Faculty and Staff
For further information, or to arrange for examination of particular collections, contact:
Dr. Neill J. Wallis, Associate Curator in Archaeology
Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611-7800, USA
Tel: 352-273-1920
Fax: 352-392-3698
Email: nwallis@flmnh.ufl.edu
Neill is associate curator of Florida Archaeology and Bioarchaeology at the Florida Museum and affiliate faculty in the Department of Anthropology. He conducts archaeological research in Florida and the Southeast, focusing on the dynamics of pre-Columbian communities and social networks. His active research projects include multi-sited sourcing analyses of Swift Creek, Weeden Island, and Safety Harbor/Fort Walton pottery across northern Florida and southern Georgia, and field investigations at Woodland and Mississippian sites in north-central Florida and the Gulf coast.
Donna L. Ruhl, Collections Manager III/Florida Archaeology and Bioarchaeology
Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611-7800, USA
Tel: 352-273-1928
Fax: 352-392-3698
Email: ruhl@flmnh.ufl.edu
Donna is Florida Archaeology and Bioarchaeology Collections manager and oversees the daily access, use, digitization, rehabilitation and maintenance of these holdings. In addition, her research involves the documentation and analysis of Florida’s ancient dugout canoes, including those exposed in recent years by severe drought. This is a collaborative effort between the Florida Museum and other state and local institutions and the private sector to better inform and chronicle these unique artifacts. She holds a concurrent appointment in Environmental Archaeology as a Research Associate in Archaeobotany where she studies plant remains from southeastern U.S. archaeological sites (e.g., Florida- Useppa Island, Whitebelt I Circle-Ditch, Garden Patch; Georgia- St. Catherines Island shell rings) and more recently the U.S. Virgin Islands (St. Croix).
Dr. Lindsay Bloch, Collections Manager/Ceramic Technology Laboratory
Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611-7800, USA
Tel: 352-273-1924
Fax: 352-392-3698
E-mail: lbloch@floridamuseum.ufl.edu
Lindsay is collections manager for the Ceramic Technology Laboratory and Florida Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Her research focuses on craft production, trade, and exchange in historic and prehistoric contexts, examined through the lens of utilitarian ceramics. She has conducted analyses on collections from the southeastern U.S., Great Britain, and the Caribbean using a variety of methods including LA-ICP-MS and XRF to discover new information about these often visually generic artifacts. Currently, Lindsay is investigating the production of St. Johns pottery across peninsular Florida.
Current Students
C. Trevor Duke (MA Anthropology, 2015, USF, Tampa) is working toward a PhD in Anthropology here at UF. His project focuses on ceramic vessel form, function, and provenance of Deptford through Safety Harbor period pottery from Safford Mound (8Pi3), Pillsbury Mound (8Ma30), and other mound sites along the Florida Gulf Coast. Trevor will be working closely with Dr. Neill Wallis as part of a broad research effort to assess the ways in which the expansion of religious traditions affected social, political, and ceremonial practices during the middle-to-late Woodland Period.
Kristen Hall (BA Anthropology 2013, UF, Gainesville) is working towards an MA in Anthropology here at UF. Her undergraduate thesis (“Reexamining Suwannee Valley Pottery: a Typological and Formal Analysis of Pottery in Feature I at Parnell Mound”) focused on the analysis of Suwannee Valley ceramics. Her MA is a technofunctional analysis of the Cades Pond pottery assemblage from the Melton Site Complex, (8AL5, 8AL7, 8AL169.) (https://florida.academia.edu/KristenHall)
Laura Van Voorhis (MA Anthropology, 2013, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton) is working towards her Ph.D. in Anthropology here at UF. Her focus is on bioarchaeological changes in diet and mobility through time. Currently Laura works not only in the Museum assisting with implementing collections digitization efforts and best practices but she is the lab manager and research assistant in the UF Anthropology Bone Chemistry Lab under the direction of Dr. John Krigbaum. (https://anthro.ufl.edu/laura-van-voorhis/)
Recent Alumni
Mark C. Donop (PhD Anthropology 2017, UF, Gainesville) completed a dissertation focused on the long-lived Palmetto Mound (8LV2) in Levy County and has included a techno-functional analysis and 3D imaging of the pottery in the large and diverse Decatur Pittman Collection donated to the FLMNH in 1916. Donop’s work at the museum has been combined with fieldwork at the site and research at the South Florida Museum in Bradenton.Mark was the recipient of the 2017 Bullen Award for student research at the Florida Museum.(https://florida.academia.edu/MarkDonop).
