Archaeology

Richard Scaglion

Richard Scaglion is a four-field anthropologist who specializes in the study of the Pacific Islands and has developing interests in Latin America. He is particularly interested in human migration and mobility in Oceania, in people’s relationships with their natural environments, and in the growth of social complexity. His applied work has involved the anthropology of law and sustainable development in island nations. He has a special relationship with the Abelam people of Papua New Guinea, with whom he has conducted long-term field research beginning in 1974.

Research Description

Professor Scaglion collaborates in a broad range of interdisciplinary projects aimed at unraveling questions about human adaptation in the Pacific Islands and beyond. An ongoing interest is in the prehistory, history, social development and contemporary life of the Abelam people of Papua New Guinea. Another recent project involves the dispersal of the sweet potato, a new world cultivar, throughout the Pacific Islands. This research has led him to consider the possibility of pre-Columbian human contact between Polynesia and South America, and has resulted in several new research projects in Ecuador. And recently he has worked collaboratively to produce a monograph about the Polynesian outliers, a group of small islands that lie outside the Polynesian triangle, to examine their relationships with their neighbors and with ancient Polynesia.

The Abelam People

Famous for their artwork and for their majestic, towering spirit houses that dominate village skylines, the Abelam people are also well-known for growing and exchanging huge ceremonial yams that often exceed 3 meters (10 feet) in length. Dr. Scaglion has written about how yam beliefs act to organize and synchronize many aspects of Abelam life, and about how food is used in non-nutritive, symbolic and expressive ways.

Abelam spirit house or temple in which many ritual activities take place.

Like many other peoples of New Guinea, the Abelam traditionally have an egalitarian social organization, lacking formal political offices and social hierarchies. How do they maintain social order with no police, courts, judges or jails? They have very rich ceremonial and social lives.  How do they organize their activities without formal political or religious leaders?

During elaborate male initiation ceremonies, costumed dancers with towering headdresses adorned with colorful feathers perform on the ceremonial ground in front of the temples.

Abelam “big man,” a political figure who leads by influence but has no formal authority.

In some parts of the Pacific islands, most notably in eastern Polynesia, there are complex chiefdoms with formal leaders who orchestrate public works. How and why did these chiefdoms arise? Why didn’t they develop in the mountains of New Guinea, which has dense populations based on agricultural intensification and other characteristics generally associated with the growth of social differentiation?

Dr. Scaglion has examined these and other questions in over forty years of work with the Abelam people. He has described their conflict management techniques in his PhD thesis, studied their social organization, worked on legal development projects to establish Village Courts (which blend together introduced and customary legal systems) in their territory, and has assisted in their efforts to achieve sustainable economic development.

Diffusion of the Sweet Potato in the Pacific Islands

The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) was important in many agricultural systems throughout the Pacific Islands long before Europeans arrived. Yet botanists have established that the cultivar was first domesticated in the New World, probably in South America.  How and when did it arrive in the Pacific Islands? Archaeological research indicates the presence of sweet potatoes in central Polynesia more than 1,000 years ago, and linguistic evidence suggests a human-mediated introduction. The word kumara is used throughout the Pacific islands and also in parts of South America, suggesting the introduction of the sweet potato into the Pacific could have been effected by Polynesian voyagers who sailed to the west coast of South America, collected the tuber, and brought it back to Polynesia. From there it may have spread more widely throughout the Pacific. Currently, DNA fingerprinting techniques are being applied to sweet potato samples to test hypotheses about the spread of sweet potatoes in Oceania and the influence of European-era introductions on modern diversity. The movement of sweet potatoes throughout the Pacific can teach us much about human migration and mobility in Oceania.

