Previously Funded Projects

QRC members lead and participate in a wide range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary research projects from the study of past earth climates and glaciations to shifts in the geographic distributions and evolution of vegetation and faunal communities, to the evolution and dispersals of the genus Homo and the increasing scales of human modification of earth environments through the Holocene. QRC provides a venue for meeting and collaborating with scholars across Quaternary disciplines. We are also fortunate to be able to provide seed funding and small grants for member research projects. We are especially happy to support grad student and junior scholar research activities, much of which leads to larger, external funding from agencies like the National Science Foundation.

6 projects in Archaelogy All Projects
  • 2019-20 | |
    • Jennifer Huff, Member

    Investigating ecological change and archaeology in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea

    Abstract: The Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea have been occupied by humans for at least 20kya, although the relationship between this area and the rest of the highlands and late Pleistocene through Holocene near Oceania in general is less clear. This region is equatorial and high-altitude, creating a rare combination of climate effects that inform on past climate change through direct proxies and through the impacts on human-landscape interactions driving subsistence and technology changes for humans. Often considered to be a hinterland of the central highlands, known archaeological materials hint at broader connections and possible early technological innovations. However, the archaeological and paleoecological records are still under-determined. This project seeks to geolocate raw material sources relevant to the interpretation of the archaeological record and ecological features such as now-drained Pleistocene-era lakes. Additionally, this project will engage with local leaders and knowledge-holders about deforestation over the last several decades related to expansion of human populations to better understand the paleoecological and archaeological records, as well as the future trajectories of these forests in an era of population expansion and rapid climate change. These knowledge exchanges and relationships will also provide a foundation for future research further exploring the climate and archaeological records of this region.

    Report:

  • 2018-19 | |
    • Hope Loiselle, Student
    • Ben Fitzhugh, Member

    Integrating Steller Sea Lion Archaeogenomics with Archaeological Data to Understand Human-Marine Ecosystem Interactions and Demographic Shifts in the Kuril Islands

    Abstract: This project uses ancient DNA analysis of Steller sea lion remains from the Kuril Islands to investigate a human population collapse that occurred around 1000 B.P., associated with the Okhotsk culture. I will also provide paleoecological data that can be used to better understand contemporary pinniped populations and the threats facing them. Sea lions are being used to investigate human population collapse because they were relied on both for subsistence and resources by the people of the Kuril Islands. If the decline in the Okhotsk population is related to a decrease in the abundance of marine resources, a correlating bottleneck in sea lion populations may be evident in the archaeogenomic record. A sea lion population bottleneck would not be the direct cause of a human population decrease, but it would signal human pressure on the marine environment and/or an external climatic event affecting people and their resources. If there is no change in population structure of sea lions during the Okhotsk collapse, environmental stresses may not have been a factor in their decline. I will use the genetic data obtained from the sea lions to test for ancient population structure in sea lions, test for demographic decline, and look for signs of “genomic meltdown.” This research serves as pilot work for my dissertation in which I will use these methods as a means for understanding larger scale human-marine environment interactions in the North Pacific Rim region throughout the Holocene.

    View the Report

  • 2018-19 | |
    • Yoli Ngandali, Student
    • Sara Gonzalez, Member

    Low-Impact Recording Methods in Rock Art Studies

    Abstract: This collections-based dissertation project includes a suite of complementary, non-destructive, or low-impact data collection methods such as archival research, collaborations with cultural advisors and elders, digital data collection, and regional spatial analyses to analyze Chinookan-Columbia River ground stone artifacts, or belongings. The focus of this investigation is to examine carved and painted portable rock art and connect them to important places on the Lower Columbia River landscape by identifying distinct artistic styles, motifs, geochemical signatures, and/or practices unique to historically documented communities. The spatial distribution and temporal range of Chinookan-Lower Columbia art forms, belongings, and associated exchange networks can help us better understand the Lower Columbia River regional dynamics of social change, group affiliation, group identity, and the histories of learned practices over many generations.

    Previous research of ground stone tools and ground stone art belongings focused on stylistic differences observed by the naked eye, but my digital and multi-spectral techniques extend the range of optical imaging, thus providing a more detailed fine-grained analysis of the practices of groundstone production, trade, use, and discard.

