monumen-tal Entrance to The Palatial Complex at Kerkenes Dağ, Turkey. Oriental Institute Press, Chicago.

Schmidt, Erich F.1929 Test Excavations in the City on Kerkenes Dagh. American Journal of Semitic Languages and Litera-tures 45(4):83–92.

Summers, Geoffrey1997 The Identification of the Iron Age City on Kerkenes Dağ in Central Anatolia. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 56(2):81–94.2001 Keykavus Kale and Associated Remains on the Kerkenes Dağ in Cappadocia, Central Turkey. Anatolia Antiqua 9:39-60.2006 Aspects of Material Culture at the Iron Age Capital on the Kerkenes Dağ in Central Anatolia. Ancient Near Eastern Studies 43:164–202.

Summers, Geoffrey, and Françoise Summers2008 A Preliminary Interpretation of Remote Sens-ing and Selective Excavation at the Palatial Com-plex, Kerkenes. Anatolia Antiqua 16:53–76.

Yener, K. Aslıhan2000 The Domestication of Metals: The Rise of Com-plex Metal Industries in Anatolia. Brill, Leiden.

Left: Soaking copper rich artifacts in a diluted solution of EDTA pro-

vides a way to semi-invasively sample the objects for trace levels of

lead without having to remove solid samples. The lead enriched

solutions are then collected into a vial for simple transport back to

Los Angeles, where they will be analyzed using TOF-ICP-MS.

Right: The author taking samples at the dighouse depot at

Kerkenes Dağ.

98 | Backdirt 2009

Between the Lines »

ACTING DIRECTOR WINS 2009 SAA BOOK AWARD

LOTHAR VON FALKENHAUSEN, Acting Director of the Cotsen Institute and Professor of Art History, won the 2009 Society for American Archaeology (SAA) Book Award for his publication Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000-250 BC): The Archaeological Evidence, published by the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press in 2006. This is an exciting honor for both Falkenhausen and the Cotsen Institute, as it marks the Press’ first award.

With only two titles selected for the prize each year, Falkenhausen’s book was awarded because of its high quality content, writing, organization and presentation. It is also given because it “is expected to influence strongly the direction and character of archaeological research, and/or contribute to our knowledge of the archaeology of a particular reason,” according to the SAA Web site.

In the volume, Falkenhausen develops a self-consciously archaeological perspective on the social conditions in this time. He analyzes clan and lineage organization, social stratification, gender and ethnic differences, as well as social change over time. Falkenhausen not only presents new data, but also thinks about these data in new ways, empha-

sizing the nexus between the social order and ritual practices and introducing anthropological ap-proaches as-yet rarely tested in China.

He accepted the Book Award at the SAA annual meeting in Atlanta, GA on April 24, 2009, during an award ceremony in which he received a plaque. A reception hosted by the Cotsen Institute Press was held in the exhibit hall the same day in the Cotsen Institute booth to celebrate Falkenhausen’s achievement. Reception attendees enjoyed spar-kling wine and fruit dipped in a chocolate fountain while discussing the book with the author.

As exemplified by his award-winning publica-tion, Falkenhausen is strongly drawn to topics that involve the meeting of archaeological evidence and historical texts, and has been interested in bringing out some of the methodological challenges in this. He is particularly interested in making archaeologi-cal evidence speak to issues in the history of science and technology; examples for this include his long-term research on ancient Chinese musical instru-ments and acoustics (published in the form of an earlier book, Suspended Music: Chime-Bells in the Culture of Bronze Age China [1993], and a number

BY SHAUNA K. MECARTEA

At the CIOA booth during the 2009 SAA meeting in Atlanta. From left: Shauna Mecartea, Rowan Flad (Archaeology Program alum and Associate Professor of Anthropol-ogy at Harvard), Lothar von Falkenhausen, and Elizabeth Klarich.

99 | Backdirt 2009

of articles), as well as his ongoing fieldwork on salt production in China that began in 1999.

Falkenhausen came to UCLA as an Associate Professor of Art History in 1993 and was promoted to Professor in 1997. Since 2004, he has concurrently served as the Associate Director of the Cotsen Insti-tute, a position that was recently renewed for a sec-ond five-year term. In addition to his active research program and mentoring of students at UCLA, Falkenhausen has been pivotal in the development of East Asian archaeology across the campus. In 2006, Falkenhausen collaborated with the Deans of Humanities and Social Sciences and colleagues from several departments to formulate a successful Institutional Enhancement Grant for East Asian Archaeology from the Luce Foundation. This grant resulted in the hire of a second specialist in Chinese archaeology—Li Min (Ph.D. University of Michigan, 2008)—and also supports a slew of visiting scholars from East Asia over the next three years, culminat-ing in an international conference on the economic archaeology of ancient East Asia in 2010.

Currently, Falkenhausen is working on a num-ber of projects: a book-length synthesis of economic

dynamics in pre-Imperial China; a project on the history of antiquarianism in China sponsored by the Getty Foundation; a full commented translation of the Zhou li, the only one of the Thirteen Confu-cian Classics never to be translated into English; and editing of a projected two-volume publication of Mr. Lloyd Cotsen’s collection of Chinese mirrors, which will be forthcoming in 2009 and 2010. An international conference on Chinese mirrors will be held at UCLA in late 2009, and there are plans for a traveling exhibition, at the end of which the collec-tion will be donated to an institution in China. Af-ter completing his term as Acting Director of the Cotsen Institute this summer, Falkenhausen will continue to pursue his active role at the Institute as scholar and mentor, while contributing to the further development of East Asian archaeology at UCLA.


communications at the cotsen institute.