The Polynesian Outliers

Outside of Polynesia, in areas commonly designated Micronesia and Melanesia, lie about two dozen islands, most of them small and widely separated, whose inhabitants speak Polynesian languages and share other characteristics with triangle Polynesians. These islands are collectively termed the Polynesian outliers. While the great Polynesian centers endured major disruptions before trained observers had an opportunity to record their lifeways, many of the outliers, owing mainly to their remote locations, experienced much less social change, making them particularly interesting for anthropologists, and critical for the comparative study of Polynesia. Who are these peoples? Where did they originate, and how did they come to settle in these remote islands? What is their relationship to the better-known Polynesian societies? Can they, in some way, be thought of as representing Polynesian society before it became permanently altered by contact with Europeans? Dr. Scaglion has collaborated with many anthropologists who have worked in these islands to produce a new volume exploring these and other questions and to provide the first synthetic, comparative treatment of the Polynesian outliers. [Figure 6] The settlement and development of these remote outposts of Polynesia can also teach us much about human migration and mobility in Oceania.

Feinberg, Richard and Richard Scaglion (eds.) Polynesian Outliers: The State of the Art. Ethnology Monographs No. 21, 2012.

Courses

Professor Scaglion is no longer teaching courses.

Survey Courses

Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity through time and across the globe. Cultural anthropology concentrates on the comparative analysis of living and recent human societies. By examining the behavior and customs of peoples throughout the world, this course considers what it means to be human. We investigate patterns of language and learning, marriage and family organization, warfare and violence, political and economic systems, beliefs and ritual life, etc., of people throughout the world, and compare them with social patterns in the United States. We also explore themes that unite contemporary peoples in a transnational, globalizing world.

Cultures of the Pacific

The South Pacific has a certain romantic appeal in popular imagination: swaying palm trees, mild tropical breezes, unspoiled, uninhibited people. Is this true? What are the people of this region really like? How do they feel about these popular images of themselves? What can we learn about human nature by studying the cultures of the South Pacific?

This class uses information about the peoples and cultures of Oceania as a vehicle for exploring basic anthropological ideas and concepts. In examining the customs of traditional Pacific peoples, we probe the ranges of human diversity, and by comparing these with very different American social patterns, we increase our understanding of what it means to be human. Students in this class also gain a greater appreciation of anthropology as a profession as they read firsthand the "field experiences" of several anthropologists.

The course treats both the traditional and contemporary cultures of the three major areas of the Pacific: Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia. It includes a geographical and historical introduction to Oceania as well as an examination of its contemporary social and political status.

Undergraduate Seminar

Anthropological Theory

This course is an overview of the major social theories and debates that stimulate and inform anthropological analysis. We  investigate a range of theoretical directions in anthropology such as social evolution, historical particularism, functionalism, cultural ecology, ethnoscience and cognitive approaches, symbolic anthropology and postmodernism; and topics such as culture, social change, structure, agency, subjectivity, power, and the politics of representation. Requirements center around a close critical reading of primary texts in the history of anthropological thinking that are collected together in Anthropological Theory by McGee and Warms. The course provides an opportunity for students to learn about the development of central theoretical issues and assumptions in anthropology, gain familiarity with key writings of the major historical figures, understand essential aspects of the major theoretical paradigms that have inspired the discipline together with their historical contexts, and expand their critical thinking skills through evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of different theoretical paradigms. Because contemporary anthropological theory is built upon earlier works, students are introduced both to the history of ideas and to current directions.

Graduate Seminars

Anthropology and Ecology

The course provides an overview of Ecological Anthropology tailored towards the interests of students who enroll. Ecological Anthropology focuses on the complex relations between people and their environments. It explores how culture influences the dynamic interactions between human populations and the ecosystems in their habitats through time. Ecological Anthropology is a relatively new field, having developed mainly since the 1950s. It is now a recognized topical specialization that crosscuts the traditional subfields of anthropology with its own separate unit within the American Anthropological Association called the Anthropology and Environment Section.

