Month: April 2015

What Colleges Do NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Winners Come From, and Where Do They Go?

The National Science Foundation has just announced the winners of the 2015 NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program.

The Fellowship provides three years of support for graduate study in science and engineering (this includes social sciences, such as economics and geography, as well as anthropology) at a university in the United States.

2,000 awards are offered, each of which includes tuition and a stipend of $32,000 per year (expected to be raised to $34,000 this year).

Of the 2,000 fellowships awarded, how many went to aspiring anthropologists? Just under 3%, or 57 fellowships. Among anthropology awardees, archaeologists won 11, or 19%, of the fellowships.  2,004 people achieved Honorable Mention (you don’t get a stipend or tuition remission with this honor, but hey, you can get access to supercomputers), and the stats are similar: 58 anthropology candidates, of which 17, or 29%, are archaeologists.

The list of graduate schools archaeology awardees and honorable mentions will be attending is diverse. Two awardees will be attending Syracuse University, but no other institution will have more than one awardee.

See the summary tables after the break for the breakdown by anthropology subdiscipline, graduate institution awardees will be attending, and the undergraduate school they are coming from.

Continue reading What Colleges Do NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Winners Come From, and Where Do They Go?

The Archaic Lamoka Lake Poster

Source:nysarchaeology.org/additional credits on poster.

The New York Archaeological Council (NYAC) publishes a poster for Archaeology Season (formerly Archaeology Month) every year. In 2008, the Lamoka Lake site (and the Lamoka Life Group diorama from the New York State Museum) were featured. Check out the (never before seen?) photo of William Ritchie excavating at the site in 1962.

 

New Open Access Iowa Zooarchaeology Article

Just published in the new STAR: Science and Technology of Archaeological Research:

‘Brewster site zooarchaeology reinterpreted: understanding levels of animal exploitation and bone fat production at the Initial Middle Missouri type site’

By Landon P. Karr

Download at Maney Online http://www.maneyonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/2054892315Y.0000000003

Abstract:

The Brewster site is a Native American village in Northwest Iowa that was likely occupied between AD 1100 and AD 1200. The villagers at the Brewster site hunted large mammals from the landscape surrounding their village, and practiced some of the earliest agriculture in the region. As a result, large numbers of bison bones are preserved archaeologically at the site. ~140 kg of bone, excavated in 1970, has been analyzed and reported in this article. When fractured and fragmented bones are found in the archaeological record, they are often associated with the exploitation of bone marrow and bone grease, two highly nutritious substances. This article reports on the relative importance of the bones and bone fragments at the Brewster site with regard to their use and utility as sources of bone fats. While there is some evidence to suggest that the bones were intentionally fractured and fragmented, the evidence suggests that the Brewster villagers frequently ignored the dietary potential of bone fats.
Data availability The authors confirm that all data underlying the findings are fully available without restriction. All relevant data are contained within the paper.