News
Johnson and Marston win best poster award
Emily S. Johnson and John M. Marston received the best poster award at the 2017 Annual Conference of the Society of Ethnobiology, for the poster entitled "Elite Feasting and Monumental Dedication at Early Phrygian Gordion, Central Turkey". This was the result of research Emily did as a UROP project with Prof. Marston in Spring 2017. Congratulations Emily!
Maria Codlin and Kathleen Forste recipients of GRAF awards
Maria Codlin and Kathleen Forste have both been awarded Short Term Graduate Research Abroad Fellowships from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at BU! Maria will use it to continue her dissertation research on animal consumption through the analysis of faunal remains from Teotihuacan, Mexico, and Kathleen will use it to continue her dissertation research on agricultural change through the analysis of archaeobotanical remains from sites in Israel. Congratulations to you both, and good luck with the research!
Emily Johnson awarded for writing excellence
Congratulations to our own Emily Johnson for winning an Alumni Award for Writing Excellence in the College of Arts and Sciences! Her exemplary honors thesis explored the effects of nixtamalization of maize starch grains, earning her the Michael A. Sassano III and Christopher M. Sassano Award for Writing Excellence in the Social Sciences. Well done Emily!
Marston and West featured on “Indiana Jones: Myth, Reality and 21st Century Archaeology”
Dr. John Marston and Dr. Catherine West, both of Boston University's Archaeology Department, have been featured on Voice America's latest archaeology podcast "Indiana Jones: Myth, Reality and 21st Century Archaeology". Interviewed by Dr. Schuldenrein, Marston and West discuss how their archaeological research is contributing, not only to questions of the past, but to contemporary and future issues of climate change. Check out the podcast here: Climate Change and Archaeology.
EAL Lab Presents at SAA in Vancouver
Two members of the EALab will be presenting on recent research at the SAA meeting in Vancouver, BC. Anna Goldfield is giving a paper entitled Fat of the Land: An Energetics Approach to Paleolithic Bone Fat Exploitation in the session "Recent Zooarchaeological Research II" on Friday, March 31st, at 4:15 pm. John Marston is a co-organizer of two sessions, "Fryxell" and "E&E", and is a co-author on three papers: Naomi F. Miller and Applied Paleoethnobotany of Southwest Asia and Provisioning and Agricultural Economy at Roman Gordion: Integrating Archaeobotany and Zooarchaeology at the session "2017 Fryxell Awards Symposium: Papers in Honor of Naomi F. Miller" on Thursday, March 30th at 8 am and 10:15 am. He presents Phrygian Cuisine at Kerkenes: A Synthesis of Ceramic and Botanical Evidence for Food Storage and Cooking in the session "Some Like It Hot: Analytical Diversity and Complementarity in the Exploration of Past Cooking and Cuisine" on Thursday, March 30th at 9:30 am.
Spring Break Education Outreach in Marblehead
BU archaeology alumna, Courtney Soule (MA 2016), invited three of our lab's archaeologists to talk to her middle school Latin classes about archaeology, paleoethnobotany, and the difference between studying dinosaurs and studying past humans. On Monday, March 6th, Kathleen Forste, Audrey Tjahjadi, and Kali Wade presented on a range of archaeological topics, fielded questions, and introduced students to hands-on material culture from BU's teaching collections. Thank you to Marblehead Veterans Middle School and the bright young students for giving us such a fun day outside the lab!
New Laboratory Manager
We are happy to welcome Kali Wade as the newest member of the EA Lab and our new Laboratory Manager. Kali holds an MSc in Archaeology from the University of Edinburgh and has previous experience in Near Eastern archaeology and paleoethnobotany through phytolith analysis. Kali will facilitate ongoing research in the lab in addition to carrying out her own projects. Anyone interested in becoming involved with the EA Lab is welcome to send her an email. Welcome Kali!
Marston article on wood charcoal analysis available free online
An article by Marston “Unlocking Ancient Environmental Change with the Help of Living Trees” appeared recently in Arnoldia, the magazine of the Arnold Arboretum. In the article, Marston explains archaeological applications of wood charcoal analysis, as well as the ongoing partnership between the Arnold Arboretum and the Environmental Archaeology Laboratory, and highlights the role this partnership plays in the annual Wood Anatomy Workshop taught by Marston each summer.
Lab Volunteer Mollie Yacano Profiled in BU Today
BU Today has an article on the BU Marine Program course “Scientific Diving”, which lab volunteer Mollie Yacano recently completed. Read about her adventures in cold, murky waters and her harrowing tale of surviving a crab attack here.
Lab alum Kay Ueda now Curator at Stanford University
Kay Ueda, who completed her Ph.D. in Archaeology at BU in 2015, is now Curator of the Japanese Diaspora Initiative at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Congratulations Kay!