Special Topics in Pacific Islands Studies

The course uses the cultures of the Pacific Islands (including Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Australia) as a framework for examining problems of general anthropological interest tailored to the interests of the students in the course. These may include such issues as the contributions of Pacific ethnology to anthropological theory; the interrelationships between people and the natural environment; the nature of gender; the origins of agriculture, the nature and development of social stratification, trade and exchange, and the nature of prestige-based economies; development issues such as health care delivery and educational services in a globalizing world, etc. The course will include an ethnographic survey of the Pacific area and an examination of contemporary problems in the region.

Pacific Prehistory

The course provides a basic survey of the prehistory of the Pacific Islands including an investigation of how they were settled, but its primary purpose is to use the cultures of the Pacific Islands (including Polynesia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Australia) as a framework for examining problems of general interest to both prehistorians and ethnographers.  These may include such issues as the origins of agriculture, the nature and development of social stratification, the interrelationships between people and the natural environment, trade and exchange, the nature of prestige-based economies, etc.  These and other issues will be explored through lectures, class discussions, and readings

Robert D. Drennan

Robert Drennan (Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1975) is an archaeologist engaged in the comparative analysis of early complex societies from their beginnings to the enormous diversity of organizational patterns displayed by regional chiefdoms around the world. His research focuses on increasing our understanding of the dynamics of social change by identifying patterned variation in the trajectories of development of early complex societies. Topics emphasized in his research include regional settlement and demography, community structure at all scales, household archaeology, quantitative data analysis, spatial analysis, and GIS. These topics are all involved in his fieldwork in China, Mesoamerica, and northern South America.

Research Description

Comparative Analysis of Trajectories of Chiefdom Development

The sample of archaeologically known early complex societies ("chiefdoms") around the world is now large enough for us to move beyond cultural evolutionary typologies or simplistic dichotomies and develop the more sophisticated and nuanced concepts needed to characterize adequately the considerable variation to be observed. The Chiefdom Datasets Project is compiling a database including dozens of regions whose developmental trajectories can be compared on the basis of systematic analyses of primary archaeological data on settlement, households, burials, and public works. Its aim is to delineate patterns in the highly varied courses these trajectories followed so as to identify and understand more fully the social forces at work in them. Principal collaborators are Christian E. Peterson and C. Adam Berrey.

 

Early Complex Societies in Northeastern China

The Liaoning Hongshan Period Communities Project (LHPCP) focuses on the emergence and development of Hongshan (4500–3000 BCE) chiefly communities. Ongoing data collection in the area surrounding Niuheliang includes regional-scale settlement survey and study of local communities and households through intensive surface collection and small-scale stratigraphic testing. Similar fieldwork and lab analysis in the Upper Daling region was carried out from 2007 to 2014. The objective is to document the nature of human organization at household, local community, regional polity, and macro-regional scales so as to understand better the societies that produced the ceremonial architecture and elaborate burials that have attracted considerable archaeological attention. Principal collaborators are Christian E. Peterson, Lu Xueming, and Zhu Da. The project is an institutional collaboration between the University of Pittsburgh, the Liaoning Province Institute of Archaeology, and Renmin University of China. The LHPCP builds on work carried out by the Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Project between 1998 and 2007, with principal collaborators Katheryn M. Linduff, Zhang Zhongpei, Gideon Shelach, Ta La, Zhu Yanping, Guo Zhizhong, and Teng Mingyu.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early Complex Societies in Colombia

The Programa de Arqueología Regional en el Alto Magdalena serves as an umbrella for a number of more focused projects whose overall aim is to document the developmental trajectories of the societies that created the archaeologically famous monumental sculpture and ceremonial/burial complexes of the Regional Classic Period (1–900 CE). The PARAM began field data collection in 1993 with regional-scale survey, followed by more intensive investigation of households at a local-community scale with shovel probes and small stratigraphic tests at close intervals. Analysis and publication of results from work through 2006 is nearing completion. The PARAM has subsequently included excavation of residential structures and associated features as well as mapping of structural remains with magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar. Principal collaborators are Víctor González Fernández and Carlos Augusto Sánchez. The PARAM builds on similar work carried out from 1983 to 1992 by the Proyecto Arqueológico Valle de la Plata. Both projects have been institutional collaborations between the University of Pittsburgh, the Universidad de los Andes, and the Instituto Colombiano de Antropología e Historia.

