BU Archaeology Faculty, Students, & Affiliates participating in the SAA 90th Annual Meeting
BU Archaeology Faculty, Students, Affiliates
Participating in the
SAA 90th Annual Meeting
April 23-27, 2025
Denver, Colorado
2024 Archaeology Celebration Poster Contest Awards
Recipients: 1st Place: Wyoming; 2nd Place: Maryland; 3rd Place: Arkansas
Dienje Kenyon Fellowship
Recipients: Haylee Backs and Samantha Stephens
Haylee Backs earned a Dienje Kenyon Memorial Fellowship for using a household
archaeology framework and zooarchaeology methods to address the
effects of the European fur trade in the Northeast of the United States. She
examines the effects of the fur trade from the perspective of Wabanaki people
(including the Passamaquoddy, Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, and Penobscot tribes)
using a combination of zooarchaeological, historical, and oral history data.
Her research questions center on the relationship between Wabanaki people
and fur-bearing animals, and her research will examine traditional furbearer
harvest, butchery, and use in Wabanaki communities using zooarchaeological
collections from the Gulf of Maine in collaboration with Wabanaki
tribal members. Her research will ultimately address changes in Wabanaki
fur-bearer harvest practices, religious and cultural practices, and social roles
from precontact to the eighteenth century. (Boston University)
Samantha Stephens earned a Dienje Kenyon Memorial Fellowship for her
research on the zooarchaeology of the remote tropical Comoros Islands in
order to better understand how past peoples impacted island environments.
By undertaking a taxonomic study of the archaeological fish remains from
the site of Sima, on Anjouan Island, her research will producing the first longterm,
high-resolution record of marine subsistence in the Comoros Islands
and provide an important case study in the Western Indian Ocean for understanding
broader island colonization processes and environmental impacts.
Her research will explore how fish capture strategies in the Comoros have
changed through time and what potential impacts these strategies have had
on local marine ecosystems and can help inform conservation strategies into
the future. (University of Queensland)
Dissertation Award
Recipient: Maria C. Codlin
Maria C. Codlin has won the SAA’s Dissertation Award for her innovative
study of the relationship between people and animals in one of Mesoamerica’s
largest cities, Teotihuacan. Unlike other early cities, Teotihuacan did not
have large, domesticated animals to provide food or transportation. Dr. Codlin’s
reconstruction of animal acquisition strategies expands the global picture
of urban subsistence by highlighting the importance of aquatic birds as well
as factors impacting how we interpret differences between households. Her
discovery of diverse approaches to hunting, trapping, and small-scale farming
comes from blending zooarchaeology and stable isotope analysis with mass
spectrometry (ZooMS) to identify small, fragmented faunal remains, particularly
from the lakes of the Basin of Mexico. Her work deepens our knowledge
of sustainability in the past in ways that will shape the future of archaeology.
(Boston University)
Binford Family Award for Teaching Scientific Reasoning in
Archaeology
Recipient: John Michael O’Shea
John Michael O’Shea is recognized for his innovative and dedicated teaching
of critical thinking and scientific reasoning in archaeology to generations of
archaeologists. Like the namesake of this teaching award, John challenges students
to ask themselves and colleagues: “How do you know what you think
you know?” to explore the nature of science and critique in archaeology both
in and in the field and laboratory. His mentorship includes archaeologists
over decades and across the globe. John’s rigorous instruction and dedication
have a broad and profound influence on the profession, and it is an honor to
present him with the Binford Family Award.
