Upcoming Seminars

Bernard K. Means, PhD, RPA, Virginia Commonwealth University

Dr. Means's scholarly pursuits include reconstructing American Indian village spatial and social organizations, the research potential of archaeological collections, and the history of archaeology across the Americas, especially during the Great Depression. Dr. Means is also director of the Virtual Curation Laboratory, which is creating three-dimensional (3-D) digital models of historical, archaeological and paleontological objects used for teaching, research, and public outreach from across the Americas as well as northern India. He has 3-D scanned Ice Age animal bones from across North America, including some that were collected by Thomas Jefferson and a mastodon tooth that belonged to Ben Franklin and found in Philadelphia. Dr. Means is the author of Circular Villages of the Monongahela Tradition (2007) and editor of and contributor to the Shovel Ready: Archaeology and Roosevelt’s New Deal for America (2013), as well as numerous articles on the Monongahela tradition, New Deal archaeology, and applications of three dimensional (3-D) scanning and printing to archaeology, especially public outreach.

Three-dimensional (3-D) printing is increasingly infiltrating all aspects of society, from manufacturing and medicine to STEM education on K-12 levels. This seminar will explore the basics of 3-D printing and how archaeologists can integrate 3-D models and printed materials into all aspects of their discipline, from the field to the laboratory, and into the classroom and the museum. Particular attention will be paid to the following areas:

• how digital 3-D models enhance identification of artifacts and ecofacts in the field and laboratory over 2-D drawings or photographs
• how 3-D printed replicas expand opportunities for teaching and research at all levels of education, but especially for undergraduate teaching
• how 3-D printed replicas can be incorporated into public outreach programs, maximizing access to the past, while minimizing risks to fragile heritage
• how 3-D printed replicas can be integrated into museum exhibits to create a more interactive and tactile element
  
  

The 3-D printed past is not something from the far-off archaeology future, but should be seen as very much a part of the archaeological present.

1. Describe the basic types of 3-D printers and finding a cost-effective solution to 3-D printing needs
2. Explain where to find or how to create your own digital 3-D archaeological models for printing
3. Explore ways to integrate 3-D printed replicas into all aspects of archaeological pedagogy and outreach

Tonya Fallis, MA, RPA, GISP, City of McKinney, TX

Tonya Fallis received her MA in Archaeology from Eastern New Mexico University in 2002. She specializes in geospatial and database applications in archaeology and created her first GIS-based predictive model back in the 90s, when 30-meter Landsat data was still considered pretty cool. She was an archaeologist and GIS Specialist at New Mexico's Archaeological Records Management Section for twelve years. In the private sector, she worked with GIS in natural and cultural resource conservation, including the design of an archaeological site management system for the City of Santa Fe. She currently works as a Senior GIS Analyst for the City of McKinney, Texas, where she uses GIS to support public history and heritage education.

Story Maps are an excellent resource for engaging the public with archaeology and heritage education. They can be used to communicate the results of archaeological research, and provide a medium for telling the stories of underserved populations. Story Maps can also be used at low cost for non-profit or educational purposes, allowing organizations with scarce resources to create their own stories on an easily-accessible platform.

1. Describe Story Map designs and how they use geospatial data, text, and multimedia to achieve different goals.
2. Review the options available for Story Maps based on free, low-cost, and full-priced Esri accounts.
3. Outline best practices behind production, design and maintenance of a Story Map, including issues of special interest to archaeologists.

Jessica I. Cerezo-Roman, PhD, RPA, University of Oklahoma

Dr. Cerezo-Roman received her master’s degree in Biological Anthropology from the
Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Mexico City, and her doctoral degree in Anthropology from the University of Arizona, Tucson. She is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. Her academic and professional trajectory has allowed her to study the human body and mortuary customs from fascinating ancient, historic, and modern contexts, using cutting edge methodological and theoretical archaeological approaches. She has designed archaeological projects employing innovative and diverse methods and social theories by marrying and reworking processual and postprocessul approaches. One of her technical strengths is her expertise with human remains, particularly highly burned and fragmented human remains, for reconstructing posthumous treatments of bodies to answer broader anthropological questions. She is one of the leading experts on studying ancient cremation in North America. Dr. Cerezo-Roman has worked with more than 2,200 cremation burials associated with Prehispanic populations in the Americas from Arizona, Northern Mexico, and Belize, and from Gallo-Roman contexts from Belgium, Archaic contexts from Greece, Neolithic contexts from China, and Late Stone Age hunter-and-gather and Neo-Punic contexts from Africa.