Zack Gilmore (PhD Anthropology 2014, UF, Gainesville), conducted petrographic analysis of fiber-tempered Orange pottery from the Silver Glen complex (Marion and Lake counties, Florida) and fired clay reference samples from across peninsular Florida for his dissertation project. He is the author of “Gathering at Silver Glen: Community and History in Late Archaic Florida.” Zack is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Rollins College, Winter Park, FL. (http://rollins.academia.edu/ZackaryGilmore)
Erin Harris-Parks (BA/BA Anthropology and Geology 2012, UF, Gainesville), conducted petrographic analysis in the Ceramic Technology Labon Weeden Island pottery from the Palmetto Mound site (8LV2) for her Senior Honor’s Thesis. Erin went on to receive an MS degree in Geosciences from the University of Arizona in 2014 and is currently employed as an exploration geologist in the petroleum industry (https://arizona.academia.edu/ErinHarrisParks).
Charly Lollis (BA Anthropology 2015, UF, Gainesville), conducted an experimental replication study of St. John chalky ware pottery in the lab using wetland muck as temper for her Undergraduate Senior Honor’s Thesis at UF . Charly is now enrolled in the museum studies MA program at George Washington University in Washington, DC. (http://florida.academia.edu/CharlyLollis)
Domenique Sorresso (BA/BA Anthropology and Geology 2016, UF, Gainesville) inventoried Weeden Island effigy vessels reported in the published archaeological literature and at FLMNH collections for her for her Undergraduate Senior Honor’s Thesis at UF. Domenique is currently completing MA research at the University College, London Institute of Archaeology, using ceramic petrography to study indigenous pottery from the Southeastern US. (https://florida.academia.edu/DomeniqueSorresso)
Ann S. Cordell, Courtesy Research Scientist in Ceramic Technology Laboratory
Florida Museum of Natural History
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32611-7800, USA
E-mail: cordell@flmnh.ufl.edu
https://florida.academia.edu/AnnCordell
Ann oversaw the Ceramic Technology lab for more than 30 years, before retiring in 2017. She has studied prehistoric and historic aboriginal pottery from Florida, the southeastern U.S., and the Caribbean, with a specialization in petrographic analysis. In her retirement, she continues to actively conduct research as a courtesy research scientist in the lab.
Jerald T. Milanich, Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Florida- Curator Emeritus in Archaeology
Email: jtm@ufl.edu
Dr. Milanich was Curator of Archaeology at the Florida Museum for over 30 years and an adjunct professor in the Department of Anthropology and Latin American Studies at the University of Florida. Jerry continues to research Florida’s cultural heritage and publish numerous articles and books. He is the recipient of many prestigious state, regional and national awards from both archaeological and historical societies and in 2010 was inducted as a Fellow into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has authored or co-authored over 20 scholarly books on historic and prehistoric Southeastern U.S. indigenous peoples. He has received the Gold Medal Book award twice, in 2011 for Hidden Seminoles: Julian Dimock’s Historic Florida Photographs and in 2013 for Enchantments:Julian Dimock’s Photographs of Southwest Florida.
Affiliated Researchers
John Krigbaum, Ph.D., Anthropology, New York University
John is Associate Professor, Undergraduate Coordinator and Director of the Bone Chemistry Laboratory in the Anthropology Department at the University of Florida. He is an international researcher using new methods in bone chemistry and stable isotope analysis to address past ecological and cultural systems in both the Old and New Worlds. He coordinates paleoanthropological and bioarchaeological research for the Late Pleistocene-Holocene site Niah Cave (Sarawak, Malaysia) and works with archaeologists and paleontologists at the Florida Museum. Currently he and Florida Museum curator, Neill Wallis, are working on a multi-year NSF funded award – Understanding the Development of Hierarchical Social Organization.
Kenneth E. Sassaman, Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Ken is the Hyatt and Cici Brown Professor of Florida Archaeology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Florida. He is the director of the Laboratory of Southeastern Archaeology (LSA) where he and his students undertake research and archaeological field investigations throughout the state. Some current projects and collaborations include continuing work in the Lower Suwannee, Cedar Key National Wildlife Refuges and Salt Springs as well as directing field schools and research in the middle St. Johns River Valley of northeast Florida. He is the editor and author of numerous archaeological publications on Florida and the greater southeastern U.S.