    This season I will conduct multi-spectral imaging and digital data collection (Technical Imaging, Ultraviolet Fluorescence, Infrared Reflectography, Visible-Induced Luminescence, Reflection Transformation Imaging, 3D photogrammetry). I will capture a collection of technical images with a modified digital camera sensitive to the spectral range of 360-860 nm to detect surface modifications such as paint preparation, evidence of use-wear, carving, and paint deterioration. These data allow me to examine the relationships and exchange networks of community art traditions, explore their connections to group identity, and analyze past land and resource use in the Lower Columbia River Region.

  • 2017-18 | |
    • Jiun-Yu Liu, Student
    • Peter Lape, Faculty

    The Emergence of Iron Metallurgy in Taiwan: a Trade Diaspora Model

    Abstract: My research takes a new approach to investigating the emergence of prehistoric iron metallurgy in Taiwan by using a trade diaspora model, which privileges the role of trade diasporic “foreigner” communities and their interactions with local communities. Trade diaspora are characterized by groups of merchants who travel far from home and locate themselves in a different community to trade goods and provide services. Recently, archaeologists have applied the concept of trade diaspora to explain the interaction between foreign immigrants and indigenous people in historic periods. My project will use the trade diaspora model to explain archaeological data from a time period in Taiwan pre-dating the appearance of documentary historical records, about 1800 years ago.

    Report: [pending]

  • 2017-18 | |
    • Hollis Miller, Student
    • Ben Fitzhugh, Faculty

    The Historical Archaeology of Gender, Food and Labor in Old Harbor, Alaska

    Abstract: This dissertation project addresses the transformation of Sugpiaq society and identity through the Russian occupation, specifically focusing on gendered patterns of food procurement, preparation and storage in addition to other production tasks in and around Sugpiaq households within the Old Harbor region. The Sugpiat are the indigenous people of the Gulf of Alaska region, including the Kodiak Archipelago, the Alaska Peninsula and Prince William Sound. In framing this project around the period of Russian colonization in Alaska (1784-1867 CE), I consider both social (e.g. resettlement, labor demands) and environmental (e.g. local resource drawdown, epidemic disease) hazards brought on by Russian colonization, which created a multifaceted disaster for the Sugpiaq people – whose vulnerability to these hazards was mediated by factors such as gender, class and marriage status. To address these vulnerabilities and elucidate various Sugpiaq strategies for survival, I combine historical and ethnohistorical documentary research with archaeological analysis. The archaeological research centers on foodways (how people used the environment for subsistence, their menu, food preparation, cooking, eating practices) and the presence and use of both local and imported wares, tools and materials related to other production tasks, such as hide processing, sewing, and RAC-mandated hunts for fur-bearing animals. Taken together, these archaeological materials will provide a picture of daily lives and activities in the Old Harbor region during Russian occupation, which, when put in diachronic comparison, will allow me to trace Sugpiaq identity and the structures of social experience (gender, demographic situation, village and household social organization, religion, etc.) throughout the Russian period.

    Report: Read the report here.

  • 2016-17 | |
    • Mikhail Echavarri, Student
    • Peter Lape, Faculty

    San Pablo Archaeological Project

    Abstract: This pilot project lays the groundwork for a larger archaeological campaign focused on illuminating indigenous Filipino responses to Spanish colonial intrusions in the Cagayan valley of Northern Luzon. The focal point of the investigation is the church of San Pablo de Cabagan in Isabela province. San Pablo is one of the first established Churches in the region. It therefore has the potential to provide this project with a diachronic data set from pre-colonial to late-colonial eras. This project also aims to be collaborative with the community surrounding San Pablo de Cabagan. As it is still in use today the priest, Father Jomil and several people in the community are interested in the history and conservation of the Church as well. The project plans to share data, conclusions, and to potentially incorporate community originated questions that the archaeology can answer.

    This first pilot field season I will conduct aerial drone survey, test excavation pits, and archival survey to assess the extent of archaeological material in and around the church. Ultimately the larger archaeological investigation into San Pablo de Cabagan has the potential to explore the interplay of colonialism, culture, and environmental change on a local and regional scale.

    Report: read the report here

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