My fieldwork has been concentrated in the Muskingum River Drainage of east-central Ohio, and has focused on issues of settlement and social organization of Native American cultures occupying the region between 500-3,000 B.P. This research, which has included systematic surface survey and site excavation, has provided students opportunities for independent graduate and undergraduate research projects concerning aspects of cultural variation. One of these projects which is moving toward publication, concerns the distribution and utilization of white-tailed deer by Ft. Ancient households at the Philo II site, a 13th century agricultural group of some 50 houses. Graduate student Terry Capellini and I presented a paper and poster on this research at the Nashville meeting of the Society for American Archaeology in April 1997. I am also continuing to work on issues of settlement variability for the Ohio Hopewell culture.
My courses have included prehistoric archaeology, cultural anthropology, social change, complex societies, and problems in North American prehistory. My favorite class is the Honors section of cultural anthropology. In this class students engage in lively discussions about human diversity and present their ideas in creative reaction projects.