News from the Field 2023

Doctoral Intern Fellowship. Working with staff members on archaeological outreach and engagement, Bossio organized a public outreach day for local youth titled “Digging into the Past,” which also featured archaeology graduate student volunteers. By collaborating with Fort Meigs, Bossio is hoping to increase the visibility of the archaeological past throughout the Maumee River Valley.

Martin Menz defended his dissertation in April. His dissertation—Re-Assessing “Village Life” at HunterGatherer Ceremonial Centers: Occupation at Letchworth Mounds (8JE337)—investigated mobility and settlement of hunter-gatherer populations in northwestern Florida during the Woodland period (ca. AD 300–800). His research found that the transition to sedentary life in villages was uneven across the region, with some groups choosing to maintain more dispersed settlement patterns and greater mobility. Martin is looking forward to the release of his co-edited book from the University of Alabama Press, titled The Archaeology of Arcuate Communities: Spatial Patterning and Settlement in the Eastern Woodlands. Martin has started his new position as a senior archaeologist with Stantec in Chicago, Illinois.

Graduate student Kimi Swisher received an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant for specialized analyses for her dissertation, entitled Migration, Mississippianization, and Community Practice in the Lower Chattahoochee River Valley, Georgia: The Averett Culture. She is using the NSF funding for the macrobotanical