Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Brief Comparison Of Two Early Neighborhoods- Consumerism And Social Class In 20th Century Lincoln Nebraska, Mariska Molnar

Anthropology Department: Theses

In the Fall of 2018, Matthew Hansen monitored the destruction of a parking lot two blocks north of the Capitol Building for the subsequent building of a geothermal system. During this period, and excavation was conducted with the aid of the UNL Campus Archaeology Project, and 12 features were identified. Five features produced artifacts, with Feature 11, a cistern, being the most fruitful. The collection was named the Capitol Wellfield, and a portion of the artifacts, which includes diagnostic glass and ceramic pieces, are housed on campus for studying.

Most research and publication have been focused on older excavations and …

A Manual For The Recovery Of Cbrne (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, And Explosive) Contaminated Human Remains, Patrick Barchett

Anthropology Department: Theses

Despite many international agreements and treaties prohibiting the use of CBRNE (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive) weaponry, the proliferation of contaminated human remains displays the historic and continued use of inhumane war efforts. Due to the complications of recovery, contaminated human remains are often left unrecovered and unidentified. This thesis works to create a framework for the recovery of contaminated human remains for organizations with a focus on creating safe and sustainable working environments for those conducting the recovery. Much of this thesis assumes the remains are being recovered from interred mass graves. This thesis provides an introduction to …

The Woodcliff Experiment: Zooarchaeological Applications Using A Legacy And Cultural Resource Management (Crm) Faunal Collection., Matthew Zmijewski

Anthropology Department: Theses

Legacy archaeological collections are often underutilized despite their valuable research utility. Archeologists might pass over these collections for research due to the age of recovery, along with the manner in which they were sampled and excavated. This thesis argues that significant archaeological research questions can be answered using these collections. To demonstrate their research potential, the author analyzes past subsistence behaviors and seasonality of occupations using the faunal remains from the Woodcliff site (25SD31). Woodcliff is a A.D. 1650-1750 Protohistoric Pawnee village located in eastern Nebraska. The faunal collection derived from excavations at the site constitute both a legacy and …

The Impacts Of Site Formation Processes On Excavation Methodology: The Study Of A World War Ii B-24 Crash Site In Munster, Germany, Alicia J. Lawson

Anthropology Department: Theses

Academic partnerships between universities and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) are a recent development to provide top research universities resources to assist in recovering and identifying MIA service members since World War II. A University of Nebraska – Lincoln (UNL)/DPAA Partner excavation revisited a WWII B-24H crash site in Münster, Germany in the summer of 2022. B-24H [redacted] crashed into three agricultural fields on 23 March 1945. Utilizing quantitative and qualitative data collected on the incident-related and archaeological osseous remains and artifacts recovered from the fields and the fields’ land use history, this thesis focuses on analyzing the site …

Utilization Of Gis In Tracking Disinterment And Movement Of Unknown Us Wwii War Dead: Foundations For A Geospatial Approach To Addressing Commingled Remains, Ella Axelrod

Anthropology Department: Theses

In the aftermath of World War II, the US was faced with the monumental task of finding and identifying over 405,000 service members who did not survive the conflict (McDermott, 2005, p. 1). Of these 405,000, 81,000 remain missing and 2,498 remain unidentified in cemeteries across Europe alone (American Battle Monuments Commission, 2022). Often, these individuals were interred and disinterred multiple times, crossing the continent in the journey from loss incident or battlefield to their final resting place. Commingling, the accidental mixing of remains, is an ever-present concern in the forensic identification of individuals from mass casualty incidents (Belcher et …

Implications Of Ancestry Estimation: An Analysis Of Identification Rates In Unidentified Persons Cases, Gabrielle Mace

Anthropology Department: Theses

Recently, attention has been drawn to the biases present in the methodologies employed by Forensic Anthropologists, and in the medicolegal system, towards People of Color throughout the identification process. As one of the important contributors to the medicolegal system, it is essential that forensic anthropologists understand the impact of their analyses on the identification rate of marginalized unidentified decedents. Thus, through the utilization of positive identification records from Wayne and Ingham Counties in Michigan, U.S., this research investigated the disparities in identification rates between decedents reported as White and those reported as People of Color (POC). The data indicated that …

