04/06/2026
UPCOMING EVENTS
Tuesday, April 7, 2026
Exhibiting the Etruscans at UC Berkeley: The Phoebe A. Hearst Collection Unveiled - AIA-San Francisco Society
https://www.archaeological.org/event/exhibiting-the-etruscans-at-uc-berkeley-the-phoebe-a-hearst-collection-unveiled/
Date & Time: April 7 @ 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Speaker: Dr. Lisa Pieraccini
Location: Dwinelle Hall, Room 3335, UC Berkeley
Sponsored by: AIA-San Francisco Society
About: A lecture by Dr. Lisa Pieraccini, AIA SF Society president, on her recent work with UC Berkeley students on exhibiting the Etruscan material from the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology.
Wednesday, April 8, 2026
ARF LUNCH TALK
Avian-Human Worlds of Picuris Pueblo, NM
https://events.berkeley.edu/arf/event/318560-avian-human-worlds-of-picuris-pueblo-nm
Date & Time: Wednesday, April 8, 2026 @ 12:10 PM
Speaker: Melanie Cootsona
Location: In person at the ARF and on Zoom (register here: https://bit.ly/ARFtalks-2526).
Sponsor: Archaeological Research Facility
About: Picuris Pueblo, NM has a rich history of bird-human relationships. These relationships are characterized differentially based on species, spatiality, and temporality: turkeys managed inside in the Pueblo for feathers, eagles kept in the Pueblo and honored through dance and song, and birds drawn into the vast ‘gardens’ of the Picuris hillsides. This project explores the residential turkeys, the ambassadorial eagles, neighborly crows, magpies, finches, ducks and more through a legacy collection (c. 1200-1930 CE) of avifauna, oral historical interviews and narratives, and archival ethnographic sources. Picuris ancestors shaped bird worlds and birds in kind shaped human worlds through trade, teaching, and tools. This work was co-created through conversation and collaboration between Cootsona and Picuris Pueblo tribal members, governors, council, and elders and funded by the Stahl as well as a grant from the American Philosophical Society.
Archaeology, and Reactionary Populism: Critiquing Community Archaeology | Distinguished Lecture Series
https://events.stanford.edu/event/distinguished-lecture-series-archaeology-and-reactionary-populism-critiquing-community-archaeology
Time & Date: April 8 @ 12:00
Speaker: Emeritus Prof. Randall McGuire, Binghamton University
Location: In person and on Zoom (click "Read More" below to register)
Sponsor: Stanford Archaeology Center
Abstract: At the end of the 20th century, radical scholars embraced the concept of community archaeology. Now, in the third decade of the 21stcentury, community archaeology has become de rigueur and often over simplified. Furthermore, we are doing it in a radically changed political atmosphere. The global rise of reactionary populism and fascism leads me to reassess community archaeology, not to reject it out of hand, but to suggest that we need to reconsider how and why we do it, and who we do it for. Around the world, reactionary anti-intellectual movements are changing how communities see themselves and others. These movements have altered the practice of politics, increased polarization and fostered extremism. This change in atmosphere makes the social role of archaeology more relevant but also more challenging. Scholars need to recognize how complicated and difficult it is to do an archaeology for the community and to maintain liberal ideals. We need to problematize popular notions of community, the public and political activism. Most importantly, we need to constantly ask the question --- archaeology for whom, how and why?
The Politics of Zoomorphic Art at the Porous Borders in China and Central Asia (500 BCE-500 CE)
https://events.berkeley.edu/ieas/event/308952-the-politics-of-zoomorphic-art-at-the-porous
Time & Date: April 8 @ 5:00 PM
Speaker: Petya Andreeva, Assistant Professor of Asian Art History, Vassar College
Location: 370 Dwinelle, UC Berkeley
About: Stretching from the Mongolian-Manchurian grassland to the Hungarian plain, the Eurasian steppe was once home to several major nomadic confederations that played a pivotal role in the formation of a global Eurasian milieu. Active as both intermediaries and independent historical actors on the Eurasian steppe route, Iron-Age pastoral nomads invented and circulated an elaborate visual language rooted in zoomorphism. Nomadic design tropes, now known loosely in art historical literature as “animal style”, managed to cross geographical and cultural boundaries and permeate the aesthetic systems of their sedentary neighbors, crossing especially swiftly the northern Chinese periphery. This lecture explores the convergent notions of zoomorphism that enabled the heightened contact between Eurasian nomads and their southern neighbor in the Warring States (475-221 BCE) and the Western Han (220 BCE – 9 CE). Exchange between China and the steppe nomads was all too often opportunistic, but never resulted in true reciprocity; even so, China was able to consolidate its place in the economic and geopolitical landscape of northern and central Asia precisely due to its ability to understand and reproduce the conceptual designs of nomadic metalwork. Moreover, Chinese elites started to incorporate elements from nomadic art in their own mortuary programs, in a likely attempt to showcase their worldliness, vast networks, and growing access to the so-called “Barbaric Other”. In the context of Chinese burials, nomadic art became the ultimate cultural and political capital.