Shauna Mecartea and Eric Gardner prepare for the reception at the CIOA booth in honor of Profes-sor von Falkenhausen’s award.

100 | Backdirt 2009

CELEBRATING LLOYD COTSEN ON HIS 80TH BIRTHDAY

On March 3, 2009, Scott L. Waugh, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, and Chip Stanish, Direc-tor of the Cotsen Institute, hosted a reception to celebrate the 80th birthday of longtime benefactor Mr. Lloyd Cotsen. At the reception, Waugh, Stanish, Ernestine Elster, Research Associate, and Marla Berns, Director of the Fowler Museum, spoke of Mr. Cotsen’s contributions to the Institute and UCLA in general, highlighting his generosity and vision.

A slideshow illustrating his participation in field archaeology and his sponsorship of Cotsen Institute faculty and student projects was displayed at the venue. He was also given a photo album showcasing his many years of involvement at UCLA. Cake and a champagne toast ended a lovely evening on the Fowler Terrace. The faculty, staff and students of the Cotsen Institute thank Mr. Cotsen for his years of friendship, guidance and support.

101 | Backdirt 2009

102 | Backdirt 2009

A DIGITAL FUTURE: MULTIPLE INITIATIVES LAUNCHED BY THE COTSEN INSTITUTEBY SHAUNA K. MECARTEA

THE COTSEN INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY (CIOA) PUBLICATIONS OFFICE is pleased to announce the continuation and launch of several digital initiatives throughout 2009 in an effort to further the dissemination of archaeology at UCLA and beyond. In October of 2008, the Publications Office launched a newly designed web site for the Cotsen Institute. This web site embodies the Cotsen Institute’s new brand, which incorporates the new UCLA identity and reflects the Institute’s mission and vision. As part of a larger Institute project called the Communications Initiative, which began in the summer of 2007, the new web site was complemented with updated print promotional material.

Special features on the web site include a Flash-driven home-page highlight; RSS subscriptions to our News, Events, and Publications feeds; mul-timedia resources such as podcasts and stream-ing videos; iCal and vCal downloads for events; and more. The web site also hosts an Interactive Research Map, which highlights Cotsen Institute research projects, field programs, and internships on an interactive global map. In addition, Cotsen Insti-tute donors and friends can now contribute to the Institute and join Friends of Archaeology online.

The Publications Office is proud to have partici-pated in this project, which was generously sup-ported by Cotsen Institute Director Charles Stanish and the Administration Office, and hope that the new Cotsen Institute brand reflects the dynamic environment that is CIOA. In an effort to produce innovative digital publications, the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press (formerly the Publications Unit) launched its eScholarship repository account online in November of 2008. The repository is a ser-vice of the eScholarship initiative of the California Digital Library, and is an open-access publishing platform that offers UC departments, centers, and research units direct control over the creation and dissemination of the full range of their scholar-ship—including journals and peer-reviewed series, postprints, and seminar papers. These materials are freely available to the public online.

Through our online branded account, eScholar-ship will host the newly established Cotsen Digital Archaeology (CDA) series. The CDA series presents the results of original archaeological and conserva-

tion research through digitally initiated and acces-sible publications that integrate innovative multi-media and data links. The series is made available through eScholarship at no cost to consumers. All digital publications will be available in print format for a fee through print-on-demand services.

Several pilot publications are in production and will be available beginning 2010. Ellen Pearl-stein, Assistant Professor of Information Science and Conservation Program faculty member, is editing the first publication in this series. In ad-dition to the CDA series, Cotsen Institute Press will offer postprints of previously published titles on our eScholarship account. (Our Cotsen In-stitute Press repository account can be visited at http://repositories.cdlib.org/cioa.)

eScholarship provides alternative publication services online for the UC community, supports widespread distribution of the materials that result from research and teaching at UC, and fosters new models of scholarly publishing through develop-ment and application of advanced technologies. Cotsen Institute Press is proud to be participating in this publishing program, and looks forward to producing the first volume in the new digital series.

Last, as part of the marketing of the UCLA Field Archaeology Program the Publications Office collaborated with University Communications to launch a video and text blog on the UCLA Maga-zine web site. The video and text blog highlight the unique experiences of the participants of the Fayum Field School in Egypt as they learn about archaeological method and theory in the field. The project—codirected by Willeke Wendrich, Associ-ate Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cul-tures—has received extensive press due to it being the first archaeological field program in Egypt to allow U.S. undergraduates to participate.

The episode installments for the video blog, edited by the Publications Office, can be viewed on the Cotsen Institute web site at www.ioa.ucla.edu/multimedia-resources or on our Playlist on UCLA’s YouTube channel. The multime-dia and digital initiatives launched by the Cotsen Institute mark a new era and an innovative way of engaging with and informing the public and other scholars about recent archaeological research and programs offered by the Cotsen Institute.

103 | Backdirt 2009

BY SHAUNA K. MECARTEA

CELEBRATING MACHU PICCHU AT THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM

THE COTSEN INSTITUTE PRESS celebrated the publication of Machu Picchu: Exploring An Ancient Sacred Center (Fourth Revised Edition) by Johan Reinhard with a public book lecture and private reception at the Natural History Museum (NHM) of Los Angeles County in January of 2008. Reinhard, Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society and Senior Research Fellow at the Mountain Institute and famed for his discovery of the Ice Maiden, has been conducting anthropological field research in the Andean countries of Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Ecuador for more than 20 years.

