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K-State Today

October 18, 2017

Anthropology faculty and students attend regional conference

Submitted by Lauren W. Ritterbush

K-State archaeology faculty and six undergraduate anthropology students recently participated in the 75th annual meeting of the Plains Anthropological Society Oct. 4-7 in Bismarck, North Dakota. 

Brad Logan, research associate professor, presented "An Unquixotic Quest: Excavation of the Quixote Site (14JF420), a Late Woodland Occupation in the Delaware River Drainage, Northeastern Kansas." His presentation summarized fieldwork and initial findings from the June 2017 Kansas Archaeological Training Program, a cooperative endeavor of the Kansas Historical Society, Kansas Anthropological Society, Logan on behalf of Kansas State University and public participants.

Professor Lauren W. Ritterbush and Jakob Hanschu, junior in anthropology and geography, discussed "Researching and Preserving Burial Mounds: An Investigation in the Flint Hills" to update present knowledge gained about prehistoric mortuary features through the 2016 Kansas Archaeological Field School. Twelve K-State anthropology students participated in this research while gaining valuable training in professional archaeological data collection techniques and mortuary site preservation.

Hanschu also presented a poster of undergraduate research titled "Quantifying the Qualitative: Locating Burial Mounds in North-Central Kansas." Through his independent research project, Hanschu used geographic information system software to map locations of recorded prehistoric mortuary features in north-central Kansas, then analyzed their distribution relative to topographic and hydrologic features in order to identify spatial patterns useful for modeling areas of high potential for past burial activities. A pedestrian archaeological survey was used to test the predictive nature of the proposed models. Through identification of these features, protection is enhanced as required under the state of Kansas Unmarked Burial Sites Preservation Act.

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