 

Early Complex Societies in Mesoamerica

The Palo Blanco Project studied Formative period (1500 BCE–250 CE) societies in Mexico's Tehuacán Valley. From 1974 to 1980 it carried out regional-scale survey and excavation at several local communities, following up Richard S. MacNeish's Tehuacán Archaeological-Botanical Project with investigation of the trajectories of development of early sedentary agricultural societies. Excavation of the Middle Formative village of Fábrica San José in 1972–1973 was carried out as part of the Valley of Oaxaca Human Ecology Project, directed by Kent V. Flannery.

 

Courses

Chiefdoms

Beginning as early as 10,000 years ago human communities of unprecedented scale began to emerge in many regions all around the globe. The process has continued in much more recent times as well. These larger communities, numbering at least a few hundred people, and ranging well up into the thousands, usually (but not always) became supra-local in character. Unequal, or hierarchical, relationships usually (but not always) came to occupy an important place in their social organization. The seminar takes a comparative approach to the social dynamics of this process, using the varied trajectories of chiefdom emergence in different parts of the world as an opportunity to increase our understanding of the forces that have driven this process and given the resulting societies such highly varied characteristics.

Regional Settlement, Communities, and Demography

In the absence of modern communication and transportation technologies, human social communities were constituted in patterns of interaction primarily at local and regional scales. Prehistoric interaction patterns are usually strongly reflected in the way in which a human population distributed itself across a landscape. Thus a central reason for studying ancient settlement patterns is to delineate communities in the past and reconstruct the ways in which they structured interaction of various kinds at different scales. Such an approach leads not only to purely social interaction but also to political organization and the organization of the production and distribution of goods. This seminar focuses on the social, political, and economic interpretation of regional-scale archaeological settlement patterns, once the patterns have been discerned through appropriate means of spatial analysis. All such interpretation rests finally on demographic reconstructions, so approaches to both relative and absolute demographic approximations at the regional scale are considered in depth. Finally, having discussed these features of ancient human organization that settlement analysis can tell us about, we consider how appropriate kinds of information to sustain such conclusions can be collected in the field.

Archeological Data Analysis I

An introduction to quantitative data analysis in archeology, this course covers basic principles of statistics, including exploratory analysis of batches, sampling, significance, t-tests, analysis of variance, regression, chi-quare, and estimating universe means and proportions from samples. The approach is practical, concentrating on understanding these principles so as to put them to work effectively in analyzing archeological data. Much of the statistical work is done by computer. Statistical principles are dealt with in the weekly class, computer applications in the weekly lab. No previous computer experience is required, and no previous math beyond high school algebra is needed. Familiarity with archeology, however, is assumed. This course is open only to graduate students and anthropology majors who are concentrating in archeology and have previously taken other courses in archeology.

Archeological Data Analysis II

Advanced analysis of archeological data, primarily quantitative. This course carries on where the discussion of basic statistical comparison and contrast of artifacts, features, assemblages, and sites in Archeological Data Analysis I leaves off. Topics covered include sampling, data base management, analysis of spatial distributions (GIS), computer graphics, and multivariate statistics such as factor analysis, multidimensional scaling and clustering.

Marc Bermann

Marc Bermann is an archaeologist primarily interested in prehistoric states (particularly in the New World) and household archaeology. Other interests include the evolution of archaic empires, pre-Hispanic political organization and worldview, historiography, and peasant studies in general. His fieldwork is concerned with pre-Inca civilizations of Bolivia and Peru. Currently he serves as the Director of Graduate Studies.