Petya Andreeva is Assistant Professor of Asian Art History at Vassar College. She earned her PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania. She is the author of the monograph “Fantastic Fauna from China to Crimea: Image-Making in Eurasian Nomadic Societies, 700 BCE-500 CE” (Edinburgh University Press, 2024), and the editor of the volume “The Zoomorphic Arts of Ancient Central Eurasia” (MDPI, 2023). Andreeva’s work on cross-cultural exchange in ancient and medieval Chinese and Central Asian art has appeared in the Art Bulletin, the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Early China, Fashion Theory, Archaeological Research in Asia. Her scholarship has also been featured on popular news outlets such as the History Channel and Voices on Central Asia. She is the recipient of several international awards, including UNESCO’s Silk Road Research Grant and the Getty-ACLS Fellowship in the History of Art.
Thursday, April 9, 2026
Physical Witness: Atrocity X Disability in the Hebrew Bible
https://events.berkeley.edu/arf/event/316355-physical-witness-atrocity-x-disability-in-the-hebrew-
Time & Date: April 9 at 9:30 AM
Speaker: Corinna Guerrero
Sponsors: Badè Museum, Pacific School of Religion, Archaeological Research Facility
Location (UPDATED!): This talk is taking place on Zoom.
Join by Zoom on the date/time of the event: https://bit.ly/Bade-series
Or watch later on the ARF (https://bit.ly/arf-channel) & Badè YouTube channels.
About: This lecture is part of the series Disability in the Ancient Middle East and Mediterranean.
Hand-Slab Scrapers: Building Berms with Sandstone Slabs - Crow Canyon Archaeological Center
https://crowcanyon.org/programs/hand-slab-scrapers-building-berms-with-sandstone-slabs/
Date & Time: April 9 @ 3:00 Pacific
Speaker: Jensen Bayles
Location: Online webinar (follow Read More link for details)
Sponsor: Crow Canyon Archaeological Center
About: High-resolution archaeological surveys near Blanding, Utah have revealed a previously undocumented tool type on the Northern Colorado Plateau-expediently fashioned, unhafted sandstone slabs. We have interpreted these ancestral items as hand tools used to scrape and mound sediments and refer to them as "hand-slab scrapers." These tools have been found among artificial berm-swale landscapes, and along prehistoric roads suggesting they were used in the construction and maintenance of these features. This presentation provides an in-depth description of hand-slab scrapers and reports on the experiments using replica tools to create a small berm-swale feature.
Disease, Divinity, and Healing in Classical Greece - 2026 Heller Lecture
Time & Date: Thursday, April 9, 5:00 PM
Speaker: Jessica Lamont (Yale University)
Location: 120 Wheeler Hall, UC Berkeley
Sponsor: Department of Ancient Greek & Roman Studies
About: Pain, disease, injury, death: how were illness and healing experienced, endured, and addressed by individuals and communities 2,500 years ago in ancient Greece? This talk examines how Classical Greek communities evolved to manage healthcare and mitigate disease through the lens of one particular healing practitioner, the "ritual healer"...
Sunday, April 12, 2026
Explore Berkeley's Waterfront: New Exhibit Launch Event
Discover Berkeley's waterfront history at our new exhibit! Join us for programs, refreshments, and a members' meeting. Free admission!
For more information: [email protected]
Opening Event: Sunday, April 12, 1:30–4 pm
Berkeley Historical Society and Museum
About: Join us for the opening day of this new exhibit with a reception and program. To introduce the exhibit, East Bay Yesterday podcast host Liam O’Donoghue will interview Mitch Fleischer, lead curator of On the Waterfront. Expect a wide-ranging conversation that will cover everything from failed development proposals to stories of fishing, factories, ferries, and fun on and near the bayshore.
