The Practice and Ethics of Skeletal Excavation and Conservation [Deeper Digs]
When: September 15, 2023 2:00-4:00 PM ET
Duration: 2 hours
Certification: RPA-certified
Pricing
Individual Registration: $99 for SAA members; $149 for non-members
Group Registration: $139 for SAA members; $189 for non-members
Dr. Miller Wolf is a bioarchaeologist and UWF Assistant Professor of Anthropology. She specializes in the study of skeletal remains from archaeological sites to answer cultural questions about the past and has extensive experience with conservation and curation of collections at U.S. and Latin American institutions. She was a Fulbright U.S. Scholar to Honduras (2022) for ongoing research of the largest collection of ancient Maya human skeletal remains yet recovered in Mesoamerica at Copan, Honduras and to teach bioarchaeological field and laboratory methods to students from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras. She was awarded the Conservation and Heritage Management Award (2020) by the Archaeological Institute of America for her decades long conservation project in Honduras and other sites in Latin America. She has also conducted research on skeletal samples from sites in North Africa, Mississippian and Woodland sites in the Lower Illinois River Valley, and historic sites within Florida and Belize.
Carolyn Freiwald, PhD, University of Mississippi
Dr. Carolyn Freiwald earned her PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and focuses on animal use, migration, and diet in Mesoamerica. She is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at University of Mississippi. Her specialty is biogeochemistry using the chemical composition of osseous remains to reconstruct behaviors in the past. She is also interested in the conservation and care of anthropological materials, and works with museum collections in Wisconsin, Mississippi, and Latin America.
- Review best practices for excavation, transport, sampling, and cleaning human skeletal remains drawing from real world examples
- Describe best practices for long-term conservation and curation of skeletal remains drawing from real world examples
- Discuss the importance of long-term conservation strategies for collections and our
ethical obligations as archaeologists
More than Fill: Using GIS and Historical Documents in Urban Archaeology [Foundational Skills]
When: September 21, 2023 1:00-2:00 PM ET
Duration: 1 hour
Certification: RPA-certified
Pricing
Individual Registration: Free to SAA members; $69 for non-members
Group Registration: Free to SAA members; $89 for non-members
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.
- Discuss how urban archaeology is conducted
- Bring to light underutilized GIS analyses for use in CRM archaeology
- Describe how different kinds of historical documents can help build a better site history
Project Management in Archaeology: How to Finish on Budget and Ahead of Schedule while Meeting Expectations [Foundational Skills]
When: October 11, 2023 2:00-3:00 PM ET
Duration: 1 hour
Certification: RPA certification pending
Pricing
Individual Registration: Free to SAA members; $69 for non-members
Group Registration: Free to SAA members; $89 for non-members
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.
- Define project management and its basic approaches
- Describe the role of scope, schedule, and budget to individual projects
- Identify the parameters of project success
- Outline how to prepare for and avoid common project management pitfalls
Experimental Archaeology: Finding Dynamic Behaviors in Fragments of the Past [Deeper Digs]
When: October 26, 2023 3:00-5:00 PM ET
Duration: 2 hours
Certification: RPA-certified
Pricing
Individual Registration: $99 for SAA members; $149 for non-members
Group Registration: $139 for SAA members; $189 for non-members
Dr. Speer is an Associate Professor at Idaho State University and the Curator of Anthropology at the Idaho Museum of Natural History. He has developed several experimental archaeology focused projects, with most centered around hunter-gatherer technology. These include the use of porcelain as a proxy for knappable materials in understanding the chaîne opératoire of fluted projectile points, recreating the damage on bison bone created by organic projectile points, and investigating variables associated with
heat treatment of chert. Dr. Speer has been an avid flintknapper for over 20 years and regularly teaches knapping to students.
Dr. Speer earned his PhD at the University of Texas at San Antonio. His research focuses on geochemical analysis of knappable stone to determine mobility patterns of prehistoric hunter-gatherers. His other research areas focus on interdisciplinary approaches to understanding the Peopling of the Western Hemisphere, lithic technology, ancient craftmanship, and GIS predictive modeling. A cross-cutting critical feature of Dr. Speer’s research is engaging Native American perspectives as they relate to indigenous knowledge of ecological resources and archaeological findings.
- Review the field of experimental archaeology, what it is, how it operates, and how it is
useful - Discuss the importance of experimental archaeology and how it has transformed and
contributed to important questions in archaeology - Describe how to construct an experimental archaeology project and what it would look like with several examples
Archaeological Database Creation and Management Basics [Deeper Digs]
When: November 07, 2023 3:00-5:00 PM ET
Duration: 2 hours
Certification: RPA-certified
Pricing
Individual Registration: $99 for SAA members; $149 for non-members
Group Registration: $139 for SAA members; $189 for non-members
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.
- Describe how database creation is an important component of research design in archaeology
- Identify basic archaeological database architecture using common examples from real-life databases
- Demonstrate how to apply relational database structures to common archaeological organizational challenges using museum and research project examples
- Outline strategies to handle database changes by creating flexible data structures as applied to archaeological data with practical examples