Valerie Burke DeLeon, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University,
Valerie is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology and Director of the C.A. Pound Human Identification Laboratory (CAPHIL) at the University of Florida. Her interests include biological anthropology, morphometrics and comparative osteology. She assists the Museum with its bioarchaeological holdings. Current primate research has been published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology; Journal of Forensic Science and The Anatomical Record. In addition, the DeLeon Lab uses 3D virtual morphology as a means to research primate anatomical variation.
Collaborators
Keith Ashley, Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Florida
Keith is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. His research focuses on the archaeology of northeastern Florida and adjacent regions during the Woodland through early post-European contact periods. His approach is historical and multi-scalar, exploring social relations and interactions at local, regional, and macro-regional levels.
George D. Kamenov, Ph.D., Geology, University of Florida
George is a Senior Associate in Geological Sciences at the University of Florida. He manages the ICP-MS laboratory at the Geological Sciences Department. He uses the elemental and isotope information recorded in environmental samples to decipher their age, origin, and migratory pathways. In Florida he has worked on trace elemental and isotope analyses of peat and lake sediments, REE analyses of fossil bones, and in-situ laser ablation ICP-MS analyses of pottery. In addition, George has done a number of studies using Sr and Pb isotopes for tracing ancient human migration and modern cold cases. Currently he is working on multiple projects with Florida Archaeology curators and collections managers.
Paulette S. McFadden, Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Florida
Paulette completed her Ph.D. at UF and was a postdoctoral associate at the Florida Museum studying coastal evolution and sea-level changes and their effects, as manifested in the archaeological record. Currently she is the Law Enforcement Coordinator for the Florida Bureau of Archaeological Research, training and assisting local and state agencies on enforcing and protecting archaeological resources. Paulette continues her geoarchaeological research on coastal paleoenvironmental dynamics working in collaboration with Wallis and others at the Garden Patch site, a pre-Columbian village complex and mound center in Horseshoe Cove on the northern Gulf Coast of Florida.
Thomas J. Pluckhahn, Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Georgia
Tom is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of South Florida. He has published several books and articles relating to archaeological research in the Southeast and Mesoamerica. Among his active research projects is a comprehensive study of the Crystal River site in west-central Florida. With support from the National Science Foundation, Pluckhahn has collaborated with Wallis and other Museum staff to create an open access database for Swift Creek Complicated Stamped ceramics using pottery from the Museum’s northern Florida holdings along with others from southern Georgia sites. In addition, he and his students are initiating new research on the Weeden Island and Safety Harbor sites in south Florida using Museum legacy collections as a basis for establishing site chronologies.
Asa Randall, Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Florida
Asa is an Assistant Professor at the University of Oklahoma in the Department of Anthropology. Research projects include Archaic (10,000-3000 years ago) communities of the Southeastern United States; hunter-gatherer complexity, mobility, and exchange; monumentality and social history; and paleohydrology and social changes. In Florida his field research focuses on documenting the history of Archaic (7300-3000 years ago) shell mounds. He is also developing a regional geodatabase of Archaic mounds using historic observations, excavation results and contemporary geospatial data. A recent publication, New Histories of Pre-Columbian Florida was co-edited with Museum curator, Neill Wallis.
Martha Cade
Martha is a long-time volunteer who in 2009 was recognized as the Museum’s Volunteer of the Year in research and collections. She began as a curatorial assistant and currently assists with the ethnographic collections, Registrar’s Office, and Florida Archaeology programs. She assists with numerous document needs from detailed condition reports to inventorying as well as collections needs ranging from outreach programs to care and packaging of artifacts for loans.
Janet Cornelius
Janet is a long-time volunteer working diligently with both the Archaeology and Ethnography holdings assisting us with whatever task needs to be accomplished. In 2012, the Museum nominated and awarded her with the esteemed James Pope Cheney Volunteer of the Year Award. This active volunteer assists at many levels working with records management to outreach initiatives.
Neza Xiuhtecutli
Neza is a volunteer working in Florida Archaeology and Environmental Archaeology. He assists with the rehabilitation of archaeological collections, upgrading our various holdings from sites in Florida and Georgia whether ceramic sherds or faunal remains from a shell midden. He holds a Master’s in Anthropology from Tulane University and is currently working towards his Ph.D.