IUP at the Society for American Archaeology Annual Conference

Several IUP students, faculty, and alumni attended the Society for American Archaeology Annual Conference last week in San Francisco, CA. Nine current faculty and students presented their research, and a team of graduate and undergraduate students competed in the Ethics Bowl.

The SAA Ethics Bowl has teams of students sharpen their wits and align their ethical compasses by debating real-world cases of archaeological ethics. This year’s team of Eva Miller, Ella Sibilia, Emily Czelusniak, Chloe Markle, and Demetrius Morales was very strong and made it to the final round.

Faculty members Bill Chadwick and Andrea Palmiotto coauthored two posters with students: “Close-Interval Metal Detection of Wreckage at Crash Sites of Large Aircraft to Identify Priority Areas for the Recovery of Human Remains” by Ella Sibilia, Oliver Casadei, Megan McCracken, Kathryn Anderson, Andrea Palmiotto, and William Chadwick; and “Value of Geophysical Survey before Standard Discovery Archaeological Shovel Test Survey on Historic Landscapes” by William Chadwick, Matthew Valenti, and Abdul Jones. Both of these highlight the hands-on and applied experience that students have access to at IUP.

Three graduating applied archaeology MA students presented on their thesis projects. Heidi Hepburn discussed “Reevaluating Site Function at the Mary Rinn Site (36IN29): A Comparative Analysis of Fire-Cracked Rock and Botanical Remains.” Jennifer Kennedy presented “Lithic Raw Material Procurement and Mobility Patterns during the Paleoindian and Prehistoric Periods in the North Fork Shenandoah River Watershed in Virginia.” Savannah Weinrich presented “Reanalyzing Ceramic Vessels through a Techno-functional Analysis from the Chester Fields Shell Ring Legacy Collection and the Potential for Cultural Representation.” 

Ben Ford presented his Fulbright Portugal-supported research, “Fishing to Farming: The Lagoa da Pederneira, Portugal, Landscape and Rapid Environmental Change,” and was a panelist on a forum titled “Parents in the Field: The Good, Bad, and Ugly . . .”

There were also many alumni from many generations of the MA and BA programs attending and presenting their research. After the meetings, Ford said, “It was exciting to see so many successful alumni in attendance.”