Potential Graduate Research Projects in the Laboratory of Archaeology (LOA) in 2012
This is a list of potential M.A. and Ph.D. research projects for the 2012 academic year available in the Laboratory of Archaeology, Department of Anthropology UBC. The research supervisors, projects and information about potential funding associated with these projects is given below. If you are interested graduate research through LOA faculty, please consider applying with reference to these projects. We will consider all research proposals, not just those listed here. Please contact the research supervisor associated with each project if you plan on applying to them. Applications for the M.A. and Ph.D. are made through the Department of Anthropology and Graduate Studies at UBC. Please note that there is no guarantee that any of these graduate research projects will be filled.
1. Early Holocene Settlement Patterns, Technology and Subsistence Economy in Northern British Columbia. (MA or PhD).
a. Research Supervisor: A. Martindale
b. Research Support: available through an existing grant.
c. Synopsis: A compilation of existing data on early Holocene settlement, technology and subsistence patterns from the northern coast of BC would be supplemented with field work in 2012 during surveys for early Holocene shore line and Karst cave formations. This project is anticipated at the MA level, but could be expanded to a PhD analysis.
2. Research Topic in Collaboration with Norm Easton at Yukon College on Late Pleistocene sites in Alaska/Yukon (MA).
a. Research Supervisor: A. Martindale, N. Easton
b. Research Support: available though an existing grant.
c. Synopsis: Archaeological materials from Late Pleistocene deposits at the Little John site are available for laboratory analysis. Projects include artifact, faunal, geoarchaeological, paleobotanical analyses and interpretation. This project is conducted in association with the White River First Nation.
3. Neolithic settlement and mobility in the Orkney Islands, United Kingdom (PhD)
a. Research Supervisor: M. Richards
b. Research Support: available through an existing grant
c. Synopsis: The nature of the introduction of the Neolithic into the UK remains a controversial subject, with debate alternating between those who see the Neolithic being adopted by indigenous Mesolithic peoples, and others seeing evidence for a large-scale migration into the UK associated with the first appearance of Neolithic material culture. This Ph.D. project will utilize isotopic methods of analysis, mainly strontium isotope analysis of archaeological materials as well as field collection and analysis of modern plants and animals to determine patterns of migration and movement into the Orkney Islands in this period.
4. Roman and Byzantine diet and mobility at the site of Hierapolis, Turkey (MA)
a. Research Supervisor: M. Richards
b. Research Support: funding for fieldwork and analysis costs
c. Synopsis: The Roman (and Byzantine) city of Hierapolis in Southwest Turkey is a UNESCO world heritage site. In collaboration with colleagues at the University of Oslo (http://www.hf.uio.no/iakh/english/research/projects/hierapolis/) who are undertaking research on the necropolis the student will undertake isotope analysis of humans from this site to reconstruct diets through time, as well as look for patterns of mobility, especially in the Byzantine period when the city was an important pilgrimage site. This project will also involve sampling modern plants and animals from the area surrounding the site to establish a baseline map for strontium isotope studies in the region.