Past Events

Alanna Ossa, PhD, RPA, SUNY Oswego, Department of Anthropology

Dr. Ossa has over 22 years of experience in archaeology including 11 years in a Cultural Resource Management setting. Before joining SUNY Oswego as tenure-track faculty, she worked for ACS (Archaeological Consulting Services, Ltd.), the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Comparative Archaeology, the Department of Anthropology at Arizona State University, the Office of Cultural Resource Management at Arizona State University, and the Cultural Resource Management Program at the Gila River Indian Community. To date, she continues to do consulting work through Logan Simpson Design for the Gila River Indian Community. From 2001 to 2008, she worked as an archaeological database consultant for the Cultural Resource Management Program at the Gila River Indian Community. Prior to that, she taught an intensive course in SQL (Structured Query Language) to IT professionals. For the purposes of the course, she wrote a brief SQL Tutorial and introduction. As ACS’ Senior Ceramic Analyst, and lab manager prior to joining the faculty at SUNY Oswego, she analyzed ceramic materials and wrote the reports on ceramic materials from testing, data recovery, and monitoring projects, and was responsible for curation from beginning to end. She has experience with collections from central Arizona, central New Mexico, the Northeast (Iroquois), and several locations in Mexico including the Gulf coast (Veracruz), central Highlands, and the West coast.

This class is designed for both beginners and experienced users of archaeological data or collections focused databases. In this class you will learn how to treat your database creation as a component of research design based on common units in archaeology analysis and collections. You will learn the basic archaeological database and collections database architecture and apply these to relational database design. By the end of the class, you should be able to recognize basic principles of effective database organization and be able to avoid common pitfalls in database organization and curation practice. We will practice and identify guidelines for effective data fields, analysis forms, and practice how to deal with database changes (and analysis changes) using an example database. Participants in this course will be encouraged to come with their own data questions and structures to practice with during the practicum portion.

1. Describe how database creation is an important component of research design in archaeology
2. Identify basic archaeological database architecture using common examples from real-life databases
3. Demonstrate how to apply relational database structures to common archaeological organizational challenges using museum and research project examples
4. Outline strategies to handle database changes by creating flexible data structures as applied to archaeological data with practical examples

Anubhav Preet Kaur, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Mohali

The role of environmental stimuli in human evolution, expansion and extinction has been highlighted time and again by scholars. Global climate changes from forest-dominated to grassland-dominated environments in the Plio-Pleistocene period have been identified as an important factor for hominin dispersal around the Old World. However, in light of recent research this priority is being questioned and debated. Fossils of Homo erectus, one of the first known early human species to expand outside of Africa, have been discovered from Early Pleistocene deposits of East Europe, West Asia, and Southeast Asia, thereby placing the Indian Subcontinent in general - and the Siwalik Hills in particular - as an important dispersal route. However, apart from the chronologically and taxonomically ambiguous Hathnora cranium, no unequivocal fossil hominin remains have yet been reported from the region. Based on the presence of fauna often associated with Homo erectus, like Theropithecus oswaldi, Hippopotamus, and Megantereon in the Early-Middle Pleistocene deposits of the Siwalik Hills, scholars have predicted the presence of hominin remains in the region, yet none have been found. Currently, lithic artifacts are the only known signatures of hominin occupation in the region, primarily occurring as surface deposits without secure dates. The Pinjore Formation (2.58-0.63Ma), north of Chandigarh represents the most extensive and the only continuous Early-Middle Pleistocene deposit in the region with a rich record of fossilized vertebrate remains and recently, ostrich eggshells. In light of absence of stratified lithic deposit and secure dates, palaeoecological and faunal analogies with other Early-Middle Pleistocene hominin bearing sites, can provide an adequate explanation for presence or absence of hominins in the region.

The Student Affairs Lecture Series in Archaeology (SALSA) provides an opportunity to hear student members present on their current research as well as a space to discuss and connect with other students.

Stefan Brannan, PhD, RPA, PMP, New South Associates, Inc.

Dr. Brannan currently serves as the Director of Archaeology for New South Associates, Inc., a women-owned small business providing cultural resource management services in the southeastern United States and beyond. In his current role, he serves as the administrative manager for the Archaeology Department as well as the project manager and subject matter expert for several ongoing archaeological projects. He has conducted archaeological surveys, testing, data recovery, public outreach, and consultation with and on behalf of private, state, federal, and tribal agencies. He has evaluated numerous archaeological sites for the NRHP under Section 106 and 110 of the NHPA, as well as multiple state registers. His experience encompasses Precontact period and Indigenous residential, monumental, ritual, and mortuary sites; as well as historic domestic, urban, military, and funerary sites. He has conducted projects on behalf of and in consultation with numerous state and federal agencies, including: several state Departments of Transportation, the University of Georgia, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the National Forest Service, the National Park Service, the Tennessee Valley Authority, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, and Georgia Power Company. His active research interests include organizationally complex middle range societies, anthropological and archaeological theory, settlement archaeology, regional survey, and the applications of
project management.

