Historical Archaeology
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| Effie Athanassopoulos | Peter Bleed | Paul Demers | LuAnn Wandsnider |
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| William Hunt Jr. | Doug Scott | Raymond Hames |
Joining the hard evidence of the archeological record with written sources and other historical records has allowed historical archaeology to make original contributions. It has opened virtually the entire human past to archeological investigation. Contemporary Historical archaeology is global in character; it investigates the spread of European culture throughout the world since the 15th century and its impact on indigenous people; it documents the lives of ignored and underrepresented groups; it explores issues of class, race, ethnicity, and gender; it provides an archaeological perspective on the processes of colonialism and capitalism and the formation of the modern world. At UNL, historical archaeology is a special area of strength and collaboration.
Paul Demers has developed a research focus on the archaeological investigation of the numerous historic trails blazed across the Great Plains. Excavation of road ranches and other sites that developed along the trails gives hard evidence of where the trails were located and what life was like for Western sojourners. We have excavated several of these trail sites during UNL Archaeology Field Schools. Students learn how to clean, catalog, and identify historic period artifacts, and write their own specialized artifact study included as a chapter in the annual archaeology report. The project also has a strong cartographic focus where students learn GPS and GIS skills to generate and merge modern maps as well as to shed new light on historical maps. The project also utilizes cutting edge, non-invasive geophysical prospecting techniques such as magnetometry, resistance, and conductivity in an effort to locate sites and trace trail remnants. Our research including paid student positions has been funded by the National Parks Service through the National Trails Office and Midwest Archaeological Center, Nebraska State Historical Society, Oregon and California Trails Association, and the UNL Research Council, Libraries Digital Initiative, Office of Summer Sessions, and the McNair and UCARE Programs.
Effie Athanassopoulos combines her interest in historical archaeology with expertise in Greek and Mediterranean research. Her research focuses on Medieval and Post-Medieval landscape archaeology and the role of archaeology in Greek national identity formation during the 19th century. Peter Bleed has been active in historical preservation. This interest has led to excavation of a number of historic era sites that were threatened by development. These include the Lincoln Pottery Works, a factory that made crockery in western Lincoln from 1880 until about 1904, and the pre-Civil War town of Plattford.
LuAnn Wandsnider's study of Great Plains landscapes has led her and her students to investigate the distribution of both pre-contact and historic occupations. Vergil Noble, Bill Hunt and many of the other cooperating archaeologists at MWAC also specialize in investigation of 19th and 20th century sites and materials.
Peter Bleed and Doug Scott are experts in battlefield research which has emerged as a special focus within historical archeology at UNL. Doug Scott, an adjunct faculty member at UNL, is a leader in this field and is involved in several battlefield investigations. Scott and Peter Bleed, worked with members of the UNL Broadcast program and a team of students to investigate the 1864 battle of Mud Springs in western Nebraska. They have also obtained a series of grants from the National Geographic Society to study the archeology of the Santiago Campaign of the 1898 Spanish Cuban-American War. Currently, there are six battlefield archeology projects being conducted at UNL. Evolutionary anthropologist Ray Hames teaches a course entitled The Anthropology of War and has published several pieces on warfare based on his field research among the Yanomamö.
Recent Graduates in Historical Archaeology
Carl Drexler is currently pursuing his doctoral degree and the College of William and Mary
Katie Cleek is currently pursing her doctoral degree at the University of Arkansas
Alicia Coles (MA 2004) is in the anthropology doctoral program (underwater archaeology) University of Rhode Island. There she is working with Robert Ballard, the underwater explorer who discovered the Titanic.
