The goal for many PhD students in archaeology is tenure-track employment. Students primarily receive their training by tenure-track or tenured professors, and they are often tacitly expected—or explicitly encouraged—to follow in the footsteps of their advisor. However, the career trajectories that current and recent PhD students follow may hold little resemblance to the ones experienced by their advisors. To understand these different paths and to provide information for current PhD students considering pursuing a career in academia, we surveyed 438 archaeologists holding tenured or tenure-track positions in the United States. The survey, recorded in 2019, posed a variety of questions regarding the personal experiences of individual professors. The results are binned by the decade in which the respondent graduated. Evident patterns are discussed in terms of change over time. The resulting portraits of academic pathways through the past five decades indicate that although broad commonalities exist in the qualifications of early career academics, there is no singular pathway to obtaining tenure-track employment. We highlight the commonalities revealed in our survey to provide a set of general qualifications that might provide a baseline set of skills and experiences for an archaeologist seeking a tenure-track job in the United States. Doctorantes en arqueología comúnmente anhelan lograr empleo académico con tenencia docente. Los estudiantes de doctorado principalmente reciben formación académica y profesional por parte de profesores que al igual han obtenido o anhelan obtener empleo con tenencia docente. Comúnmente, se espera tácita o explícitamente proseguir en pasos de sus asesores. Sin embargo, la trayectoria profesional de estudiantes doctorales y recién egresados suelen tener poca semejanza a las trayectorias de sus respectivos asesores. Encuestamos 438 arqueólogos en plazas con tenencia docente o con posibilidad de tenencia docente en los Estados Unidos para esclarecer diversas trayectorias profesionales y asesorar actuales doctorantes que contemplan una carrera académica. La encuesta que se llevó a cabo en 2019 plantea una variedad de preguntas acerca de experiencias individuales de los encuestados. Los resultados se agrupan por década en cual se egresó el encuestado. Se discuten los evidentes patrones conforme cambios cronológicos. Los resúmenes de trayectorias profesionales académicas a lo largo de las últimas cinco décadas indican que aunque existen características compartidas en las cualificaciones de los recién egresados académicos profesionales, no existe una ruta singular hacia un empleo con tenencia docente. Resaltamos las características compartidas entre los encuestados para presentar cualificaciones que pueden ser un punto de referencia de las destrezas y experiencias adecuadas para un arqueólogo en busca de tenencia docente en los Estados Unidos.

In this study, we present the results of a comprehensive, landscape-scale remote sensing project at Santa Elena on Parris Island, South Carolina. Substantial occupation at the site extends for over 4000 years and has resulted in a complex array of features dating to different time periods. In addition, there is a 40-year history of archaeological research at the site that includes a large-scale systematic shovel test survey, large block excavations, and scattered test units. Also, modern use of the site included significant alterations to the subsurface deposits. Our goals for this present work are threefold: (1) to explicitly present a logical approach to examine sites with long-term occupations; (2) to examine changes in land use at Santa Elena and its implications for human occupation of this persistent place; and (3) to use the remote sensing program and past archaeological research to make substantive suggestions regarding future research, conservation, and management of the site. Our research provides important insight into the distribution of cultural features at this National Historic Landmark. While the majority of archaeological research at the site has focused on the Spanish period, our work suggests a complex and vast array of archaeological features that can provide insight into over 4000 years of history in the region. At a gross level, we have identified possible Late Archaic structures, Woodland houses and features, Late Prehistoric and early Historic council houses, and a suite of features related to the Spanish occupation which builds on our previous research at the site. In addition to documenting possible cultural features at the site, our work illustrates the value of multiple remote sensing techniques used in conjunction with close-interval shovel test data.

Examples of environmental transformation, the creation of sustainable lifeways, and the development of environmentally aware political forms better our understanding of how peoples build on tradition and environmental circumstance to form novel institutions. Using archaeological data, oral histories, genealogies, radiocarbon dating, and Bayesian modeling, we present a timeline of habitation and land-use patterns on Manihiki and Rakahanga, two remote atolls in East Polynesia. We track socioecological change on the atolls from the time of first colonization ca. AD 1200–1400 through to sustained European contact in the mid-1800s. The findings document and temporally anchor collective action-based processes of landscape transformation, the development of a system of cyclical mass migration aimed at sustainable resource use, and the implementation of a novel dual-chiefdom political system. This demonstrates that new levels of political “complexity” manifest as patterns of shifting hierarchy and novel forms of political and ecological management, and can arise in relation to specific social and ecological challenges in systems of any size. The perpetuation and adaptation of aspects of these traditional institutions can help to maintain the sustainability of populations today in the face of climatic and social change.

Recent archaeological excavations on Rakahanga Atoll, Northern Cook Islands, produced one of the earliest examples of dog (Canis familiaris) remains found on East Polynesian atolls. Direct dating of these and other Pacific Island fauna by AMS is complicated by a number of factors. (1) The animals’ diets may consist of marine and terrestrial protein. (2) Marine 14C is itself a mix of carbon pools with localized offsets that vary over time and space. (3) The region is potentially impacted by inter-hemispheric mixing of atmospheric 14C. Stable isotope analysis of gelatin extracted from dog teeth was used to estimate marine/terrestrial dietary components and paired terrestrial and marine samples were used to constrain local atmospheric and marine carbon offsets. The dates were modeled as a phase in a Bayesian chronological framework using mixed calibration curves. The resulting models confirm the presence of dogs on Rakahanga shortly after the initial colonization of the region and suggest that dogs were among the species that accompanied voyagers as they discovered and settled new islands. These methods can be applied to accurately date any marine-influenced terrestrial vertebrate remains in Remote Oceania.