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While a student at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London I was awarded two Masters degrees in Archaeology and Field and Analytical Techniques in Archaeology. As part of the requirements for the master’s degree in Archaeology, I completed a master’s thesis titled New Approaches to Understanding Cultural Continuity in the Great Plains under the advisement of Stephen Shennan. This thesis explored the influence of linguistic and ecological factors on the cultural diversity of Great Plains tribes based upon ethnographic data. In addition, a cladistic analysis of housing structures was performed with the goal of investigating the cultural similarities and differences between tribes with shared historical lineages.
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As part of the requirement for a master’s degree in Field and Analytical Techniques in Archaeology, I completed a thesis under the advisement of Clive Orton that examined the utility of geostatistics (kriging) and spatial interpolation within the constraints of contract archaeological research. In particular, spatial interpolation was applied to archaeological test pit data derived from the State Trunk Highway 15 Hortonville Bypass project conducted by the Museum Archaeology Project of the Wisconsin Historical Society. Results of this research indicate that archaeological prediction maps based upon geostatistical analysis can provide accurate insights concerning the archaeological potential of non-surveyed areas.
