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While archaeology may seem to deal exclusively with the past, this study of artifacts can have a significant impact on the present. Archaeology can help provide proof of historical events and influence political and social claims. Susannah Wales ’13 is spending the summer working with Assistant Professor of Anthropology Nathan Goodale in British Columbia, Canada.

During the summer of 2011, 13 students from Hamilton College and Selkirk College will attend a six-week intensive archaeology field immersion course in the prehistory, history, ethnography and language of the indigenous peoples of the interior Pacific Northwest.

Assistant Professor of Anthropology Nathan Goodale and Visiting Instructor of Anthropology Alissa Nauman, in partnership with the Slocan Valley Heritage Trail Society, were awarded a Columbia Basin Trust Community Development Program Grant.  The award provides funding for research associated with the Slocan Narrows Archaeological Project which also serves as the Hamilton College archaeology field school in British Columbia, Canada.

Over fall break, a group of researchers from Hamilton College embarked on a research trip to the Slocan Valley, containing one of the few undammed rivers in the Upper Columbia River Basin of Canada’s British Columbia province. The purpose of their trip was to film interviews with local people regarding the presence of aboriginal people in the valley.

In June, Madeleine (Maddy) Gunter ’11, Assistant Professor of Anthropology Nathan Goodale, Associate Professor of Geosciences David Bailey and Science Center Administrator Alissa Nauman conducted archaeological and geological field research on Inishark, an island off the west central coast of Ireland.

Matthew Eichenfield '09 presented at the "Barcamp San Diego," a technology conference held at Intuit's San Diego Campus on May 30-31. His presentation was titled "Analyzing Artifacts: What Computers Can Tell Us About Archaeology" and was the culmination of his year-long independent study project with Nathan Goodale, assistant professor of anthropology.

Nathan Goodale, visiting instructor in anthropology, published two chapters in Systèmes Techniques et Communautés du Néolithique Précéramique au Proche-Orient edited by Laurence Astruc, Didier Binder and François Briois. The chapters titled "Lithic Technology of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A and Late Natufian Occupations of 'Iraq ed-Dubb, Jordan," co-authored with Ian Kuijt, and "Chipped Stone Variability: An Overview of the PPNA Lithic Assemblage from Dhra', Jordan," coauthored with Ian Kuijt and Bill Finlayson, are representative of Goodale's research in the Near East on the origins of agriculture over the past seven years. The edited volume stems from the 2003 5th International Pre-Pottery Neolithic Lithic Workshop in Fréjus, France.

Nathan Goodale, visiting instructor in anthropology, published a chapter in Recent Advances in Paleodemography: Data, Techniques, Patterns, edited by Jean Pierre Bocquet-Appel. The chapter, titled "The Demography of Prehistoric Fishing/Hunting People: A Case Study of the Upper Columbia Area," considers the role of demography and the evolution of socioeconomic systems among hunter-gatherers. The volume stemmed from a session at the international conference the 25th World Population Congress, July 2005 in Tours, France. This publication represents the third related to Goodale's M.A. thesis research.