Tracking And Estimating The Commingling Of Missing U.S. Service Personnel: A Gis And Forensic Anthropological Approach, Mason Mckinney

Anthropology Department: Theses

During times of war, the remains of fallen U.S. military service members overseas are often difficult to track postmortem as they move from their recovery location to a permanent cemetery. After a recovery, remains are typically sent to multiple temporary cemeteries, morgues, and/or identification points before reaching their final resting place. Repeated disinterments and reinterments among vast numbers of remains in multiple temporary locations may lead to unintended commingling. This analysis is meant to examine the postmortem movement of multiple U.S. military members and assess their potential for commingling based on historical records and identification reports supplied by the Defense …

Odontometric Sex Estimation Using A Modern Forensic Skeletal Collection, Andrea Sbei

Anthropology Department: Theses

Forensic anthropologists are responsible for estimating the biological profile—the age, sex, population affinity, and stature—of unknown deceased individuals. Many methods used for estimating the biological profile are sex-specific, which implicates sex estimation as one of the most important components of the biological profile. Historically, the skull and postcranial elements have been heavily utilized for morphological and metric sex estimation methods, whereas odontometric methods have been overlooked and underutilized. Odontometric data has proven to be a worthwhile avenue for the estimation of sex in several population-based studies (Acharya et al., 2011; Adams & Pilloud, 2019; Angadi et al., 2013; Cardoso, 2008; …

A Fusion Of Microscopy Technique In Human Coprolite Analysis: The Dyck Cliff Dwelling And The Arid West Cave, William Darwin Hertzel

Anthropology Department: Theses

In the two papers that comprise this thesis, I will discuss the dietary complexes of two separate Southwestern archaeological sites excavated in the 20th century through the medium of coprolite analysis. The fusion of microscopy techniques in this project expands the capability of observation and identification of microremains and their use in reconstructing the dietary habits of past peoples. I intend to highlight the value of integrating three separate methods of microscopy for the identification of diet and any practices for using that information to narrow down a coprologically unstudied site location for samples of lost provenience. Additionally, this project …

Insular Interconnectivity In The Viking Age: A Geospatial View From Norse Jarlshof, Trent Michael Carney

Anthropology Department: Theses

During the Viking Age, settlements and trading centers were often located near lakes, seas, waterways, and sailing routes. As such, access to other locations was facilitated, whether for the purpose of settlement, trade, resource acquisition, or conflict, by some form of seafaring vessel or watercraft. Over the course of the Scandinavian Diaspora, a level of cultural and economic interconnectedness was maintained between mainland Scandinavia and the settlements in the North Atlantic region. This shared link with Scandinavia contributed to the development of local connections between insular and coastal sites within the broader diasporic network. This thesis considers the archaeological evidence …

Teaching Pedagogy Of Online Vs In-Person Learning: Relative To Osteology, Erik Schulz

Anthropology Department: Theses

With the Covid-19 global pandemic and the increasing need for a better way to teach on a global scale, this study focuses on a possible alternative to standard teaching that would address these issues. This research study examines the effectiveness of using 3D-scanned images vs cast bones in teaching human osteology. There are two main teaching concepts examined: the first examines the pedagogy of teaching and assessing if a 3D or online virtual classroom assessment compares favorably to a more traditional method of teaching osteology and other similar courses in a hands-on setting. The second consideration is to assess the …

Systemic Stress In Mid-Century American Military Service Members: The Impact Of Socioeconomic Status And Military Service Length On The Human Skeleton, Brianna L. Petersen

Anthropology Department: Theses

The purpose of this study is to identify how socioeconomic status (SES) and, separately, length of military service, may affect the human skeleton. Specifically, this study considers non-specific indicators of skeletal stress such as periosteal reactions, enamel defects, and skeletal porosity in a sample of World War II decedents. The Exact Logistic Regression test was used to examine the possible association between military service length and the presence of skeletal porosity and periosteal reaction, and Fisher’s Exact Test of Independence was used to evaluate the relationship between SES and presence of enamel defects, skeletal porosity, and periosteal reaction. In total, …

