Dr. Melissa Goodman Elgar
Ph.D., University of Cambridge
Assistant Professor
Archaeology
Interests
Andean archaeology, human impact on landscapes, geoarchaeology, archaeological theory, agriculture.
Courses
Anth 101 General Anthropology, Anth 309 Cultural Ecology, UH 370 Tawantinsuyo: Land of the Inka (Honors), Anth 570 Geoarchaeology, Anth 549 Settlement and Food Production.
How do people shape the land where they live?
Melissa Goodman-Elgar received her M.Phil and doctorate from the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge. She taught at the University of Cambridge and University of California, Berkeley before coming to WSU in 2004. Dr. Goodman-Elgar's research addresses processes that transform natural land into anthropogenic landscapes drawing on approaches in archaeology, earth science and geography. She specializes in geoarchaeology using thin section microscopy and sediment analysis and directs the Geoarchaeology Laboratory. Theoretically she focuses on the creation of anthropogenic space through architecture and landscape modification. Her research concentrates primarily in the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes and her dissertation research addressed the development of terraced landscapes in central Peru combining geoarchaeological, artifact and architectural records.
Since 1996, Dr. Goodman-Elgar has worked on the shores of Lake Titicaca with the Taraco Archaeological Project. The project addresses the emergence of complex social and religious communities on the Taraco Peninsula, Bolivia during the Formative. In this project, she concentrates on earthen architecture particularly mudbrick walling and earthen floors and post-depositional processes. To support this research, she conducted entho-geoarchaeological studies in abandoned modern houses and is currently making experimental mudbricks to asses firing properties. In 2005, she initiated a new project on Middle Horizon societies in Cajamarca, Peru. Her other research interests include fire dynamics in the US Rocky mountains, particularly Montana and New Mexico.
Dr. Goodman-Elgar teaches graduate courses Anth 570/570L Geoarchaeology and Anth 549 Settlement and Food production, which concentrates on the origins and impacts of agriculture. She offers specialist training in soil micromorphology and Andean archaeology to her graduate students. She teaches with the Honors College and will offer UH 370 Tawantinsuyo: Land of the Inka in Spring 2010.
Representative Publications and Reports
In Press. Holocene alluvial sequences, cumulic soils and fire signatures in the middle Rio Puerco basin at Guadalupe Ruin, New Mexico (with Charles French, Richard Periman , Linda Scott Cummings, Stephen Hall, Melissa Goodman-Elgar and Julie Boreham). Geoarchaeology.
2009. Places to partake: Chicha in the Andean landscape. In Justin Jennings and Brenda Bowser (Eds), Drink, Power, and Society in the Andes. Gainsville: The University Press of Florida. Pp. 75-107.
2008. Evaluating soil resilience in long-term cultivation: a study of pre-Columbian terraces from the Paca Valley, Peru, Journal of Archaeological Science 35: 3072–3086.
2008. The devolution of mudbrick: Ethnoarchaeology of abandoned earthen dwellings in the Bolivian Andes, Journal of Archaeological Science 35: 3057–3071.
2007. Off-site Archaeology: The study of agricultural fields. In Deborah Pearsall (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology. New York: Oxford University Press.
2006. Geoarchaeological investigations: Initial results of bulk analyses from KKKK, KUAC and KUKU. In C. Hastorf et al., Taraco Archaeological Project Report 2005: Excavations at Kala Uyuni and Sonaji. Submitted to the Unidad Nacional de Arqueología de Bolivia. With Marcia Peterson.
2005. Seeking Fire and human impact in the Rocky Mountains: Prospecting in Montana and New Mexico. Submitted to the USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station.
1999. (ed. With J. Brück), Making places in the prehistoric world: themes in settlement archaeology, London: UCL Press (Routledge).
1999. Introduction: themes for a critical archaeology of prehistoric settlement. In Making Places in the Prehistoric World; with Joanna Brück, pp. 1-19.
1999. Time constructions in archaeology: the challenge of the short-term in pre-columbian Andean households. In Making Places in the Prehistoric World, pp. 145-159.
1999. Micromorphology of Depositional Sequences from Monticulo and Santiago Excavations. In Christine Hastorf (ed.), Early Settlement in Chiripa, Bolivia: Research of the Taraco Archaeological Project , pp. 51-60, 130-132. Berkeley, CA: Archaeological Research Facility Monograph Publications, No 57.
Current Research
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Dr. Goodman Elgar’s research concentrates on Geoarchaeological applications to both settlement and landscape studies. Her primary technique is soil micromorphology or thin section analysis, which allows for the assessment of microstratigraphy of intact soils and sediments under the microscope. The photo below is a thin section of deposits from a Formative dwelling in Bolivia and helped reveal the history of use and abandonment of her structure. Dr. Goodman Elgar’s collection of thin sections include reference slides of archaeological projects from around the world including sites in Britain, Spain, India, Bolivia and Peru.
Since 1996, Dr. Goodman Elgar has worked on the shores of Lake Titicaca with the Taraco Archaeological Project. This project is supported by NSF (Prof. C. Hastorf, PI) and our research addresses the advent of complex social and religious communities on the Taraco Peninsula, Bolivia using a multidisciplinary excavation and analysis methodology to address Formative life in the region. Dr. Goodman Elgar uses soil micromorphology to study ancient occupation surfaces and conducts enthoarchaeological studies in abandoned modern houses.
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Arroyo wall Rio Puerco (near Cuba), NM |
WSU New Faculty Seed grant allowed her to start a new project in the Cajamarca region of Peru. This research will test models of culture development along the spine of the Andes with particular emphasis on the development of agriculture and state level society. Preliminary reconnaissance was conducted in 2005 and several potential study areas were located for continued research.
In the US, she works on fire and palaeoclimate change in the Rocky Mountain region with a project initiated by the USDA Forest Service. The focus of this research is on arroyo deposits in the Cuba, Socorro and Magdalena areas of New Mexico and bogs in northwest Montana. Preliminary results indicate that fire records are well preserved in both contexts. Preliminary evidence from New Mexico has revealed periodic large and very hot fires, which may indicate that the periodicity of very large is largely governed by climate and vegetation rather than people.
Heading using the h3tag
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