Isabel Beach

Areas of Interest

Circumpolar Archaeology, Paleoethnobotany, Coastal Hunter-Gatherer 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 microbotanical methods, particularly phytoliths and starches. 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 for Southcentral Alaska. 

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

Publications

Campbell, Wade, Isabel Beach, Chad L. Yost, and Zachary C. Dunseth. 2025. Dung Microremains as Archaeological Evidence of Early Navajo Sheepherding: A Low Impact Methodological Exploration of Incipient Indigenous Pastoralism in the US Southwest. Journal of Field Archaeology 50(6): 1-18.

LaZar, Miranda, Amanda Althoff, and Isabel Beach. It’s XTRATUF: Developing a Resource Network for Graduate Students in Alaskan Archaeology. Alaska Journal of Anthropology in press.

Papers Presented

Beach, Isabel G. 2025. Dung Microremains as Archaeological Evidence of Pastoral Practices: Exploring Low-Impact Methodology to Understand Early Navajo Sheepherding in Northwest New Mexico. Paper presented at the 90^th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in Denver, CO.

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.