Papers in Honor of Deborah L. Nichols
Chairs: Wesley Stoner and Enrique Rodríguez-Alegría
Participants: Enrique Rodríguez-Alegría, Wesley Stoner, and Christopher
Pool; John Watanabe; Christopher Pool; Wesley Stoner; David Carballo;
Andrés Mejía Ramón; Michael Smith, Angela Huster, and Rudolf Cesaretti;
Larry Gorenflo; Emily McClung de Tapia, Diana Martínez-Yrizar, and Carmen
Cristina Adriano Morán; Destiny Crider; Dan Healan; Hector Neff, Chad
Rankle, Humberto Leon Obando, Edgar Espinoza, and Heather Thakar;
Kenneth Hirth; Erik Otárola-Castillo, Amanda Veile, and Matthew Hill Jr.;
Charles C. Kolb
Date: Saturday, April 26
Time: 8:15 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Location: Tower Building Grand Ballroom I
Thursday, April 24
[45] Symposium: Landscapes of Death: Placemaking and Postmortem
Agencies
(Sponsored by Bioarchaeology Interest Group [BIG] and the Archaeology Division
of the American Anthropological Association)
Room: Tower Building Grand Ballroom I
Time: 8:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Chair(s): Jordi Rivera Prince and Jacob Bongers
10:45 Andreana Cunningham—Elucidating Processes of Objectification,
Contestation, and Repair for African Diasporic Burial Spaces
[51] Symposium: Cooperative and Noncooperative Transitions in the
Archaeological Record
Room: Plaza Building Governor’s Square 16
Time: 8:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Chair(s): Robert Tendai Nyamushosho and Timothy Pugh
11:00 Adrian Chase—Shifting Prosperity amid Cycles of Collective and
Autocratic Governance at Caracol, Belize
[52] Symposium: Sessions in Honor of Dr. Fred Valdez Jr. and His
Contributions to Archaeology Part 1
Room: Tower Building Silver
Time: 8:30 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Chair(s): Rissa Trachman and Samantha Krause
8:45 Astrid Runggaldier—Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Aquaculture and Small Finds
in the Collections of Maya Archaeological Assemblages of the BREA
Project in Belize
9:30 Arlen Chase and Diane Chase—Reflections on Maya Ceramic Analysis for
the Classic and Postclassic Periods
[53] Symposium: Geoarchaeology in First Americans Research Part 1
(Sponsored by the Center for the Study of the First Americans Symposium and
the SAA Geoarchaeology Interest Group)
Room: Tower Building Tower Court D
Time: 8:45 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Chair(s): Justin Holcomb and Kurt Rademaker
9:30 Justin Holcomb—The Application of Soil and Sediment Micromorphology
in First Americans Research
10:45 Sarah Meinekat, Emily Milton, Susan Mentzer, Christopher Miller, and Kurt
Rademaker—Geoarchaeological Contributions to the Study of the Initial
Settlement of the Southern Peruvian Andes
[56] Symposium: Fishing Technologies: Exploring Manufacturing
Techniques and Styles, Traditions, Exchange, Migration, and
More
Room: Plaza Building Director’s Row J
Time: 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Chair(s): Carola Flores-Fernandez and Amira Ainis
9:45 Diana Carvajal Contreras and Ilean Isaza—Tuna Fishing Tradition in
Jicarita: Archaeological Investigations in the Coiba Archipelago, Panama
[69] General Session: Archaeometry in Africa
Room: Tower Building Tower Court B
Time: 10:15 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Chair(s): Akin Ogundiran
10:15 Akin Ogundiran and Bongumenzi Nxumalo—Ceramic Petrography in
Early Osogbo, ca. 1600–1750: Crafting Technology, Regional Exchanges,
and Social Complexity in Central Yoruba Region
[83] Symposium: Nuevos datos de la dinastía Kaanu’l en el Clásico
Temprano de la tierras bajas mayas: Proyecto Promeza
Dzibanche/Kaanu’l 2023-2024
Room: Tower Building Columbine
Time: 1:00 p.m.–2:45 p.m.