The volume, which marked the first in our new series World Heritage and Monuments, examines Peru’s Machu Picchu—one of the world’s most famous archaeological sites—from the perspective of sacred landscape and archaeoastronomy. Using information gathered from historical, archaeologi-cal, and ethnographical sources, Reinhard demon-strates in the full-color book that the site is situated at the center of numerous sacred mountains—sev-eral of which are associated with the sun’s passage. Machu Picchu formed a cosmological and sacred geographical center for a vast region. Reinhard also examines some key architectural features at Machu Picchu and nearby sites, interpreting them as forming parts of this ceremonial center, where economic, political, and religious factors combined in one of the most rugged areas of Peru.

During his talk, which was held in the North American Mammal Hall while stuffed birds and reptiles peered out from the famous dioramas, Reinhard presented important insights and breath-taking images from his volume. After the presenta-tion, Reinhard was available for book signing. The reception in the museum foyer, which is home to a life-size tyrannosaurus rex replica made famous recently in the film Night at the Museum, bustled with Cotsen Institute donors and affiliates enjoying Peruvian appetizers and drinks to the sounds of traditional Andean music.

The book lecture, cosponsored by the Cotsen Institute and the NHM, proved successful and the Cotsen Institute hopes that this type of collabora-tion will continue into the future. Since its launch, Machu Picchu has been heralded by K. Kris Hurst at About.com as “a perfect travel edition,” as it “has

lots of engaging prose detailing the history and cur-rent archaeological understanding of Machu Picchu and the Inca empire who built it.”

for more information about machu picchu or

our other publications, please visit our web site

at www.ioa.ucla.edu/publications/browse-books.

104 | Backdirt 2009

The Archaeology of Mobility: Old World and New World Nomadism

EDITED BY HANS BARNARD AND WILLEKE WENDRICH

COTSEN ADVANCED SEMINARS 4ISBN: 978-1-931745-49-9 (P), 978-1-931745-50-5 (C)$55 PAPER, $89.95 CLOTH

A majority of laymen, politicians and scholars consciously or subconsciously understand settled living as the highest rung on the evolutionary ladder. Accounts of people surviving and even thriving in peripheral areas are often instrumental to construct and maintain the dichotomy between ‘the desert and the sown.’ It is sometimes stated that mobile peoples obtain their material culture from neighboring settled populations, rather than produce their own, and that they do not leave recognizable archaeological traces apart from ‘ephem-eral campsites.’ From the 24 chapters in this volume, however, it is clear that there is indeed an ‘archaeology of mobility.’ By applying specific and well-defined methods, it is eminently possible to come to a better understanding of mobile people in archaeological contexts. Such an archaeology of mobility encompasses much more than tracing ephemeral campsites. Much like any other group, mobile people produce, appear to use and discard a distinct material culture which includes functional objects, art and architecture. This book provides a ready-made reference to this world-wide phenomenon and is unique in that it tries to re-define pastoralism within a larger context by the term mobility. It presents many new ideas and thoughtful approaches, especially in the Central Asian region.

The South American Camelids

BY DUCCIO BONAVIA

MONOGRAPH 64ISBN: 978-1-931745-41-3 CLOTH, 978-1-931745-40-6 PAPER$110 CLOTH, $75 PAPER

In this book, Duccio Bonavia tackles major questions about camelids, from their domestica-tion to their distribution at the time of the Spanish conquest. One of Bonavia’s hypotheses is that the arrival of the Europeans and their introduced Old World animals forced the Andean camelids away from the Pacific coast, creating the (mistaken) impression that cam-elids were exclusively high-altitude animals. Bonavia also addresses the diseases of camelids and their population density, suggesting that the original camelid populations suffered from a different type of mange than that introduced by the Europeans. This new mange, he believes, was one of the causes behind the great morbidity of camelids in Colonial times. In terms of domestication, while Bonavia believes that the major centers must have been the puna zone intermediate zones, he adds that the process should not be seen as restricted to a single environmental zone.

Bonavia’s landmark study of the South American camelids is now available for the first time in English. This new edition features an updated analysis and comprehensive bibliog-raphy. This book will be of broad interest to archaeologists, zoologists, social anthropolo-gists, ethnohistorians, and a wide range of students.

NEW TITLES FROM THE COTSEN INSTITUTE PRESS: 2008-09

Between the Lines »

105 | Backdirt 2009

Excavations at Cerro Azul, Peru: The Architecture and Pottery

BY JOYCE MARCUS


During the Late Intermediate period (AD 1100-1470), the lower Cafiete Valley of Peru was controlled by the walled Kingdom of Huarco. While inland sites produced irrigated crops, the seaside community of Cerro Azul, 130 km south of Lima, produced fish for the rest of the kingdom. Cerro Azul’s noble families lived in large, multipurpose compounds with tapia walls. Their pottery had its strongest ties with valleys to the south, such as Chincha and Ica.

This volume is the final site report on the architecture and pottery of Late Intermediate Cerro Azul. During the course of excavation, the University of Michigan Project excavated two tapia buildings in their entirety, saving every sherd from every room, walled work area, feature, and midden. The Project determined the function of every room, including those whose functions changed over time, owing to seismic damage. The Cerro Azul pottery was analyzed using the type-variety system, with petrographic analyses of local and nonlocal varieties by James Stoltman.

