Research

We use a community-centered approach to investigate the deep histories of human communities, primarily across Arctic, Subarctic, and Beringian North America. Our work integrates faunal analysis, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, ancient DNA, and ethnohistoric analogy to examine human–animal relationships, interregional interactions, and subsistence strategies in diverse archaeological contexts across the western hemisphere. Below are current topics we are investigating in the lab.

Research areas & methods

Zooarchaeology · Human-Animal Relations · Ancient DNA · Community-Based Research · Small-Scale Societies · Paleoenvironments · Transdisciplinary Methods

Field crew at a morning debrief on a ridge in the Northern Yukon.

Morning debrief in the Northern Yukon.

Field crew excavating test pits in the Northern Yukon.

Excavating test pits in the tundra of the Northern Yukon.

Field crew excavating in eastern Kansas.

Excavating a potential early homestead in eastern Kansas.

Human-Animal Relationships 

Relationships among humans and non-human animals inform stories of people in the past. These interactions are often mutually beneficial, complex, and dynamic across the globe and through time. Our research often starts with the physical remains of animals to understand the ways humans engaged with non-human animals.  

Current projects:

  • Comparative zooarchaeological analysis of ice seals and Inuit subsistence relationships at Cape Espenberg, Alaska. 
  • Canid ancestry and interactions with Inuit at Cape Espenberg and the implications for the Early Inuit migration. 

Human-Environment Interactions

Understanding the ways the environment shapes human behaviour and the ways humans impact the environment are key to addressing current and future challenges. We reconstruct palaeoecologies from animal remains and associated proxies to investigate how people engaged with their natural and built environments in the past. 

Current projects:

  • Reinvestigation of Bluefish Caves (northern Yukon), including sedimentary ancient DNA analysis, site formation reanalysis, and geoarchaeology, in partnership with Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation. 
  • Reconstructing subsistence-settlement patterns in relation to environmental and social changes over the last 25,000 years in the Northern Yukon.

Interactions in Small Scale Societies

People in small-scale societies maintained individual and group relationships in a variety of ways and across different geographic scales. We investigate the formation, maintenance, and change of these interactions in diverse areas in the western hemisphere using transdisciplinary methods. 

Current projects:

  • The Birnirk-Thule transition at Cape Espenberg, Northwest Alaska. 
  • Early colonial migration and occupation in eastern Kansas.