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Publications and More

Historic homestead surrounded by stinging nettle in the ghost town of Electric, MT—representing the intersection of archaeology, cultural resource management, and overlooked environmental data. Beside the master's thesis 'The Sylvan Blindspot,' which examines the archaeological significance of surface vegetation and critiques documentation biases in heritage preservation.

2018

Master's Thesis

Surface vegetation at archaeological sites is a resource overlooked in cultural resource management. Drawing upon comparative documentary surveys of site forms and human surveys of 161 archaeologists in 12 U.S. states, this thesis explores

  • why surface vegetation offers archaeological data potential

  • how archaeological documentation is an artifact of archaeologists, shaped by various subjectivities

  • how improvements can be made for vegetal description in cultural inventory site forms.

The surveys offer a critique on how the site form records are a product of disciplinary training oversights, differing work background experience, cultural bias, limitations in botanical knowledge, regional differences in U.S. archaeological practice, ocularcentrism, a lack of thorough discussion of the nature of what constitutes vegetal anthropogenism, and thus what constitutes relevance to archaeological study.

By presenting the reader with an introduction to phytoarchaeology, solutions to documenting site vegetation, and an awareness of the need to understand documentary subjectivities, this study takes steps toward improving what the archaeologist can learn about the human past through anthropogenic surface vegetation and the implications of how archaeological documentation as an artifact of archaeologists.

The Sylvan Blindspot: The Archaeological Value of Surface Vegetation and a Critique of its Documentation

Elegant Orange Wall Lichen encrusting a marble headstone—illustrating overlooked botanical data in archaeology and the untapped research potential of surface vegetation. Beside the 2018 conference paper 'Applications of Vegetation in Archaeology,' which explores behavioral archaeology, historical ecology, case studies, and archaeologists’ perceptions of site vegetation documentation. Relevant to Archaeological site vegetation, behavioral archaeology, historical ecology, environmental archaeology, phytoarchaeology, cultural landscape studies, anthropogenic vegetation, site documentation critique, heritage preservation, archaeological survey methods, identity in archaeology, belief systems and archaeology, landscape analysis, lichenometry, trade routes and vegetation records, ecofactual research potential, expanding archaeological documentation methods.

2018

Conference paper

Applications of Vegetation In Archaeology

Unbeknownst to many archaeologists, a diversity of uses of the surface vegetation section of site forms exists. Drawing from behavioral archaeology, historical ecology, case studies, and relating the findings from a national survey of archaeologists’ methods and perceptions towards documenting site vegetation, this presentation raises awareness of the breadth of possibilities of what archaeologists could do with their descriptions of site vegetation. Through expanding the archaeologist’s imagination of the research potential of vegetation, greater attention could be given to it and thus produce records of research value regarding its overlooked use regarding the subjects of identity, belief, place, landscape, and trade.

Abandoned old dirt road with ruderals colonizing it—symbolizing ecological succession, anthropogenic landscape transformation, and the overlooked archaeological value of surface vegetation. Beside the 2017 conference paper 'Leafy Legacies,' which critiques archaeological documentation practices and explores vegetation as an ecofactual resource. Relevant to Archaeological site vegetation, ecofactual analysis, historical ecology, environmental archaeology, phytoarchaeology, cultural landscape studies, anthropogenic vegetation, site documentation critique, heritage preservation, archaeological survey methods, ruderal plant succession, abandoned landscape research, vegetation as archaeological data, landscape archaeology, environmental change in archaeology, site form documentation improvements.

2017

Conference paper

Leafy Legacies: The Ecofactual Value of Surface Vegetation and a Critique of its Documentation

This landscape archaeology-oriented presentation concerns on-going thesis research that seeks to change the way archaeologists perform site surveys, as the prevailing method of recording site surface vegetation is of little research value. This presentation seeks to draw attention to the under-appreciated value of surface vegetation at sites as ecofacts, offering a critique of how it is presently documented on site forms, and suggesting some procedural solutions to increase their usefulness to the researcher.

Poster on Anthropogenic Vegetation Classification—illustrating various ways surface vegetation is influenced by human activity. Designed as a printable learning tool for recognizing and describing anthropogenic plant modifications in the Anthropocene, where nearly all ecosystems bear signs of human impact. Relevant to Anthropogenic vegetation classification, human-modified ecosystems, vegetation documentation in archaeology, environmental archaeology, phytoarchaeology, cultural landscape studies, botanical heritage research, plant ecology in heritage studies, human impact on surface vegetation, archaeological survey vegetation methods, Anthropocene environmental studies, vegetation anthropogenism, heritage conservation, ecosystem transformation.

2018

Anthropogenic Vegetation Classification

A printable poster for learning to describe and recognize different manners surface vegetation can be anthropogenic in nature. In the Anthropocene where pretty much everything has been affected by human beings, the real question is how something is modified by humans and this poster helps illustrate this idea.

Poster

Holding Books

Heritage and the Existential Need for History

This book review for Historical Archaeology, concerns the question of why do people compulsively collect, reexperience, inscribe, amend, and recall the past? What does the past do for us in a straightforward and philosophical sense? To answer these questions, Maud Webster transports the reader across the various borders of heritage studies to observe the beauty in the intricacies of why humans must weave themselves a past and how essential it is to orient ourselves in the present.

2022

Book Review

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