The course is an introduction to the archaeology of Mesoamerica which explores the natural and cultural diversity of the area south of the United States and north of lower Central America. It surveys the history of archaeological research in Mesoamerica and examines some of the specific methods of archaeological research that are unique to Mesoamerican archaelogy. The focus is on three areas—the Gulf Coast and the Olmecs; the Valley of Mexico and its long history of settlement from the Tehuacan Valley through the Aztecs; and the southern Highlands and Lowlands inhabited by the Maya, although other regions of Mesoamerica will also be discussed.

Archaeological Services of Indiana University of Pennsylvania and its partner, America’s Stories, Inc., are conducting a survey of the historic resources in the municipalities of Allegheny, Oilcreek, and Pleasantville, Venanago County. The purpose of the project is to provide an inventory of historic properties to the Venango County Regional Planning Commission (VCRPC) and the host municipalities for consideration in future land use matters, zoning, subdivisions, and/or site-specific activity requiring permits or action by the municipality or VCRPC. The project will also update and expand the information regarding historic resources that is readily available to the host municipalities, VCRPC, the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission (PHMC), the Oil Region Alliance of Business, Industry and Tourism (ORA), and property owners.

This historic resource information will include the initial purpose, current condition, and potential subsequent actions/designations needed to preserve key resources. The proposed survey will also identify resources that have the potential to be nominated to the National Register of Historic Places. The survey will be conducted in a timely and cost effective manner and will produce GIS maps, historic property survey forms, and reports that can be conveniently used by the project partners.

Because there is no deadline for admission, student applications are reviewed on a rolling basis; the deadline for applications for financial aid, including graduate assistantships, is March 15. To apply, complete the on-line or printed application available at How to Apply. For more information, contact Dr. Phillip Neusius (phillip.neusius@iup.edu), chair of the IUP Anthropology Department.

The program includes 36 hours of graduate coursework. All students will take a required common core of 15 credits, 15 credits of electives, and six credits of thesis and/or internship. Graduates with a master’s degree in Applied Archaeology may be employed by a variety of public and private employers. For example, Pennsylvania and the Mid-Atlantic region will need more trained professionals to assist in the growth of the fields of historic preservation and heritage tourism, the most rapidly expanding segment of the tourism industry, Pennsylvania’s second largest industry. The governor, the state legislature, and in particular the General Assembly’s Center for Rural Pennsylvania have long recognized the need to combine research on cultural and historical preservation with tourism. The Pennsylvania House of Representatives and Senate have, in the past, unanimously passed resolutions recognizing the importance of the state’s historic and prehistoric features. A recent House resolution calls for a statewide inventory of historically significant structures.

Tourism has been recognized by the state as an important, in some cases key, economic force, and many state agencies have stated that Pennsylvania should use historic preservation to its economic advantage, improving the state’s economy while also promoting a sense of regional and state pride. For example, Governor Rendell recently launched a cabinet-level task force on the Pennsylvania Wilds to encourage “heritage tourism,” combining officials from the Department of Natural Resources, the Pennsylvania Tourism Office, and other agencies.

For the past three years Dr. Ford has compiled fifteen journal entries on the Museum of Underwater Archaeology website. These entries describe the “what” and “how” of his archaeological findings along the Lake Ontario littoral. The project journal, titled “Lake Ontario Cultural Landscape,” follows the project from planning, through research and fieldwork, to analysis and conclusions in order to give the public a sense of the archaeological process. The current phase of this project recently ended and, with it, the Web journal. The final two entries briefly describe the project conclusions and several avenues for future research.

Dr. Elizabeth Cooper just finished her Ph.D. in Applied Anthropology at the University of South Florida, where she also received a master’s degree in Public Health. Her geographic focus is in Malaysia, and she returned last fall from an extensive period of field work in Borneo supported by a National Science Foundation grant and a U.S. Fulbright Fellowship. Her research interests include nutritional anthropology, health policy, globalization, and cognitive and visual methodologies. She has a recent book chapter on teaching Anthropology with television published in Teaching Strategies in Anthropology, published by Prentice Hall. As one of the two replacements for Drs. Chaiken and Conelly, she will be teaching courses on SE Asia, Applied Anthropology, and Anthropology of Food as well as expanding the curriculum into areas of cognitive and visual anthropology.

