Projects and Collaborations
Archaeology in the Valley of Volcanoes
For nearly a decade, and continuing through the present, I have led a community engaged, multidisciplinary research project in the Andagua Valley in the Southern Peruvian Andes, known as Proyecto Arqueológico del Valle de Andagua. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies (LLILAS) and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Texas-Austin. This project offered original data and research through multiple archaeological field methods including, full coverage regional pedestrian and site-intensive surveys, excavations, and spatial mapping in addition to ethnographic and historical research. This project was the foundation for my PhD dissertation, Of Fire and Water, an Archaeology of Social Life in the Valley of Volcanoes, Southern Peruvian Andes. Research has resulted in multiple publications at various stages and numerous conference presentations and guest lectures. Multidisciplinary collaborations include examining human environment relations in the valley, obsidian analysis and a multispecies ethnography on bullfighting.
Archaeology of the Tom Cook Blacksmith Shop and Jesse Sartin Hotel
In collaboration with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and descendant community members, currently serving as Co-Principal Investigator of archaeological research of a late 19th century Blacksmith Shop belonging to Tom Cook, an African American freedman, and the Jesse Sartin Hotel associated with the Chisholm Trail. This project was awarded the 2020 E. Mott Davis Award for outstanding Public Outreach by the Council of Texas Archeologists. Artifact analysis and archival research is on-going. The project has been featured in multiple publications. Project information and a short documentary video highlighting collaborations with the descendant community is available on the TXDOT website here.
​Image: Stakeholder Kelly Kring lectures field crew on blacksmithing. Descendant of Tom Cook, Howard Clark also participated in the project as an active field crew member and is pictured here.
Cultural Resource Management across Texas and Oklahoma
I manage an additional range of projects, serving as Principal Investigator and Staff Archaeologist for public and private clients across Oklahoma and Texas. Meeting the Secretary of Interior’s professional qualifications for Archeologists, I have experience performing Section 106 and associated Cultural Resource Management (CRM) compliance work in accordance with TxDOT, Texas Historical Commission (THC) and Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) regulations. As principal investigator and project archeologist, responsibilities include project communications, historic preservation quality control, and multiple levels of project documentation and field leadership roles in local, state, federal and international compliance. This work has resulted in numerous reports of investigations and articles in preparation.
Beads in the Andes and Across the Americas
Through collaborations with a range of archaeological projects, I carried out an analysis of glass and shell beads recovered from Spanish colonial archaeological contexts in the Peruvian Andes. This work was part of my Masters Thesis and resulted in multiple publications and conference presentations.
​
Image: glass wire-wound beads recovered in excavations at the early Spanish colonial site of Magdalena de Cao Viejo, located on the North Coast of Peru.
