Upcoming Events

Dr. Ervan Garrison, PhD, RPA, University of Georgia

Dr. Garrison has recently retired from the University of Georgia where he taught geology and archaeology for 32 years. Archaeological sedimentology played a central role in his teaching and research, which encompassed the study of both terrestrial and lacustrine/marine sediments. From 1990 to 1992 he worked as a Marine Archaeologist at the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and served as research faculty at Texas A&M University from 1979 to 1989. Dr. Garrison received his PhD. from the University of Missouri and both his B.S. and M.A. from the University of Arkansas.

A significant portion of any archaeological site is often in the dirt aka “sediments.” Even until the mid-to-late 20th century, sediments were simply discarded and ignored at many excavations. Sediment analysis or sedimentology together with pedology is largely the province of geoarchaeology. The geoarchaeological study of inundated and submerged soils and sediments is a relevant sub-specialty since more and more academic and CRM studies focus on drowned landscapes. This seminar will focus exclusively on “drowned dirt” and how best to use it for archaeological ends. Color, texture, parent material, micro-and- macro inclusions, eDNA will be discussed as well as important laboratory and instrumental methods that assist in our understanding of wet sediments and soils.

1. Learn how to best sample wet sediments and how their study differs from that of subaerial soils and sediments.
2. Learn the basic steps in the collection and characterization of wet sediments.
3. Appreciate the importance of sedimentological/pedological study in archaeology.

Ryan Seidemann, J.D., Ph.D., RPA, Arizona State University, University of New Orleans, The Water Institute, Southern University Law Center

Ryan has been studying cemeteries and biological anthropology for over 30 years. He holds a BA (Florida State) and an MA (Louisiana State) in anthropology and a Ph.D. (Univ. of New Orleans) in urban studies/urban anthropology. Ryan also holds two law degrees (Louisiana State) and has been a licensed lawyer for over 20 years (Louisiana and Vermont). Ryan's legal, anthropological, and academic pursuits have been guided by studying the intersections of law and archaeology, including historic and archaeological preservation, human remains law, and shipwreck law. As a lawyer for the State of Louisiana for 20 years, Ryan policed the illicit trade in human remains in that state and collaborated with other states and federal agencies engaged in such endeavors. At the same time, Ryan authored or coauthored the laws that today make Louisiana's cemetery site protections the strongest in the United States. In addition, Ryan regularly teaches CRM, historic preservation, property law, and the anthropology of death and burial through adjunct appointments at the University of New Orleans, Southern University Law Center, and Arizona State University.

This course provides practitioners, both within CRM and academia, with a basic overview of federal and Louisiana law governing cemeteries and human remains. The focus on Louisiana law is expanded to the rest of the United States, reviewing both statutory law, court interpretations (case law), and basic common and civil law concepts that relate to these unique spaces. This course also provides recommendations for amending existing law around the U.S. and highlights the importance of descendant community agency in the protection of these sites.

1. Provide a clear understanding of what the law does and does not protect in terms of cemeteries and human remains in the U.S.
2. Provide guidance for how these laws interact with the basic practice of CRM in the U.S.
3. Provide guidance for working to improve protections of these sites in jurisdictions around the U.S.

Dan Sandweiss, Ph.D., University of Maine

Dan Sandweiss es un arqueólogo andinista con casi 50 años de experience en la América Latina. Ha participado en comités de selección para premios de la SAA y hizo una nominación exitosa para un premio. Fue el presidente de la SAA de 2022 a 2025 y ortorgó los premios de la SAA a los ganadores cada año.

En este curso, vamos a hablar de como hacer una nominación para un premio de la SAA.

1. Saber que premios ofrece la SAA
2. Saber como extraer la información clave de las convocatorias para nominaciones para premios
3. Saber como escribir una nominación para un premio

To be announced.

Join SAA to learn about career options in archaeology and heritage management! Attendees will be able to pick two career paths they want to learn more about and talk to professionals in the field.

• Each breakout room will be capped at 40 people per room.
• Registrants will receive a confirmation email immediately, an email with log in information about one week before the event, and a reminder email the day before. If you do not receive the automated confirmation email, please double-check that you have completed registration.
• This event is FREE to SAA members and not available to non-members.

Kaitlyn Davis, RPA, Ph.D., Northern Arizona University

Dr. Kaitlyn Davis was the lead author on a publication in Advances in Archaeological Practice’s 2021 special issue on Health and Wellness in Archaeology, specifically focusing on safety considerations for first time field directors (such as graduate students). She also co-led a well-attended SAA seminar in 2022 on safety and logistical considerations for preparing a first field project. She teaches one of Northern Arizona University's archaeological field schools.

Dr. Davis is an archaeologist with over 10 years of experience including cultural resource management, community collaboration, public lands management, and academic research. She is interested in community-based archaeology, public archaeology, artifact sourcing, paleoethnobotany, geoarchaeology, and landscape archaeology. She especially values community-based collaborative archaeology, having worked in cooperation with community members from the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribes, the Nez Perce (Nimiipuu) Tribe, the Santa Fe South Cooperative Association, the Friends of Fort Owen, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, and Ute Indian Tribe, and collaborating for 11 years with the Pueblo of Pojoaque. She has completed archaeological projects for the Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Parks Service, New Mexico State Land Office, Archaeological Conservancy, and Montana State Parks. She has previously worked in several midwestern and western states and Ireland, and at archaeological sites ranging in date from the early archaic period through the early twentieth century. She has supervised the crews and planned the logistics for multiple of the projects previously described. These crews have ranged from volunteers of all ages and experience levels to university and federal employees. She earned her PhD from the University of Colorado in 2022 and is currently an Assistant Professor of Archaeology at Northern Arizona University and a Senior Archaeologist at Chronicle Heritage.

