2025 MEETINGS & PRESENTATIONS
Dr. Jessi Halligan from Texas A&M University
Why underwater? The importance of submerged landscape research for understanding Pleistocene peoples in the New World
Perhaps most people think of shipwrecks when underwater archaeology is mentioned, but numerous formerly-terrestrial sites have survived drowning in our freshwater lakes and rivers and on our continental shelves. These sites can even be better preserved than their dry counterparts, and in some cases they can help us answer some of the most pressing questions about people in the past. Thousands of Pleistocene artifacts have been discovered in Florida’s rivers and springs, along with some of the best preserved early sites in the Americas. These sites are challenging archaeological models for the peopling of the Americas and are providing us with information about the lifeways of early Indigenous peoples in the New World.
Dr. Jessi J. Halligan is the Associate Director of the Center, an Associate Professor of Anthropology, and holds the Chair in First American Studies. She arrived at the Center in January 2024 from Florida State University. She specializes in the archaeology of drowned landscapes and the initial peopling of the Americas during the end of the Pleistocene. She currently is directing projects on late Pleistocene and early Holocene archaeological sites in the Aucilla River Basin in northwestern Florida, co-directing a submerged landscape survey in Lake Erie, and co-directing a collaborative project with the Bureau of Ocean and Energy Management to revise the Gulf of Mexico submerged pre-Contact archaeological survey guidelines. She has more than 30 years of professional archaeology experience, having directed projects on the Great Plains, the Midwest, Texas, and the Northeastern US, in addition to her current research in the Gulf region and the Great Lakes.
Dr. Andrea Torvinen,
Collections Manager of the Florida Archaeology and Ceramic Technology Laboratory at the Florida Museum of Natural History/UF
The Role of Collective Action in Community Resilience in Northwest Mexico
Dating to the Epiclassic period (600-900 CE), La Quemada, Zacatecas, Mexico, was founded during the cultural florescence of the northern frontier of Mesoamerica, but the site was abandoned ca. 800-900 CE while neighboring hilltop centers persisted. Having previously ruled out climate change as a contributing factor to the site's decline, this research investigates whether internal social unrest or shifting political or economic networks may have played a role. Specifically, did a change in how the occupants of La Quemada identified with one another decrease the potential for collective action over time? Material proxies in the form of ceramic styles (i.e., decoration or vessel forms) and fabric classes (i.e., petrographic and chemical data) are used to assess the temporal and spatial consistency of social identification at multiple socio-spatial scales within the site of La Quemada. Despite fluctuations, there was a high potential for collective action preceding site abandonment, suggesting that a disruption in the social fabric of La Quemada did not contribute to its decline. Therefore, being cut off from social networks developing between West and Central Mexico likely impacted the long-term resilience of La Quemada.
Andrea is an anthropological archaeologist interested in community resilience and social identity, compositional and technological ceramic analysis, and collective action among middle-range societies. Her primary research areas are West Mexico and the U.S. Southwest but she has also engaged in fieldwork in northern Iceland and west-central Illinois.
Dr. Daniel Pullen from Florida State University
A Late Bronze Age “Naval Station” at Kalamianos (Saronic Gulf), Greece?
The Saronic Harbors Archaeological Research Project has documented the Late Bronze Age (14th-13th cent. BCE) harbor town at Kalamianos on the Saronic Gulf coast of the Corinthia, Greece. We suggest this site might be the Homeric town of “Eïones” which later Strabo identified as a “naval station.” The implications of this identification of Kalamianos as a naval station are evaluated in light of our current understanding of the archaeology of maritime culture, both commercial and military, of the Mycenaeans and other Late Bronze Age (LBA) peoples of the Aegean. The lack of identifiable maritime infrastructure – let alone that for specialized military activity – outside of Crete, including at Kalamianos, suggests that such installations were not essential for LBA maritime activities elsewhere in the Aegean.
