The focus of my research is bioarchaeology. There are two main components to my work, both of which revolve around how populations reacted to social and environmental change, particuarly involving interactions with complex societies. The first examines the way that the body was used as social symbol and a marker of identity that was influenced and modified by the world around it. The second views the same forces of change in both the natural and the social worlds and how they affected individual well-being (ie health). These two foci interrelate to create a more thorough understanding of ancient peoples and how they interacted with their neighbors and their space.

To read my publications and those of other members and alums of Phil Walker's Lab at UCSB click here.

 

Identity in the prehistoric Chilean Atacama

This ongoing research project is currently supported through the Physical Anthropology and Archaeology sections of the NSF (Abstract). Together with Kelly Knudson (ASU Anthropology), I am currently combining biogeochemistry and bioarchaeology to examine biological and cultural identity during and after periods of Tiwanaku influence. Specifically, we are investigating identity construction, projection, and manipulation in northern Chile from AD 750 to 1470. This period encompasses the collapse of the influential Tiwanaku state in the Bolivian Altiplano as well as substantial environmental change. The project focuses on identity both in its biological incarnation as well as how it is projected culturally through head shape and the mortuary context.

Part of this project includes an exmaination of a possible migrant population from the nearby highlands of Bolivia or Argentina. My previous work on burial practices and head shaping in this area indicates that this group is culturally distinct. Knudson and I recently published a detailed examination of the life history of one possible migrant individual in Chungara: Revista Chilena de Antropología.

Earlier research on this project was supported by the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Colorado College. During Summer 2005 two Colorado College students - Jessica Burns and Krista Eckhoff - worked with me to analyze the late Middle Horizon site of Tchecar. We presented the results of this investigation as a poster at the 2006 AAPAs. Two other students - Blair Daverman and Laura King - will participate in the summer of 2008.

Life and death in ancient Kish

During the Fall of 2005, I began a new project that will further explore my interests in how populations convey identity through mortuary ritual as well as how they react to state rule and increasing urbanism. This research focuses on the site of Kish, an ancient city in Mesopotamia. Kish was located on the floodplain of the Euphrates River in Iraq. Between 1923 and 1933 the Field Museum of Natural History, together with the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, conducted large-scale excavations at this important site. As a result of these, nearly 700 burials were excavated and are now curated at several museums around the world.

In collaboration with William Pestle of the Field Museum, I am analyzing the human skeletal remains from Kish with the purpose of incorporating them into the Field's larger project creating a comprehensive site report on this legacy collection. In addition to contributing to this larger endeavor we hope to explore the social status, health and demography of the individuals buried at this important site. We have completed data collection on the Field's material and will continue this work with British collections during the coming year. Additionally, we have begun exploring potential comparative collections from other regions of Mesopotamia

Pestle and I have presented preliminary results at the 2007 AAPAs (abstract), the 2007 meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research, and presented research on health and urbanization with Blair Daverman at the 2008 AAPAs.