Research Description

Household Life in Prehispanic Bolivia

Village sites of the Formative Period (1500 BC - AD 400) Wankarani culture of Bolivia appear as mounds made up of the accumulation of hundreds of years of house remains, domestic refuse, and the gray ash of cooking fires. Some mounds stand as high as 8 meters. The Wankarani Complex represents one of the earliest village and pottery-using populations of Bolivia.

 

Courses

Paleo-Kitchen: Prehistoric Diet, Cooking, and Domesticity

Undergradaute Seminar. Theories concerning a natural human diet, and the basis for food preferences and taboos, have long been the subject of controversy within both anthropology and the popular imagination. How do biological and cultural factors influence human food choice? In exploring this question, this course will examine the evolution of human diet from a nutritional and primate physiological perspective, and examine the symbolism of eating, consumption, and the nourished body in prehistory. Focal topics will include: current debates over hominid diets; the causes and consequences of the shift from hunting and gathering to food production; archaeological techniques for reconstructing subsistence and cooking patterns; and the development of ancient cuisines (including the Chinese, Sumerian, and Inca). In all cultures, cooking and eating are related to the definition of significant social roles. Therefore, we will investigate through case studies how food preparation spaces and gender division of labor in food preparation activities served to create domestic life in prehistory. Prerequisites: ANTH 0582 or ANTH 0780

Prehistoric Village Life

Undergraduate Seminar. No social grouping other than the family has been more widespread, enduring, and important in human life than the village. Anthropologists have long recognized the village as an essential unit of study in understanding social organization in traditional, peasant, and modern societies. Archaeologists recognize the emergence of village lie as an important threshold in societal evolution in many parts of the world. For much of human history, the village was the setting where people lived and interacted, where their perceptions and identities were formed, and where traditions and worldviews were perpetuated. This seminar will: (1) investigate the village cross-culturally as a characteristic type of human settlement, and (2) explore how village life was experienced by its members. Topics to be explored include: the village as community; leadership, sharing, and jealousy within the village; demographic perspectives; the social transformations accompanying the origins of village life; the village as adaptation; and inter-village interaction and the growth of regional political systems. Drawing on ethnographic and archaeological case studies from Europe, the Middle East, China, and South America, we will aim at comprehending why villages emerged when and how they did in the past, and why the village remains so important to societies today, if only in some cases as a vanished ideal.

Origins of Cities

This course examines the origin and characteristics of urban life. After reviewing the nature of cities in the modern world, attention will focus on prehistoric cities in the Old World and New World, and the social, political, ecological and demographic processes that led to their development. The focus of the course is on archaeological cities, but ethnographic and sociological studies of modern urban forms will be extensively used. The purpose of the course is to give students a comparative understanding and appreciation of urban life and its long history.

Archaeology Core Course

The aim of this course is to introduce students to 1) the nature of archeological information, 2) the full range of the human cultural past, from a Paleolithic beginnings to state-level societies, 3) the various theoretical propositions archeologists have found useful in understanding cultural change on this scale, and 4) the ways archeologists evaluate these propositions against the information available in the archeological record. The course examines the evolution of human culture using selected, world-wide examples to illustrate the broad sequence of human development. Particular attention will be paid to the major transitions in human history, such as the change from hunting-gathering to sedentary agricultural life ways and the rise of complex societies.

Introduction to Archaeology

Modern archeology draws much of its theory and goals from anthropology. This course will show how archaeologists use the fragmentary traces left by past peoples to develop an anthropological understanding of their cultures. We will explore the variety of ways archaeologists investigate such things as prehistoric diet, social life, politics, technology, and religion. Topics to be covered include: the nature of archaeological information, dating techniques, interpretation of material objects, and archaeological ethics. Studies from around the world will be used to illustrate major principles in archaeological research. The course will provide an understanding of how and why we study past societies, as well as the unique contribution archaeology can make to understanding ourselves. Recitation sections are an important part of the course and are not optional. Recitation section grades will be determined by a combination of participation, short quizzes, and exercises.

