Sacha Wilke
MA Student
BA Archaeology (Honours), University of Calgary, 2009
Email: sjawilke@interchange.ubc.ca
Supervisor/s: Michael Blake and Andrew Martindale
Research Interests:
Archaeology, Central America, Pre-Columbian Societies, Mortuary Rituals, Iconography, Religion, Identity markers, Gender, Tool development
Current Projects:
My master’s thesis will deal with the variation that occurs within the burials seen at the twelve hundred year-old archaeological site of El Rayo located near the Pacific Coast of Nicaragua. This project will explore possible factors as to why individuals were interred in different manners and attempt to describe some of the ritual practices that may have occurred in association with these burials. Data from this site will be compared to previous archaeological interpretations of burials in Pacific Nicaragua as well as ethnographic and ethnohistorical data to assist in the interpretations and inconsistencies will be discussed.
I am also working on creating a typology of (mostly) ceramic tools used for food procurement, markers of identity, and production tools from the site of El Rayo, Nicaragua.
Conference Papers and Publications:
McCafferty, Geoffrey, Tanya Chykowski, Sacha Wilke, and Larry Steinbrenner
2009. Practice and Habitus in Postclassic Communities of Pacific Nicaragua. Paper presented at the 74th Annual Meeting for the Society of American Archaeology, Atlanta, GA.
Wilke, Sacha
2011 Archaeology of Death on the Shore of Lake Nicaragua. In Identity Crisis: Archaeological Perspectives on Social Identity Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Chacmool Conference Proceedings, edited by Lindsay Amundsen-Meyer, Nicole Engel and Sean Pickering. pp. 178-188. University of Calgary Calgary, AB.
2011 Bringing life back to the dead: Interpreting mortuary practices with a focus on the ritual aspect. Paper presented at the 44th Annual Chacmool Conference, Calgary, AB.
2011 Cambiando la tipologia de las pesas de red de El Rayo, Nicaragua. In Mi Museo y Vos 5(17): 6-9.
2011 Ritual Practices for the Dead as a Possible Explanation for the Variation in Ancient Burial Rites, El Rayo, Nicaragua. Paper presented at the 2011 UBC Anthropology Graduate Student Conference, Vancouver, BC.
2011 Sex Drugs and Rock Gods: Examining Nicaraguan Stone Sculptures. In Identity Crisis: Archaeological Perspectives on Social Identity Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Chacmool Conference Proceedings. Lindsay Amundsen-Meyer, Nicole Engel and Sean Pickering, eds. Pp. 226-234. University of Calgary, Calgary, AB.
2011 There’s a Gadget for that! Examining changes in fishing tools at El Rayo. Paper presented at the 76th Annual Meeting for the Society of American Archaeology, Sacramento, CA.
2010. So you dig up Dinosaurs? A tale of discussing archaeology in non-academic settings. Paper presented at the 43rd Annual Chacmool Conference, Calgary, AB.
2009. The Archaeology of Death on the Shore of Lake Nicaragua. Paper presented at the 42nd Annual Chacmool Conference, Calgary, AB.
2009. The Archaeology of Death on the Shore of Lake Nicaragua. Poster presented at the Undergraduate Research Symposium, University of Calgary. https://dspace.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/47649
2009. Sex Drugs and Rock Gods: Examining Nicaraguan Stone Sculptures. Paper presented at the 42nd Annual Chacmool Conference, Calgary, AB.
Wilke, Sacha and Geoffrey McCafferty
2010. Model Building and Model Bashing: Examining Nicaraguan Households. Paper Presented at the 43rd Annual Meeting Canadian Archaeological Association, Calgary, AB.
Wilke, Sacha, Geoffrey McCafferty and Brett Watson
2011 Archaeology of Death on the Shore of Lake Nicaragua. In Identity Crisis: Archaeological Perspectives on Social Identity Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Chacmool Conference Proceedings, edited by Lindsay Amundsen-Meyer, Nicole Engel and Sean Pickering. pp. 178-188. University of Calgary Calgary, AB.
Memberships:
Society of American Archaeology
Canadian Archaeological Association
Chacmool Undergraduate Association, University of Calgary