Chavín: Art, Architecture and Culture

EDITED BY WILLIAM J. CONKLIN AND JEFFREY QUILTER


This book is the first in more than a decade to provide new information on the Chavín phe-nomenon of ancient Peru. Thought by some to be the “Mother Culture” of ancient Peruvian cultures, Chavín is remarkable for its baroque, sophisticated art style in a variety of media, including finely carved stone monuments, beautifully formed pottery, and magnificent and complex metallurgy. Also, the textiles from Chavín are incredibly innovative, both iconographically and structurally. They, in fact, form the foundation for the later Andean textile evolution. Chapters in this book cover new interpretations of the history of the site of Chavín de Huantar, studies of related cultures, the role of shamanism, and many other top-ics of interest to specialists and the general reader, alike.

Andean Civilization: A Tribute to Michael E. Moseley

EDITED BY JOYCE MARCUS AND PATRICK RYAN WILLIAMS

MONOGRAPH 63ISBN: 978-1-931745-54-3 CLOTH, 978-1-931745-53-6 PAPER$50 PAPER, $80 CLOTH

This volume brings together exciting new field data by more than two dozen Andean schol-ars who came together to honor their friend, colleague, and mentor.

These new studies cover the enormous temporal span of Moseley’s own work from the Preceramic era to the Tiwanaku and Moche states to the Inka empire. And, like Moseley’s own studies — from Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization to Chan Chan: The Des-ert City to Cerro Bául’s Brewery — these new studies involve settlements from all over the Andes — from the far northern highlands to the far southern coast. The papers in this book demonstrate the enormous breadth and influence of Moseley’s work and the vibrant range of scholarship by his former students and collaborators in fieldwork.

106 | Backdirt 2009

Jeanne E. Arnold

Jeanne Arnold (Professor of Anthropology) continues work on three primary research projects. Two proj-ects focus on complex hunter-gatherers on the North American Pacific Coast and the third is a modern material culture study of contemporary Los Angeles households. Ongoing work on the Channel Islands centers on evidence for the invention of Chumash plank canoe, craft production systems and political economy on the northern Channel Islands, and the role of property ownership in the emergence of politi-cal leadership. Work also continues with the Department of Anthropology’s Center on Everyday Lives of Families.

P. Jeffrey Brantingham

Jeff Brantingham (Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Anthropology) was recently promoted to As-sociate Professor. He continues to conduct research on paleoanthropology of the Tibetan Plateau, method and theory, evolutionary theory and simulation modeling. One of his projects is the UC MaSC (Math-ematical and Simulation of Crime) Project, which is funded by the Human Social Dynamics Program at the National Science Foundation. The project integrates theoretical, methodological and empirical work to develop analytical and computational models of crime pattern formation. Simultaneous development of mathematical and simulation models, as well as empirical testing, will provide a guide for the experi-mental use of these tools in the social sciences. Also, the interdisciplinary foundation of the project will provide a model for collaboration between mathematicians and social scientists.

Aaron Burke

Aaron Burke (Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures) is the co-director of the Jaffa Cultural Heritage Project (JCHP), an interdisciplinary cultural heritage project with a research focus on the history and archaeology of Jaffa in Tel Aviv, Israel. Initiated in January 2007, the project is a collaborative effort between its senior partners, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and UCLA, and other partners in-cluding The Gutenberg Universität in Mainz (Germany) and the Old Jaffa Development Company. Burke re-ceived a Shelby White-Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publication Grant for 2008–2009 with Dr. M. Peilstöcker, co-director of JCHP, for the publication of Bronze and Iron Age remains from Jacob Kaplan’s excavations in Jaffa. He will also be directing a UCLA Archaeology Field Program at Jaffa in 2009.

Elizabeth Carter

Liz Carter (Professor and Chair of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures) continues work at the site of Domuztepe. The site, located at a major crossroads between highlands and lowlands along the Syro-Anatolian frontier of south central Turkey, has been the focus of survey and excavation projects since 1995. In order to share the results of this project and others in the region, Carter and her students hosted a variety of speakers through the Anatolian Research Interest Group, which met on many Friday afternoons throughout the school year at the Cotsen Institute.

COTSEN INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY CORE FACULTY

107 | Backdirt 2009

Kathlyn (Kara) Cooney

Kara Cooney (Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures) is an Egyptian art and archae-ology expert (see page 18). She earned her PhD in Near Eastern Studies from Johns Hopkins University in 2002. She has been part of major archaeological excavations in Egypt at the royal temple site of Dahshur, elite Theban tombs and the craftsmen’s village of Deir el Medina. Cooney has taught at Stanford, UCLA, and Howard University. In 2005, she was co-curator at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for “Tut-ankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs.” In 2002, she was Kress fellow at the National Gallery of Art where she was involved with the installation of the Cairo Museum exhibition “Quest for Immortality: Treasures of Ancient Egypt.” Her first book, The Cost of Death: The Social and Economic Value of Ancient Egyptian Funerary Art in the Ramesside Period was published in 2007. Welcome, Kara!

