Illinois State Archaeological Survey - Template, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Home | Champaign | Jacksonville/Macomb | Rockford | Springfield | Wood River | IDOT

Staff Directory

Dr. Alleen Betzenhauser Research Archaeologist BA in Archaeology, magna cum laude,Boston University, 2002 MA in Anthropology, University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, 2006 PhD in Anthropology, University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, 2011 E-mail: betzenha@illinois.edu Phone: (618) 251-3922 Complete Vitae (pdf)

Alleen Betzenhauser served as a crew member, crew chief, and research assistant through the Central Office and the American Bottom Survey Division for nine years before she became a Research Archaeologist and Site Supervisor at the East St. Louis Mound Complex. She has had the opportunity to excavate and supervise Phase II and Phase III investigations at several Late Woodland and Mississippian period sites located throughout the American Bottom region.

Her interest in archaeology began as an undergraduate student at Boston University where she focused on Mayan Archaeology. While there, she developed a strong interest in the complex societies of the New World. After learning about the great Native American metropolis of Cahokia during her senior year, she decided to shift focus to Mississippian archaeology in Illinois. She moved to Champaign to pursue her PhD in Anthropology at the University of Illinois under the guidance of Dr. Timothy Pauketat.

Alleen completed her dissertation titled, “Creating the Cahokian Community: The Power of Place in Early Mississippian Sociopolitical Dynamics,” in 2011. She incorporated geophysical survey, GIS, excavation, and ceramic and lithic analysis to address how local groups within the American Bottom region negotiated and helped contribute to the construction of the Cahokian community and polity at the beginning of the Mississippian period (ca. A.D. 1050)..

General Interest/Area of Focus

Alleen’s interests broadly construed include the archaeology of complex societies in the New World, community construction, and issues of pre-Columbian urbanism and rurality. Methodologically she is interested in the incorporation of geophysical prospection and GIS in archaeological research and Mississippian and Late Woodland ceramic analysis.

 Memberships

• Society for American Archaeology
• Southeastern Archaeological Conference
• Midwest Archaeological Conference
• Illinois Archaeological Survey
• Missouri Archaeological Society

Current Research

Alleen maintains a strong interest in the transitional Terminal Late Woodland–Mississippian period in the American Bottom region as reflected in and mediated by changes in materiality, architecture, and the construction of communities and space. Currently she is directing the analysis of Terminal Late Woodland and Mississippian ceramic materials recovered over the last four years from the East St. Louis Mound Complex. She recently completed several short reports and a more extensive research report concerning ISAS investigations at several Late Woodland and Mississippian period sites in the American Bottom region and southern Illinois.

Positions

2011–present Research Archaeologist, Illinois State Archaeological Survey, American Bottom Field
Station, Wood River, IL. Currently directing the analysis of pre-Columbian ceramic
materials from the East St. Louis Mound Complex, a major Mississippian mound center in
southwestern Illinois.

2003–2011 Archaeological Assistant, Illinois State Archaeological Survey, American Bottom Field
Station, Wood River, IL.

2002–2006 Research and Teaching Assistant, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois,
Urbana.

Awards

2010    Midwest Archaeological Conference Student Paper Competition – 1st Place
2006    Illinois Association for the Advancement of Archaeology Permanent Fund
2001    Alice M. Brennan Humanities Fellowship, Boston University.

Selected Bibliography

2012    The Prehistory of Turkey Hill: Archaeological Investigations along Illinois Route 13/15 (FAP-103)
Belleville to Freeburg, St. Clair County, Illinois. Transportation ArchaeologicalResearch Reports,
Illinois State Archaeological Survey, University of Illinois, Champaign.

2010    Archaeological Testing Short Report for the Crowley Site (11MS2208), Madison County, Illinois.
Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program, Department of Anthropology, University
of Illinois, Urbana.

2008    Washausen Site Investigations. Illinois Antiquity, 43(2):8.

2008    Archaeological Investigations at Site 11J1196 (Halloween Site) for the Southern Illinois Airport
Project. Archaeological Testing Short Report No. 344. Illinois Transportation Archaeological
Research Program atthe University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (with Jennifer Howe)

2008    Archaeological Testing Short Report for the Auburn Sky Site (11MO776), Madison County,
Illinois. Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program, Department of Anthropology,
University of Illinois, Urbana.

2005    The Old Man Site #3 (11MS342): A Lohmann Phase Farmstead.  Illinois Archaeology 14:73-89.

Selected Conference Presentations

Symposium:
2009    Identity and Essence: Pathways to Personhood in the Southeast. Co-organized with Melissa,Baltus and Sarah Otten for the 66th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Archaeology Conference, Mobile, Alabama.

Papers:
2012    (with Timothy Pauketat and Bill Romain) Redesigned Communities of the Early Mississippian
World: From Toltec and Washausen to Obion and Cahokia. Paper presented at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Baton Rouge, LA.

2012    (with Robert Rohe) Construction and Conflagration: Contextualizing the Stirling Phase
Communities of the East St. Louis Mound Complex. Paper presented at the 69th Annual Meeting
of the SoutheasternArchaeological Conference, Baton Rouge, LA.

2012    (with Erin Benson) Terminal Beginnings at the East St. Louis Mound Complex. Paper presented
at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Baton Rouge, LA.

2012    Stirling Phase Architectural Diversity and Landscape Modification at the East Saint Louis Mound
Complex. Paper presented  at the Annual Meeting of the Illinois Archaeological Survey, Urbana,
Illinois.

2010    Don’t Hassle Me, I’m Local: Changing Landscapes of Power in the American Bottom Region. Invited contributor to the symposium “Mobility, Temporality, and Social Memory: Locating Objects and Persons in the Southeast,” organized by Melissa Baltus and Sarah Otten. Presented at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Archaeology Conference, Lexington, Kentucky.

2010    Accessing the Mississippian Transition in the Southern American Bottom through the
Interpretation of a Gradiometric Survey. Presented at the 56th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Archaeological Conference, Bloomington, Indiana. 1st Place Student Paper Competition.

2009    Reevaluating the “Emergent Mississippian” in the American Bottom. Presented at the 55th Annual Meeting of the Midwest Archaeological Conference, Iowa City, Iowa.

2008    (with Thomas Zych) Cahokia's Northern Neighbors: Late Mississippian Rural Settlements in the Northern American Bottom. Presented at the 65th Annual Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Charlotte, North Carolina.

2006    Greater Cahokian Farmsteads: A Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis of Diversity.  Presented at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Little Rock, Arkansas.

Return to top