@sahndshel
The combined research labs of Drs. Jacob and Isabelle Holland-Lulewicz at Penn State Anthropology. The Spatial Archaeology and Historical Network Dynamics Lab (SAHND) and the Laboratory for Socioecological Histories of Estuarine Landscapes (SHEL)
An archaeologist excavating in a trench. He’s kneeled down and the trench is higher than him. The bottom of the trench is covered in water as it is deeper than the height of the water table.
9 years ago. Excavating shell midden at Pineland along the Gulf Coast of southwestern Florida #archaeology #ecology
A high resolution microscope photo of a fish scale. It has nested circular ridges like a finger print. But in its texture looks like a finger nail!
200 year old fish scale from a plantation-era trash pit. We’re finding hundreds of fish scales (in both historic and earlier Indigenous contexts). Matthew and Christina are going to explore micro approaches to species identification! #archaeology #ecology #fish #fisheries #history
A high resolution microscope photo of a fish scale. It has nested circular ridges like a finger print. But in its texture looks like a finger nail!
200 year old fish scale from a plantation-era trash pit. We’re finding hundreds of fish scales (in both historic and earlier Indigenous contexts). Matthew and Christina are going to explore micro approaches to species identification! #archaeology #ecology #fish #fisheries #history
Labeled bags full of bone and botanicals laid out across a lab table.
Whats up in the lab today? About to run 47 dates from a 2,000yr-old settlement of the Xiongnu Empire in Mongolia and 23 dates from a rock shelter in Kyrgyzstan that was once along the Silk Road! Asa and Christina (@cmcarolus.bsky.social) are doing the COOLEST work! #archaeology #history #radiocarbon
A plot of Bayesian modeled probabilities for radiocarbon ages. They are in perfect order from oldest to youngest up the stratigraphic column.
New dates back today from a 4,000yr old shell midden on the Georgia Coast! A perfectly accumulated context! c. 2 meters of regular midden accumulation in less than 100yrs 😍 #archaeology #ecology #radiocarbon
A plot of Bayesian modeled probabilities for radiocarbon ages. They are in perfect order from oldest to youngest up the stratigraphic column.
New dates back today from a 4,000yr old shell midden on the Georgia Coast! A perfectly accumulated context! c. 2 meters of regular midden accumulation in less than 100yrs 😍 #archaeology #ecology #radiocarbon
Labeled bags full of bone and botanicals laid out across a lab table.
Whats up in the lab today? About to run 47 dates from a 2,000yr-old settlement of the Xiongnu Empire in Mongolia and 23 dates from a rock shelter in Kyrgyzstan that was once along the Silk Road! Asa and Christina (@cmcarolus.bsky.social) are doing the COOLEST work! #archaeology #history #radiocarbon
Stay tuned for our forthcoming paper demonstrating a key link between more autocratic forms of governance and a reliance on external financing.
Also see Blanton et al. 2021 on the topic of financing (www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1...): (see passage below)
#archaeology #economics #polisci
Lab Co-PI, Dr. Isabelle Holland-Lulewicz (@isazooarch.bsky.social) is on the editorial board of this exciting, brand new archaeology journal, the LEIZA Journal of Archaeology published by @leizarchaeology.bsky.social!! Check it out! #archaeology www.leiza.de/forschung/pu...
About to date some of the earliest pottery in North America! These were tempered with Spanish moss c. 4800 yrs ago. Charred fibers are preserved in the sherd and can be directly dated! Note the swirly linear voids left from fibers that were burnt out in the production process #archaeology #history
About to date some of the earliest pottery in North America! These were tempered with Spanish moss c. 4800 yrs ago. Charred fibers are preserved in the sherd and can be directly dated! Note the swirly linear voids left from fibers that were burnt out in the production process #archaeology #history
Cover for the program of the symposium showing a hand holding stalks of rice. The symposium showcases the project “Listen with Intention and Eat the Good Food”
The logo for the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor
PhD Students Matt and Lakelyn are attending the Inaugural International Gullah Geechee and African Diaspora Foodways Research Symposium down in South Carolina!! #history #culture #food #foodways #archaeology
Happy Tsagaan Sar (Mongolian Lunar New Year)! It’s the Year of the Fire Horse, so here are some tough Mongolian horses from last summer! 🇲🇳 #tsagaansar #mongolia #lunarnewyear #mongolianlunarnewyear #firehorse #horse #yearofthehorse
Title slide for presentation: A micro history of an ancestral Muskogean town in southern Appalachia
Slide showing a slice of wood of a preserved house post. There are three stars on the post at different tree rings. Showing how multiple ages from a single post can be used to achieve a single high resolution age.