Graduate schools provide students opportunities for fieldwork and training in archaeological methods and theory, but can sometimes overlook instruction in field safety and well-being. More explicit guidance on organizational considerations for projects and how to conduct safe fieldwork will improve the overall success of student-led projects and prepare students to direct safe and successful fieldwork programs as professionals. This guidance can also be instilled during field school, and so a portion of this course will be dedicated to considerations for organizing and directing field schools to meet the needs of today’s workforce and to emphasize crew safety and training scaffolding. In this seminar, we will draw on the experiences of current and recent graduate students as well as professors who have overseen fieldwork to outline key considerations in improving field safety and well-being and to offer recommendations for specific training and safety protocols. While discussing these considerations and recommendations, we will use primarily domestic field project examples, particularly those involving community collaboration, but will briefly touch on international projects.

The resources and recommendations provided in this seminar will be especially useful for projects whose crews are comprised at least partially of students, interns, or volunteers (such as Passport in Time, university, or nonprofit-sponsored projects).

1. Learning how to protect and register your project.
2. Provide information to share with your crew (e.g. acknowledgement of risk form, code of conduct agreement, info packet).
3. Learning things to keep in mind when structuring your project (i.e. structuring a safe project).

Amanda Castañeda, RPA, M.A., Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center

Amanda Castañeda is the Archaeology Director for Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with the mission of persevering the rock art of the Lower Pecos Canyonlands in southwest Texas. Amanda received her B.S. and M.A. in anthropology from Texas State University with graduate research focused on bedrock ground stone technology. Since graduate school, Amanda’s research and career has largely been in west Texas with non-profits, academic projects, and cultural resource management work. She also worked for the Wyoming State Historic Preservation Office which afforded her the opportunity to work at several rock art sites on the northern plains. Rock art documentation and preservation has been a consistent thread throughout all of Amanda’s positions, gaining experience in varying methodologies and practices. Amanda serves on the American Rock Art Research Association board, is the rock art liaison for the Texas Archaeological Society and has helped facilitate several rock art recording workshops for state archaeological societies as well as the Society for American Archaeology at the 2024 Annual Conference in New Orleans.

Carolyn E. Boyd, Ph.D., Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center, Texas State University

Carolyn E. Boyd is the Shumla Endowed Research Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Texas State University. She is an artist and an archaeologist specializing in iconographic analysis and cognitive archaeology. She received her doctorate in archaeology from Texas A&M University based on her analysis of the 5,000-year-old Pecos River style rock art in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of Texas and Mexico. Her research examines the role of hunter-gatherer artists as active participants in the social, economic, and ideological fabric of the community, and the function of art as communication and a mechanism for social and environmental adaptation. She is the author of numerous publications, including two books, Rock Art of the Lower Pecos (2003) and The White Shaman Mural: An Enduring Creation Narrative, which received the 2017 Scholarly Book Award from the Society for American Archaeology.

In 1998, Boyd founded a nonprofit organization, Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center, to preserve and study the rock art of the Lower Pecos. She serves as ex-officio head of research for the organization and collaborates with Shumla on various research initiatives. Boyd’s current projects include Origins and Tenacity of Myth in Archaic Period Rock Art of Southwest Texas and Northern Mexico, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Layers of Meaning: Chronological Modeling & Pictograph Stratigraphy, funded by the National Science Foundation. This collaborative and interdisciplinary research program synthesizes expertise from chemistry, archaeological science, formal art analysis, and Indigenous consultants. Results from these projects are informing studies of myth, forager social organization, Texas prehistory, art history, and the origins of Mesoamerican myth and art. Results also are providing insights into possible drivers for the emergence and decline of Pecos River style rock art, including environmental, social, and extra-regional cultural influences.

Pictographs and petroglyphs, often referred to as rock art or rock imagery, are unique cultural resources and important archaeological features. However, many archaeologists may find the study of rock art intimidating for various reasons. Some people may not have experience with rock imagery because it does not exist or preserve in their environment. Others struggle with strategies for interpretation or understanding what can be learned from the myriad painted, pecked, and incised images found at archaeological sites. The goal of this webinar is to provide tools and a framework that makes the documentation and study of rock art more approachable. Throughout this course we will guide participants through modern methods of recordation with a focus on how research questions guide best practices. This seminar is intended for archaeologists at any career stage who have minimal to no experience with rock art documentation and analysis.

1. Participants will gain insight into the significance of rock art for past, present, and future peoples and appreciate the contributions that rock art can offer to archaeological inquiry.
2. Attendees will learn current best practices for rock art documentation ranging from baseline minimum procedures to highly detailed analyses.
3. Participants will understand the importance of tailoring recording methods to specific research questions and goals.