Dr. Amanda Poole recently received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Washington. Her dissertation, “The Power of Place: Refugee Resettlement, Resource Management, and State Making in Lowlands Eritrea,” is based on extensive fieldwork supported by the Social Science Research Council and other fellowships. Her fields of specialization include political ecology, community-based resource management, migration issues, post-conflict development, food security, and cultural and environmental sustainability in the Horn of Africa and coastal Alaska. Most recently, she has been working in Alaska with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service to develop programs of sustainability in the Alaskan fishing communities. She will be teaching courses on Africa, Applied Anthropology, and Ecological Anthropology as well as expanding the curriculum into the area of Cultural and Environmental sustainability.

Dr. Ben Ford recently received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Texas A&M University in conjunction with the Nautical Archaeology Program. His dissertation, “The Lake Ontario Maritime Cultural Landscape,” focuses on his extensive fieldwork along Lake Ontario. This research is innovative in its integration of marine and terrestrial archaeological survey techniques designed to analyze human interaction with the shore environment between 5000 B.P. and AD 1900. Dr. Ford also has an M.A. from the College of William and Mary, where he wrote a thesis on “Shipbuilding in Maryland, 1631–1850.” Dr. Ford has extensive experience in applied archaeology working for the public and private sectors. His research interests include North American Historical Archaeology, Nautical Archaeology, GIS, and remote sensing applications in archaeology. Dr. Ford will be filling a need in Historic Archaeology for the new M.A. program in Applied Archaeology. He has hit the ground running and is already part of three proposals for external funding.

His summer experience is highlighted on the PHMC Website. During the summer, Tom worked for the Section of Archaeology cataloging archaeological collections.

IUP Department of Anthropology

Garcia’s recent publications include:

• Binational Substance Abuse Research and Internal Review Boards: Human Subject Risks and Suggestions for Protections. Human Organization. Vol. 68, No. 3, 2009.
• Juramentos and Mandas: Traditional Catholic Practices and Substance Abuse in Mexican Communities of Southeastern Pennsylvania. NAPA Bulletin. Vol. 31, 2009 (Special Issue, Immigration)

These experiences can be summarized as follows:

Spring for-credit internship: Anne Colgrove, refugee children orphanage in Sri Lanka (assisted by Drs. Miriam Chaiken and Larry Kruckman).

Summer for-credit internships: Kimberly Conover, American Museum of Natural History (curation and public education); Samantha Peat, Washington D.C. Newseum (anthropology journalism, archival research); Christina Parise, Bureau of Historic Preservation, Washington’s Crossing (with IUP alumna Hilary Krueger, museum administration, curation, preservation); Thomas Waumbaugh, Pennsylvania State Museum Harrisburg, Archeology Division (curation and inventory systems), recipient of Pennsylvania Diversity Internship Program Award (assisted by Drs. Bev Chiarulli and Sarah Neusius); Brian McElwain and Sarah Morrow, Pittsburgh Catholic Charities, Refugee Services, refugee resettlement; Jim Price, Ethnomusicology study of “Do-it-Yourself” movement and impact on folk bands in Northern Appalachian and New England (assisted by Drs. Jim Dougherty and Larry Kruckman; Jason Pare, PennDot, artifact curation (assisted by Dr. Bev Chiarulli); Southern China research (assisted by Dr. Francis Allard; projects are far-ranging, from archaeology to Chinese higher education policy): Sarah DeMaio, Meredith Bird, Jeremy Guillette, Meghan Pace.

Summer noncredit internships: Mitch Sumers, Lakehead University (Ontario, Canada), Paleo DNA Training Program (assisted by Dr. Francis Allard); Stephen Johnson, Paleo-DNA training program, Lakehead University, plus Mercyhurst Lab skeletal human remains forensics program (assisted by Dr. Francis Allard); Chelsea McDonnell, Medispin Medical Software Design, NYC (currently working on PSI postpartum website, assisted by Dr. Larry Kruckman); Colin Zinda, public health research, University of Wisconsin (assisted by Dr. Larry Kruckman) (pending); Jamie Mead, Student Conservation Association.