Urbanization Of The Salt Plains: Early Industry And Material Culture Of The Kauffman Neighborhood, June Weber

Anthropology Department: Theses

The material history of Lincoln, Nebraska has previously been addressed through several theses and papers, however, the Kauffman collection up to this point has not been thoroughly analyzed and summarized as a whole. Through this thesis, the results of data from the features excavated will be compared with the analysis of artifact collections revealing the social dynamics of both the individual household and the neighborhood itself. Census data and Sanborn maps will be integrated in order to better visualize changes in household composition and size throughout time. Primarily by analyzing glass bottles and ceramic assemblages found within individual privies, cisterns, …

Expedient Gis And 3d Technology To Promote Public Awareness Of European Crypts As Digital Heritage, Ruth Grady

Anthropology Department: Theses

The thesis is investigation of GIS and 3D technology as ways to expediently document and disseminate information on European crypts as digital heritage. Digital technologies afford new opportunities to find, document, preserve, and share our past creating a wide and growing range of digital texts, databases, audio, video, illustrations, and software. While there are a wide range of digital technologies and digital data types employed in cultural heritage, 3D technologies such as lidar scanning are increasingly becoming a critical component to record cultural heritage. The case study focuses on two Sicilian crypts—Santa Maria Dell’Itria dei Cocchieri and Capuchin Church—located in …

Quantification Of The Mincer Et Al. 1993 Method Of Age Estimation For The Purpose Of Increasing The Reliability And Accuracy Of Scores Within The System, Bailey Oettel

Anthropology Department: Theses

There is currently a need to test new methods of increasing the accuracy and reliability of the stages scored by users of subjective methodologies within the forensic sciences. One way this can be done is through the quantification of these subjective stages through metric measurements and the application of sectioning points. This research assesses the quantification of the subjective stages within the Mincer et al. (1993) method of age estimation through odontometric measurements and the application of sectioning points. In this study, five odontometric measurements taken from radiographs of fifty-five third mandibular molars from thirty-nine individuals were used to establish …

Recovery Method For Mites Discovered In Mummified Human Tissue, Jessica Smith

Anthropology Department: Theses

Much like other arthropods, mites have been discovered in a wide variety of forensic and archaeological contexts featuring mummified remains. Their accurate identification has assisted forensic scientists and archaeologists in determining environmental, depositional, and taphonomic conditions that surrounded the mummified remains after death. Consequently, their close association with cadavers has led some researchers to intermittently advocate for the inclusion of mites in archaeological site analyses and forensic case studies. However, despite their potential value, mites have been underutilized with a variety of reasons for the lack of inclusion of mites in archaeological and forensic analyses. Chief amongst these reasons is …

When Leaders Surrender Their Divine Lineage: The Loss Of Cosmic Connection Between Maya Local Lords And Their Supernatural Deities, Amy S. Peterson

Anthropology Department: Theses

The Maya who lived during the Classic Period (200 CE to 900 CE) went through many changes in their daily lives. In the Late Classic Period (600 to 900 CE), social, political and economic stressors caused even more change to their routines, leading to the “collapse” around 800-900 CE. Current hypotheses for this collapse included warfare, environmental factors, human degradation of landscapes, as well as internal and external influences. I hypothesize that in the Early Classic (200 to 600 CE), rulership of local communities by Maya lords, or ajawob, related mainly to their connection to a pantheon of supernatural …

Estimating Age From 2d And 3d Imaging Of Skeletal Remains: An Assessment Of Reliability Using The Medial Clavicle, Sarah Ghannam

Anthropology Department: Theses

Research into the utility of digital imagery in conducting remote forensic analyses, or analyses of remains occurring outside of the laboratory, is necessary for the progression of forensic anthropology as new technologies arise. This research assesses the utility of 2D photographs and 3D scans in the assessment of the stage of fusion of the medial clavicular epiphysis. In this study, six participants analyzed 44 physical clavicles, photographs, and 3D scans to determine if stage of fusion can be reliably assessed using digital imagery. The participants either had extensive anthropological experience or no experience, which allows for assessment regarding how experience …