Christopher B. Donnan

Chris Donnan (Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and Chair of the Cotsen Institute Executive Com-mittee) retired in fall 2008 with plans to continue research in the Moche Archive at the Cotsen Institute. As the first Cotsen Summer Scholar in Archaeology, Donnan spent one month in residence at the School of Advanced Research. During his month-long stay in Santa Fe, Donnan utilized this uninterrupted time and wonderful workspace to write extensively and meet a number of scholars in the area. He completed an article on Moche state religion and made significant progress on a book about the excavations of Dos Ca-bezas, which will be a companion guide to the popular Moche Tombs at Dos Cabezas published last year by the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press. Also, Donnan is close to completing a book on the excava-tion of Chotuna, a site that corresponds to an ancient Peruvian legend.

Susan B. Downey

Susan Downey (Professor of Art History) has been a member of the Mission Franco-Syrienne de Dura-Eu-ropos (Syria) since 1988 and continues to instruct, publish and lecture on the results of this multi-year proj-ect. While she contributes significantly to the Interdepartmental Archaeology Graduate Program through the instruction and mentorship of graduate students, she is also very active in a number of key administra-tive committees at UCLA. Downey also regularly teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Greek and Roman art and archaeology and travels for public and university lectures on her research in Syria and Iraq.

Ioanna Kakoulli

Ioanna Kakoulli (Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering with joint appointment in the UCLA/Getty Master’s Program in the Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials) oper-ates in the multidisciplinary field of archaeological sciences (interfacing science and archaeology) with research interest in the study of material culture from the macro to the nano-length scale using novel non-invasive and non-destructive techniques and portable imaging and spectroscopic technologies. She is the director of the Archaeomaterials Group (http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/ioa/archaeogroup/), and co-director of the Tarapacá Valley Archaeological Project in northern Chile and project ByzanTiuM (Byzantine Tech-nique and Materials) in Cyprus.

108 | Backdirt 2009

Richard Lesure

Richard Lesure’s (Associate Professor of Anthropology) interests include ancient belief systems, social rela-tions, and sociopolitical organization, as well as the conceptual framework of archaeology and the history of anthropological thought. His field research has concerned pre-state (“Formative”) societies of Mesoamerica and he has worked along the Pacific coast of Chiapas and in the highland state of Tlaxcala. In February 2008, he organized a small conference of scholars working on Archaic to Formative sociopolitical transfor-mations in the Soconusco area of coastal Mexico. The conference, hosted at the Cotsen Institute, included archaeologists with a number of specializations and incorporated multiple geographical, temporal, and analytical scales of analysis to address the period of 4000-400 BC in Chiapas. Lesure edited a manuscript entitled Early Formative Soconusco: El Varal and the Problem of Inter-Site Assemblage Variation that was accepted for publication by the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press and will be available this summer.

Li Min

Li Min (Assistant Professor of Asian Languages and Cultures) received his PhD in Anthropology from the University of Michigan in 2008, and his MA in Anthropology from University of British Columbia in 2000. He was hired Fall Quarter 2008. Focusing mostly on Chinese archaeology, Li has co-directed excava-tions at Daxinzhuang funded by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, conducted lab research on faunal remains and ceramics, and participated in land survey, and underwater reconnais-sance on shipwrecks and coastal settlement sites at Changdao Archipelago (see page 72). Welcome, Min!

Kathryn J. McDonnell

Kathryn McDonnell (Assistant Professor of Classics) is a Classical archaeologist interested in various aspects of Italian archaeology, particularly the material culture and archaeology of the Roman Empire. She co-directed the excavations at San Martino in Torano di Borgorose, Italy. Her research interests include Roman tombs, the archaeology of non-elites, the archaeology of gender, Latin epigraphy, and historical and Roman slavery. Her current project is a book on Roman tombs and the construction of social identities.

Sarah Morris

Since 2004, Sarah Morris (Steinmetz Professor of Classical Archaeology and Material Culture in the Department of Classics and Advisor of the Post-baccalaureate Program in Classics), along with John K. Papadopoulos, and Lorenc Bejko (ICAA & Institute of Archaeology) have been co-directing the excavation of the burial tumulus at the site of Lofkënd. The project was carried out as a collaboration of the Cotsen Institute, the International Center for Albanian Archaeology (ICAA) and the Institute of Archaeology, Tirana. The overall aim of the Lofkënd Archaeological Project was to initiate protohistoric investigations in south-central Albania and the final season of excavations at the Early Iron Age tumulus was in 2007 (see page 50). Morris is also exploring Bronze Age vessels from Greece to trace the early development of wine and wine-related materials.

109 | Backdirt 2009

John K. Papadopoulos

The primary research projects of John Papadopoulos (Professor of Classics) all have to do with the theme of death and particularly burial grounds in the formative period between ca. 1200 and 600 B.C. He is actively involved in the excavation, research, and publication of three important Early Iron Age cemeter-ies: the burial tumulus of Lofkënd in Albania (see page 50), the Early Iron Age cemeteries in the area of the Athenian Agora, and the cemetery that spans the Late Bronze Age through the early Classical period at the site of Liatovouni in Epirus, northwest Greece. Research on these cemeteries—one in the heart of the ancient Greek world, the other two on its periphery—are dispelling scholarly notions of a “Dark Age” and are showing that this is a formative period that led directly to the creation of the ancient Greek city-state.

