APRIL M. BEISAW

Email: abeisaw@binghamton.edu

(Ph.D. Binghamton University 2007), Research Associate, is a North American archaeologist interested in the use of human and animal remains to explore issues of continuity, memory, identity, and ethnicity at Native American and Euro-American sites. Current research focuses on the historical ecology of town formation and development (Port Tobacco Archaeological Project), memory and identity within late prehistoric and early historic cultures of the Susquehanna River Valley (PA and NY), and the archaeology of historic one-room schoolhouses as a means of studying community history and ethnic continuity. She is a specialist in zooarchaeology, taphonomy, and the archaeology of the American Southwest and Northeast.

Port Tobacco Archaeological Project
Dr. Beisaw serves as the co-principal investigator and Director of Research for the Port Tobacco Archaeological Project. This grant-funded public archaeology project seeks to understand how the once prominent town of Port Tobacco dealt with the ongoing sedimentation of the river that ultimately choked the port.

A daily blog of the Port Tobacco Archaeological Project can be found at http://porttobacco.blogspot.com

Selected Presentations and Publications
n.d.      Constructing Institution Specific Site Formation Models. In: The Archaeology of Institutional Life. Edited by A. M. Beisaw and J.G. Gibb. Under review at University of Alabama Press.

2007    Osteoarchaeology of the Engelbert Site: Evaluating Occupational Continuity through the Taphonomy of Human and Faunal Remains. Ph.D. Dissertation, Binghamton University.

2007    Desecration or Memorialization? A Unique Double Burial Mortuary Ritual at the Engelbert Site, Nichols, NY. Paper presented at the 47th Annual Meeting of the Northeastern Anthropology Association, Ithaca.

2006    Plague or Promise? Frogs and Toads from New York’s Engelbert Site. Paper presented at the 71st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, San Juan.

2005    The Archaeology of Michigan’s One-Room Schools. Michigan Archaeologist, in press.

2005    (with D. Stumbagh) Differentiating the Dogs: Morphological & Ancient DNA Analysis of Archaeological Canids. Paper presented at the 70th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Salt Lake City.

2004    Below the Boards: Taphonomy of Subfloor Assemblages. Paper presented at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Montreal.

2003    (with J.G. Gibb) Testing Community History: The Archaeology of Schoolhouse Sites. Paper presented at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Milwaukee.

2001    (with J.C. Beisaw) Archaeology and Artificial Intelligence in the Future of Web-based Education. Paper presented at the 34th Annual Meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology, Long Beach.

2000    (with J.G. Gibb) Learning Cast Up From the Mire: Archaeological Investigations of Schoolhouses in the Northeastern United States. Northeastern Historical Archaeology 29:107-129

2000    Cultural Influences on the Differential Decomposition of Animal Bone. Paper presented at the 65th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Philadelphia.

2000    Eating Like a Pig in a Colonial Tavern: The Taphonomy of Tavern Assemblages. Paper presented at the 33rd Annual Meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology, Quebec.

 

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