Fall for-credit internship: Christina Samuels, Intern Africa, Ghana (pending, assisted by Dean Asamoah, Dr. Larry Kruckman and others). Stephen Johnson, Forensic Investigator Internship in the Medical Examiner’s Office, Pittsburgh.

Places visited included Bandelier National Monument, Chaco Canyon National Historical Park, and Zuni Pueblo in New Mexico; Walnut Canyon National Monument, Wupatki National Monument, and Navajo National Monument in Arizona; the Ute Mountain Tribal Park, Anasazi Heritage Center, and Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado; Hovenweep National Monument in Utah; and other sites.

Students who took this course were Casey Felix, Jordan Galantine, MaryBeth Homa, Brooke Knisely, Chelsea McDonnell, Kerianne Mahoney, Andy Phillips, Emily Poeppel, Sarah Williams, and Nathan Winters. Besides long days full of guided tours, drives over washboard roads, and hikes into cliff dwellings, each student passed a general knowledge test before leaving IUP, researched and gave two presentations about the archaeology they were encountering, and kept a journal in which they reacted to the experience and specific questions from their instructors.

Rangers and professional archaeologists at the various places visited added immensely to what we learned.

Students also participated in cooking and other camp maintenance tasks except during the group’s time at the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Colorado. Despite the intense schedule, both faculty and students returned with a new appreciation for the past people of the northern Southwest. We also came away with many never-to-be-forgotten memories of the environment and people we encountered.

Drs. Sarah Neusius and Beverly Chiarulli organized a poster session entitled “Reconsidering the Monongahela: New Viewpoints on the Archaeology of Western Pennsylvania,” which included six posters from IUP as well as four from other institutions. Eight other IUP faculty members and students participated in other symposia presenting papers and posters.

Drs. Neusius and Chiarulli presented a poster entitled “How Many Components are There? Investigating the Late Prehistoric Occupation of the Johnston Site;” a poster by Archaeological Services Graduate Assistant Sara Fortnam (Geography Department) was entitled “Spatial Distribution and Proximity of Late Woodland Monongahela Settlements Along the Laurel Highlands in Southwestern Pennsylvania.” The undergradute students posters were Justin DeMaio’s “Investigating Loyalhanna Chert Procurement in Late Woodland Monongahela sites,” Matthew Sagi’s “Measuring Human Activity Levels at the Johnston Site,” Ali Littman’s “The Johnston Site Modified Bone Assemblage: New Insights About the Monongahela,” and a poster by Meghan Pace, Jason Pare, and Anthony LeDonne entitled “Geophysical Investigations of Late Prehistoric Monongahela Sites in the Conemaugh-Blacklick Watershed.”

Dr. Francis Allard also organized and chaired a symposium entitled “Charting the Life Histories of Artifacts and Goods in East Asian Prehistory and History” in which he presented a paper entitled “Concepts and Applications in the Study of Life Histories of Objects.”

Other presentations included a poster by Dr. Phillip Neusius entitled “A Tale of Two Lithic Collections: Arthur Parker and the Ripley Site,” a paper by Drs. Beverly Chiarulli and R. Scott Moore (History Department) entitled “Virtual Archaeology: Public Archaeology in Second Life,” a paper by undergraduate Jessica Freas “3D Scanning using the NextEngine Generations for Artifact Analysis and Public Education,” and a poster by graduate student Germaine McArdle (English Department) and undergraduates Tiara Bey and Justin DeMaio entitled “Applications of Advanced Technology to an Archaeological Survey of Hermosa, New Mexico.”

Carie Heckert (M.A. candidate, Department of Sociology, and Anthropology alumna, IUP) presented “A Typology for Understanding Depression in Latina Immigrants”, based on her research in Indiana County; Megan Bond (Ph.D. student, Department of Anthropology, SMU, and Anthropology alumna, IUP) presented “One Link in the Chain of Labor Migration: A Household Economy in Guanajuato, Mexico,” based on her IUP Ethnographic Field School work; and Qiana Lightner (McNair scholar, departments of Anthropology and Sociology, IUP) presented “The Educational Plight of Blacks and Latinos at Indiana University of Pennsylvania” based on her McNair Research.

