UGA Anthropology alumni, Dr. Brandon Ritchison (PhD ‘19), current postdoc, Dr. Carey Garland (PhD ‘19), and Professor & Lab of Archaeology Director, Dr. Victor Thompson, along with Dr. Bryan Tucker from New South Associates, recently had their article, "A preliminary consideration of craft production and settlement expansion on Ossabaw Island, Georgia, USA" published in The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology on Taylor and Francis Online.

The Spanish copy of Dr. Julie Velásquez Runk's ethnography, Los wounaan y la construcción de su paisaje: Identidad, arte y gobernanza ambiental en la frontera Panamá-Colombia launches tomorrow, October 6th. This is the Spanish translation of the ethnography she wrote as her doctoral work, part of years of collaborative research with Indigenous Wounaan communities and authorities in Panama. The collaboration was from initial planning to publication.

Congratulations to Olivia Ferrari, Anthropology and ICON PhD student, on receiving a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) award for her project, "Socio-ecological Borderlands at Medellin’s Periphery: Spaces of Multispecies Opportunity." In her research, Ferrari focuses on how humans, birds, and green infrastructure interact to shape Medellín, Colombia’s urban periphery. Through interviews, mapping, and bird monitoring, Ferrari will explore how these actors co-produce socially and ecologically complex landscapes at the city's edge.

This series will include presentations regarding the basics of several specialized archaeological science techniques and how those can intersect with tribal perspectives regarding sampling, destructive analysis, consultation, and NAGPRA. Each lecture will conclude with input from various tribal discussants from the Muscogee Nation, Seminole Tribe of Florida, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

This series will include presentations regarding the basics of several specialized archaeological science techniques and how those can intersect with tribal perspectives regarding sampling, destructive analysis, consultation, and NAGPRA. Each lecture will conclude with input from various tribal discussants from the Muscogee Nation, Seminole Tribe of Florida, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

This series will include presentations regarding the basics of several specialized archaeological science techniques and how those can intersect with tribal perspectives regarding sampling, destructive analysis, consultation, and NAGPRA. Each lecture will conclude with input from various tribal discussants from the Muscogee Nation, Seminole Tribe of Florida, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

LA-ICP-MS is an analytical technique that uses a microscopically focused laser to analyze materials and obtain their elemental composition. This technique is particularly well suited for small, rare, or fragile objects, but is commonly used for a wide range of materials, including pottery, lithics, bone, and glass. Samples can remain whole or have small fragments removed for analysis. This talk will outline the method of LA-ICP-MS, discuss best practices, and provide several case studies of successful projects.

Stable isotopes of oxygen are measured in ancient mollusk shells and fish otoliths to learn about past subsistence activities and environmental changes. Since shells and otoliths grow by adding new material on top of older skeletons, one can measure how oxygen isotopes varied over the organism’s life. The talk will describe the process of making these measurements, demonstrate the degree of destruction to the samples, and how such analyses may contribute to collaboration between descendant communities, and archaeologists, and how the method relates to NAGPRA.