Dr. Matthew Purtill
Department of Geology and Environmental Sciences Assistant Professor Matthew Purtill co-authored a multidisciplinary article, "Feasting at a World Center Shrine: Paleoethnobotanical and Micromorphological Investigations of a Woodhenge Earth Oven.”
The article explores archaeological, paleoenvironmental and geological evidence that Native Americans conducted large ritual feasts some 2,000 years ago at the Hopewell Mound Group, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in central Ohio.
Dr. Purtill conducted soil micromorphological analysis to characterize soils and explore the potential that paleobotanical remains were naturally deposited or culturally placed in large earth ovens found at the site.
The article appears in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory; an abstract can be found online.
