Emily R. Bartz

Emily R. Bartz has joined the Arkansas Archeological Survey as Station Archeologist at the University of Arkansas Pine Bluff Research Station. Succeeding the work of Dr. Andrew Beaupré, Emily plans to leverage her experience in the study and re-creation of ancestral food practices and cooking technologies to further public interest and participation in archeology and local history within the Pine Bluff station area.

Emily is coming to us from the Laboratory of Southeastern Archaeology at the University of Florida, where she is completing her PhD under the advisement of Dr. Kenneth Sassaman and Dr. Kate Grillo. She earned her bachelor’s degree in anthropology from Grand Valley State University in Michigan in 2016, guided by Dr. Janet Brashler, and later received her master’s degree from Illinois State University under the mentorship of Dr. James M. Skibo. Throughout her academic journey, Emily has gained a broad range of experiences, including certifications in underwater archeology and geographic information systems (GIS), teaching a variety of undergraduate courses, developing archeological field schools, and managing archeology labs in Michigan, Illinois, and Florida.

Emily’s research interests focus on the precontact foodways of eastern North America. Her fascination with this area began as an undergraduate at Grand Valley, where she studied Woodland period (AD 0-1600) subterranean food storage features in west Michigan. She continued to explore food practices and land-use patterns during her master’s studies, investigating subterranean food storage and seasonal settlement patterns on Grand Island, Michigan, in Lake Superior.

Emily’s dissertation research employs organic residue analysis and experimental archeology to shed light on early hunter-gatherer foodways in the North American southeast. Her research examines the impact of increased sedentism and ritualism on Late Archaic, Stallings period (ca. 4500-3800 cal. BP) cuisine. By analyzing Stallings pottery from the middle Savannah River Valley of Georgia and South Carolina, Emily's study marks a pioneering effort to directly evidence the uses of North America's earliest pottery vessels and their functional changes over time. Her hypothesis suggests that the diversification of vessel forms during this transition reflects increased specialization in vessel use, particularly in food processing, as formerly mobile groups became increasingly sedentary and place-based.

In support of her analyses of archeological residues, Emily’s research included controlled experiments in indirect-heat cooking, a mark of Stallings foodways in the middle Savannah River valley, but never before subject to organic residue analyses. Replica fiber-tempered vessels were crafted in the likeness of Early Stallings (ca. 4500 – 4100 cal. BP) flat-bottom basins, used for indirect-heat cooking simulations, and Classic Stallings (ca. 4100 – 3800 cal. BP) hemispherical bowls, used for direct-heat cooking simulations. A range of food resources were processed using these two cooking methods, and samples were submitted for organic residue analysis. The baseline reference data produced in this study enhance the interpretation of changes in foodways registered in archeological organic residues that, when placed into broader contexts, contribute to a growing residue database of hunter-gatherer pottery worldwide.

In her new role at Pine Bluff, Emily will continue her research on precontact foodways of the American southeast. She brings a deep passion for ancient cuisine, cooking practices, land use, and public engagement to Arkansas, hoping to enrich our understanding of these important cultural elements.