The schedule:
1:30 Exhibit doors open
2:00 Annual members' business meeting, Auditorium
2:15 Program, Auditorium
3:00 Exhibit re-opens; light refreshments in lobby
4:00 Closing time
Members, please sign in outside the auditorium entrance and take a seat before 2:00. There will also be a sign-in sheet for people who would like to be added to our email list. Bring a friend!
Looking ahead...
Converging Paths: The Etruscans, Phoebe A. Hearst, and UC Berkeley
https://events.berkeley.edu/arf/event/318557-converging-paths-etruscans-phoebe-a-hearst-and-ucb
ARF's Special Spring Lecture
Time & Date: Tuesday, April 21, 5:00 PM
Speaker: Dr. Lisa C. Pieraccini (Lecturer, History of Art; Affiliated Faculty Ancient History & Mediterranean Archaeology; and Founder & Interim Director of the Mario Del Chiaro Center for the Study of Ancient Italy at the University of California, Berkeley)
Location: In person at the Archaeological Research Facility (2251 College Building, UC Berkeley) & on Zoom (register here: https://bit.ly/ARFtalks-2526)
Sponsors: Archaeological Research Facility, Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology
This event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 4:30 for a reception. The lecture will begin at 5:00.
About: In the early years of teaching at UC Berkeley there was little information about the Etruscan artifacts, the exact number of objects and the collection history. With a UC Berkeley Collegium Grant in 2017 I began work on tracing the history of the collection, the scholars who had done research on some of the artifacts as well as assessing the exact number of objects in the Hearst Museum. The Etruscan collection at the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum, one of the largest in the North America, is routinely visited by my students where they engage with the material culture and research unpublished artifacts. In fact, this year alone two Etruscan exhibits will open on the UC Berkeley campus, both co-curated by students and precursors to a large international exhibit dedicated to the Etruscans opening in May at the Legion of Honor is San Francisco (all three exhibits featuring objects from the Hearst). How does Berkeley’s Etruscan collection tell the story of ancient Etruria and more specifically, how do these Bay Area exhibits shed light on the Etruscans at large?
Upcoming ARF Workshops - Spring 2026
The ARF is offering a number of workshops this Spring semester. The descriptions are available here but please use the Sign-up form to register and learn more about Workshop details: https://forms.gle/MdqZMcVAukAdktJn7
Photogrammetry (C. Hoffman), Wed April 8, 10am-noon
This workshop is an introduction to the use of photogrammetry for creating 3D models of objects from archaeological and museum contexts using photography and Agisoft Metashape. The overall photogrammetry workflow will be covered. Students will participate in setting up a photography environment for data capture and will then work with Agisoft Metashape at various steps in the workflow. Techniques for preserving and publishing 3D models as well as new 3D scanning technologies will also be discussed.
Basic Human Osteology for Archaeologists (L. Berger), Tues April 14 (10am-12pm)
Learn (or review) the major bones of the human skeleton and practice identifying them using models. Learn tips for distinguishing human from non-human bone, and basics of s*x estimation from the skull and pelvis.
Magnetometer (S. Medina), Friday April 17 at 1-3pm
We will use the instrument in a nearby grassy where we'll practice data gathering.
Our normal workshop includes the process for instrument setup, use, and download and initial mapping tasks. The steps include Instrument Setup, Grid walking technique, and data download and preliminary analysis steps. The data gathered on campus will be too electromagnetically noisy for real analysis but we can simulate the process and then for the final analysis step at the computer we will use real data from another location.
Data Management Workshop (S. and E. Kansa), Friday April 17 at 2-4pm
Data Management Plans for Individual and Team Project Goals.
Developing a data management plan (DMP) for one’s project is a useful exercise in that it opens up discussion of project goals and outputs by various members of the team, helps align workflows, establishes publication plans and authorship, and sets expectations for good practices. Rather than being seen as a funding “check box” on a grant application, the DMP can serve as a focal point to support collaborations and discussions about how good stewardship of project data enables research, teaching, conservation, and outreach outcomes. Participants in this workshop will consider their stewardship responsibilities and goals around the data they collect– including current data, legacy data, and planned future data. What are the key elements of a DMP? Who should be involved in the creation of a DMP? How often should a DMP be reviewed and updated? How can I structure my DMP to better align with my own goals and those of my project team? Participants are welcome to share their data management experience with a specific project or data set.
Picuris Pueblo, NM has a rich history of bird-human relationships. These relationships are characterized differentially based on species, spatialit...