“Silvia Tlaseca and Kaolin Mushroom Workers Union: Women's Leadership in the Mexican Diaspora” appears in Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, and “Local Challenges to Labor Organizing in Mexican Immigrant Enclaves: Kaolin Mushroom Workers Union in Southeastern Pennsylvania” was published in the Journal of Latino and Latin American Studies.

The event, which rotates yearly among PASSHE’s universities, is organized this year by IUP’s Department of Anthropology and the Anthropology Club. Students and faculty from PASSHE’s Clarion, Bloomsburg, Mansfield, and California universities will join faculty and students from IUP for two days of presentations and social events. Student presentations will include papers and posters on field- or literature-based research in different subfields of anthropology.

Jess Devlin and her poster presentation at the Undergraduate Scholars Forum

Outstanding Paper Presentation Awards

Awards were presented for Best Presentation from each of the concurrent sessions at the forum. The best presentations in session winners included:

• Quiana Lightner
  Department of Anthropology
  “The Educational Plight of Blacks and Latinos at Indiana University of Pennsylvania”
• Alicia Rich
  Department of Anthropology
  “Fission-Fusion in Captive Western Lowland Gorillas”
• Best Poster Award
  College of Humanities and Social Sciences
  Jessica Develin
  Department of Anthropology
  “Surface Decoration Analysis of 2008 Johnstown Site Excavation”
• Best Bibliography Awards from IUP Libraries
  Quiana Lightner

We also congratulate one of our double majors for an Outstanding Paper Presentation:

• Sarah Morrow
  Department of Theater and Dance
  “Theatre Culture in Film”

Their presentation at the MAAC on March 21 was titled “The IUP Late Prehistoric Project: A Regional Survey in the Eastern Tributaries of the Central Allegheny Valley in Pennsylvania.” During the SPA, they presented two papers. The first, by Neusius and Chiarulli, was titled “More New Perspectives on the Johnston Site: The 2008 Excavations”. The second, by Chiarulli and Neusius, was titled “Update on the IUP Late Prehistoric Project.” The papers discussed various aspects of the IUP Late Prehistoric Project, including results of the investigations during the Summer 2008 Archaeological Field School.

Students applying for assistantships for the M.A. in Applied Archaeology should apply by March 15, 2009. The IUP Graduate School and the Anthropology Department are now accepting applications to the new M.A. in Applied Archaeology Program for the Fall 2009 semester. While there is no deadline for admission to the program, applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. To apply, complete the on-line or printed application available at How to Apply. Program details are available on the IUP Anthropology Department website. For more information, contact Dr. Phillip Neusius, chair of the Anthropology Department, at phun@iup.edu.

While some of the topics were developed as part of classroom projects, others present the results of undergraduate honors theses or independent projects. The presentations include:

Michael Deemer: “Lithic Platform Analysis for the Johnston Site”

Justin DeMaio: “Investigating Loyalhanna Chert Procurement in the Late Prehistoric”

Jessica Devlin: “Surface Decoration Analysis of 2008 Johnston Site Excavation”

Helene Hurrey: “Attitudes of Gender Roles among Chinese Female Students Studying in the United States”

Anthony LeDonne and Meghen Pace “Geophysical Investigations of Late Prehistoric Sites”

Anthony LeDonne: “Cortex Presence at the Johnston Site”

Ali Littman: “The Johnston Site Modified Bone Assemblage: New Insights About the Monongahela”

Matthew Sagi: “Measuring Human Activity Levels at the Johnston Site”

Laura Mill: “Head Nodding in College Classrooms”

Sarah Moore: “Theater Culture in Film”

Meghan Pace: “Lithic Type Investigations at the Johnston Site”

Jason Pare: “Raw Materials at the Johnston Site”

Alicia Rich: “Fission-Fusion in Captive Western Lowland Gorillas (gorilla gorilla gorilla)”

Katy Ringbloom, Elizabeth LaBrecque, and Kelly Lauer: “Clues from Within: Processing and Identification of Animal Remains”

This three-credit course (Anthropology 485 Presession, May 4–25, 2009) is open to all undergraduate students by application only. Costs include tuition and a fee for the costs of the excursion. Application forms are available in the Anthropology Department, McElhaney Hall, Room G1.