Professor Pullen is an archaeologist with training in Anthropology and Classical Archaeology, working in the prehistoric Aegean region, especially the later Neolithic–Early Bronze Age and the Mycenaean/Late Bronze Age. His research interests lie in the emergence of complex societies (the state and political economy) as seen through changes in regional settlement patterns, monumental architecture, and political economy and administration; landscape archaeology; the interaction of coastal settlements with maritime and landbound areas; and agriculture in ancient societies. His current research projects include the Late Bronze Age (Mycenaean) harbor settlement at Kalamianos on the Saronic Gulf of southern Greece; the Final Neolithic period at Alepotrypa Cave in the Mani of southern Greece; and the Early Bronze Age in western Anatolia, especially around the ancient city of Sardis. His major publications include the co-authored Artifact and Assemblage: The Finds from the Southern Argolid Survey (Stanford 1995), The Early Bronze Age Village on Tsoungiza Hill (Nemea Valley Archaeological Project I) (American School of Classical Studies at Athens 2011), the edited volume Political Economies of the Aegean Bronze Age (Oxbow 2010) from one of the department's Langford conferences, and most recently the co-edited book Neolithic Alepotrypa Cave in the Mani, Greece (Oxbow 2018).
RECENT ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS
Iron Age Necropolis Unearthed in Alpine Italy
TRENTO, ITALY––La Brújula Verde reports that archaeologists discovered a monumental early Iron Age necropolis nearly 25 feet below Santa Croce Street in the heart of the Alpine city of Trento. The site was located between two channels of the Fersina River and was preserved beneath sediments deposited during periodic flooding. The cemetery consists of over 200 graves dating to between the ninth and the sixth century b.c., some marked by giant stone stelas reaching nearly eight feet in height. Among the rich assemblage of funerary goods found within the tombs were weapons and ornamental objects inlaid with amber and glass paste. For more on Iron Age Italy, go to "Tyrrhenian Traders."
18th-Century College Dining Hall Excavated in North Carolina
CHAPEL HILL, NORTH CAROLINA—According to a report in The Daily Tar Heel, archaeologists Heather Lapham and Mary Elizabeth Fitts and their students are excavating the site of Steward’s Hall, the first dining facility on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Built in 1794, Lapham said that the dining hall was unpopular with students, and known for serving “invariable service of mutton and of bacon too fat to be eaten.” The building eventually became a private boardinghouse in 1816, before it was dismantled in 1847. The excavation has uncovered pottery, window glass, and animal bones, including a pig tusk, Lapham added. For more on archaeology in North Carolina, go to "Cotton Mill, Prison, Main Street."
Possible Early Medieval Cult Site Excavated in The Netherlands
UTRECHT, THE NETHERLANDS—According to a Phys.org report, archaeologists uncovered traces of a large circular structure made of wooden posts surrounding an unusually shaped building in the eastern Netherlands. The Hezingen site has been dated to the sixth century A.D. and was discovered during an investigation conducted after metal detectorists found gold and silver coins in the area. A gold pendant and a silver earring were also recovered at the site. Archaeologist Jan-Willem de Kort of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands and his colleagues determined that the wooden posts run on an east-west axis, and are aligned with the spring and autumn equinoxes. They suggest that the structure may have been used during seasonal rituals related to sowing and harvest prior to the arrival of Christianity in the region. “I think that this cult site was mainly used by local elites to emphasize their own status, and of course, you do that pre-eminently with valuables,” de Kort explained. Read the original scholarly article about this research in Medieval Archaeology. To read about a cache of gold and silver items buried in the Netherlands 800 years ago, go to "Hybrid Hoard."
CURRENT ARCHAEOLOGY MAGAZINE
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Top 10 Discoveries of 2024
ARCHAEOLOGY magazine reveals the year’s most exciting finds
Dancing Days of the Maya
In the mountains of Guatemala, murals depict elaborate performances combining Catholic and Indigenous traditions
Unearthing a Forgotten Roman Town
A stretch of Italian farmland concealed one of the small cities that powered the empire
Medieval England’s Coveted Cargo
Archaeologists dive on a ship laden with marble bound for the kingdom’s grandest cathedrals
Lost Greek Tragedies Revived
How a scholar discovered passages from a great Athenian playwright on a discarded papyrus