Ellen Pearlstein

In addition to her research interests (see page 48), Ellen Pearlstein (Assistant Professor of Information Studies with joint appointment in the UCLA/Getty Master’s Program in the Conservation of Archaeo-logical and Ethnographic Materials) continues to promote collaborative conservation education. In 2008, Pearlstein received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities and hosted a symposium entitled, “Storage Symposium: Preservation and Access to Archaeological Materials” (see page 15). The results of the symposium will be published electronically through the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press in their new digital publications series.

Gregson Schachner

Greg Schachner (Assistant Professor of Anthropology) is a Southwestern archaeologist currently work-ing on three primary research projects: completing a book manuscript based upon his recently completed fieldwork in the El Morro Valley of New Mexico; continuing his examination of social developments during the Pueblo I period (A.D. 700-900); and establishing a long-term research project east of Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. Schachner is also working with Tiffany Clark, a Research Associate of the Cotsen Institute, to organize and manage the extensive collections of materials from the Pajarito Archaeo-logical Research Program, a major research project (1977-1981) directed by the late Professor James N. Hill.

David A. Scott

David Scott’s (Professor of Art History and Chair of the UCLA/Getty Master’s Program in the Conserva-tion of Archaeological and Ethnographic Materials) principal interests are the analysis of museum objects, the characterization of pigments, ancient metals and microstructure, the teaching of conservation, and the archaeometallurgy of pre-Hispanic Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. He is involved in a number of research projects, including recent data collection from museum objects at the San Diego Museum of Man, and keeps the members of the Cotsen Institute regularly updated with quarterly Pizza Talks.

110 | Backdirt 2009

Monica L. Smith

Monica Smith (Associate Professor of Anthropology and Chair of the Interdepartmental Archaeology Graduate Program), along with Dr. R.K. Mohanty, directs the excavation project at Sisupalgarh, India, an ancient city of the early centuries A.D. (see page 60). Smith’s research examines the role of cities for the ordinary person in the past, and how urbanism developed as centers of economic, social, ritual and political networks. She also sustains a long-term interest in the archaeology of food, the growth of ancient states and empires, and the way in which ordinary goods define and sustain trade networks in both the past and the present. Recent publications include papers in Cambridge Archaeological Journal, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, Complexity, and reports of fieldwork published with her colleagues in Indian journals.

Charles S. Stanish

Chip Stanish (Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Cotsen Institute), his graduate students, and Peruvian colleagues have continued their excavations and mapping of a major settlement complex in the northern Titicaca Basin of Peru. This area, known as Taraco, housed a massive mound and pyra-mid complex from approximately 1400 B.C. to A.D. 900. Excavations revealed adobe pyramids that were constructed in the first millennium A.D. along with earlier complex architecture from the first millen-nium B.C. Based on years of field research in the Titicaca Basin, Stanish has been writing a volume for the Cotsen Institute’s new World Heritage and Monument Series.


Lothar von Falkenhausen’s (Professor of Art History and Associate Director of Cotsen Institute) inter-est comprises Chinese archaeology in all its aspects, including connections with other parts of Eurasia. Falkenhausen is serving as Acting Director of the Cotsen Institute for Winter and Spring 2009 while con-ducting a number of interdisciplinary projects both in the US and abroad. His publication, Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000-250 B.C.): The Archaeological Evidence, won the 2009 Society for American Archaeology Book Award, which is an exciting honor for both Falkenhausen and the Cotsen Institute, as it marks the Press’ first award (page 98).

Willeke Z. Wendrich

Willeke Wendrich (Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures) is co-directing a UCLA excavation and survey project in Egypt that concentrates on the landscape around Lake Qarun in the Fayum Oasis, and specifically the development of agriculture. In cooperation with the Rijksuniversiteits Groningen (the Netherlands) and archaeobotanist/co-director René Cappers, the project concentrates on the two major periods in which agriculture was developed in this region: the Neolithic and the Greco-Roman periods. Her last field season hosted a field school through the UCLA Archaeology Field Program, marking the first time US undergraduates were able to work on a project in Egypt. Wendrich is also Editor-in-Chief of the recently launched UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology online, a worldwide coopera-tion of Egyptologists, archaeologists, linguists, art historians, geologists and all other disciplines that are involved in research in Egypt. She also is the Faculty Director of the UCLA Digital Humanities Incubator Group and a member of the Cotsen Institute Digital Initiative Committee and the Editorial Board.

111 | Backdirt 2009

We want to take this opportunity to thank the donors who supported us this year. Everyone who donates helps to make the Cotsen In-stitute a special place and we appreciate the efforts of the members of the Friends of Archaeology, the Director’s Council, and those who support our labs and archives.

Donor news is available on the Cotsen Institute web site and in our e-newsletters. Please regularly visit www.ioa.ucla.edu/news to learn about latest Institute news and accomplishments or sign up for a RSS feed at www.ioa.ucla.edu/rss-subscription to receive updates auto-matically. To receive our bi-annual e-newsletter please e-mail [email protected]. Thank you!

