- McElhaney Hall, room G-1E
441 North Walk
Indiana University of Pennsylvania - 724-357-2732
Lara Homsey-Messer
Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Anthropology, Faculty Member
- Geoarchaeology, Microarchaeology, Quaternary Landscape Evolution, Human Adaptations to Environmental Change, Archaeological Soil Micromorphology, Public Archaeology, and 6 moreportable XRF (PXRF) in Archaeology and Museum Science, Environmental Archaeology, Geoscience Education, Alluvial archaeology/geoarchaeology, Archaeological Chemistry, and Micromorphologyedit
The Squirrel Hill archaeological site (36Wm0035) is a Johnston-phase Monongahela village located in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, on a terrace of the Conemaugh River near the town of new Florence. Although listed in the National... more
The Squirrel Hill archaeological site (36Wm0035) is a Johnston-phase Monongahela village located in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, on a terrace of the Conemaugh River near the town of new Florence. Although listed in the National Register of Historic Places, previous investigation is extremely limited; many questions remain to be answered, including verifying occupation and cultural affiliations; identifying the location and extent of site boundaries; characterizing the internal arrangement of houses, plaza, and stockades; and reconstructing the site's paleo-landscape. In partnership with the Midwest office of the Archaeological Conservancy, we began to investigate these questions as a part of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania's 2016 archaeological field school using a combination of geophysical survey, test excavation, and geomorphic testing. We report on these field results, and recent radiocarbon, particle-size, and soil micromorphology analyses designed to refine the nature of occupation and past landscape history for the site.
Research Interests:
Because archaeology is an applied field that is best learned experientially, it is ideally suited to integrating community service learning (CSL) into its curriculum. And yet, as Nassaney has recently noted, archaeological pedagogy has... more
Because archaeology is an applied field that is best learned experientially, it is ideally suited to integrating community service learning (CSL) into its curriculum. And yet, as Nassaney has recently noted, archaeological pedagogy has changed little since the 1960s. The lack of pedagogical reform within the discipline has received significant criticism in the last decade. For example, Fagan has argued that it is no longer acceptable “for an archaeologist to be trained in purely academic and fieldwork skills” and Bender and Smith have called on professional archaeologists to reevaluate the college curriculum in which we train students to enter the profession. Their volume offers numerous avenues for redirecting curricula, but despite archaeology’s natural fit, CSL is surprisingly not among them. Nassaney and Levine’s recent volume Archaeology and Community Service Learning seeks to remedy this oversight and provides numerous case studies detailing the benefits of integrating service learning in archaeological curricula. This paper seeks to add to the emerging literature on this topic by illustrating the ways in which archaeology students can benefit from integrating not just CSL, but also library research and information literacy into the curriculum as well.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
This paper examines the microartifact assemblage from a Mississippian pithouse interior at Wickliffe Mounds, a multiple mound center and town located in western Kentucky. Distributions of microartifacts in the 1-2 mm, 2-4 mm, and 4-6.3 mm... more
This paper examines the microartifact assemblage from a Mississippian pithouse interior at Wickliffe Mounds, a multiple mound center and town located in western Kentucky. Distributions of microartifacts in the 1-2 mm, 2-4 mm, and 4-6.3 mm fractions are compared. Results indicate that the smaller artifacts do not simply mirror larger artifacts, but rather contain additional information about cultural behavior. Density plots reveal the intensity and location of human activities within the household including distinct areas for cooking/food preparation, tool maintenance, and storage. These distributions differentiate between public and private areas, a result conforming to idealized models of household organization postulated for Dallas-phase Mississippian sites in Tennessee. The identification of copper is particularly noteworthy because only two slivers were recovered during excavations. Found only in the 1-2 mm fraction, the copper is an ore rather than native copper. These remains may represent materials ground to make green pigments, an activity not readily apparent in the macroartifact assemblage. Finally, this paper highlights the nuanced perspective gained by incorporating elemental analyses and examining microartifact composition, emphasizing that it is not just the distribution of microartifacts that help archaeologists interpret human behavior, but also their composition, stability, and fragmentation.
Research Interests:
In this paper, we review the minimal role experimentation has had in microartifact analyses to date and argue that the future of microartifact research lies in increased experimentation. To this end, we describe our own experimental... more
In this paper, we review the minimal role experimentation has had in microartifact analyses to date and argue that the future of microartifact research lies in increased experimentation. To this end, we describe our own experimental efforts to understand the taphonomic and site formation processes associated with microartifact deposition and post-deposition. The project, conducted as part of an undergraduate class in experimental archaeology at Murray State University, was designed to test how microartifacts of different sizes and materials are generated and altered through cultural formation processes such as trampling and sweeping, as well as natural formation processes such as bioturbation and precipitation.
