Justin N. Carlson

Research Focus

My research has been focused on human and ecosystem responses to the warming and drying trends of the Middle Holocene Climatic Optimum 8000 to 5000 years ago and the role of Archaic hunter-gatherers in creating anthropogenic environments with fire between 5000 and 3000 years ago in Eastern North America. I have utilized geoarchaeological methods derived from soil sciences, including magnetic susceptibility, loss-on-ignition analysis and archaeological micromorphology to study landform histories in relation to climatic change and Native lifeways throughout the Holocene. I was awarded the 2021 Dissertation Prize by the Midwest Archaeological Conference. I am also co-editor of Falls of the Ohio River: Archaeology of Native American Settlement (2021) published with the University of Florida Press.

Teaching Specialties

• Field Archaeology
• Environmental Archaeology