Project management is an extremely important but critically underused body of knowledge in archaeology. Many of the activities that archaeologists engage in fit the definition of a project, but many of us were never introduced to effective project management methods, instead learning through trial and error. The goal of this seminar is to provide an overview of basic project management as an effective tool that can be employed by attendees, including students (e.g., thesis or dissertation objectives, class and independent projects, and publications), private and public sector professionals (e.g., fieldwork, reporting, grant writing, and consultation), and academics (e.g., specific service obligations, publications, student mentorship, and research). Participants should come away with the ability to clarify the role of scope, schedule, and budget in their own projects; identify what makes a project successful; and recognize common pitfalls that contribute to project failure.

1. Define project management and its basic approaches
2. Describe the role of scope, schedule, and budget to individual projects
3. Identify the parameters of project success
4. Outline how to prepare for and avoid common project management pitfalls

Geri Knight-Iske, RPA

Ms. Knight-Iske is an archaeologist and cultural resources specialist at Stell, with over 13 years of professional experience in the field of cultural resources and archaeology. She has performed Phase I-, II-, and III-level archaeological investigations/surveys as Field Director, Crew Chief and Artifact Lead and has performed field and laboratory work on multiple sites of proposed land development areas throughout Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C., and West Virginia. She also has experience using ArcGIS for cultural resources, natural resources, and archaeological purposes. Ms. Knight-Iske has worked for and/or collaborated with the Armed Forces Retirement Home, Department o Homeland Security, District of Columbia Historic Preservation Office, General Service Administration, Maryland Historical Trust, West Virginia SHPO, Maryland State Highway Administration, National Park Service, Naval Support Facility at Indian Head, Nebraska State Historical Society, New Jersey State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), Office of Historic Alexandria, Office of Historic Preservation of Arlington County, Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), University of Nebraska State Museum, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Washington State Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation, multiple Tribal Historic Preservation Offices, and national, state, and local avocational and professional organizations.

Urban Archaeology, or archaeology within a highly developed city, presents a number of unique challenges compared to archaeology that happens in open, presently rural areas. Although urban archaeology adds additional requirements for safety and logistic issues, it also presents archaeologists with a large amount of useful information in the form of historical maps, photographs, census data, newspaper articles, etc. that help create a picture of who was living within a project area and when. Historic maps in particular can be used for GIS analysis to determine how much the landscape has changed over time. This can help in decisions about the appropriate survey type to determine if cultural materials are present within a project area. This presentation will focus on the Barry Farm neighborhood in Washington, D.C. as a case study.

1. Discuss how urban archaeology is conducted
2. Bring to light underutilized GIS analyses for use in CRM archaeology
3. Describe how different kinds of historical documents can help build a better site history

Soren Frykholm, University of Michigan

While intermediate levels of social organization—above the household, but below the entire city or polity—are notoriously difficult to pinpoint in archaeological contexts, they nevertheless represent a crucial frontier for archaeological theory building.  Ethnographic research demonstrates that informants recognize these intermediate levels, such as the “neighborhood,” and that they consider them important.  Critical to forming social identity, integrated social communities also have high potential for collaboration.  In Mesoamerica, organizational units such as the Mixtec siqui, Aztec calpulli, and Maya tzukub were recognized in social, economic (tribute), and military systems.  But how do we conceptualize, investigate, and identify these ethnohistorically documented social units archaeologically?

Between 2013 and 2017, archaeologists used GPS units to map Cerro Amole, a Postclassic (AD 800-1521) urban center in the Mixteca Alta of Oaxaca, Mexico.  In addition to thousands of terraces, more than 750 structures were recorded along with ancient roads, platforms, patios, and surface artifacts.  In this lecture, I will discuss three GIS-based methods of neighborhood reconstruction at Cerro Amole, including Kernel Density (KD), Least Cost Analysis (LCA), and watersheds.  Rather than prioritizing a single model for its ability to shed light on ancient social organization, I argue that the interpretive ability of these methods is enhanced when considered together. 

The Student Affairs Lecture Series in Archaeology (SALSA) provides an opportunity to hear student members present on their current research as well as a space to discuss and connect with other students.