UCSC Archaeological Research Center

02/20/2026

11/06/2025

There is about 4 hours remaining for this years Giving Day, and I want to thank all the amazing people who already donated to the ARC to support graduate and undergraduate student research. This is the last push to reach our funding goal, and if you haven’t done so yet, please consider donating to our campaign. Every donation big or small can have a major impact on the opportunities we can offer our students, to help them to become future leaders in the field.
Thank you!

Support the Archaeological Research Center at UCSC on Giving Day!

11/05/2025

It’s Giving Day 2025, and the Archaeological Research Center (ARC) at UCSC needs your support before midnight tonight (Nov 5).

Archaeology at UCSC is about much more than “old pots.” Our students and researchers use digital archaeology, isotope chemistry, and genomics to protect cultural heritage, study past and emerging diseases, reconstruct ancient environments and biodiversity, and understand how communities adapt to political, economic, and climate change.

Donations to ARC directly support graduate and undergraduate research and give students the hands-on experience they need for future careers in archaeology, museums, cultural resource management, and beyond.

If you’re able, please consider a gift today:

Support the Archaeological Research Center at UCSC on Giving Day!

11/05/2025

Today is Giving Day!
Please Dig Deep to support the ARC!
The Archaeological Research Center (ARC) at UC Santa Cruz connects campus and community through hands-on archaeology—getting students into the field and lab, and bringing the past to life for the community.

Your Giving Day 2025 gift helps students directly:
🔹 Sends undergrads and grads to field schools
🔹 Supports first lab projects that grow into major research
🔹 Funds workshops and public lectures that share our shared cultural heritage

Every gift counts.
👉 Please donate today and help the next generation of archaeologists uncover the past and build their future.

Support the Archaeological Research Center at UCSC on Giving Day!

09/22/2025

The UC Santa Cruz Department of Anthropology is recruiting for a Laboratory Operations and Facilities Manager (Lab Asst 4). The Initial Review Date is October 6, 2025.

The job announcement can be found at https://jobs.ucsc.edu/. Click on either "External Job Applicants" or "Internal Job Applicants" and search for job #: 81325

UCSC graduates with experience in human and vertebrate osteology: please apply!!!!!

Leading at the intersection of innovation and social justice. UC Santa Cruz is part of the world’s most celebrated system of public higher education, and stands among the most renowned institutions of higher learning.

07/17/2025

Our fellow ARC member Prof. Dr. Peter Biehl, together with a team of international scholars, just published new fascinating insights into kinship patterns and social organization of the community living at one of the most important archaeological sites in Western Eurasia. Read more about their findings in the journal Science:

Combining 131 paleogenomes with bioarchaeological and archaeological data, we studied social organization and gendered practices in Çatalhöyük East Mound (7100 to 5950 BCE), a major Neolithic settlement in Central Anatolia. In early Çatalhöyük, burials ...

06/30/2025

📣 Big news from the UCSC Archaeological Research Center! After nearly a decade as Founding Director, J. Cameron Monroe is stepping down to become Chair of the Department of Anthropology. Taking the helm as ARC's new Director is Professor Lars Fehren-Schmitz, a globally recognized leader in ancient DNA research and a passionate mentor and teacher.

Since its launch in 2015, ARC has become a hub for innovative, ethical, and student-centered archaeology—supporting fieldwork, research, and public engagement across the globe. With Lars’s leadership, ARC is poised to grow its impact even further.

Please join us in thanking Professor Monroe for his incredible leadership and in welcoming Professor Fehren-Schmitz to his new role! 🌍🏺🧬

06/21/2025

https://www.facebook.com/ucscsocialsciences/videos/1046243217181702/?fs=e&mibextid=wwXIfr

03/20/2025

Congratulations Bolu Ajayi for passing his PhD Qualifying Exams with Honors! Next month he flies to Nigeria to explore the materialities of everyday life in Ibadan’s hinterland communities. This research will play a key role in the multi-regional project GWAVA (Global West African Village Archaeology) funded by the National Geographic Society.

12/15/2024

Vía Claire Smith on WAC List Serv:

Mark P. Leone (1940-2024)

It is with great sadness that I announce that historical archaeology’s leading critical theorist, Professor Mark P. Leone, has passed away.



Professor Leone’s outstanding contributions to archaeology were in demonstrating how archaeologists can undercover hidden ideologies, encouraging archaeologists to identify the ideological framework that frames material culture in the present, as well as the past, and recognise the social, political and economic impacts of their discipline, and in mentoring scholars from around the world. He was active in all of these spheres, even in the final months of his life.



WAC-10 will host a session in honour of Professor Leone, who was a long-standing member of the World Archaeological Congress. At WAC-5, in Washington D.C., he arranged specialist tours to the site of his long-term research project in Annapolis, Maryland. Following the Congress, he was series editor for WAC’s One World Archaeology Series, with Joan Gero and Robin Torrence.



In 1966 Professor Leone graduated with a Master of Arts in anthropology from the University of Arizona. He received his doctorate from the same institution in 1968. He was an Assistant Professor with the Department of Anthropology at Princeton University from 1968 to 1975. After this he joined the University of Maryland, College Park, where he was Chair of the Department of Anthropology from 1993 to 2003 and Chair of the University Senate from 2000 to 2001.



Professor Leone was a major influence on the development of landscape archaeology, the archaeology of capitalism, the archaeology of African Americans, and public interpretations of archaeological sites. The results of his research on Annapolis are detailed in his book “The Archaeology of Liberty in an American Capital” (University of California Press, 2005). His book “Critical Historical Archaeology” (Left Coast Press, 2010) is a deep and personal reflection on his career in archaeology, as well as a collection of his classic writings.



Professor Leone was married to Nan Wells, who pre-deceased him. He leaves behind a daughter, Vika, and a young grandson.



Archaeology has been enriched by the presence and intellect of Professor Mark P. Leone. We are impoverished by his death.



References

Leone, M.P. 2005. The Archaeology of Liberty in an American Capital: Excavations in Annapolis. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Leone, M.P. 2010. Critical Historical Archaeology. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.

11/21/2024

Thanks to our supporters we’ve raised $2,200 for students projects and public programs today so far! You have until midnight to help us build our archaeological community. Dig Deep for archaeology at UCSC.

Today is Giving Day – UC Santa Cruz’s largest fundraiser of the year!