My laboratory at UC Santa Cruz is organized around geospatial analysis, archaeological photogrammetry and 3D modeling, and historic artifact analysis of materials recovered on my field projects. The facility boasts advanced laboratory and field research equipment, including six GIS workstations and peripherals, as well as a full complement of spatial technologies used in field survey.
My lab group is engaged in a variety of projects designed to collect, analyze, and interpret spatial data from a broad range of cultural landscapes past and present. Past and current research projects undertaken by lab associates have examined urbanism and regional settlement practices in precolonial Dahomey, ceramic production and exchange networks in precolonial Dahomey, the nature of settlement defense and agricultural planning in Contact Era New Mexico, economic networks linking precontact settlements in coastal California, predictive modeling of maroon settlements in Haiti, and GIS analysis of historic maps from colonial Saint Domingue (Haiti). Additionally, my lab is currently actively engaged in the analysis of excavated artifactual materials from sites in Haiti and Benin, including 3D modeling diagnostic artifacts using photogrammetry.
Artifact Analyses
More 3D models can be found here:
Lab Group
Marc Joseph
PhD Candidate in Anthropology. Marc’s research uses regional survey and ethnographic methods to understand the heritage landscape of slavey in Northern Haiti during the colonial period.
Camille Louis
PhD Candidate in Anthropology. Camille’s research adopts predictive modeling and settlement survey to explore social networks and political resistance among Maroon communities in Northern Haiti during the colonial era.
Boluwaji Ajayi
PhD student in Anthropology
Bolu’s research examines the regional organization of craft production at Sogunro, Nigeria, a potting and iron producing community founded by Oyo colonists in the 19th century.
Angelo Ayedoun
PhD student in Anthropology
Angelo is a maritime archaeologist. His research examines culture contact in coastal Bénin during the era of the slave trade through the lens of the “seascape”
Eva Middleton
Undergraduate Researcher
Eva is currently conducting a typological analysis of ceramics from my excavations at Cana and Saclo. She is will compare formal types to explore potential differences in the foodways.
Lily Singeman-Aste
Undergraduate Researcher
Lily is currently conducting an analysis of use wear on bottle fragments from my excavations at Cana. She hopes to identify patterns in the reuse of bottles that might reflect unexpected functions, including ritual, in West African bottle glass assemblages.
J. Cameron Monroe 