Abbamontian, James A. Absalom, Phyllis L.Adelson, Harold E.Anderson, Darlene T. ArchaeoPaleo Resource Management, Inc.Areshian, Gregory E.Arnold, DeborahThe Arvey Foundation Bailey, Jeanne McKenzieBaker, Douglas A.Baldwin, James E.Bambush, J. A.Bartley, Pamela HuntBass, Harris D. and MargaretBeaudry-Corbett, Marilyn P.Bendat, JuliusBernacchi, Bernard D. and Eugenia B.Bernard, Nancy S.Birdsong, Mary EvansBlackwell, Patricia RenayeBoochever, David R. and KathleenBrady, James E. Bretney, John C.Brooks, Elizabeth J.Bruce Ford Brown Charitable TrustBuccellati, Giorgio and MarilynBuescher, Jim and RobertaButler, Randall D.Cahill, William H. and FrancesCairns, John P.Cano, WendyCascadden, Neil and SharonHarry and Ovsanna Chitjian Family FoundationCiervo, Kathy StephensCivalleri, Roger and PatriciaConte, Courtney B.Corbett, DonCostin, Cathy LynneCotsen, Lloyd and MargitCotsen 1985 TrustCowley, Marjorie H.Crouse, Carol

Crowell, Frederick P.Deal, Nan H.Diamant, JacquelinDillon, Dejon M.Donohue, SallyDuque, James M. and MercedesDusette, Guanda MDye, Willie E.Elster Family Survivors TrustElster, ErnestineEve, DebraFahey, Janet L.Fitzpatrick, NigelThe Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation Girey, HelleGloege, GwynneGottesman Family TrustGrancell, ShermanGrasse, GaleHalfon, Oli Healy, Patrick K.Hector, Bruce P.Henderson Jr., Theodore C.Herrman, William H.Hersholt, Janet R. Hession, Edwin and CathleenHilton, Michael R. Holman, Rose-LeeHolmes, Marillyn H.Holz, John F. and MargueriteHull, Gordon E.Hullett, KatherineJacobson, Lawrence H.Johnson, Tracy E. and Barbara C. Kamin, StanKay, Jean SteinmetzKendle, David W.Lawson, Beverly DianeLeland, Mary JaneLeventhal, Richard M.Liem, Chin C. Long, Douglas M.

LIST OF DONORS

112 | Backdirt 2009

Lopez, Anna NelsonLutkehaus, NancyManske, TippianMarks Jr., Walter N.Mauck, Judi L.Mc Clain, Nadra M.Mc Cormick, Kathleen PaigeMc Norton, Fred H. Merkle, Henry J. Metastasio, Mary V.Metcalfe, Howard H.Miller, Jordan and FeliceMorales, GailMorehouse, Martha JoMorley, Selma E. Muir, ArthurArthur Hughes Muir Jr. TrustMulkey, LindaNevin, Shawn J. Norris, TaniaO’Donnell, Janet LeeOrellana, Sandra L.Orrange, William W. and SusanPapadopoulos, John K.Perreault, Patricia R. Perry, Carolyn T.Peter, Richard C. Peyrat, Jean A. Pine, Benjamin L. and Rue C.Polinger Family FoundationPorcasi, Peter and Judith F.Porter, Nancy K.

Pritzkat, Barbara WynnPurcell, ChristopherRohde, Michael F.Schenck, Barbara J.Schoch, EdSchwartz, Charles Silton, Jill Stanish, CharlesSteensland, RonaldSteinmetz Family TrustSteinmetz FoundationSteinmetz, CharlesStepans, ElgaStruthers, BaerbelSweitzer, Noel Switzer, Irma LangTournaire-Cooper, HeleneTuttle, RobertVan Slyke, Noel E.Wachtel, EdithWake, David B. and MarvaleeWalker, James L.Waters Charitable TrustWatson, Leroy and LisaWood, Barbara LynnYamamoto, Andrew J. and MagdalenaYoung, RobinZuccaro, David and Viola Herzberg

COTSEN VISITING SCHOLAR LECTURE SERIES

Recent Advancements in the Archaeology of Jerusalem

Dr. Ronny ReichHaifa University

Dr. Ronny Reich, a faculty member of the Department of Archaeology at Haifa University, is the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology 2008–2009 visiting scholar. In his capacity as a Senior Archaeologist with the Israel Antiquities Authority he has been conducting excavations in the City of David in Jerusalem since 1995. He has published numerous articles on Second Temple Period archaeology in Israel and is well known for his co-edited volume on The Architecture of Ancient Israel.

A New Interpretation of the Canaan-ite Water System of JerusalemThursday, January 8

New Epigraphic Discoveries from Iron Age JerusalemThursday, January 15

Of Fish-Bones and Clay Chips in Iron Age JerusalemThursday, January 29

“Gathered to their forefathers”: Death and Burial in Jerusalem in the Iron AgeThursday, February 12

COTSEN INSTITUTE PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES

Searching for Older Women:Women’s Lives and Women’s Work ca. 25,000 Years Ago

Professor Emerita Olga SofferUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignTuesday, February 24, 2009

The Women in the Middle: Inka concepts manifested in Farfan Burials

Professor Emerita Carol MackeyCalifornia State University NorthridgeTuesday, March 10, 2009

The Discovery of the Nimrud Treasures

Donny George Youkhanna, Ph.D.Visiting Professor at Stony Brook University; Former Director General of Baghdad’s National MuseumThursday, April 16, 2009

Co-sponsored with Archaeological Institute of America and Fowler Museum at UCLA

Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Open HouseSaturday, May 16, 2009

Manipulating the Imaginary: A Trip to the wonderland of Ancient Miniature Sculpture from Mesopotamia

Gregory Areshian, Ph.D.Research Associate and Adjunct Professor at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLATuesday, May 26, 2009

DIRECTOR’S COUNCIL/FRIENDS OF ARCHAEOLOGY DINNER LECTURES

Spending for Death: Egyptian Funer-ary Arts during Economic Recession

Professor Kara CooneyNear Eastern Languages and CulturesTuesday, October 21, 2008

