Dr. Nora A. Reber

University of North Carolina Wilmington

Anthropology

(910) 962-7734

Email: rebere@uncw.edu

 

Education

Harvard University

Ph. D., 2001 Maize Detection in Absorbed Pottery Residues:  Development and Application

A.M., 2001

Beloit College, Bachelor’s of Science (Archaeology and Chemistry), 1995

 

Appointments

University of North Carolina at Wilmington

        Department Chair, Anthropology, 2010-present

Associate Professor, 2008-present

Assistant Professor, 2003-2008

Lecturer, 2001-3

Harvard University, Assistant Head Teaching Fellow, 1998

Cahokia Palisade Project, Field School Supervisor, 1998-9

Harvard University Teaching Fellow, 1998-9

 

Current Research Interests

The rise of complexity in the American Bottom

Analysis of absorbed and visible archaeological residues through gas chromatography/mass spectrometry

Identification of maize and the Black Drink in residues

Form/function relationships in pottery

The application of irrationality theory and behavioral economics to archaeology

Light stable isotope analysis

 

RESEARCH

 

Peer-Reviewed Publications

 

In press  Reber, Eleanora A.  Applications of  Gas Chromatography (GC-MS) in Encyclopedia of World Archaeology, edited by Christian Wells.

 

Reber, Eleanora A., Cunningham, Sarah L. In Hanneke Hoeffman-Sites and Maria Raviele (Ed.), Absorbed Residue Analysis from the George Reeves site (11S650), an Emergent Mississippian blufftop settlement. Boulder, Colorado: University of Colorado Press.

 

2010        Reber, Eleanora A., Blitz, John H., Thompson, Claire E. Direct Determination of the contents of a ceramic bottle from the Moundville site, Alabama. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, 35(1): 37-56.

 

2008      Reber, Eleanora A. and John Hart.  “Pine resins and pottery sealing:  analysis of absorbed and visible pottery residues from central New York state,” in Archaeometry 50(6): 999-1017.

 

Hart, John P, Eleanora A. Reber, Robert G. Thompson, and Robert Lusteck.  “Taking variation seriously:  Testing the steatite mast-processing hypothesis with microbotanical data from the Hunter’s Home site, New York,” in American Antiquity 73(4): 729-741.

 

Reber, Eleanora A. and John Hart.  “Visible clues: The analysis of visible pottery residues from New York state with Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry,” in Current Northeast Paleoethnobotany II, edited by John P. Hart.  New York State Museum Bulletin 512.

 

2007            Reber, Eleanora A.  “Analysis of botanical remains:  organic residue analysis,” in Encyclopedia of Archaeology, edited by Deborah M. Pearsall. 

 

Reber, Eleanora A.  “The well-tempered pottery analysis:  residue and typological analysis of potsherds from the Lower Mississippi Valley,” in Theory and Practice of Archaeological Residue Analysis, edited by H. Barnard and J. Eerkens, BAR International Series 1650:  148-160.

 

2006    Reber, Eleanora A. and Richard P. Evershed.  “Ancient  Vegetarians?  Absorbed pottery residue analysis of diet in the Late Woodland and Emergent Mississippian periods of the Mississippi Valley” in Southeastern Archaeology 25(1): 111-120.

 

Reber, Eleanora A.  “A Hard Row to Hoe: Changing Maize Use in the American Bottom and Surrounding Areas,” in Histories of Maize:  Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Prehistory, Biogeography, Domestication, and Evolution of Maize, edited by John Staller, Robert Tykot, and Bruce Benz, pp. 235-248. 

 

2004  Reber, Eleanora A., Stephanie N. Dudd, Nikolaas J. van der Merwe, and Richard P. Evershed.  “Direct detection of maize processing in archaeological pottery through compound-specific stable isotope analysis of n-dotriacontanol in absorbed organic residues” in Antiquity 78(301): 682-691. 

 

Reber, Eleanora A. and Richard P. Evershed.  “Identification of maize in absorbed organic residues: a cautionary tale” in Journal of Archaeological Science, 31(4): 399-410.

 

Reber, Eleanora A. and Richard P. Evershed.  “How did Mississippians prepare maize?  The application of compound specific carbon isotopic measurements to absorbed pottery residues from several Mississippi Valley sites,” in Archaeometry 46(1): 19-33. 

 

1998  Galloy, Joseph M., Ronald L. Sanders, Brant Vollman, James Fitzsimmons, Eleanora A. Reber, Kathryn E. Parker, Eve Hargrave and Kristin Hedman. “Summary Report on 1995 Excavations at the Barton Site (23SL69), St. Louis County, Missouri,” in Missouri Archaeologist 59: 99-124.

 

 

Reports

 

2010    Reber, Eleanora A., Huie, Patience  Absorbed Residue Analysis of 22 Pottery Sherds from PO-29, Ponce, Puerto Rico (vol. 16, pp. 38). Wilmington, NC: UNCW Anthropological Papers.

 

Reber, Eleanora A. Preliminary Study of Absorbed Residues from Angel Mounds (vol. 14, pp. 33). UNC Wilmington Anthropological Series.

 

Reber, Eleanora A. Absorbed and Visible Lipid Residue Analysis of 6 sherds from the El Chorro de Maíta site, Holguín, Cuba (vol. 15, pp. 31). Wilmington, NC: UNCW Anthropological Papers.

 

2009      Reber, Eleanora A.  “Testing Variation: Visible Residue Analysis from Seven Northeastern Pots” a report submitted to the New York State Museum and the Universite de Montreal.  UNCW Anthropological Papers 13, Papers of the UNCW Archaeology Residue Lab 8.

 

              Reber, Eleanora A.  “Absorbed residues from a Chronological Series of Pottery from South Carolina” a report submitted to S & ME, Inc.  UNCW Anthropological Papers 12, UNCW Archaeology Residue Lab, 7.

