- EVAN PEACOCK -

North American Environmental Archaeologist
Research Associate
Associate Professor of Anthropology

Vita for Evan Peacock (Word doc.) Email:  peacock@anthro.msstate.edu Phone:  662-325-1663 Fax:  662-325-8690 Address: Cobb Institute of Archaeology P.O. Box AR Mississippi State, MS 39762-5542 Professional Interests My research interests involve long-term human/nature interactions, especially the archaeology of human environmental impact. My current research focuses on landscape change caused by prehistoric farming in the Black Prairie physiographic province of Mississippi and Alabama, as determined from the analysis of land snails from archaeological sites. I am also developing a method for measuring prehistoric human-induced erosion by examining changes in freshwater mussel remains over time. Research Grants in Archaeology Circa 700 year old specimen of Gastrocopta procera from archaeological site near MSU. Specimen is resting on a penny. Artifacts from the Lyon's Bluff Site (clockwise starting with top left): Shell ear ornament, fragment of greenstone axe, incised potsherd, stone drill. Three grants for archaeological research were recently obtained by Dr. Evan Peacock. A grant from the National Science Foundation will be used to obtain habitat data on land snails in the Black Belt physiographic province. Land snails are a common constituent of archaeological deposits at sites in the Southeast and elsewhere, and knowing their habitat requirements allows for environmental reconstruction and estimates of prehistoric human landscape alteration. Many sites in the area around Mississippi State University have yielded thousands of land snails from deposits ranging from 200 - 1000 years in age. Habitat data on these species will be obtained by taking modern grass and leaf litter samples from a number of locales in the Black Belt. Various types of habitat data will be recorded at each locale, including slope, aspect, elevation, vegetation, etc. Soil samples will be taken to document pH and chemical parameters. These data will then be used to interpret the archaeological gastropod assemblages in terms of past environmental conditions and the effects of prehistoric farming, burning, and other activities on the landscape. A grant obtained via the Mississippi State University Research Initiation Program will be used to fund analysis of artifacts from the Lyon’s Bluff site. The site is a large mound and village complex located in northeastern Oktibbeha County, Mississippi. The artifacts, which include pottery, points and other stone artifacts, shell, animal bone, charred plant remains, and other materials were excavated in the 1960s. The data will be used to complement data obtained from the site by excavtion during the 2001 and 2003 field schools. A third grant was awarded by the National Center for Preservation Technology and Training to begin conducting chemical analysis of freshwater mussel shell from archaeological sites across eastern North America. Beginning about A.D. 1000, pottery made by Native Americans commonly contained crushed-up fragments of shell as a tempering agent. Because mussels from different drainages are chemically distinct, the chemical signatures of the shell in pottery theoretically can be used to trace pots to their drainage of origin, leading to a better understanding of prehistoric trade and political relationships. The work is being conducted with the assistance of MSU’s Institute for Clean Energy Technology, using a Laser Ablation-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer obtained via a grant from the National Science Foundation. Two graduate students in Applied Anthropology are being supported by the NCPTT grant. All three of the grants will fund Graduate Research Assistants, who will work under the supervision of Dr. Peacock. Learn more about environmental analysis in the Environmental Archaeology Lab Section, Cobb Institute of Archaeology.

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Last modified Wednesday, 28-Nov-2007 12:33:46 CST.