Elizabeth Arkush

Elizabeth Arkush (PhD UCLA 2005) is an archaeologist whose research in the Peruvian Andes has emphasized themes of war and violence, and their connections to political authority, community, and ideology. She has been engaged in field research in Peru since 1999.

Her comparative approach to understanding warfare explores how relationships of hostility and alliance shape individual, community, and regional identities, structure settlement patterns, generate social hierarchies, and inform ritual and the performance of authority. A secondary theme lies in the intersection of paleoclimate, the progressive modification of lands for agricultural and pastoral production, and Andean sociopolitical histories. Methodologically her research relies on spatial technologies such as drone mapping, GIS analysis, and remote sensing.

Research Description

 

Pukaras of the Peruvian Titicaca Basin

This long-term program of research has investigated conflict, political organization, and social relationships in Peru’s Lake Titicaca Basin, synthesizing fieldwork on pukara (hillfort) sites with ethnohistoric information and GIS approaches. Defensive pukara sites became very common ca. AD 1300-1450, implying that people adopted different forms of sociopolitical organization and relationships to the land than had previously characterized the region. Several field projects have specifically addressed the regional spatial patterning, chronology, economy, and intra-community organization of large pukara settlements. They include survey and excavations at Ayawiri (Machu Llaqta) in 2009-2013, an intensive study of residential and defensive architecture at Pucarani in 2015, drone-assisted mapping of several other pukaras (2017-present). A current large-scale collaborative project uses satellite prospecting and GIS to expand the scale of analysis across the south-central Andean highlands.

Charting Andean Warfare in Space and Time

This ongoing study charts patterns in the severity of warfare over time and space in the pre-Columbian Andes by synthesizing defensive settlement patterns and rates of adult craniofacial trauma drawn from published studies by many archaeologists and bioarchaeologists. In combination, these lines of evidence indicate major peaks and lulls in the severity of warfare through time, as well as distinct coastal and highland histories. Resulting patterns are discussed in her 2022 book, and the cranial trauma dataset is archived on-line at the Comparative Archaeology Database.

Lake core biomarkers project

This collaborative project with Elliott Arnold, Mark Abbott, Josef Werne, and Aubrey Hillman took sediment cores from three lakes in the Peruvian Titicaca basin, and analyzed sedimentology, isotope ratios and organic geochemistry, including fecal stanol biomarkers from humans and camelids, to arrive at a picture of paleoclimate and changing populations through time. The Lake Orurillo core was particularly productive and has formed the basis of two publications (Arnold et al. 2021a, 2021b). Our results indicate a major drought interval in the early Late Intermediate Period, corresponding to other central and southern Andean climate proxies, and also indicate a major subsequent expansion of camelid populations, producing distinctive organic chemistry in lake sediments.

 

Courses

  • ​Introduction to Archaeology
  • Warfare in Archaeology and Ethnography
  • Politics in Prehistory
  • South American Archaeology
  • GIS in Archaeology
  • Theoretical Approaches in Archaeology (graduate seminar)
  • Workshop on Publishing (graduate seminar)

 

Publications

Arkush, E. 2022. War, Spectacle, and Politics in the Pre-Columbian Andes. Cambridge University Press.

Arkush, E. 2022. Land use, settlement patterns, and collective defense in the Titicaca basin: the constitution of defensive community. Andean Past 13: Article 15 (339-367)

Arnold, T. E., A. L. Hillman, S. J. McGrath, M. B. Abbott, J. P. Werne, J. Hutchings, and E. N. Arkush 2021.  Fecal stanol ratios indicate shifts in camelid pastoralism in the highlands of Peru across a 4,000-year lacustrine sequence. Quaternary Science Reviews 270: 107193.

