Peter Kováčik

Ph.D. Candidate, Boston University

  • Title Ph.D. Candidate, Boston University
  • Office CAS STO 335
  • Education MA, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, 2007

Areas of Interest

Archaeobotany/paleoethnobotany; Anthracology (charcoal analysis) and macrofloral analysis; Environmental archaeology; Desert and high desert archaeology; Archaeology of the American Southwest and Great Basin; Archaeology of the Eastern Mediterranean

Research Interests & Fieldwork

I am interested in studying human-landscape interaction in arid and semi-arid environments, through a variety of means, primarily wood charcoal and macrobotanical analyses. I have been involved in multidisciplinary investigations, analyzing prehistoric human coprolites from Peru and historic privy contexts in California and the North Eastern US, for the reconstruction of diet. I have experience in selecting the most reliable and appropriate specimens for carbon dating in collaborative archaeological and geological projects from across North and South America, the Carribean, and Asia. My previous research largely included analysis of charcoal and other macrofloral remains from North America and Israel.

I am currently conducting anthracological analysis on charcoal from Çamlibel Tarlası, a chalcolithic metalworking site in highland central Turkey, to reconstruct woodland vegetation and wood selection during the site use.

Projects

Çamlibel Tarlası, Turkey

Publications

Kováčik, Peter and Linda Scott Cummings. 2018. Reconstruction of Woodland Vegetation and Firewood Exploitation in Nine Mile Canyon, Utah, Based on Charcoal and Pollen Analysis. Quaternary International 463(B):312-326. Download PDF

Bunch, James, Linda Scott Cummings, Peter Kováčik, and Patricia DeBunch. 2015. The Ash Springs Site 26LN2978: New Data from 14C and Macrofloral Analysis.  Nevada Archaeologist 28:1-27.

Scott Cummings, Linda, Barbara L. Voss, Connie Young Tu, Peter Kováčik, Kathryn Puseman, Chad Yost, Ryan Kennedy, and Megan S. Kane. 2014. Fan and Tsai: Intracommunity Variation in Plant-Based Food Consumption at the Market Street Chinatown, San Jose, California. Historical Archaeology 48(2):143-172. Download PDF

Horváth, Pavol and Peter Kováčik. 2007. Jaskynné nálezy zo Slovenského krasu (Cave finds from the Slovak karst). AVANS v r. 2005:84-86.

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