Paula Turkon

I am an archaeologist with research interests in botanical studies and diet in the New World.  I have participated in excavations in Mexico, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and throughout New York State.  I received my M.A. from the University at Buffalo in 1992 and my PhD. from Arizona State University in 2002.  Since then I have been teaching courses in Old and New World Archaeology, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, as well as a course entitled Human Environmental Impacts, which combines archaeological methods, anthropological theory, and modern environmental issues. 

My methodological focus is macrobotanical identification, in which low power magnification is used to identify plant parts encountered during excavation.  These data are used to address my theoretical interests, which are focused on diet and social organization, particularly in complex societies.  Specifically, I am concerned with the social norms, constraints, and environmental limitations that affect people’s choice of food. 

Since 1990 I have been part of a team of archaeologists from Arizona State University excavating primarily at a large site called La Quemada in the Malpaso Valley of Zacatecas, Mexico. Most recently we have expanded our excavations to include two smaller sites, Los Pilarillos (likely the second largest site in the valley where many elite lived) and El Potrerito (a small farming ranch that I excavated to provide a sample of artifacts representative of commoners). For my dissertation, I used data indicative of food preparation and consumption in order to define and identify social groups in a setting where elite status was present, but not expressed with prestige items. Results of this research were recently published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology.

I also have a strong interest in maize, one of the most important foods in the prehistoric New World.  Maize rapidly adapts to both local environmental conditions and to cultural selection, so that variability in maize morphology can provide information on prehistoric environmental conditions as well as on cultural behavior.  My research on maize cupules (the part of the cob that holds the kernel) from the Malpaso Valley demonstrates that different types of maize were used in high status contexts, indicating that access to growing areas or to specific varieties of maize was restricted to elite.  

I have also been involved in archaeology and ethnobotany in the U.S. Southwest.  At the Phoenix Desert Botanical Garden, I presented a series of lectures and workshops in ethnobotany that focused on how desert plants are used by Sonoran Desert natives for food, medicine, building materials, and tools.  As part of these workshops we tasted foods made from these plants, spun and died fibers, made tools, and experimented with different cooking fuels.