Adventures of Illyria: Excavating the Prehistoric Tumulus of Lofkënd in Albania

Professor John Papadopoulos Department of ClassicsTuesday, January 27, 2009

Excavating the Shang Frontier in Eastern China

Professor Min Li Department of Asian Languages and CulturesTuesday, April 7, 2009

MESSAGE FROM THE ACTING DIRECTOR PUBLIC PROGRAMS IN REVIEW: 2008-2009

The Cotsen Institute proudly looks back on another year marked by many and diverse accomplishments. The present volume reports on archaeologi-cal projects on four continents—from China to Chile, from Chaco Canyon to Albania—but these constitute only a sampling of an even richer panoply of ongoing engagements by members of the Institute. Any visitor walking down the corridors can sense the whirr of creative minds producing cutting-edge scholarship. We feel privileged to be able to continue the work we love—and which we feel has an important contribution to make to today’s world—even under the current conditions of worldwide economic turmoil.

One recent highlight in the life of the Institute was a reception on March 3 in celebration of Mr. Lloyd Cotsen’s 80th birthday. Words cannot adequately express our thanks to Lloyd for his generosity over many years. It is only fitting that he was honored recently with UCLA’s highest honor, the UCLA Medal (see p. 11).

Two of the Institute’s founding figures were recently honored for a lifetime of achievement in archaeology. Christopher B. Donnan, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, received the Trowel Award from the Cotsen Institute (see p. 13), and just before this issue of Backdirt went to press, news reached us that UCLA has named Giorgio Buccellati this year’s Dickson Emeritus Professor. Our congratulations to both of them. In addition, my Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000-250 BC): The Archaeological Evidence won the 2009 Society for American Archaeology Book Award in the academic category; this is particularly gratifying as the book is a Cotsen Institute publication. This award is an apt recognition of the tremendous recent improvement of Cotsen Institute Press publications under the able leadership of Shauna Mecartea.

Another extremely exciting development is the exponential growth in our UCLA Archaeology Field Program, capably directed by Dr. Ran Boytner (see p. 6). Capitalizing on the manifold connections of its members all over the world, the Cotsen Institute has taken the lead in building opportunities for under-graduate and graduate students from institutions all over the world to obtain high-quality training in archaeological field techniques while experiencing life in exotic places. This program is a cornerstone in the Institute’s ongoing ef-forts to broaden its impact beyond UCLA.

Happy reading!


Professor of Art History and Acting Director of the Cotsen Institute

Lothar von Falkenhausen at the reception honoring his award-winning title Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius at the 2009 meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

BACKDIRT

Ba

ck

dirt

an

nu

al r

eview

2009

Cotsen Institute of ArchaeologyUniversity of California, Los Angeles405 Hilgard Ave A 210 Fowler, Box 951510Los Angeles, CA 90095-1510AL-31Address Service Requested

Non-ProfitOrg.

U.S. PostagePaid

UCLA

COTSENæ INSTITUTEæOFæ ARCHAEOLOGY

2009

Annual Review of theCotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA

NEW TITLES FROM THE COTSEN INSTITUTE PRESSAndean Civilization: A Tribute to Michael E. MoseleyEdited by Joyce Marcus and Patrick Ryan WilliamsMonograph 63 • $80 cloth, $50 paperISBN: 978-1-931745-54-3 cloth, 978-1-931745-53-6 paper

These new studies cover the enormous temporal span of Moseley’s own work from the Preceramic era to the Tiwanaku and Moche states to the Inka em-pire. And, like Moseley’s own studies — from Maritime Foundations of Andean Civilization to Chan Chan: The Desert City to Cerro Bául’s Brewery — these new studies involve settlements from all over the Andes — from the far northern highlands to the far southern coast. The papers in this book demonstrate the enormous breadth and influence of Moseley’s work and the vibrant range of scholarship by his former students and collaborators in fieldwork.

The South American CameldsBy Duccio BonaviaMonograph 64 • $110 cloth, $75 paperISBN: 978-1-931745-41-3 cloth, 978-1-931745-40-6 paper

Bonavia’s landmark study of the South American camelids is now available for the first time in English. This new edition features an updated analysis and comprehensive bibliography. This book will be of broad interest to archaeolo-gists, zoologists, social anthropologists, ethnohistorians, and a wide range of students.

Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000–250 BC): The Archaeological EvidenceBy Lothar von FalkenhausenIdeas, Debates, and Perspectives 2 • $80 cloth, $50 paperISBN: 978-1-931745-31-4 cloth, 978-1-931745-30-7 paper

The Late Bronze Age (ca. 1000-250 BC) was a crucial period during which the Chinese Classics came into being and famous thinkers such as Confucius (ca. 551-479 BC) laid the intellectual foundations of traditional Chinese civiliza-tion. Complementing and often challenging the surviving writings, Lothar von Falkenhausen develops a self-consciously archaeological perspective on the social conditions in this time.

Winner of the 2009 SAA Book Award!

For a complete list of titles, visit: www.ioa.ucla.edu/publications/browse-books.To place an order contact our distributor, David Brown Book Company, at (800) 791-9354. For more information, contact the Cotsen Institute Press at (310) 825-7411 or email [email protected].


Backdirt 2009

Documents

Transcript of Backdirt 2009