Inaugural Grants for ASNJ Sean Bratton Memorial Research Fund Awarded to Outstanding Archaeologists and Temple Graduate Students Jennifer Rankin and Susan Bachor
The newly established Sean Bratton Memorial Research Fund celebrates the life and contributions of outstanding field archaeologist and mentor Sean Bratton by supporting the work of rising young archaeologists and scholars working on New Jersey topics. Two $400.00 research grants/scholarships are being awarded to Jen and Sue to support their original research as described below. We hope to see their work presented at an upcoming meeting and in the bulletin.
The grants will be awarded yearly on a competitive basis to ASNJ members. Grant applications for 2017 consisting are due prior to the May meeting (see page 3 for details). We thank the fund’s generous donors including Lauren Cook, Paul and Sallie George, Tara and Ryan Erdreich, Ilene and Ed Bailey, Mike and Allison Gall, Jesse and Stephanie Walker, Philip Hayden, Jennifer Leynes, and a very generous anonymous donor. Your donations help to keep this fund alive and well for yearly grants to incredible archaeologists like Jen and Sue. The grant committee consists of ASNJ board members, Sean’s friends, and other interested folks. If you would like to participate, contact Ilene (ilenebailey36@gmail.com)
Susan Bachor is a graduate student at Temple University focusing on pre-contact archaeology of the Middle Atlantic. She currently works as the Historic Preservation Representative on the East Coast for the Delaware Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma and she also teaches at two community colleges in Pennsylvania. Her dissertation research focuses on the procurement of steatite in the Delaware and Susquehanna Watersheds between 3000 BC and 750 BC. Steatite is only found in specific areas within the study area but is traded throughout both watersheds.
Susan’s research will specifically look at how steatite is moving across the landscape and how that data sheds light on the trading patterns in the Middle Atlantic Region during the period mentioned above. The Hoffman site (28GL228), seated at the confluence of two waterways, has an abundance of steatite artifacts that are being chemically examined for their source locations. The location of this site and the amount of steatite found points to the Hoffman Site a prime location for the exchange of goods and information in the Delaware Watershed.
Jen Rankin’s research in Paleoindian archaeology involves the Snyder Site Complex, several stratified, multicomponent localities at Carpentersville, New Jersey situated on a series of terraces adjacent to the Delaware River. The location of the Snyder Complex links the Delaware Valley and Middle Atlantic region with Paleoindian territories to the greater Northeast. Her dissertation focuses on the habitual use and reuse of landscapes at the end of the Pleistocene to assess shifts in land use and settlement behavior within of the context of climatic change and the changing flora and fauna, leading to the adaptation to new physical environments/changing conditions. This research also evaluates the role of such site clusters and complexes as potential social gathering loci where exchanges of information, trade, and socializing could take place. Jen Rankin is a PhD student at Temple University in Philadelphia and Senior Archaeologist with AECOM in Burlington, NJ/Pittsburgh, PA.