Arnold, T. E., A. L. Hillman, M. W. Abbott, J. P. Werne, S. J. McGrath, and E. N. Arkush. 2021. Drought and the collapse of the Tiwanaku civilization: New evidence from Lake Orurillo, Peru. Quaternary Science Reviews 251:106693

Arkush, E. and H. Ikehara. 2019. Pucarani: Defensive monumentality and political leadership in the late pre-Columbian Andes. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 53:66-81.

Ikehara, H. and E. Arkush. 2018. Pucarani: Building a pukara in the Peruvian Lake Titicaca Basin (AD 1400-1490). Ñawpa Pacha 38(2):157-188.

Arkush, E. 2018. Coalescence and Defensive Communities: Insights from an Andean Hillfort Town. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 28(1):1-22.

Arkush, E. 2018. Climbing hillforts and thinking about warfare in the pre-Columbian Andes. In Engaging Archaeological Research: Case Studies in Method, Theory, and Practice, edited by S. Silliman, pp. 15-22. Wiley Blackwell.

Arkush, E. 2017. The End of Ayawiri: Abandonment at an Andean Hillfort Town. Journal of Field Archaeology 83:1-17.

Chacaltana, S., E. Arkush, and G. Marcone (editors). 2017. Nuevas tendencias en el estudio de los caminos. Ministerio de Culturo, Proyecto Qhapaq Ñan, Lima, Peru.

Langlie, B., and E. Arkush. 2016. Managing mayhem: Conflict, environment, and subsistence in the Andean Late Intermediate Period, Puno, Peru. In The Archaeology of Food and Warfare, edited by A. VanDerwarker and G. Wilson, pp. 259-290.  Springer.

Arkush, E. 2014. Soldados históricos en un panel de arte rupestre, Puno, Perú: Los caudillos del siglo XIX y el comentario político andino. Chungará 46(4):585-605.

Arkush, E. 2014. “I against my brother”: Conflict and confederation in the south-central Andes in late prehistory.  In Embattled Bodies, Embattled Places: War in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and the Andes, edited by A. Scherer and J. Verano, pp. 199-226.  Dumbarton Oaks Library and Collections. 

Arkush, E. and T. Tung. 2013. Patterns of War in the Andes from the Archaic to the Late Horizon: Insights from Settlement Patterns and Cranial Trauma. Journal of Archaeological Research 21(4):307-369.

Bongers, J. L., E. Arkush, and M. Harrower. 2012. Landscapes of Death: GIS-based Analyses of Chullpas in the Western Lake Titicaca Basin. Journal of Archaeological Science 39(6):1687-1693.

Arkush, E. 2012. Los pukaras y la poder: los collas en la cuenca septentrional del Titicaca.  In Arqueología de la Cuenca del Titicaca, Perú, edited by L. Flores and H. Tantaleán, pp. 295-320.  IFEA: Lima.

Arkush, E. 2012. Violence, indigeneity, and archaeological interpretation in the central Andes.  In The Ethics of Anthropology and Amerindian Research, edited by R. J. Chacon and R. G. Mendoza, pp. 289-309. Springer. 

Arkush, E. 2011. Hillforts of the Ancient Andes: Colla Warfare, Society, and Landscape.  University Press of Florida. (Winner of the 2013 SAA Book Award.)

Arkush, E. 2011. Explaining the Past in 2010 (The Year in Review). American Anthropologist 113(2):200-212.

Arkush, E. 2008. War, causality, and chronology in the Titicaca Basin. Latin American Antiquity 19(4):339-373.

Arkush, E., and M. W. Allen (editors). 2006. The Archaeology of Warfare: Prehistories of Raiding and Conquest. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.

Arkush, E. and C. Stanish. 2005. Interpreting conflict in the ancient Andes: Implications for the archaeology of warfare. Current Anthropology 46 (1): 3-28. 

Arkush, E. 2005. Inca ceremonial sites in the southwest Titicaca Basin. In Advances in the Archaeology of the Titicaca Basin, edited by C. Stanish, A. Cohen, and M. Aldenderfer, pp. 209-242. Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press, UCLA, Los Angeles.

