People

I am an environmental archaeologist whose primary research program focuses on human-environment dynamics in Eastern North America by way of paleoenvironmental reconstructions via stable isotopes analyses of marine shell, zooarchaeological analyses of vertebrate and invertebrates, and chronological modelling of anthropogenic exploitations of estuarine and riverine environments. Current projects include investigating (1) Indigenous fisheries and complex socio-ecological systems of the Georgia Coast, (2) Indigenous and Plantation Era socio-ecological systems landscape modifications on the Georgia Coast (3) the manifestation of global cooling and warming events on local landscapes, (4) zooarchaeology as critical components to historical baseline building, (5) early European colonizer resource management strategies, and (6) Indigenous resource management practices and anthropogenic landscape modification as related to urbanization. This work includes both field and laboratory project across eastern North America, primarily in Georgia, Florida, and Louisiana. I have conducted and participated in field and collections-based projects across eastern North America, including Florida, Georgia, Illinois, and South Carolina with over two years of experience as a Research Zooarchaeologist for the Illinois State Archaeological Survey. She is faculty in Penn State’s Dual Title PhD program in Climate Science (link: https://www.met.psu.edu/graduate/current-graduate-students/climate-science-dual-title-phd-program) and Penn State’s Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Ecology (link: https://www.huck.psu.edu/graduate-programs/ecology)

My work explores the long-term Indigenous histories of eastern North America, with particular attention to institutions of governance and social networks. I draw on a range of quantitative tools including social network analysis, Bayesian chronological modeling, archaeological geophysics, GIS, and scientific approaches to ceramic analysis to investigate the emergence, structure, and maintenance of collective institutions,institutional arrangements, and the network foundations of governance. Leveraging interdisciplinary frameworks on governance, institutions, and collective action,my work addresses the tension between emergent forms of sociopolitical/socioeconomic inequality and its mediation by the formation of collective institutions and democratic mechanisms in non-state, non-Western societies.By way of explicit collaboration with descendant communities, my work also aims to link these political histories to the contemporary traditions, practices, and politics of Indigenous Nations who have been historically excluded from the practice and process of archaeological narrative building.

Christina M. Carolus is an anthropological archaeologist with interests in human-environmental interaction, domestication processes, paleoecology, archaeological scientific methods and theory, foodways, identity, multispecies approaches, and cultural heritage issues. Her research primarily concerns the study of prehistoric lifeways through holistic archaeobotanical investigation. Christina’s research pursues the origins of agriculture on the eastern Eurasian steppe and explores its underrecognized role(s) in the foundations of regional political complexity.

She currently co-directs investigations at the late Iron Age site of Khairt Suuryn, a large Xiongnu Period (c.250 BC-150 AD) agricultural pit house settlement site and craft production complex overlooking the floodplain of the Kherlen River in northeastern Mongolia. Khairt Suuryn is only the third prehistoric site in Mongolia to yield crop assemblages and one of only a few known pit house settlements. Khairt Suuryn is a crucial puzzle piece to understanding the social and economic origins of agriculture on the steppe, the potential origins of early sedentism or semi-sedentism, and dynamics of network growth on the immediate path to initial state formation in this region of the world.

Advisor: Jacob Holland-Lulewicz

I am interested in understanding the relationships between human demography, agriculture, and climate as well as sociopolitical transformations materialized in settlement configurations and monumental construction. Time and temporality are central to understanding these connections, and my work emphasizes Bayesian chronological modeling to revise materially based chronologies to situate archaeological data in absolute time, clarify temporal relationships, and make explicit the limitations and uncertainties of archaeological narratives. My dissertation research explores these themes at Cahokia, the largest Indigenous settlement north of Mexico, by modeling the introduction and intensification of maize agriculture, structural changes in community layout, and demographic histories against long-term climate data to better understand the development and dispersal of this premier North American population center.

Advisor: Jacob Holland-Lulewicz

My research is focused on using the deep time archaeological record of the Indigenous coastal societies of the American Southeast to investigate the ways in which network structures and dynamics facilitated the resilience of socioeconomic systems and lifeways during a period of increased climatic instability. My work centers on the experiences of Indigenous communities in the Late Archaic period along the Georgia Coast, who lived in shell-ring villages and experienced the impacts of climatic fluctuations. My dissertation research addresses how social networks serve as a key tool for these communities to buffer against the local ecological and environmental impacts of climatic instability and uncertainty. As anthropogenically-driven climate change threatens modern human populations and their ways of life, the need to understand past human networks and their role in mediating the impacts of climate change and instability is crucial for future sustainability efforts.

Advisors: Isabelle Holland-Lulewicz and Jacob Holland-Lulewicz

Matthew’s research interests broadly focus on understanding how human-environmental relationships are adapted to novel social and economic conditions. Current research projects focus on the application of zooarchaeological and environmental archaeological methods to better understand changes in foodways of African American communities along the U.S. Southeastern coastline following Emancipation. His current work focuses on the enslaved and Freed Black communities of Ossabaw Island, Georgia. He is working with the SAHND and SHEL Labs to conduct dissertation and related research. Matthew has additionally taken part in field and laboratory projects in Mongolia, Lithuania, and across the U.S. Northeast in both academic and cultural resource management settings.

Email: mvp6195@psu.edu

Advisor: Jacob Holland-Lulewicz

My interests lie in historical archaeology with an emphasis on enslaved and post-emancipation communities in southeastern North America. My research examines the spatial and social organization of 19^th– Century Black post-emancipation households located at Middle Place on Ossabaw Island, Georgia. The study uses historical maps, new surveys, and geochemical analysis of soil samples to better understand this Gullah-Geechee community’s layout and test new methods for studying historic coastal settlements.

Advisors: Isabelle Holland-Lulewicz and Laura Weyrich

My interests and skills lie mainly within the fields of genomics, ecology, and history. I aim to use sedimentary and ancient DNA techniques to reconstruct past ecologies and investigate human-environment interactions through time. If you have similar research interests or have any questions about my work, please contact me at wcv5029@psu.edu.

Advisors: Jacob Holland-Lulewicz and Isabelle Holland-Lulewicz

I’m an environmental archaeologist with specific interests in zooarchaeology, stable isotope analysis, paleoclimatic reconstructions, and descent community collaboration. My previous experience includes zooarchaeology internships and work, curation/collection management, and NAGPRA compliance. I plan to further establish cervids as local climate proxies in the Southeast to better answer questions regarding human-environment interactions through time.

Advisor: Isabelle Holland-Lulewicz