Chair(s): Francisco Estrada-Belli and Sandra Balanzario
1:15 Francisco Estrada-Belli—Arquitectura y ritual público en el complejo Tutil
de Dzibanche
[85] General Poster Session: Art, Aesthetics, and Iconography
Room: Poster Hall in the Plaza Ballroom
Time: 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
85-g Archie Robson, Marta Diaz-Guardamino, and Katina Lillios—Communities
of Practice in Neolithic and Copper Age Iberia: The Application of RTI to
the Engraved Stone Plaques
[86] General Poster Session: Zooarchaeology Part 1: Domestication
Room: Poster Hall in the Plaza Ballroom
Time: 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
86-a Olumide Ojediran, William Taylor, and Akin Ogundiran—The
Zooarchaeology of Horses and Donkeys in the Old Oyo Empire, West
Africa
[96] Symposium: Geoarchaeology in First Americans Research Part 2
(Sponsored by Geoarchaeology Interest Group and Center for the Study of the
First Americans)
Room: Tower Building Tower Court D
Time: 1:00 p.m.–3:45 p.m.
Chair(s): Ian Buvit
2:15 John Blong, Justin Holcomb, Roger Amerman, and Jordan Thompson—
Finding the First Americans in the Bitterroot Mountains:
Geoarchaeological Research in the Clearwater River Drainage, Idaho
2:45 David Stuart—The Inscribed Spring: Hieroglyphs, Royal Ritual, and the
Sacred Waters of Chapultepec
[99] Symposium: Bridging Science and Service: How Archaeologists
Address Climate Change
(Sponsored by Committee on Climate Change Strategies and Archaeological
Resources)
Room: Tower Building Tower Court C
Time: 1:00 p.m.–4:15 p.m.
Chair(s): Carole Nash and Heather Wholey
1:45 Sarah Miller and Glenda Simmons Jenkins—Serving Gullah/Geechee
Communities in Northeast Florida: A Case Study in Environmental Justice
and African American Heritage at Risk
[103] Symposium: Modeling Human Behavior through
Ethnoarchaeology: Ethnoarchaeology as Long-Term Traditional
Knowledge (L-TeK)
Room: Plaza Building Director’s Row H
Time: 1:00 p.m.–4:30 p.m.
Chair(s): Carla Lancelotti, Shira Gur-Arieh, and Stefano Biagetti
3:30 Isabel Beach, Zachary Dunseth, and Wade Campbell—Dung Microremains
as Archaeological Evidence of Pastoral Practices: Exploring Low-Impact
Methodology to Understand Early Navajo Sheepherding in Northwest
New Mexico
[106] Symposium: Crafting a Legacy in Archaeology: Papers
Celebrating the Career of Ken Hirth
Room: Plaza Building Governor’s Square 14
Time: 1:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.
Chair(s): Gina Buckley, Jason De Leon, and Bianca Gentil
4:30 David Carballo—Discussant
[110] Symposium: Retelling Time in Indigenous-Colonial Interactions
across North America
Room: Tower Building Gold
Time: 2:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.
Chair(s): Kaitlin Brown and Lee Panich
3:45 Wade Campbell—Dendroarchaeological Explorations of the Diné-Hispanic
Raiding Relationship in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century New Mexico
[115] General Session: Urbanism and Social Complexity in East Asia
Room: Plaza Building Director’s Row J
Time: 3:00 p.m.–4:30 p.m.
Chair(s): Liye Xie
4:00 Mi Wang—Working for His Majesty? Reconstructing the Regional Pottery
Networks of the First Walled Center of Liangzhu during the Third
Millennium BCE in the Yangtze River Delta, China
[118] General Session: Archaeology of the Gulf Coast in Mesoamerica
Room: Tower Building Columbine
Time: 3:15 p.m.–5:00 p.m.
Chair(s): Jessica MacLellan
3:45 Jessica MacLellan, Melina García Hernández, Emily Johnson, and Ashley
Sharpe—Dating Early Ceremonial Centers in Southern Veracruz:
Preliminary Results of the Suchilapan Archaeological Project
[123] General Poster Session: Digital Archaeology Part 3: Remote
Sensing and Geophysics
Room: Poster Hall in the Plaza Ballroom
Time: 4:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.