Research Interests:
This paper evaluates previous models of cave and rockshelter use in the American Midsouth from the Early to the Middle Archaic. Four sites are compared in order to identify variability in activities, seasonality, occupation... more
This paper evaluates previous models of cave and rockshelter use in the American Midsouth from the Early to the Middle Archaic. Four sites are compared in order to identify variability in activities, seasonality, occupation intensity, and function. Focus is placed on using the often overlooked feature assemblages to discern these activities. Data suggest that the changing use of many caves and rockshelters is not one of longer term occupation as base camps, as has been previously argued, but rather as specialized field camps dedicated to the processing of mast resources. This shift takes place as Middle Holocene warming prompted hunter-gatherers to adopt a more logistical mobility strategy in order to take advantage of the spatio-temporal variance associated with increased mast availability. It is further argued that these sites were likely locations of women’s activities and that foraging in the Midsouth involved groups of women engaged in daily tasks centered around mast, tasks that over time imbued caves and rockshelters with symbolic meaning such that they came to function simultaneously as both processing camps and as persistent places of ritual significance in the hunter-gatherer taskscape.
Research Interests:
The Squirrel Hill archaeological site (36Wm0035) is a Johnston-phase Monongahela village located in Westmoreland County, PA, on a terrace of the Conemaugh River near the modern town of New Florence. Although the site is listed in the... more
The Squirrel Hill archaeological site (36Wm0035) is a Johnston-phase Monongahela village located in Westmoreland County, PA, on a terrace of the Conemaugh River near the modern town of New Florence. Although the site is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, previous investigation is extremely limited; many questions remain to be answered, including verifying occupation and cultural affiliations; identifying the location and extent of site boundaries; characterizing the internal arrangement of houses, plaza, and stockades; and reconstructing the site’s paleo-landscape. In partnership with the Midwest office of the Archaeological Conservancy, we began to investigate these questions as part of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s 2016 Archaeological Field School using a combination of geophysical survey, test excavation, and geomorphic testing. Preliminary results of a ground penetrating radar survey in the northwest portion of the site revealed what may be a large rectangular structure at 23-46 cmbs, with a size and shape that does not conform to the typical circular Johnston-phase “petal structure” house. Auger cores taken from the northern end of the site revealed what appear to be a series of buried landscapes at depths of ~108, ~130, and ~163 cmbs, suggesting that earlier occupations at the site may exist. Interestingly, these buried horizons do not appear in cores taken from the southern end of the site. Cores along the eastern edge of the site revealed alternating flood and gleyed deposits, suggesting and that the paleo-environment was more dynamic than researchers have previously thought. This poster will report on these field results, as well as recent radiocarbon, particle size and soil micromorphology analyses designed to refine the nature of occupation and past landscape history for the site.
Research Interests:
The Squirrel Hill Site (36Wm0035) is a Monongahela village located in Westmoreland County, PA, along the floodplain of the Conemaugh River near the town of New Florence (Figure 1). Although the site is listed in the National Register of... more
The Squirrel Hill Site (36Wm0035) is a Monongahela village located in Westmoreland County, PA, along the floodplain of the Conemaugh River near the town of New Florence (Figure 1). Although the site is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, previous investigation is extremely limited; many questions remain to be answered about this site, including verifying occupation and cultural affiliations; identifying the location and extent of site boundaries; characterizing the internal arrangement of houses, plaza, and stockades; and contextualizing its relationship with other Johnston Phase sites such as Johnston, Brant I and McJunkin. Moreover, with the exception of a small geophysical survey in 2013 (DeHaven 2013), most work conducted at the site occurred decades ago, and not to modern excavation and analytical standards. In partnership with the Midwest office of the Archaeological Conservancy, we began to investigate these questions as part of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s (IUP) 2016 Archaeological Field School using a combination of geophysical survey, pedestrian survey and shovel testing, geomorphic testing, and test excavation.
Research Interests:
The Meade Basin Rodent Project (MBRP) is a long-term study examining rodent evolution in the Meade Basin of southwestern Kansas during the Plio-Pleistocene transition (Martin et al. 2008). One of the primary MBRP fossil localities is... more
The Meade Basin Rodent Project (MBRP) is a long-term study examining rodent evolution in the Meade Basin of southwestern Kansas during the Plio-Pleistocene transition (Martin et al. 2008). One of the primary MBRP fossil localities is the Hibbard site, located on the eastern rim of Fox Canyon. While rodent fossils abound, the site has been significantly affected by post-depositional slump, making stratigraphic and paleoecological interpretation difficult. In 2006, the MBRP team serendipitously discovered a second fossil locale on the opposite site of the canyon, which they named Tigre Dorado due to the presence of saber-tooth cat remains preserved in a matrix of golden-colored sands. Unlike the Hibbard site, Tigre Dorado contained articulated remains of both carnivores (e.g., saber-tooth cats) and herbivores (e.g., camel, horse), indicating that the canyon may preserve an entire ecosystem. The objectives of this study are to 1) assess the hypothesis that Tigre Dorado and Hibbard’s site are part of the same geologic system; 2) reconstruct the geologic setting and investigate the large mammals’ cause of death; and 3) characterize paleoenvironmental change through time in order to provide an ecological context for the MBRP.
