Dr. Joseph Gingerich
The Geography Department Colloquium Series presents Dr. Joseph Gingerich on “Ice Age Travelers of Virginia” on Friday, March 3, from 3:05 to 4 p.m. in Clippinger 119.
Gingerich earned a Ph.D. at the University of Wyoming. He is an Assistant Professor in the Sociology & Anthropology Department at Ohio University. He is also a National Geographic Explorer, and a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution. His research interests include Stone tool technology, hunter-gatherers, experimental archaeology, spatial analysis, human-environmental interactions, and geoarchaeology. He has conducted fieldwork in the Southwest, High Plains, and in the Middle Atlantic Region of the United States. Internationally he has worked in France and Japan. His research is funded by the National Geographic Society and the National Science Foundation.
Abstract: In a narrow river valley in the southwestern piedmont of Virginia, archaeologists have found evidence of some of the earliest inhabitants of eastern North America. Archaeological deposits dating back to at least 13,000 years ago show the repeated movement of hunter-gatherer populations throughout the Roanoke River Valley during the last ice age. In studying these populations, we not only see continuity in landscape use over time but fluctuations in population density that may relate to climate change and the development of smaller geographic settlement territories over time.
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