Old World Archaeology Program

The primary focus of the Old World Archaeology Program is European archaeology, with an emphasis on Iron Age Celtic cultures. Associate Professor Bettina Arnold, the Program Director, is ...

• Coordinator, Anthropology Department's Museum Studies Graduate Certificate Program which provides students the opportunity to take courses and participate in internships at the Milwaukee Public Museum, one of the premier natural history museums in the United States;
  
  
• Co-Director, UWM Center for Celtic Studies which includes an undergraduate certificate program in Celtic Studies and offers study abroad opportunities in Ireland and other European countries; General Editor, e-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies.
  
  
• Vice President, Archaeological Institute of America's Milwaukee Society which brings 6-8 archaeologists to campus every year to present their research in a series of public lectures.
  
  

Field Project

The "Landscape of Ancestors" project directed by Professor Arnold in southwest Germany provides experienced undergraduates and graduate students who are interested in Old World archaeology with an opportunity to participate in on-going excavations and analysis of material from sites in the vicinity of the early Iron Age Heuneburg hillfort, supported from 1999-2002 by the National Geographic Society. A study of ceramic material from the 1999-2000 excavations at Tumulus 17 has recently been completed (Schneider MS 2003) and there is the potential for other projects involving the interpretation of textile fragments and small finds. Excavation of a second burial mound in the same mound group as Tumulus 17 was carried out in 2002.

Project publications include the following:
2003 Untersuchungen an einem zweiten hallstattzeitlichen Grabhügel der Hohmichele-Gruppe im "Speckhau", Markung Heiligkreuztal, Gemeinde Altheim, Landkreis Biberach. Bettina Arnold, Matthew L. Murray und Seth A. Schneider. Archäologische Ausgrabungen in Baden-Württemberg 2002: 78-81.
2002 A landscape of ancestors in southwest Germany. Bettina Arnold and Matthew L. Murray. News & Notes. Antiquity 76(292): 321-322.
2001 Abschließende Untersuchungen in einem hallstattzeitlichen Grabhügel der Hohmichele-Gruppe im "Speckhau", Markung Heiligkreuztal, Gemeinde Altheim, Landkreis Biberach. Bettina Arnold, Matthew L. Murray und Seth A. Schneider. Archäologische Ausgrabungen in Baden-Württemberg 2000: 67-70.
2000 Untersuchungen in einem hallstattzeitlichen Grabhügel der Hohmichele-Gruppe im "Speckhau", Markung Heiligkreuztal, Gemeinde Altheim, Landkreis Biberach. Bettina Arnold, Matthew L. Murray und Seth A. Schneider. Archäologische Ausgrabungen in Baden-Württemberg 1999: 64-67.

Student Thesis Projects

Collections-based research and analysis has been the focus of many student projects. Recent and on-going Masters and PhD thesis projects in Old World archaeology range from a study of ushabti figurines at the Milwaukee Public Museum and their significance in understanding temporal and regional variation in ancient Egypt to an analysis of soapstone vessels from the Byzantine/Islamic site of Ayla/Aila (Aqaba) in Jordan. Extensive collections from the Bronze Age site of Tell Hadidi in Syria, housed at the Milwaukee Public Museum, as well as other Old World collections there and at the Chicago Field Museum, have been the subject of several thesis projects and are available for future thesis work. Several graduate students have worked on projects relating to the Celtic cultures of the British Isles, including a study of changing gender configurations due to Romanization in the territory of the Brigantes as reflected in mortuary contexts in southern England. Most recently two Masters theses have been completed on material from the Swiss Neolithic Lake Dwelling site of Robenhausen at the Milwaukee Public Museum (Lillis MS 2005; Johnson MS 2006), and two projects are underway analyzing collections from the type-site of La Tène, Switzerland at the Logan Museum and the Chicago Field Museum.

Resources

The Old World Archaeology Program has access to a portion of the Archaeology Research Lab for storing and laying out artifacts. A computer, printer, scanner, digital camera and other small electronic equipment are available for students working on projects to use. Software includes ArcView GIS and various database programs. The Old World Archaeology Program also has access to general Archaeology Lab equipment, including microscopes, darkroom facilities and computers, and to Department of Anthropology facilities and equipment.