Four faculty members and eight students presented their work at the
Society for American Archaeology annual conference in San Francisco, June
15-19, 2015.
Student and faculty presentations covered a wide array of
archaeological topics, ranging from artifacts to landscapes and spanning the
deep to recent pasts.
Francis Allard presented the paper “Settlement Archaeology
in Southwest China during the Han Dynasty: Limitations and Approaches.” Lara
Homsey-Messer presented a poster titled “Characterization of Plant Ash
Morphology Using Scanning Electron Microscopy” with co-authors Janene Johnson
and Karla Johnson. Ben Ford and graduate student Mark Durante presented the
paper “The Potential for Submerged Prehistoric Sites Beneath Pennsylvania’s
Lake Erie Waters” with co-author Katie Farnsworth (Geoscience). Sarah Neusius
was a panelist on the forum “The Prospects and Challenges of Faunal Data
Integration and Comparative Analysis.”

Photo: Nichole Keener presenting her poster at SAA conference
Graduate student Lauren Johnson’s poster was titled “A Seedy
Affair: An Archaeobotanical Study of the Johnson Site (36IN2).” Cherilyn
Gilligan also explored past diets in her poster “Moravian Ethnic Diversity: A
Faunal Analysis of Northeastern Moravian Missionary Towns in Colonial America.”
Nichole Keener presented her thesis research in the poster “Hanna’s Town Unbuttoned:
An Archaeological Study of Clothing Adornment and Fasteners.” Amanda Rasmussen
presented the poster “An Analysis of the Archaeological Remains at Fort Halifax
Park.” Mark Durante’s poster was titled “A Geomorphic and Elemental Analysis
of the Johnston Site (36IN2).”
IUP was also represented by our Ethics Bowl Team: Casey
Campetti (captain), Lauren Jonson, Amanda Rasmussen, Cheryl Frankum, and David
Breitkreutz. This year’s Bowl consisted of a group exercise to rewrite the
Society’s Ethical Principles and advise the Ethics Committee as they consider
revising the Principles.

Photo: 2015 IUP Ethics Bowl Team at SAA conference
The SAA is the United State’s largest archaeological
association and one of the largest such organizations in the world. This year’s meeting attracted more than 5,000
archaeologists from around the globe. These meetings are the preeminent North American venue to discuss
current archaeological research, and the attendance is dominated by professional
archaeologists.
Department of Anthropology