Isabel Beach

Areas of Interest

Circumpolar Archaeology, Paleoethnobotany, Coastal Hunter-Gatherer Archaeology, Russian Colonial Archaeology, Indigenous Foodways, Environmental Archaeology

Research Interests & Fieldwork

My research interests center around my home of coastal Southcentral Alaska and the numerous ways the botanical landscape has been shaped by its human inhabitants and, in return, how this landscape has shaped these peoples. I am particularly interested in hunter-gatherer homemaking among Dena’ina communities, from fuel-use and house construction to foodways, including intentional plant introductions, gardening outside seasonal homes, and the influence of seasonal plant availability on decisions about population mobility and site selection. I plan to explore these questions using both macrobotanical and microbotanical methods. Presently, I am looking at archaeological soil samples in museum and university collections to assess phytolith presence and organics preservation from previously excavated sites on the Kenai Peninsula. I am also working on creating a modern comparative phytolith collection and am experimentally charring various species of wood local to the region.

I am currently involved with Professor Wade Campbell’s Early Navajo Pastoral Landscape Project (ENPLP) on Dine/Navajo sheepherding sites assessing the presence of dung spherulites in potential corral features.

Projects

Early Navajo Pastoral Landscape Project, USA

Papers Presented

Beach, Isabel G. 2024. Tusked Persons: Engagements Among Humans and Between Species in Western Alaska. Paper presented at the 2024 Meeting of the Theoretical Archaeology Group, Santa Fe, NM.