Associate Professor and Department Chair; she/her/hers

Phone: (616) 331-8936

Email: [email protected]

As a zooarchaeologist specializing in stable isotope analyses, my research focus is the bones and teeth of animals to examine diet and health of domestic animals and to reconstruct environments including those that have been impacted by humans, (i.e. by foddering or overgrazing). These analyses enables the reconstruction of diet, health, and mobility of domestic animals and how management of animal resources impact human social complexity, resilience, and subsistence.

I have active archaeological research agendas in both the Near East and in South Africa. My dissertation research focused on domestic animals in Southeastern Africa to reconstruct environmental conditions and pasture and management strategies for domestic herds. Current research (Zulu Kingdom Archaeological Project – ZKAP) focuses on the Zulu Kingdom (CE 1816–1897) one of the most powerful African states of the 19th century.

The project aims to continue the shift in emphasis away from the stories of kings, battles, and European interests towards the peoples and places ‘without history.’ The project focus is the lives and homes of the so-called ‘muted masses’ that made up much of the kingdom, those scarcely known from historical accounts. This work allows me plenty of access to the beautiful herds of Nguni cattle in the region.

Research in Israel began in 2012 as part of a grant that supported excavations and analyses at the site of Tell es-Safi/Gath and continued through 2018. I also collaborate with research teams at the sites of Tel Dan, Ashkelon, Ein Dor, and Khirbet Summeily and into ancient Mesopotamia. This latter project allowed me behind the scenes at the British Museum to work on materials from the Royal Graves at Ur.

In 2023, I was named the Seymour Gitin Distinguished Professor at the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem. This grant enabled my sabbatical in Israel. During that time, I was also appointed as a Visiting Professor in The Fredy & Nadine Herrmann Institute of Earth Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Currently, my research focuses on urbanization during the Iron Age (IA - 1200-830 BCE) in the southern Levant. This project is funded by the National Science Foundation.

I regularly teach Ancient Civilizations, Introduction to Archaeology and Culture and Environment.

Check out my textbook, which is a novel/textbook fusion where fictional characters navigate challenges as they study, research and learn about the archaeological past. The archaeological discussion of the ancient civilizations (non-fiction) is drawn from peer-reviewed sources and covers ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Nubia, the Indus Valley, ancient China, and civilizations of North America, Mesoamerica and the Andes.

https://he.kendallhunt.com/product/outside-book-inside-ancient-civilizations

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