Historical Archaeology at Ball State University

Graduate Study in Historical Archaeology

Department of Anthropology, Ball State University

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Historical Archaeology at Ball State University

Historical archaeology is at an exciting juncture in the early 21st century. Emerging from humble origins in the 1950s and 1960s as a supplementary information source for architectural historians involved in period reconstructions, the discipline became a formal topic of study during its adolescence in the 1970s and 1980s. Since the 1990s, historical archaeology has matured into a hybrid perspective, using a multidisciplinary approach that transcends academic boundaries. Today, historical archaeologists wear many hats--they rely on archaeological techniques, use historical methods, especially thought within social history, and borrow liberally from social theory--all for the purpose of better understanding anthropologically the everyday lives of people that inhabited the recent past.

Historical archaeology conducted in the Department of Anthropology at Ball State University (BSU) is guided by a holistic research design that explores the major cultural-historical trends that have shaped material life in the surrounding Midwest study region since the 1700s. Potential historical archaeology topics that can be pursued through graduate student research for the M.A. degree in anthropology consist of historic Native Americans, the settler period, the development of commercial agriculture, the growth of communities, industry, and the surrounding transportation infrastructure. Graduate students in the department often conduct historical archaeology research through grants, contracts, and in collaboration with research projects conducted by department faculty and staff. The Department of Anthropology at Ball State University emphasizes a four-field approach. Graduate students in the department receive instruction in the main subdisciplines of anthropology and then focus upon a specific topic for thesis research.

Faculty Specializing in Historical Archaeology

Mark Groover (Ph.D., University of Tennessee, 1998; Associate Professor of Anthropology). Historical archaeology of eastern U.S., Southeast, Midwest, 1700s-1950s; archaeological theory, quantitative methods; research designs, regional syntheses, cultural resource management. email: mdgroover@bsu.edu

Faculty in Related Fields

Abel Alves (Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, 1990, Associate Professor of History) colonial Latin America, early modern studies, ethological approaches to history, political theory.

Evelyn Bowers (Ph.D., Pennsylvania, 1983; Associate Professor of Anthropology) biological anthropology, human life cycle, historical demography;

Colleen Boyd (Ph.D., University of Washington, 2001, Assistant Professor of Anthropology) ethnohistory, anthropological theory, Native North America, cross-cultural epistemologies, theory of history, identity, and place.

James Connolly (Associate Professor of History, Director, Center for Middletown Studies) late 19th and early 20th-century, U.S. political; urban and ethnic.

Ronald Hicks (Ph.D., Pennsylvania, 1975; Professor of Anthropology) archaeology, Indiana, Midwest, pioneer settlement, cognitive archaeology, landscape studies, folklore.

Ronald V. Morris (Ph.D., Purdue, 1997; Professor of History) Indiana state and local history, social studies education, American history, creativity, antebellum history, architecture, historic landscapes.

Historical Archaeology Research Design

M.A. Degree Requirements and Suggested Courses

BSU M.A. Theses in Historical Archaeology

2009 Conference Information: 27th Symposium on Ohio Valley Urban and Historic Archaeology

Recent Conferences

News, Events, and Announcements

Mark Groover's BSU Anthropology Courses, Spring 2009

2007 National Road Historical Archaeology Field School: A Web Field Log

Mark Groover's Archaeological Research Projects and Publications

Alpha Chapter of Indiana, Lambda Alpha Honor Society

BSU Department of Anthropology Web Page

Web Links

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"Blessed by Him an Entire Nation"
1814 Napoleonic medallion of Frederick Wilhelm III of Prussia,
recovered from 2004 summer excavations at the Moore-Youse house, Muncie.
Napoleonic medallions were circulated during the 1800s as political commemoratives.

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