Dr. Lynne Goldstein has worked in and around Aztalan since 1976. Aztalan is a large Middle Mississippian site (ca. AD 1000-1200) located between the modern cities of Milwaukee and Madison, and is the most famous archaeological site in Wisconsin.  During this past summer, Dr. Goldstein led an excavation of the site to address questions about its structure. The field school included students from Michigan State University, students from University of Northern Iowa led by Professor Donald Gaff, and students from UW-Madison led by Dr. Sissel Schroeder. The teaching assistants for the project included current MSU Anthropology graduate student Kate Frederick and alumna Hannah Nelson. The crew included 20 individuals total.

The field school took place through May and June 2013, and sought to answer questions by doing selective excavation units in two areas: a gravel knoll in the southeast corner of the palisaded area and an extension of the palisaded area referred to as the ‘sculptuary’. It was previously thought that the gravel knoll was a mound structure, however discovery of the sculptuary brought this interpretation into question. Excavation of the two areas revealed that they were heavily used in prehistoric times and would have been highly visible due to a mix of gravel and shell capping each raised feature.

They also found a deliberate opening in the palisade wall, which had not been previously documented. Near this entrance was a pit lined with gravel containing both Late Woodland and Mississippian ceramics and a gravel path leading to the palisade opening. Based on the evidence collected from this summer’s field school, Dr. Goldstein proposes that the people of Aztalan were deliberately sculpting and modifying the landscape to meet their needs and represent their views of the world.

This past year, three undergraduate MSU Anthropology students have continued to work on the project, supported by Provost Undergraduate Research Initiative grants. Kyla Cools is working on analyzing intrasite variation of ceramics from the site. “Since the areas we excavated were not just habitation areas, but used during special circumstances, I am hoping to determine whether or not the ceramics found (and their frequency in the archaeological record) at these sites differ from those found in habitation areas,” says Kyla. Ian Harrison is using Carbon 14 dating of materials from the site to create a more accurate timeline of occupation. Megan Hall is preparing the collections for transportation to a permanent curation facility. Each of these students received funding through the grant to attend the field school and conduct the follow-up research during the school year.

This has been an exciting year for the Graduate Students of Anthropology (GSA). The department turned out in full force for the 2013 Chili Cook-off. Mouthwatering chili recipes were brought from every corner of the department, with the Award Winning Chili title going to Dr. William Lovis and his wife Libby. With the money raised, the GSA was able to sponsor a holiday bowling bash.

The GSA has made it a point this year to increase departmental social activities. Aside from monthly social hour meetings, events like the holiday bowling bash were planned to connect graduate students from different cohorts and specializations. To celebrate spring after the never-ending winter, the GSA reserved a box of seats for the Crosstown Showdown, a baseball game featuring the Lansing Lugnuts versus the MSU Spartan Baseball Team.

The GSA has also revamped their website to create a space where graduate students can get department news, information on graduate student events and details on how to update one’s department bio. In addition to this, the GSA is reinstating the Climo Mentoring Award and the GSA Peer Award. If you would like to nominate someone, please email the GSA at msu.anp.gsa@gmail.com with their name and why you believe he/she is deserving of the award.

Finally, the GSA is in the process of creating an MSU Anthropology calendar featuring photographs from faculty, staff, students and alumni of the department. Each month will feature a photograph and explanation of the context. The calendar will highlight major conferences for each sub-discipline, departmental events, and major University dates. Calendars are scheduled to be released this summer!

GSA Website: http://anthropology.msu.edu/gsa/ 

[Included in the Spring 2014 Dept. of Anthropology Newsletter, see complete newsletter here]

 Allison Apland is a junior from West Des Moines, Iowa. She is studying Anthropology and History at MSU, is part of the Honors College, and hopes to go to graduate school to study bioarchaeology in the Middle East. She is currently conducting research in the Biomarker Lab for Anthropological Research with Dr. Masako Fujita to investigate questions of food insecurity and nutrition. Her focus is connecting food insecurity with food-based coping strategies and diet. She is presenting her findings about these relationships at the Undergraduate Research Symposium at the American Association of Physical Anthropology meeting in April.

Allison hopes to investigate these kinds of research questions that connect health and culture in a bioarchaeological context in graduate school.  She became interested in bioarchaeology as a fieldschool student on Dr. Gabriel Wrobel’s Central Belize Archaeology Survey project this past summer. Allison loves taking archaeology and ancient history classes at MSU, and being in the field is the most fun she’s ever had. This year, she has volunteered every month at Campus Archaeology’s Dig the Past program at the MSU Museum to teach kids about archaeology through hands on learning. Allison is pursuing her interest in the Middle East by taking Arabic classes and pursuing a Muslim Studies specialization. This summer, she will be studying Arabic in Jordan through a Critical Language Scholarship from the US State Department. She is excited for the opportunity to immerse herself in a new culture and improve her language skills.

This year Allison was nominated for the prestigious Beinecke Scholarship. The Beinecke Scholarship Program was established in 1971 by the Sperry and Hutchinson Company to honor Edwin, Frederick, and Walter Beinecke. The endowment was created to provide a scholarship to enable young men and women of promise to attend graduate school in the arts, humanities and social sciences.