Applying Settlement Scaling At Copán: Furthering Exploration Into Ancient Maya Urban Dynamics, Ellis Owen Arnold Codd

Anthropology Department: Theses

For decades, many archaeologists did not consider ancient Maya centers such as Tikal, Palenque, and Copán to be cities. While today most archaeologists would agree that large Maya centers were cities, the nature of Maya urbanism is still little understood. Maya cities seem different, and in attempt to explain these differences, they have been termed “garden cities” and “low-density agrarian-based cities.” In this thesis, I apply Settlement Scaling Theory (SST) — a quantitative framework for examining the mathematical relationships between human population, social connectivity, and other socioeconomic urban properties — to examine the quantitative relationship between population and area for …

Learning From Those Who Served: Application Of Regression-Based Body Mass Estimation Methods To The Uss Oklahoma Population, Maxwell Rooney

Anthropology Department: Theses

Current methodologies in body mass estimation are lacking in accuracy when compared to the methods of sex, age, and ancestry estimation familiar to forensic anthropologists. For this reason, the practical application of body mass estimation remains underutilized, hindering the study of a potentially advantageous aspect of the biological profile.

This study highlights body mass estimation in a forensic context while taking the osteological paradox into account through the utilization of a unique population: the US military personnel killed on the USS Oklahoma during the Pearl Harbor attack on December 7, 1942. Because these individuals were similar in age (adults, age …

An Analysis Of Ground Stone From The Basketmaker Communities Project In Montezuma County, Southwest Colorado, Anna R. Dempsey Alves

Anthropology Department: Theses

In this thesis, I analyze an assemblage of ground stone tools, including manos and metates, from Basketmaker III period (A.D. 500-725) settlements in the central Mesa Verde region of Montezuma County, Colorado. Ground stone is a historically understudied class of artifacts, and the data collection and analysis practices employed for most projects remain subpar, despite the publication of best practices guidelines (Adams 2014). Ground stone informs on critical research topics and must be analyzed to the same degree as other artifact categories. The sites include the Dillard site (5MT10647), an aggregated site with a great kiva, and five surrounding, smaller …

Humeri Spatulate Tools Associations And Function In Chaco Canyon, Nm, Sara L. Anderson

Anthropology Department: Theses

In the two papers that comprise this thesis, I will be discussing Bone Spatulate Tools (BSTs) specifically those made of artiodactyl humeri found within Chaco Canyon, NM. These archaeological tool types permit the investigation of androcentric biases by way of legacy data acquired using the Chaco Research Archive (CRA). By redressing these archaeological biases, I hope to resuscitate an understudied tool type and highlight their function and importance in Chacoan toolkits. In chapter two, I investigate women and gendered activities by examining Humeri Spatulate Tools (HSTs) that are found at Chacoan great and small house sites. In this study, I …

Osl And Ceramic Analysis At The Humphrey Site, Ryan Mathison

Anthropology Department: Theses

The Sand Hills of Nebraska are a unique environment located in the west-central portion of Nebraska. This portion of North America has long supported human life. One group in particular that called the Sand Hills home are the Dismal River people. Dismal River is the name that archaeologists gave to a group of horticulturalists that lived in circular structures on the sand dunes, often near the rivers, in the Sand Hills. This group, while generally known through archaeology, also has a potential historic or ethnographic presence in the form of the Cuartalejo Apache visited by Ulibarri, and potentially mentioned by …

Lithic Analysis Of An Early Archaic Assemblage On The Great Plains: The Spring Creek Site (25ft31), Andrea Elizabeth Kruse

Anthropology Department: Theses

Early Archaic sites on the Great Plains are few in number and often little studied and poorly reported, as they are almost always found via salvage or compliance archaeology. Of those Early Archaic sites that have been studied, rarely has the recovered debitage been analyzed in detail nor have tools been fully evaluated for use-wear. This thesis describes the lithic assemblage from the Spring Creek (25FT31) site located in southwestern Nebraska. As one of two important early sites in the state, detailed lithic analysis will complement the thorough analysis of faunal remains conducted in the 2000s. This thesis presents the …