For further information, contact Dr. Sarah Neusius (724-357-2133, sawn@iup.edu) or Dr. Phil Neusius (724-357-2733, phun@iup.edu).

The Cleveland Plain Dealer called the novel “beautifully written” and “one of the best mysteries of the year.” Dr. Shaara’s first book, Every Secret Thing, was also published by Ballantine and was called “the debut of an utterly original voice.” Shaara is currently working on a third, tentatively titled Conviction.

This section includes Neusius’ report on the model curriculum developed by the Society for American Archaeology’s Committee on Curriculum, which she chairs. It also includes commentary from archaeologists in the academic, private, and government sectors about this approach to training applied archaeologists.

The Archaeological Record is published by the Society for American Archaeology.

The IUP Graduate School and the Anthropology Department are now accepting applications to the new M.A. in Applied Archaeology Program for the Fall 2009 semester. While there is no deadline for admission to the program, applications are reviewed on a rolling basis. Students applying for assistantships should apply by March 15, 2009. To apply, complete the on-line or printed application available at How to Apply. Program details are available on the IUP Anthropology Department website. For more information, contact Dr. Phillip Neusius, chair of the Anthropology Department, at phun@iup.edu.

TRB is one of six major divisions of the National Research Council— a private, nonprofit institution that is the principal operating agency of the National Academies in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The National Research Council is jointly administered by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. TRB’s varied activities annually engage more than 7,000 engineers, scientists, and other transportation researchers and practitioners from the public and private sectors and academia, all of whom contribute their expertise in the public interest by participating on TRB committees, panels, and task forces. The program is supported by state transportation departments, federal agencies including the component administrations of the U.S. Department of Transportation, and other organizations and individuals interested in the development of transportation.

In 2007, the Anthropology and History departments received funding through a State System of Higher Education Technology Fee Special Project Grant to purchase a Trimble GNSS R8 base station and rover for sub-centimeter accuracy in mapping excavation and survey projects.  This past summer, Drs. Beverly Chiarulli (Anthropology) and R. Scott Moore (History) took the R8 on the road to test its capabilities in several field projects.

This summer, Chiarulli and three students, undergraduates Justin De Maio and Tiara Bey and graduate student Germaine McArdle, used the R8 to map nineteenth century artifacts and survey areas in the Gila National Forest, New Mexico, test units at the Lemon House in the Allegheny Portage National Historic Site in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, and at the IUP Archaeological Field School site near Blairsville, Pa.
Moore and four students, undergraduates Jon Crowley, Jessie Freas, and Joe Kochinski and graduate student Nick Wise, took the R8 to Cyprus to map the coastal site of Pyla-Koutsopetria. The site of Pyla-Koutsopetria was a wealthy Late Roman village that served as an important regional trading hub for the southeastern area of the island.

The advantage of the R8 for archaeological surveys is that it provides extremely accurate mapping in seconds, allowing a survey team to collect hundreds of survey points in a day compared to the use of hand-held units, which are less accurate and take much longer for each reading. During a three-week period, the team was able to take more than five thousand GPS measurements over a two-kilometer square area, permitting the creation of an extremely accurate topographic map of the coastal region.

In the Gila Archaeological Project, the IUP survey team joined with students and faculty from Howard University in Washington, D.C., students from the Mescalero Apache Tribe, and archaeologists from the National Park Service and the Gila National Forest (GNF). The focus of the project is the Apache Wars of the 1870s and 1880s, which pitted Buffalo Soldiers, the African-American regiments formed after the Civil War, against the Apache.