A map of the King site on the left indicating houses that were data. On the right is the total chronological model for the town.
Had a great time presenting on some of our recent work on early Indigenous-Spanish encounters this past weekend! #archaeology #history #ethnohistory
Currently in the Capriles Environmental Archaeology Lab @psuanthro.bsky.social using our incredible Keyence VHX-7000 to document very early Silk Road food remains (c. 2000 BP) from the Juuku Valley of highland Kyrgyzstan. Featuring: stunning images of peach pits, garden peas, and foxtail millet!
Exciting work happening in the lab this week from @cmcarolus.bsky.social and Asa Cameron’s work in Kyrgyzstan! #archaeology #history #ecology
Psyched to be back home for our group’s two day mind-meld on chronology building, Indigenous histories, and colonial encounters in the southeast! #archaeology #history #ethnohistory
How can we place Indigenous presence and colonial encounters in absolute time? How can we see beyond Spanish descriptions into the landscapes that contextualized encounters? How do we transcend the archaeology-history divide to understand the impacts and outcomes of encounters? #archaeology #history
Photo at the Mongolian Embassy in DC. The Mongolian seal is flanked by both an American flag and a Mongolian flag.
Lab members have been in DC attending the XVIII Annual Mongolian Studies Conference at the NMNH and Library of Congress! Tonight, the Mongolian Ambassador to the US hosted conference participants at the Mongolian Embassy! #Mongolia #archaeology #ecology
An old, preserved bag made from fish skin. It lies on a table open. And its contents are arranged around it. Another small pouch, a sheep astragalus, and a few other implements. The fish skin texture is beautifully preserved.
LOOK AT THIS! Fish leather bag found in a cave in the mountains of western Mongolia. WHAT?! From Vávra 2020 (www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...) #archaeology #ecology #history
An old, preserved bag made from fish skin. It lies on a table open. And its contents are arranged around it. Another small pouch, a sheep astragalus, and a few other implements. The fish skin texture is beautifully preserved.
LOOK AT THIS! Fish leather bag found in a cave in the mountains of western Mongolia. WHAT?! From Vávra 2020 (www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...) #archaeology #ecology #history
The title slide for a presentation titled: the importance of wetland resources in the socioecological systems of Central Asia. The background is the silhouette of horses and their riders standing in the shallows of a lake, with the sunset in the background.
Lab members are headed to DC this afternoon for the XVIII Annual Mongolian Studies Conference! Co-hosted by The Embassy of Mongolia and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History! #archaeology #history #ecology #mongolia #centralasia
A photograph looking down into an excavation trench. An archaeologist holds a trowel, excavated a shell matrix while sitting in water, as the trench goes below the water table.
Throwback to @isazooarch.bsky.social working at Mound Key, the capital of the Calusa of southwestern Florida. Once home to c. 4,000 people, MK is a 150 acre anthropogenic island constructed entirely of shell, complete with mounds, canals, and live fish storage! #archaeology #history #ecology
🙅🏼♂️ Needle in a haystack?
💁🏼♂️ Fish bone in the crushed oyster
#archaeology #ecology #fish
Appropriate 😅🤣
🙅🏼♂️ Needle in a haystack?
💁🏼♂️ Fish bone in the crushed oyster
#archaeology #ecology #fish
Two limpet shells on a lab bench. They are about the same lenght but with different morphology. Left one is rather flat with smooth surface, while the right one is higher, with coarser surface and more pronounced ribs.
1/2 Two different limpet shells, belonging to the same species (P. vulgata).
The flat one comes from low shore (large foot + reduced shell surface to resist strong waves and currents) while the pointed one comes from high shore (ribs + high shell help resist dessication by creating shadowed area)
“Muscogee Nation, University of Edinburgh Team for First International Repatriation” www.muscogeenation.com/2026/01/28/m...
Dotted around the coast of the North Atlantic, stone weirs from the coast of Africa up to the cold climes of Ireland, UK and Brittany(fr) to the lower Arctic of northern America to the sunny shore of the tropics of South America. 1/8 #coastalhistory #tcdtceh #coastsinmind
It’s that time of the year when everyone wishes it was time for the field season again right? (July 2016 geophysics at Santa Elena on the South Carolina coast; the first permanent Spanish settlement in what is today the U.S.!) #archaeology #history