Kathleen M.S. Allen

Kathleen Allen is an archaeologist whose interests focus on the development of tribal societies, regional settlement patterns, and contact studies exploring the interface between anthropology, history, ethnohistory, and archaeology.

 

Research Description

Kathleen Allen's primary geographic area of research interest is the Eastern Woodlands of North America with a special focus on pre- and post-contact period Iroquoian cultures of the eastern Great Lakes. Methodological interests include the application of geographic information systems to archaeological problems and the study of ceramic form and style.

Courses

Women, Men, and Children in Archeological Perspective

This course examines men, women, and children in past societies through the use of archaeological, ethnographic, and historic information. Extensive readings will provide an overview of gender studies in the field. Topics addressed include gender and material culture; division of labor; households and domestic economy, craft specialization; power, hierarchy, ideology; and culture contact. Gender will be examined from a perspective that includes men as well as women and will include recent studies aimed at recovering children in the archaeological record. Readings will focus on recent archaeological studies of gender and much class time will be devoted to discussion of readings. Students are expected to participate in leading discussion and will write a research paper on gender in their particular area of interest. Grades will be earned primarily through class discussion and a major research paper.

Basic Laboratory Analysis

Have you ever wondered how archaeologists look at bits of stone pottery to understand how people lived in the past? This course provides you with basic skills in analyzing lithics (rocks) and pottery so you can understand how artifacts were made and used. You will learn how to tabulate data and make interpretations about the activities in which people were engaged. Classes will include lectures, discussions of readings, assignments, and lots of hands-on experience working with material culture that archaeologists find most often. In the later part of the course, students will develop a research project and do an analysis using material from an Iroquois village site occupied in the 16th century. Prerequisites: At least one prior course in Archeology such as Introduction to Archeology, Archaeology Field School, or Mesoamerica Before Cortez is required.

Pots and People

In this course we examine pottery from two perspectives: that of the people who made pots in the past and that of the archaeologists who seek to interpret pottery found at archaeological sites. The aim of this course is to engender a perspective on pottery that is based on real life experience with it. Students will work through the process of producing the clay fabric, manufacturing pots, decorating them, and firing. In the last section of the course, we analyze pottery produced in the class using archaeological techniques. These include characterizing temper, cross-section analysis to determine manufacturing techniques and firing conditions. This course will lead to a better understanding of how pottery was produced in the past and of how the analysis of it will answer archaeological questions. Readings will focus on pottery manufacture and on archaeological approaches to the study of ceramics. A Special Fee of $20.00 to cover the cost of materials. This course will be offered every other year. Prerequisites: Introduction to Archaeology

Archaeology of North American Indians

In this course we examine archaeological evidence for the occupation of Native Americans in North America prior to, during, and after contact with Europeans. We will look at contemporary Native Americans and their views about the past as well as about how archaeology informs us about past societies. Major topics include the peopling of North America and the variety of Native American cultures that existed in different regions and their long histories. Special emphasis is placed on examining the trajectories of development of more complex societies in eastern North America, the Southwest, and the Northwest coast. This course will be offered irregularly. Prerequisites: Intro to Archaeology (Anth 0582).

Introduction to Archaeology

Modern archeology draws much of its theory and goals from anthropology. This course will show how archaeologists use the fragmentary traces left by past peoples to develop an anthropological understanding of their cultures. We will explore the variety of ways archaeologists investigate such things as prehistoric diet, social life, politics, technology, and religion. Topics to be covered include: the nature of archaeological information, dating techniques, interpretation of material objects, and archaeological ethics. Studies from around the world will be used to illustrate major principles in archaeological research. The course will provide an understanding of how and why we study past societies, as well as the unique contribution archaeology can make to understanding ourselves. Recitation sections are an important part of the course and are not optional. Recitation section grades will be determined by a combination of participation, short quizzes, and exercises.