This workshop is designed for archaeologists and bioarchaeologists who want to learn about different excavation and laboratory analytical procedures that maximize time, data collection, and robust scientific rigor and ethical consideration when working with human remains. Cremation funeral customs are understudied in archaeological and bioarchaeology research. Cremation is a multi-stage process that involves preparation of the body, burning the body in a pyre, and often removal of remains into a secondary place of burial or secondary cremation deposit. If permitted by necessary agencies and affiliated communities, cremations are a fascinating transformative mortuary ritual that leaves archaeological traces and enormous evidence in human remains that can be analyzed. Detailed archaeological excavation combined with rigorous analysis of the human remains, including thermal alteration, estimation of age at death, biological sex, and determination of pathologies, can allow researchers to reconstruct different stages, variations, and social significance of cremation rituals to the decendent, mourners, and community through time and space.

The participants will become acquainted with:
1. Different anthropological research questions related to cremation mortuary ritual from an archaeological and bioarchaeological point of view;
2. Fundamental archaeological excavations techniques and data that can be reconstructed from pyres and secondary deposits of cremated remains;
3. Essential osteological methods and techniques to reconstruct the biological profile of the
individuals and thermal alterations.

Lucas R M Johnson, PhD, RPA, Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc.

Dr. Johnson's research at Caracol, Belize began in 2010 and initiated his training and application of ED-XRF on over 2,000 ancient Maya obsidian artifacts. Through this geochemical and technological analysis, he learned the basics of XRF physics, the importance of source reference material, and advanced statistical methods used to assign artifacts to known sources to assess ancient regional trade through time. Concurrent with this project, he worked with an international team to characterize obsidian artifacts from two project locations in Ethiopia. Through these projects, he established relationships with XRF specialists and developed a deeper knowledge of portable XRF instruments. Currently, as a practicing archaeologist in cultural resource management, he is expected to apply XRF analysis to obsidian, other volcanic rocks, and potentially other materials in conventional and in often creative ways. As a member of a laboratory team at Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc. and working toward advancing technical reports and research papers, he has stayed current with XRF literature describing analyses of various materials, taught other lab staff the fundamentals of XRF, and trained them to use an XRF instrument.

Marc Marino, MA, RPA, University of Arkansas

Marc Marino’s archaeological training with pXRF as an undergraduate student began with Dr. Lucas Johnson at the University of Central Florida Archaeology Laboratory in 2011. Subsequent training with Dr. Wesley D. Stoner, in both pXRF analysis and statistical analysis of data obtained with Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA), built on that foundation at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. His internship at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) with Dr. Brandi Lee MacDonald focused on the trade and exchange of decorated ceramics and obsidian in Aztec Period Mexico (specifically on the independent Tlaxcallan State). While his dissertation research was accomplished using NAA, XRF, and pXRF of obsidian, ceramics, clays, and sediments, Dr. MacDonald also introduced him to other applications of chemical analysis, including the analysis of ochres and pigments. Combined, these experiences have provided exposure to a wide range of projects across broad geographic areas.

Applications of XRF in archaeology have expanded beyond the analysis of homogenous materials, such as obsidian, to include more heterogenous materials used, created, formed, or associated with human practices. Applications therefore include characterizations of ceramics, metals, glasses, soils, sediments, plasters, pigments/ residues, cherts, and metavolcanic or metasedimentary rocks. While obsidian analysis is relatively straightforward, the other materials require additional procedures before formulating interpretations based on geochemical attributes. This online seminar presents two case studies, one using obsidian artifacts from the western Great Basin and one using both course and fine-paste ceramics from Mesoamerica. In this seminar, the instructors examine appropriate methods to prepare specimens, to assess the precision and accuracy of results obtained, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of different sample preparation techniques. While it is recognized that a ‘one size fits all’ method does not exist for all pXRF applications, we discuss what factors should be given careful consideration if the goal is to share data across projects and emphasize that such results are of the greatest utility to clients and stakeholders alike.

1. Introduce the method of XRF to those who may or may not have access, but are interested in using XRF to answer anthropological questions relating to obsidian and ceramics.
2. Present case studies by which attendees may learn how to perform a specific analysis.
3. Outline what is required for XRF analysis of a given material and the limitations of XRF in analyzing certain materials.
4. Describe the fundamental physics of XRF and how software transforms XRF spectral to analytical units (i.e., calibrations).
5. Explain the basics of analyzing parts per million or weight percent versus untransformed photon peak counts (i.e., statistical procedures).