Archaeology Magazine - September/October 2021 - 66

DISPATCHES
FROM THE AIA
EXCAVATE EDUCATE ADVOCATE
THE AIA SUPPORTS ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH
THROUGH SECOND YEAR OF AIA-NEH GRANTS
An important aspect of the AIA's core mission is supporting
archaeological research. Every year, we award grants and fellowships that
help fund excavations, surveys, post-fieldwork analysis, and publication.
For the last two years, in addition to our regular grants, we have offered
a grant program in collaboration with the National Endowment for
the Humanities (NEH). We are excited to announce the winners of the
second year of the AIA-NEH Grants for Archaeological Research.
The AIA-NEH program awarded a total of 12 grants-eight small
grants of $15,000 or less for post-fieldwork research and publication
preparation and four larger grants of up to $50,000 for archaeological
fieldwork. The winning projects highlight the variety of archaeological
research happening worldwide and demonstrate that archaeology is not
limited to excavation. In addition to doing fieldwork, our grant winners
are studying museum collections and archival materials, conducting
advanced scientific analysis of artifacts, creating photorealistic maps and
3-D models of archaeological sites, and undertaking various other studies.
SMALL GRANTS:
Natalie Abell, University of Michigan, will use charcoal samples
from the sites of Kephala and Ayia Irini to produce a sequence of
dendrochronological and radiocarbon dates for the Neolithic and Bronze
Age periods in the Cyclades that will be used to evaluate changes over
time and identify the types of wood that were used for construction.
Maurizio Forte, Duke University, will continue post-fieldwork study,
online publication, and the creation of a digital 3-D repository for
materials from the site of Vulci in Viterbo, Italy, a pre-Roman city that
was one of the largest on the Italian Peninsula from the tenth century b.c.
to the fifth century a.d.
Sarah A. James, University of Colorado Boulder, will study pottery
collected from the western Argolid in Greece that has not been
documented before. James will also examine archaeological evidence for
local pottery production and interregional connections.
David W. Mixter, Binghamton University, will examine monumental
architecture from the Preclassic period at the site of Actuncan in Belize.
Mixter is interested in how architectural changes over time were influenced
by politically powerful leaders and movements across the region.
Laura Motta, Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, will explore animal
management and herding by analyzing animal remains excavated from the
site of Gabii in Italy. Motta's research will shed light on the relationship
between livestock control and the political economy of early Latin cities.
Philip Sapirstein, University of Toronto, hopes to uncover the origins
of a distinctive Anatolian-style roof discovered discovered on the western
side of the site of Didyma, in Turkey. The roof is the first tangible
evidence for Lydian patronage at the site and Sapirstein's studies should
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clarify whether the roof was manufactured locally or shipped from Lydia.
Jan F. Simek, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, will employ highresolution
photogrammetry to build a photorealistic and highly accurate
3-D model of Picture Cave, an important Native American cave art site
in eastern Missouri that contains almost 300 pictographs dating to around
a.d. 1100. The model will be used to analyze the cave art and produce a
virtual experience of the cave.
Alexia Smith
Alexia Smith, University of
Connecticut, will analyze more than
100 archaeobotanical samples collected
from excavations at a large Akkadian
palace uncovered at the archaeological
site of Tell Leilan in Syria. Smith will
examine Akkadian and post-Akkadian
farming strategies, fuel acquisition and use, and food preparation.
LARGE GRANTS:
Michael Cosmopoulos, University of Missouri-St. Louis, will examine
the formation of Mycenaean states through excavations at the site of
Iklaina in Greece. Cosmopoulos is especially interested in what happened
to local societies before and after they were annexed by the main palaces
and hopes to develop models applicable to the study of state formation
in later periods of Greek history.
Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos, Yale University, will examine the
interaction between the great city of Teotihuacan and the Pacific coast
of Guatemala as seen at the site of Montana, a possible colony of
Teotihuacan migrants on the coastal plain of Escuintla. Mazariegos hopes
to investigate the impact of Teotihuacan's expansion in the region.
Akinwumi Ogundiran, The
University of North Carolina at
Charlotte, will excavate residential
units in the royal necropolis of the
Oyo Empire (1570-1840) in Nigeria
to explore the everyday lives of the
hundreds of priestesses, priests,
Akinwumi Ogundiran
soldiers, workers, and others who were confined there to live out their
lives serving the needs of the deceased but deified kings of the empire.
Cynthia Robin, Northwestern University, will excavate the architectural
complex of a prominent family at the Maya site of Aventura in Belize.
Robin is interested in understanding the city's leadership and the
economic factors that enabled Aventura to survive for more than two
millennia, including through the Terminal Classic period, a time of great
political and environmental turmoil.
Learn more about AIA grants at archaeological.org/grants.
http://www.archaeological.org/grants
Archaeology Magazine - September/October 2021

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