Research Interests:
Calcitic plant ashes are a ubiquitous indicator of anthropogenic activity at archaeological sites. In conducive preservation environments, ashes may form undisturbed deposits in which individual ash crystals remain intact and... more
Calcitic plant ashes are a ubiquitous indicator of anthropogenic activity at archaeological sites. In conducive preservation environments, ashes may form undisturbed deposits in which individual ash crystals remain intact and identifiable. Under these conditions, ashes afford a unique opportunity to better understand both the human selection of fuel as well as to investigate changes in vegetation communities in response to climate change. This study seeks to characterize ash crystal morphologies for various hardwood and softwood species in the American Midsouth using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). Preliminary data support previous research which identified a morphological difference between deciduous and coniferous species. However our results demonstrate that this pattern is less discrete than previously recorded, and indicate that the size and volume of crystals must be quantified in addition to simply qualitatively characterizing crystal shape. Moreover, ashes combusted from different anatomical parts of the same species (e.g., pine wood versus pine needle), show considerable differences in both size and shape and therefore require more robust analyses to differentiate. The ultimate goal of this research is to develop a comparative collection of ash morphologies using experimentally combusted materials for comparison to archaeological samples from the Midsouth.
Research Interests:
The Black Bottom is a large floodplain located north of the Ohio River within Pope and Massac Counties, Illinois. The river valley at this location preserves archaeological sites from the Paleoindian through Mississippian cultural... more
The Black Bottom is a large floodplain located north of the Ohio River within Pope and Massac Counties, Illinois. The river valley at this location preserves archaeological sites from the Paleoindian through Mississippian cultural periods. Myriad meander scrolls parallel the modern channel, recording its southward migration beginning circa 10,000 B.P. In order to study the effect of the Ohio River’s southerly migration on the archaeological record of the Black Bottom, we used an interdisciplinary approach combining remote sensing, GIS, and logistic regression. Spatial filters were applied to Landsat ETM+ and NAIP satellite imagery in order to identify and enhance relict channels; images were then imported into a GIS containing archaeological site locations as well as environmental data including elevation, slope, soil type, stream locations, and flood risk. Using these variables, logistic regression was used to develop a predictive model for the region. Preliminary results suggest that relict channels are the primary environmental determinant for prehistoric site location, with Woodland sites located significantly further from the channel than Archaic or Mississippian sites. An analysis of archaeological site distribution also provided insight into the geomorphic evolution of the Ohio River. These data suggest that the western portion of the channel was more stable through time compared to the eastern portion of the channel. A directional trend analysis further demonstrates a distinct difference in the orientation of Paleoindian versus later Woodland/Mississippian sites, with Paleoindian sites oriented northeast-southwest along the more northerly Cache River Valley, which may reflect the greater influence of the Cache River prior to 8,000 B.P. Results such as these highlight the important role interdisciplinary investigations play in understanding landscape and cultural responses to environmental change during the Late Quaternary.
Research Interests:
This report summarizes the results of Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s 2016 archaeological field school at the Squirrel Hill Site (36Wm0035), a Monongahela village site located in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, along the... more
This report summarizes the results of Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s 2016 archaeological field school at the Squirrel Hill Site (36Wm0035), a Monongahela village site located in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, along the floodplain of the Conemaugh River near the town of New Florence (Figures 1, 2). Although the site is listed in the National Register, previous investigation has been extremely limited; many questions remain to be answered about this site, including verifying occupation and cultural affiliations; identifying the location and extent of site boundaries; characterizing the internal arrangement of houses, plaza, and stockades; and contextualizing its relationship with other Johnston Phase sites such as Johnston, Brant I and McJunkin. Moreover, with the exception of a small geophysical survey in 2013 (DeHaven 2013), most work conducted at the site occurred decades ago, and not to modern excavation and analytical standards. The 2016 excavations sought to address these research questions and limitations as part of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s (IUP) 2016 Archaeological Field School. Specifically, we used a combination of geophysical survey, pedestrian survey and shovel testing, and test excavation. This investigation has allowed us to begin to better understand the internal organization of the Squirrel Hill Site and provide us with comparative data available for other regional Monongahela sites so that recent models (e.g., Means 2007; Neusius and Chiarulli 2013) of regional Monongahela settlement in southwestern Pennsylvania can be refined. It has also provided researchers with valuable paleoenvironmnetal data in order to clarify human-environmental interaction and controls on settlement in the Conemaugh Valley.