Bio
Ralph Hartley is a Research Associate Professor, currently focusing on an exploratory investigation of rock cairns in alpine settings of southeast Alaska, supported by the National Science Foundation. His additional primary research interests include (1) the social and bio-physical conditions underlying intra-group competition that lead to violent conflict and genocidal behavior, and (2) the communicative mechanisms of marking places in prehistory with “rock-art” as well as in contemporary settings with “graffiti”. He was formerly an archaeologist with the National Park Service, Midwest Archeological Center with responsibilities for cultural resource management and research in the western U.S. Currently, Dr. Hartley is a co-principal investigator on a multi-year National Science Foundation grant entitled "A Multidisciplinary Study of Alpine Cairns, Baranof Island, Southeast Alaska. Grant No. 1145831, 1230 132, 1346842.
Selected Publications
2016 Competition Expressed: Marking Places within Rural and Urban Landscapes. w/S. Kennedy. Bollettino del Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici (BCSP) 40: in press
2015 The Socio-Spatial Context of Rock-Art in the Purgatoire River Valley: An Exploratory Analysis. w/A. Vawser. In Proceedings of the XXVI Valcamonica Symposium, pp. 135-142. Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici, Capo Di Ponte (BS), Italy.
2013 Claiming/Re-Claiming Space with Place-Marking in Rural and Urban Landscapes. w/S. Kennedy. Proceedings of the XXV Valcamonica Symposium, ed. E. Anati, pp. 459-462. Capo di Ponte (BS), Italy
2012 Signifying the Place of Unforgettable Memory: Atrocity and Trauma in a Post-Conflict Landscape.
2010 Sleeping with the enemy: an essay on mixed identity in the context of violent conflict. Social Identities 16(2): 225-246.
2009 Variability in the Behavior of Women in Violent Inter-Group Conflict. Mankind Quarterly 49: 320-345.
2009 An Archaeological Survey of Selected Transects within the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, La Crosse District, La Crosse County, Wisconsin. w/ A. Osborn. National Park Service, Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln.
2008 Archeological Survey within the Chickasaw National Recreation Area, Murray County, Oklahoma. w/A. Osborn. Technical Report No. 108. National Park Service, Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln.
2008 Archeological Verification of the Waiilatpu Mission Grounds (45WW41) at Whitman Mission National Historic Site, Walla Walla County, Washington. w/K. Cannon. National Park Service, Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln.
2007 Human Modifications to the Landscape of Hunt and Sheep Mountains, Wyoming: Exploring Socially Constructed Space. w/ A. Vawser. In Digital Discovery: Exploring NewFrontiers in Human Heritage. ed. Jeffery Clark, Pp. 203-213. Budapest: Archaeologingua.
2007 Rock Art. In Encyclopedia of Great Plains Indians. ed. D.J. Wishart. Pp.174-176. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
2007 To Massacre: A Perspective on Demographic Competition. Anthropological Quarterly 80 (1): 237-251.
2007 Archeological Inventory West of Lake Mohave, Lake Mead National Recreation Area, lark County, Nevada. w/ A.Vawser and A. McKee. National Park Service, Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln.
2006 Signifying Places of Atrocity. In Spontaneous Shrines and the Public Memorialization of Death. ed. J. Santino. Pp. 285-303. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
2005 A Quantitative Investigation of the Cultural Topography of Hunt and Sheep Mountains, Bighorn National Forest, Wyoming. w/ A. Vawser. National Park Service, Midwest Archeological Center, Lincoln.