Environmental Archaeology Laboratory

Director: Dr. Kaitlyn Davis

Location: Bilby Research Center, Room 153

The Environmental Archaeology Lab is supporting research projects across North America, using techniques of Geoarchaeology, Macrobotanical Analyses, and Phytolith Analyses to explore human-environment interactions and agricultural activities through the lenses of plants and soil. The EnviroArch Lab collaborates with other labs on campus to connect students to opportunities for radiocarbon dating and protein residue analyses. The EnviroArch Lab also collaborates with a local professional pollen lab to provide students training in pollen analysis and laboratory work in an applied cultural resource management setting.

The EnviroArch Lab supports the following analyses in house:

• Flotation
• Macrobotanical analyses
• Phytolith processing and analyses
• Basic soil characterization

Current projects related to the lab include:

The NAU Archaeobotanical Reference Collection Project

• Focus: Create digital and physical macrobotanical and microbotanical reference collections for plants of the American Southwest.
• Location: US Southwest
• Contact: Dr. Kaitlyn Davis

The Canyon Pintado Project

• Focus: Data recovery at eroding Ancestral Ute rock shelter habitation sites and granaries in the Canyon Pintado National Historic District to explore questions of agricultural practices in cultural frontiers/transition zones and the extent of the Southwest maize farming niche
• Location: Rio Blanco County, Colorado
• Contact: Dr. Kaitlyn Davis

The Climate Change and Cultural Landscapes Project

• Focus: Inventory, monitoring, and mitigation of climate stressors impacting cultural resources in America’s National Parks, focusing on drought, wildfires, flooding, and permafrost change.
• Location: United States National Parks
• Contact: Dr. Kaitlyn Davis