123-a Scott Hammerstedt, Madeleine Hale, and Asa Randall—Geophysical Survey
of the Naval Air Technical Training Center (NATTC), Norman, Oklahoma
[125] General Poster Session: Not-So-Ancient History: Ethnography and
Historical Archaeology
Room: Poster Hall in the Plaza Ballroom
Time: 4:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.
125-h Asa Randall—An Archaeology of Commercial Shell Site Destruction in
Northeast Florida
Friday, April 25, 2025
[161] Forum: Protecting Archaeologists: Safety at Work, School, and
Beyond
(Sponsored by Women in Archaeology Interest Group)
Room: Plaza Building Governor’s Square 12
Time: 8:00 a.m.–10:00 a.m.
Moderator(s): Marieka Brouwer Burg
Astrid Runggaldier—Discussant
[169] Symposium: Recent Investigations in Maya Archaeology,
Epigraphy, Bioarchaeology, and Zooarchaeology by the Holmul
Archaeological Project in Northeastern Peten, Guatemala
Room: Tower Building Tower Court A
Time: 8:00 a.m.–10:45 a.m.
Chair(s): Kaitlin Ahern, Cynthia Hannold, and Alexandre Tokovinine
9:30 Michael Callaghan, Jeffrey Ferguson, Whitney Goodwin, and Francisco
Estrada-Belli—Chemical and Mineralogical Paste Compositional Analysis of
Preclassic Pottery from the Holmul Region, Guatemala
10:15 Cynthia Hannold, Godwin Sunday, Alexandre Tokovinine, and Francisco
Estrada-Belli—A Chemical and Mineralogical Analysis of Lime Plaster from
the Holmul Area, Petén, Guatemala
10:30 Francisco Estrada-Belli—Discussant
[189] General Poster Session: Landscape Archaeology and Settlement
Patterns
Room: Poster Hall in the Plaza Ballroom
Time: 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
189-c Katina Lillios, Riley Pacer, and Shannon Casey—Working with Legacy
Data to Identify Activity Areas at the Bronze Age / Medieval Settlement of
Agroal (Ourém, Portugal)
[201] Symposium: Exercising Freedoms: Historical Archaeology of the
African Diaspora in Latin America
Room: Tower Building Century
Time: 10:15 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Chair(s): Rosemary Joyce and Rus Sheptak
10:30 Julie Wesp and Andreana Cunningham—Kindred Beings: Entwining
Biodata of African Diaspora Populations in Latin America
[214] General Session: Arctic Archaeology
Room: Tower Building Denver
Time: 1:00 p.m.–2:45 p.m.
Chair(s): Robert Sattler
2:00 Trevor Lamb—Roasted and Boiled: Integrating Macrobotanical and Starch
Analysis to Understand Wild Root Vegetable Use in Alaska’s Kodiak
Archipelago, 3200–200 BP
[223] General Poster Session: Archaeometry and XRF/pXRF Analysis
Room: Poster Hall in the Plaza Ballroom
Time: 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
[236] General Session: Lithics in Latin America
Room: Plaza Building Plaza Court 4
Time: 1:00 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
Chair(s): Renata Araujo
2:30 A. Gabriel Vicencio and Aurelio López Corral—Evaluating the Potential
Role of Itinerant Artisans in Obsidian Distribution in Prehispanic Puebla-
Tlaxcala
Saturday, April 26, 2025
[275] Symposium: Many Voices in the Repository: Community-Based
Collections Work
(Sponsored by Community Engaged Heritage Practice Interest Group)
Room: Tower Building Gold
Time: 8:00 a.m.–10:30 a.m.