The Search For Fort Lisa In The Vicinity Of Omaha, Nebraska: A Gis Site Location Model, Brian C. Goodrich

Anthropology Department: Theses

Fort Lisa was one of several important Euro-American fur trade sites in the vicinity of what is today Omaha, Nebraska. It, along with the other sites on that stretch of the Missouri River, were key locations both for trade with local tribes and as waypoints for those travelling to northern tribes in the early 19^th Century. With the decline of the fur trade era, most of the sites that were once so central to life on the Missouri were abandoned and lost to memory. Archaeologists have rediscovered many of the sites along the Missouri River, including Fort Clark and …

Using Virtual Reality And Remotely Sensed Data To Explore Object Identity And Embodiment In A Virtual Mayan City, Cole F. Juckette

Anthropology Department: Theses

3D visualization, LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), and 3D modeling are not new concepts in archaeology, however when combined they represent a growing body of research that seeks to understand both how these tools can help us to study the people of the past, and the past itself. Recently, archaeologists have been creating large amounts of 3D digital assets because of new and more advanced technologies. Along with these digital assets has come a myriad of single object viewers—both web and desktop based. These platforms specifically focus on visualizing individual objects (i.e., artifacts or buildings). In contrast, 3DGIS and Virtual …

Late Paleoindian Land Tenure In Southwest Wyoming: Towards Integrating Method And Theory In An Analysis Of Taphochronometric Indicators Of Time-Averaged Deposits In The Wyoming Basin, Wyoming Usa, Cynthia D. Highland

Anthropology Department: Theses

According to Bailey (2008), substantive time perspectivism acknowledges that different types of phenomena operate over different time spans and resolutions as a matter of course while methodological time perspectivism concerns the notion that the nature of the data at our disposal, as well as the timescale of observation we choose to view it with, will affect the types of patterns that are possible to detect in the archaeological record. This thesis explores these ideas further. It is a pilot study of southwest Wyoming Late Paleoindian land tenure embedded within an extended critique of Wandsnider (2008). To Wandsnider’s original sample of …

Referencing People And Places: Multivocality And The Materiality Of Memory In Archaeological Landscapes, Jade L. Robison

Anthropology Department: Theses

In the two papers that comprise this thesis, I explore the various intersections of the materiality of memory, the multivocality of particular landscapes, and the memorialization of people and places. In the first paper, I examine how three very different groups of people utilized the Natchitoches Trace, a trail that once extended southwest from St. Louis, Missouri, to Louisiana and Texas. Created by precolumbian groups for trading purposes, the trail was later utilized by early European pioneer families for westward expansion. The 1830 Indian Removal Act forced the repurposing of the trail as a route of exile for displaced Cherokee, …

Life In Lincoln: Deciphering The Archaeological Material Culture Of A Turn Of The 20th Century Neighborhood, Amy Neumann

Anthropology Department: Theses

In June 1999, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) conducted a two-week salvage archaeology project during the early construction phase of the Kauffman Residential Center, an honors dormitory on campus. Nineteen archaeological features were discovered and fourteen were excavated from this historically residential area covering approximately one city block. The excavated archaeological materials include a large number of glass bottles, ceramics, metal artifacts, faunal remains, and personal items dating to the turn of the 20th century.

During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Lincoln, Nebraska experienced substantial population growth. The city thrived on manufacturing and purchasing goods allowing the economy …

Modeling Sound In Ancient Maya Cities: Moving Towards A Synesthetic Experience Using Gis & 3d Simulation, Graham Goodwin

Anthropology Department: Theses

Digital technologies enable modeling of the potential role of sound in past environments. While digital approaches have limitations in objectively rendering reality, they provide an expanded platform that potentially increases our understanding of experience in the past and enhances the investigation of ancient landscapes. Digital technologies enable new experiences in ways that are multi-sensual and move us closer toward reconstructing holistic views of past landscapes. Archaeologists have successfully employed 2D and 3D tools to measure vision and movement within cityscapes. However, built environments are often designed to invoke synesthetic experiences that also include sound and other senses. Geographic Information Systems …