UCL Archaeology research expertise on show at SAA 2024

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

• Summer Austin - Tut on Tour: Thirty Years of Demand Creation through Exhibition in the Symposium on Public-Facing Archaeology
• Michael D’Aprix, Nicola Sheyhing and Jesper de Raad - The Reality of Commercial Archaeology for Early Career Archaeologists in the Symposium on Education and Archaeological Careers
• Jahleen Sefton, Ian Freestone and Laura Adlington - Interpreting Recycling in the Roman Glass from Colchester in the Symposium Craft Industries and Interaction Networks in European Archaeology. 
• Cristina Castillo and Dorian Fuller - Vegeculture Agriculture in the Ethiopian Highlands: The Archaeobotany of Enset in the Symposium on The Archaeobotany of Early Peopling: Plant Experimentation and Cultural Inheritance 
• Yawei You and Dorian Fuller - Transcending the Niche of a Wild Progenitor: An Ecological Niche Perspective on the Spread of Archaeological Soybeans in China in the Symposium on Asian Subsistence and Foodways 
• Elizabeth Graham is the Chair of the Symposium on Misinformation and Misrepresentation Part I: Reconsidering "Human Sacrifice," Religion, Slavery, Modernity, and other European-derived concepts. Within this session, research by Institute PhD researchers and recent alumni include: Rosamund Fitzmaurice - Forced Labor versus “Slavery”: European Ideas and Indigenous Realities in Mesoamerica (CE 600–1521);  Xin Lin and Guopeng Chen - Demand or Control? Reconsidering the Production and Consumption of Maya Jade; Tamara Moore and Jim Aimers - The Sloppy Science of Ancient Maya E-Groups; Carmen Ting - The Curse of Classic: Rethinking the Agency of Maya Ceramic Production; Eponine Wong - Is This Democracy? Consensus Decision-Making and Collective Self-Governance in Mesoamerica; as well as Honorary Associate Professor, Elizabeth Baquedano - Mesoamerican Death Imagery Oversimplified.
• Gabriela Saldaña and Elizabeth Graham - Revisiting the Polychromatic Stucco of Lamanai, Belize in the Symposium on Cultural Heritage in Mesoamerica.
• Diane Chase, Elizabeth Graham and Melissa Badillo - The Shadow Realm: How Belizean Archaeology Has Illuminated the Maya Postclassic Era; Brett Houk, Elizabeth Graham and James Garber - Historical Archaeology in Belize: Maya Continuity amid Colonial Landscapes; Adrian Chase, Brett Houk, Elizabeth Graham, John Morris and Amy Thompson - Cities on the Cutting Edge: Urban Research in Belizean Archaeology in the Symposium entitled “The Center and the Edge": How the Archaeology of Belize is Foundational for Understanding the Ancient Maya. 
• Panos Kratimenos - Anachronology in the Study of the Precolumbian Maya: Toward a Post-Postclassic in the Symposium on Misinformation and Misrepresentation Part II: Reconsidering "Human Sacrifice," Religion, Slavery, Modernity, and other European-derived concepts. Elizabeth Graham is also giving a paper on The Spurious Claim of “Human Sacrifice” in the same symposium.
• Natalia Lozada Mendieta, Patrick Quinn and José Oliver - Chemical and Mineralogical Characterization of Ceramic Traditions on the Precolonial Colombian Middle Orinoco Archaeological Sites in the Poster Sympsium on Ceramic Petrographers in the Americas: Recent Research and Methodological Advances.
• Lisa Monetti - Arch Street Project: Sustainable Collaboration and Learning after Reburial Using Digitized Remains in the Symposium on The Arch Street Project: Multidisciplinary Research of a Philadelphia Cemetery
• Stephen Shennan - The COREX Project: Explaining Patterns of Genetic and Cultural Diversity in Prehistoric Europe in the Symposium on Big Ideas to Match our Future: Big Data and Macroarchaeology
• David Wengrow is a Discussant in the Symposium entitled In Defense of Everything! Constructive Engagements with Graeber and Wengrow's Provocative Contribution

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, together with current PhD researcher, Hanna Gibbs, promoting the Institute's Masters and Research programmes.  

Further details

• Society for American Archaeology