UCL Archaeology research expertise on show at SAA 2023

The mission of the SAA is to expand understanding and appreciation of humanity's past as achieved through systematic investigation of the archaeological record. The society leads the archaeological community by promoting research, stewardship of archaeological resources, public and professional education, and the dissemination of knowledge. 

Institute staff and student research being presented includes

• Michael D’Aprix - Divided Attention: The Need to Reassess the Institutionality of Archaeology in the Symposium on Disciplinary Culture: Challenging Traditional Power and Knowledge Structures within Archaeology Part II.
• Ayelen Delgado Orellana - Pristine Forests of Southern Chile? Evidence for a millennium of anthropogenic woodland in the General Session on Using Space, Making Place: Landscape Archaeologies Part III. Ayelen's presentation explores the use of forest resources and forest disturbance through archaeobotanical data from archaeological sites of the Ceramic Period of Southern Chile until the Early Hispanic Colonial Period. Her current research topic is Forest Clearance, Wood Resource Use and the Spread of Farming in Southern Chile (400-1883 CE), working with Dorian Fuller and Manuel Arroyo Kalin. 
• Dorian Fuller - Unentangling Hotspots and Episodes in Pre-domestication Cultivation of Cereals: Examples from West and East Asia in the Symposium Subsistence Crops and Animals as a Proxy for Human Cultural Practice, for which he is also a Discussant.
• Jim Aimers and Elizabeth Graham - Stylistic and Cultural Change at a Cosmopolitan Site: The Early Postclassic Period Pottery of Lamanai and Northern Belize  in the Symposium on The Movement of People and Ideas in Eastern Mesoamerica during the Ninth and Tenth Centuries CE: A Multidisciplinary Approach Part I.
• Elizabeth Graham, Francesca Glanville-Wallis, Daniel Evans, Julia Stegemann and Simon Turner - “Down to Earth”: The Primacy of the Terrestrial in the 2023 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Timothy Beach Part I (Sponsored by the Fryxell Award Committee).
• Andrea Martínez-Carrasco, Patrick Quinn, Bill Sillar and Silvia Amicone - State Control of Production and Distribution of Inka-Style Pottery in the Southern Border of Tawantinsuyu (Inka State) in the Symposium on Andean and Amazonian Ceramics: Advances in Technological Studies. Andrea's supervisors are Patrick Quinn and Bill Sillar (UCL) and Silvia Amicone (University of Tübingen). 
• Silvia Bello and Simon Parfitt - Distinguishing Tooth Marks from Knapping Marks and Assessing Conflicting Interpretations of Modified Bones from the Upper Paleolithic Site of Gough’s Cave (Somerset, UK) in the Symposium Animal Resources in Experimental Archaeology.
• Dominic Pollard - Peaks Above, Plains Below: The Deeper Context of Settlement Patterning in Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Crete in the Symposium on In Flux: Settlement Pattern Studies in Archaeology Part I. Dominic, recently completed his PhD with us, being supervised by Todd Whitelaw and Corinna Riva.
• Tia Watkins, Rosamund Fitzmaurice, Christophe Helmke, Jaroslaw Zralka and Jaime Awe - Regional Spheres of Gameplay: A Preliminary Comparative Analysis of Patolli, a Mesoamerican Board Game in the Poster Session on Arts and Crafts: Artistic Expression, Iconography, and Craft Production.  Tia is presenting a preliminary regional assessment of the Maya dice game, Patolli, which has been frequently encountered throughout her excavations at Xunantunich (2017, 2019, and 2022).
• Gabriela Saldaña, Tia Watkins, Emma Messinger, Rosamund Fitzmaurice and Jaime Awe - Iconographic Themes among Classic Maya Graffiti: A Comparative Case Study from Xunantunich, Belize in the Poster Session on Arts and Crafts: Artistic Expression, Iconography, and Craft Production. 
• Tia is also a discussant for the Forum on Advancing the Status of Women in Archaeology, sponsored by the SAA Committee on the Status of Women in Archaeology (COSWA), of which she is a committee member. Tia's current research topic is Architectural Dynamics: Assessing the Sociopolitical Underpinnings of Monumentality in the Maya Lowlands, working with Elizabeth Graham, Andrew Bevan, Claire Ebert (University of Pittsburgh), and Jaime Awe (Northern Arizona University).

The UCL Institute of Archaeology is also exhibiting at the SAA Annual Meeting and look forward to meeting prospective students as well as former staff and alumni.  Lisa Daniel, our Graduate Admissions Administrator, is covering a booth in the Exhibitors area promoting the Institute's Masters and Research programmes.  

Further details

• Society for American Archaeology