Student Paper Competition Winners

2023
  • Jordan Schaefer (1st place), University of Tennessee, Knoxville, A Phenomenological Study of 12th Unnamed Cave, a Dark-Zone Cave Art Site, through 3D Photogrammetric Modeling and Archaeoacoustics
    • Lia Kitteringham (runner up), Colorado State University, Birds, Enclosures, and Indigenous Landscapes: Creating the Eastern Precinct of Pinson Mounds
    2022
    • Patrick Druggan (1st place), Pennsylvania State University, New Estimates of the Timing and Tempo of Population Change at Cahokia
      • Mikayla Absher (runner up), Tulane University, Experiencing Poverty Point: Intersections of Land, Water, and Sky
      2021
      • C. Trevor Duke (1st place), University of Florida, Tempered Subjects: Ritual Potting as Efficacious Action in Pre-Columbian Tampa Bay
        • Seth Grooms (runner up), Washington University, St. Louis, Building Chronologies and Discovering History at the Jaketown Site, a Poverty Point-affiliated Mound Site in West-central Mississippi
        2019
        • Robert Barlow (1st place), University of Wyoming, Paleoindian and Early Archaic Response to the Younger Dryas in North Alabama: An Analysis of Variability in Resharpening of Hafted Bifaces
          • Seth Grooms (runner up), Washington University, St. Louis, Mound Building at the Jaketown Site: Sacred Ballast on a Volatile Landscape
          2018
          • Brandon T. Ritchison (1st place), University of Georgia, The Downstream Effects of Abandonment: Settlement and Organization at the Kenan Field Site
            • Jeffrey Alvey (runner up), University of Missouri, Columbia, Exploring the Relationship between Maize Agriculture and Population Growth in the Central and Lower Mississippi River Valley
            2017
            • Diana Simpson (1st place), The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Synthesizing Care and Violence during the Archaic Period in North Alabama
              • Shawn Lambert (runner up), University of Oklahoma, A Provenance and Stylistic Study of Formative Caddo Vessels: Implications for Specialized Ritual Craft Production and Long-Distance Exchange
              2016
              • Mallory A. Melton (1st place), University of California – Santa Barbara, A Precautionary Tale: European Encounters, Uncertainty, and Food Security in the Seventeenth-Century North Carolina Piedmont
                • Rachel V. Briggs (runner up), University of Alabama, Communities of Practice of the Hominy Foodway during Early Moundville
                2015
                • Jacob Lulewicz (1st place), University of Georgia, A Bayesian Radiocarbon Chronology for Northwestern Georgia, A.D. 700-1400
                • Brandon T. Ritchison (runner up), University of Georgia, Evaluating Population Movement using State Site File Data: Understanding the Irene Phase Transition on the Georgia Coast
                2014
                • Meghan E. Buchanan (1st place), Indiana University, Bloomington, Making Pots, Making War: Mississippian Plate Iconography in the Midcontinent
                • John R. Samuelsen (runner up), University of Arkansas, A Reanalysis of Strontium Isotopes from the Crenshaw Site: Implications on Caddo Interregional Warfare
                2013
                • Megan Kassabaum (1st place), University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, First, We Eat: Conceptualizing Feasting at Feltus
                • Zackary I. Gilmore (runner up), University of Florida, Pottery's Place in the Gathering Histories of Florida's Late Archaic Monuments
                2012
                • Dana Bardolph (1st place), University of California, Santa Barbara, Culinary Encounters and Cahokian Contact: Food Preparation, Serving, and Storage in the Central Illinois River Valley
                • Alice Wright (runner up), University of Michigan, From Mountains to Mounds: Assessing the Routes of Middle Woodland Mica Transport
                2011
                • Erik S. Porth (1st place), University of Alabama, Raised Ground, Razed Structure: Ceramic Chronology, Occupation, and Chiefly Authority on Mound P at Moundville
                • Erin Phillips (runner up), University of Alabama, Moundville Shell Gorgets
                2010
                • Logan Kistler (1st place), Penn State University, Ancient DNA Confirms a Local Origin of Domesticated Chenopod in Eastern North America
                • Lauren McMillan (runner up), University of Tennessee, Put This in Your Pipe and Smoke it: An Evaluation of Pipe Stem Dating Methods
                2009
                • Lee Arco (1st place), Washington University, St. Louis, Geoarchaeology of the Buried Poverty Point Landscape at Jaketown
                • John Samuelsen (runner up), University of Arkansas, Archaeogeophysical Investigations of Early Caddo Settlement Patterning at the Crenshaw Site (3MI6)
                2008
                • Jeremy Davis (1st place), University of Alabama, Crafting in the Countryside: A Comparison of Three Late Prehistoric Nonmound Sites in the Black Warrior River Valley
                • Chris Moore (runner up), University of Kentucky, A Macroscopic Investigation of Technological Style and the Production of Middle to Late Archaic Fishhooks at the Chiggerville, Read, and Baker Sites, Western Kentucky
                2007
                • Glenn Strickland (1st place), University of Mississippi, The Archaeological Unifying Constant: Interpretations of a Late Mississippian Mound Group through Digital Spatial Modeling
                • Clete Rooney (runner up),University of Florida, Beyond Kingsley: Reconcepualizing the Archaeology and Anthropology of Fort George Island, Florida
                2006
                • Mary Beth Fitts (1st place), University of North Carolina, St. Louis, People of the River, People of the Trail: Mapping Catawba Coalesence
                • Adam Schieffer (runner up), University of South Florida, What's Cookin'? European Influence on Cherokee Subsistence at Coweeta Creek during the Qualla Phase (A.D. 1300-1908)
                2005
                • Lance Greene, University of North Carolina, Race, Class, and Material Culture in Antebellum North Carolina
                2004
                • Victor Thompson, University of Kentucky, The Formation and Function of Shell Rings: A Case Study from Sapelo Island
                2003
                • John Marcoux, University of North Carolina, The Materialization of Status and Social Structure at the Kogers Island Cemetery, Alabama
                2002
                • Jennifer Myer, University of Alabama, Among the fields: Mississippian settlement patterns in the Black Warrior Valley
                2001
                • Ashley Dumas, University of Alabama, Plotting the Past: A Study in Archaeological Method at the Original Tabasco Factory, Avery Island, Louisiana
                2000
                • Greg Wilson, University of North Carolina, Small Celt, Big Celt, Old Celt, New Celt: The Moundville Greenstone Industry in the Black Warrior Valley, Alabama
                1999
                • Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman, University of Georgia, Vertebrate Subsistence in the Mississippian-Historic Period Transition
                1998
                • Keith Little, University of Alabama, The Emergence of Etowah: A Prehistoric Polity which Occupied Portions of the Valley and Ridge and Piedmont in Northwest Georgia and Northeast Alabama
                1997
                • Amber VanDerwarker, University of North Carolina, Feasting and the Formulation of Food Use at the Toqua Site
                1996
                • Jason McBrayer, Tulane University, Elite Polygyny in Southeastern Chiefdoms
                1995
                • Sissel Schroeder, Pennsylvania State University, Ancient Landscapes and Sociopolitical Change in the Southern American Bottom, Illinois
                1994
                • Mary Beth Trubitt, Northwestern University, The Formation of House Floor and Fill Assemblages in the Mississippian American Bottom, Illinois
                1993
                • Patrick Jones, Tulane University, Lake of the Taensa: A Report on a Recent Survey of Lake St Joseph, Louisiana
                1992
                • Amy Lambeck Young, University of Tennessee, An Analysis of Nails from the Gibbs House Site