Undergraduate Research & Scholarships

GeorgeAnn DeAntoni Humanities and Social Science

Charcoal Identification as Means of Central California Landscape Reconstruction

Paleoethnobotany is an archaeological research method which allows plant remains surviving from the archaeological past to be studied and identified. In doing so, researchers can analyze plants that were used by Native peoples and deposited in sites pre-European colonization. Utilizing this methodology, past landscapes can be reconstructed as means to determine how Native peoples interacted with their surroundings, as well as to hypothesize about landscape change over time. Using paleoethnobotanical methods, I will systematically study recovered charred wood remains from a prehistoric, Central California archaeological site and create a charcoal reference collection for the area. This project will allow me to identify the representative taxa (populations of organisms) of the site with the intent that these plants may be restored to the region in the future. By completing this project, it is my hope that a better understanding of human interactions with the pre-Contact Bay Area landscape can be reached.

Message To Sponsor

I feel honored to have been selected as a SURF Fellow during the summer of 2014. While I had been considering working on an Honors Thesis for quite some time, I had come to the conclusion that this was an impossibility as I could not pursue in-depth research while balancing a job to cover my expenses. With the assistance of the SURF Program and the JSB Fund, I am now able to dedicate this summer to research full-time. Thank you so much to all of the generous donors, staff, and mentors who have made this opportunity possible for me, I am grateful beyond words.