 

              Reber, Eleanora A. “Absorbed and Visible Residues from Site 11 PI1771, Pike County, Illinois” a report submitted to the URS Corporation.  UNCW Anthropological Papers 11, Papers of the UNCW Archaeology Residue Lab 6.

 

              Reber, Eleanora A.  “Colonoware Residues from the Dean Hall Site” a report submitted to Brockington and Associates.  UNCW Anthropological Papers 9, Papers of the UNCW Archaeology Residue Lab 5.

 

2008      Reber, Eleanora A.  “Fishing for Residues:  Absorbed Pottery Residue Analysis of Thirty-Seven Sherds from North Carolina” a report submitted to New South Associates.  UNCW Anthropological Papers 8, Papers of the UNCW Archaeology Residue Lab 4.

 

2006      Reber, Eleanora A. “Just Scraping the Surface:  Visible Pottery Residue Analysis of Thirty-Four Samples from Central New York State” a report submitted to the New York State Museum.  UNCW Anthropological Papers 5, Papers of the UNCW Archaeological Residue Lab 3.

 

2005  Reber, Eleanora A. “Pining for Maize:  Absorbed Pottery Residue Analysis of Twelve Sherds from Upstate New York” a report submitted to the New York State Museum.  UNCW Anthropological Papers 4, Papers of the UNCW Archaeological Residue Lab 2.

 

2003         Reber, Eleanora A.  “The Fragrant Blob:  possible origins of a fragrant essence extracted from a pumice fragment at the site of Cumae/Isis” a report submitted to Nancy Pinto-Orton, of the University of Pennsylvania Museum, UNCW Anthropological Papers 3, Papers of the UNCW Archaeological Residue Lab 1.

 

2001         Reber, Eleanora A. “Report on a preliminary project on the identification of maize in absorbed pottery residues from sites throughout the New World,” in Archaeological Data Recovery Excavations and Monitoring New Jersey Route 29, City of Trenton, Mercer County, New Jersey, Volume V:  Supplementary Technical Materials.  Hunter Research, Inc.

 

1997         Fitzsimmons, James and Eleanora A. Reber.  “Faunal remains analysis,” Appendix E in Late Prehistoric Life Along the Missouri River I:  The Barton Site (23SL60), edited by Joseph M. Galloy.  Hanson Engineers Inc.

 

Selection of Presentations Given

 

2011        Reber, Eleanora A., and Matthew T. Kerr 2011 Diagenesis and Soil-Sherd Interactions in Experimentally Produced Black Drink Residues. Paper presented at the 76th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Sacramento, CA.

 

2010        Baumann, T. E. (Presenter & Author), Gerke, T. L., Marshall, J., Reber, E. A., Cahokia Conference 2010, "The Manufacture and Use of Negative Painted Pottery at the Angel Site," Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site, Cahokia Mounds, Collinsville, IL.

 

Reber, E. A., Society for American Archaeology Annual meeting, "Absorbed Residue Analysis from the George Reeves site (11S650), an Emergent Mississippian blufftop settlement," Society for American Archaeology, St. Louis, MO.

 

2008        Reber, E. A., Southeastern Archaeological Conference 65th Annual Meeting, "Nuts to Us! Detecting Nut Processing through Absorbed Residue Analysis," Southeastern Archaeological Conference, Charlotte, NC. (November 13, 2008).

 

“Nuts to Us! Detecting Nut Processing through Absorbed Residue Analysis,” by Eleanora A. Reber, a paper presented at the Southeastern Archaeological Conference in Charlotte, NC.

 

2007  “A North American Southeast Native Source of Caffeine: Ilex vomitoria and the ‘Black Drink,’” an invited presentation and paper by Eleanora A. Reber at the Eastern Analytical Symposium and Exposition, Somerset, NJ.

 

2005  “The Well-Tempered Pottery Analysis:  Residue and Typological analysis of potsherds from the Lower Mississippi Valley,” by Eleanora A. Reber in The Theory and Practice of Archaeological Residue Analysis, a symposium at the Society for American Archeology Meetings, Salt Lake City.

 

2004  “The Dohack phase at the George Reeves site (11 S 650):  twenty-four years later,” by Eleanora A. Reber in The Changing Mississippian:  Recent research on Mississippian sites in the American Bottom and Beyond,a symposium at the Joint Meeting of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference and Midwestern Archaeological Conference, St. Louis Missouri.

 

 

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

 

University of North Carolina Wilmington

ANT 105, Intro To Anthropology

ANT 207, General Archaeology

ANT 292, Experimental Archaeology

ANT 308, Old World Archaelogy

ANT 311, Field School in Archaeology

ANT 312, Collapse:The Fall of Complex Civilizations

ANT 440, Seminar in Southeastern Archaeology

ANTL 207, Archaeology Lab

 

Harvard University

        B-29, Human Behavioral Biology, Assistant Head Teaching Assistant

        B-29, Human Behavioral Biology, Teaching Assistant

        SO-50, Urban Revolutions:  Archaeology and the Investigation of Early States, Teaching Assistant

 

Professional Service and Memberships

Reviewer, Journal of Archaeological Science (2002-present)

Associate Editor for Archaeological Chemistry, SAS Bulletin, Society for Archaeological Sciences. (August 2002 - 2010).

Southeastern Archaeological Conference. (September 2000 - Present).

Midwestern Archaeological Conference. (2007 - Present).

Society of American Archaeologists. (March 1998 - Present).

American Anthropological Association. (2000 - Present).

American Chemical Society. (2002 - Present).

Lambda Alpha. (2002 - Present).

Sigma Xi. (2001 - Present).

Cahokia Mounds Museum Society. (1998 - Present).