Each year Michigan State University nominates one junior to compete for the scholarship, and the Department of Anthropology is proud that Allison has been nominated.

[Included in the Spring 2014 Dept. of Anthropology Newsletter, see complete newsletter here]

Jen Vollner majored in biology while she was an undergraduate, and she had interests anatomy, evolution and genetics. Her college had no anthropology department, so it wasn’t until she was accepted into graduate school at Mercyhurst College that she took her first anthropology course. Spending two years in Erie, PA at Mercyhurst helped prepare her academically for the transition into Michigan State’s Ph.D. program.

While at Michigan State University, Jen (at left below) has been fortunate to work in the Forensic Anthropology Lab directed first by Dr. Norm Sauer and currently by Dr. Todd Fenton. The lab not only works closely with local medical examiners and law enforcement to assist in medicolegal cases, but also takes part in several outreach activities, such as law enforcement training, lectures to the public, and activities for local school children. These experiences have provided her invaluable on-the-job training and led to several research collaborations.

Jen has had the opportunity to travel to southern Italy to assist in osteological investigations of skeletal remains excavated from medieval rural cemeteries under the mentorship of Dr. Fenton and Dr. Paul Arthur. Using the methods she learned abroad and at the forensic lab at Michigan State, she was able to hone her skills in the identification of human remains. Portions of this study have been presented at MSU’s Graduate Academic Conference and at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists and Paleopathology Association meetings throughout the past few years.

She currently works for Dr. Fenton on his National Institute of Justice funded grant, “Pediatric Fracture Printing: Creating a Science of Statistical Fracture Signature Analysis,” which proposes best practice in the interpretation of pediatric cranial fractures. This is a multi-faceted project involving physical anthropologists, biomechanical engineers, and computer science engineers. Initial results from the pattern recognition software applied to the porcine model used in this project are quite exciting and promising. Several papers and posters focused on this project have recently been presented at the American Academy of Forensic Sciences annual meeting and the National Institute of Justice sponsored symposium.

 Jen’s dissertation research will center on a craniometric analysis of a medieval Christian Nubian population excavated from a site near the Fourth Cataract of the Nile. This sample will be compared with other already excavated populations from the same time period from further up and down the Nile. She will attempt to understand the amount of cranial variation within each cemetery population and between these populations to examine the concept of identity and ethnicity.

“The four-field approach at Michigan State has made me a well-rounded anthropologist,” says Jen. She believes that the experiences she has had thus far in her academic career have prepared her to confidently venture out from the walls of Michigan State when the time comes.

[Included in the Spring 2014 Dept. of Anthropology Newsletter, see complete newsletter here]

Eve Avdoulos was eight years old when she decided that she wanted to become a paleontologist. At the time, it was unclear whether it was her love for pre-historic large reptiles or her curiosity of exploring and learning about things so foreign to our current world that intrigued her. A trip to Italy at age fifteen solidified that it was in fact the latter with which she was captivated. After seeing the plethora of ruins that decorate Rome, Florence and Pompeii, her interests transitioned from paleontology to archaeology. Her ambition of becoming an archaeologist never disappeared, and, in August 2008, Eve began her studies at Michigan State University declaring a major in Anthropology.

During her time at MSU, Eve was actively involved within the Department of Anthropology. As a freshman, she volunteered for Dr. Alison Rautman in the archaeology lab and worked with Dr. William Lovis and his graduate assistant photographing a selection of the Departments’ collection for a NAGPRA project. Between her sophomore and junior years, she was fortunate enough to attend Dr. Jon Frey’s study abroad program to Greece where she not only had the opportunity to learn about the art and archaeology of Ancient Greece first hand, but also participated in her first fieldwork experience at the Pan-Hellenic sanctuary of Isthmia.

In her junior year, she became involved with the MSU Archives & Historical Collections as a social media intern where her interest in public outreach began. In her final summer at MSU, Eve had the opportunity to participate in Dr. Lynne Goldstein’s Campus Archaeology Field School. This led to an internship with the Campus Archaeology Program under the supervision of Dr. Goldstein and Katy Meyers and subsequent CAP fieldwork during the Summer of 2012. Her time interning with the Campus Archaeology Program and the MSU Archives & Historical Collections set the foundation for her interest in public archaeology and the ways in which archaeology and history manifest in the present.

In September 2012, Eve moved to the United Kingdom to pursue a Masters in Archaeological Heritage and Museums at the University of Cambridge. Her dissertation, which she completed with a high pass, focused on the management of archaeological sites imbued with sacred values and centered upon the famous site of Hagia Sophia in Turkey.

During her Masters program, she was an active member of the Cambridge Heritage Research Group and recipient of a travel grant from Fitzwilliam College. She presented her research at Fitzwilliam College’s Graduate Conference. Her studies introduced her to a wide variety of concepts within the fields of archaeological heritage and museums, and increasingly became interested in the link between heritage and identity in urban settings.

In October 2014, Eve will return to the University of Cambridge to begin her PhD at the Centre for Urban Conflicts Research within the Department of Architecture. She seeks to understand the potential of culture-led regeneration in urban settings focusing on Detroit, Michigan and select European cities.

[Included in the Spring 2014 Dept. of Anthropology Newsletter, see complete newsletter here]