News

Agricultural Strategies and Environmental Change in the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean

John M. Marston studies the long-term sustainability of agriculture and land use, with a focus on ancient societies of the Mediterranean and western and central Asia. His research focuses on how people make decisions about land use within changing economic, social, and environmental settings, and how those decisions affect the environment at local and regional scales. A specialist in paleoethnobotany, Marston’s contributions to the field include novel ways of linking ecological theory with archaeological methods to reconstruct agricultural and land-use strategies from plant and animal remains. Recent interdisciplinary collaborations focus on comparative study of cultural adaptation to environmental and climate change in the past and present; developing new methods to study the spatial distribution of land use from archaeological animal and plant remains; and the ecology of plague. His current field projects include work at multiple Bronze and Iron Age urban centers in Turkey (with ongoing fieldwork at Kerkenes and Gordion) and a multi-period site in Israel (Tel Shimron), as well as work in central Asia (Khorezm Ancient Agriculture Project, Uzbekistan).

The Meaning of Life

Researchers, including Anthropology Professor Barbara Herr Harthorn, will gauge public perceptions of synthetic life.

Ancient Migrations Study by anthropology scholar examines ancient DNA to reveal history of Central and South Asian populations

Analysis of ancient DNA is revolutionizing our understanding of the deep past. Now new work is illuminating the paths of Central and South Asian populations — and revealing the origins of Indo-European languages.

Why the Amazon is Burning

A cattle rancher put it to me bluntly a few years ago: “You all tell me not to deforest. It’s easy, isn’t it? Mix a drink there [in the U.S. or Europe] and talk. Now why do we have to stop deforesting? I agree that we should not deforest more, but we have a lot of people here. How will they live? What is the average income in the USA? Give that much to every person here. Then we can all sit around and watch the little birds fly.” 

Jeffrey Hoelle, 

New Faculty Member Raquel Pacheco joins us this Fall!

Specializing in indigenous studies, gender & sexuality, race & racism, development, migration and Mexico.

Summer Session B

August 5 - September 14

Fall Quarter Instruction Begins

September 26, 2019

Why Chimps Throw Poop

"They're capable of expressing so much … they're really good communicators," said Ronnie Steinitz, a doctoral student in the Integrative Anthropological Sciences program at the UCSB.