Chair(s): Lauren Bussiere and Dawn Crawford
9:00 Mark Warner, Renae Campbell, and Katrina Eichner—Sharing the Shelves
and Opening the Doors: Making Collections Useful to Communities
[277] Symposium: Hunting for Hunters Underwater: Results and
Future Directions for Submerged Ancient Sites
(Sponsored by the Island and Coastal Archaeology Interest Group)
Room: Tower Building Denver
Time: 8:00 a.m.–10:45 a.m.
8:15 John O’Shea—Complex Hunting Architecture on the AAR: Construction,
Identification, and Documentation
9:00 Matthew Boyd, Lisa Sonnenburg, Mengxi Lin, Ashley Lemke, and John
O’Shea—The Role of Paleoecology in Understanding Early Holocene
Submerged Landscapes and Archaeological Sites in the Laurentian Great
Lakes
[289] Symposium: Papers in Honor of Deborah L. Nichols
Room: Tower Building Grand Ballroom I
Time: 8:15 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Chair(s): Wesley Stoner and Enrique Rodríguez-Alegría
9:15 David Carballo—The Legacy of Deborah Nichols to Understanding the
Formative to Classic Transition and Beyond in the Teotihuacan Valley
[295] Symposium: Celebrating Alice: Recognizing the Many
Contributions of Alice Beck Kehoe
(Sponsored by Women in Archaeology Interest Group)
Room: Tower Building Windows
Time: 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Chair(s): Jeanne Gillespie and Sharisse McCafferty
10:00 Shannon Plank—Teaching Native America in the “Dark and Bloody
Ground”: How the Mythological Super-Indian Evades Erasure
[296] General Session: Power and Social Organization in Mesoamerica
Room: Tower Building Century
Time: 9:45 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Chair(s): George Micheletti
11:00 Ryan Collins—Technology and Tradition: Emergent Architectural
Specialization at Yaxuná, Yucatán, Mexico (900–300 BC)
11:15 Maria Torras Freixa, Natalia Moragas, and Alessandra Pecci—Was
Teotihuacan an Abandoned City? Post-collapse Regeneration
[331] Symposium: A Movable Feast: Mobility and Commensalism in the
Andes
Room: Plaza Building Governor’s Square 10
Time: 1:00 p.m.–3:45 p.m.
Chair(s): Jennifer Grant and Kevin Lane
2:15 Rebecca Bria, Erick Casanova Vasquez, and M. Elizabeth Grávalos—
Taskscapes and Mobility in Recuay Commensalism: A Preliminary
Exploration in the Northern Callejon de Huaylas Valley, Ancash, Peru
[336] Symposium: *MW City and Country in the American West: Post-
1848 Historical Archaeologies of Denver and Los Angeles
Room: Plaza Building Plaza Court 2
Time: 1:00 p.m.–4:30 p.m.
Chair(s): James Snead and Michael J. Kolb
1:15 Jade Luiz—Worth Measured in Beer: The Local Economy of the Brothels
in Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Central City, Colorado
[337] Symposium: Advances in Macrobotanical and Microbotanical
Archaeobotany
(Sponsored by Archaeobotany Interest Group)
Room: Tower Building Gold
Time: 1:00 p.m.–4:30 p.m.
Chair(s): John Marston
1:00 Susan Allen and Martha Wendel—Agitating for Good Outcomes: A New
Protocol for Improved Recovery of Floral and Faunal Remains
1:45 Emily Johnson, Amber VanDerwarker, and Christopher Pool—Identifying
Nixtamalization at Formative Period Tres Zapotes, Veracruz, Mexico
[387] Symposium: Northern Belize Archaic Period and Sahara Dust
Room: Tower Building Tower Court C
Time: 9:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m.
Chair(s): Robert Rosenswig
10:45 Eleanor Harrison-Buck, Samantha Krause, Marieka Brouwer Burg,
Angelina Perrotti, and Kathryn Bailey—Large-Scale Fish-Trapping Facilities
in Northern Belize: Localized Wetland Adaptations to Climate Change in
the Late Archaic