Dr. Eleanor King of Howard University directs the project, which focuses on how both sides used the landscape, not only for battle but for everyday life by identifying camp sites and battle sites. Chiarulli, De Maio, Bey, and McArdle used the R8 and other hand-held GPS units to map structures and artifacts in a nine thousand-acre section of the Black Range district of the GNF.

The eastern slopes of the Black Range were among the most hotly contested landscapes in this prolonged fight.  Homeland to the Warm Springs Apache, they witnessed many of the most important battles in the Victorio War. This uprising began in the late 1870s under the leadership of chief Victorio and his allies and did not effectively end until well after his death, with the surrender of Geronimo and his allies in 1886.

The Black Range saw some of the last battles fought for freedom and self-determination by the Apache on United States soil. It was also a proving ground for the 9th Cavalry, one of the Buffalo Soldier regiments. One battle alone in these mountains won the regiment three medals of honor. Even though there are some fifty-five known battle sites on Forest land on the eastern slopes of the Black Range, many have never been properly recorded. Although located on National Forest land, these sites remain vulnerable to relic hunters. With their destruction goes important information on exactly what took place in these mountains, as usually all we have are the brief military records of engagements. Even more important is information about where the Apache camped or the soldiers stayed and how they traveled away from the forts and roads.

During the nine days of field work, the IUP team mapped artifacts and structures in nine survey areas including standing structures and possible structures in an abandoned nineteenth century mining town and cemetery, several prehistoric sites, a battle site, and several historic Apache artifacts. They also used a Bartingdon Magnetic Susceptibility survey loop to survey possible residential or camp sites.

Lambda Alpha is the only national honorary society for anthropology and has 165 chapters across the country.

Bond’s application included letters of recommendation, a statement of professional goals, and a manuscript based on her original research, which will be published in the Lambda Alpha journal. Her research focused on the adjustment process that students from Bangalore, India, experienced after coming to IUP to study.

Previously, Bond participated in an ethnographic field school in Peru, which resulted in her presenting several papers regionally and at the international meeting of the Society for Applied Anthropology in Memphis, Tenn.

While at IUP, she also participated in a study-abroad program in Valladolid, Spain, and the Anthropological Study Odyssey to Belize and Guatemala.

Bond graduated from IUP with a 4.0 grade-point average. In the fall, she will begin the doctoral program in cultural anthropology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where she has received a full scholarship and teaching assistantship.

Although it is required for all Archaeology Track majors, there are spaces available for a few additional students. This summer we will be investigating a Late Prehistoric village near Blairsville, Pa.

Students will have a chance to learn excavation techniques, how to record site information, how to handle excavated artifacts and about the archaeology of western Pennsylvania.

For more information, contact Dr. Beverly Chiarulli (bevc@iup.edu) or Dr. Sarah Neusius (sawn@iup.edu) McElhaney, G-1.

Six faculty members and students presented at the Society for American Archaeology Annual Meeting held in Vancouver, British Columbia from March 27-29. Drs. Sarah Neusius and Beverly Chiarulli presented a paper "Return to the Johnston Site: New Dates and Data on the Monongahela." Dr. Chiarulli presented a paper "Producers, Consumers, and Traders: Lithic Industries at Cerros and Chau Hiix, Belize," and Dr. Francis Allard presented a poster titled "Horse Focused Ritual Practice in Mongolia: An Example of Long-term Continuity?"

Three Anthropology majors also presented papers on their undergraduate honors thesis projects. Erica Ausel presented a paper titled "Analysis of Lithic Raw Material and Artifact Types at Chau Hiix," Susan Lukowski presented a paper titled "Exploring Fish Use by the Monongahela," and Jessie Freas presented a paper titled "Discovering Archaeology through the Eyes of a Middle School Student."

At the same time, Dr. Victor Garcia and another student, Megan Bond, were presenting papers at the Society for Applied Anthropology Annual Meeting in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. Garcia presented a paper titled "Exploring Drug Use across Borders: Transnational Mexican Migrants in Southeastern Pennsylvania. Megan's paper was titled "Mi Sierra: Lessons in Traditional Andean Nutritional Knowledge and Biodiversity in Ancash, Peru."