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Dr. Christina Rieth

State Archaeologist and Co-Director, Cultural Resource Survey Program
christina.rieth@nysed.gov
518-402-5975

My research focuses on the ways that prehistoric groups interacted with their local environment and the role that such interaction had on the settlement and subsistence strategies of New York’s Late Prehistoric (A.D. 700-1450) occupants. The relationship between humans and their natural and cultural environment is of importance in understanding pre-Contact diversity. The choices that we make concerning the types of resources that are used, the interactions that we form with neighboring groups in acquiring these resources, and how we modify the local landscape all influence the resulting behaviors and material culture. Field and collections based research form the basis for addressing these issues. 

Finally, I am interested in public archaeology and the ways that archaeologists make information about and incorporate the public into its study of the past. Through an active program of field and collections based research, I am interested in making information about the archaeological past accessible to all New Yorkers.

Publications

2014

A. Kozlowski, R. Feranec, D. Franzi 2014, A New Record of Ringed Seal (Pusa hispida) from the Late Pleistocene Champlain Sea and Comments on Its Age and Paleoenvironment, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 34, 230-235. 10.1080/02724634.2013.784706

2013

R. Feranec, N. Famoso, E. Davis 2013, Occlusal Enamel Complexity and Its Implications for Lophodonty, Hypsodony, Body Mass, and Diet in Extinct and Extant Ungulates, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 387, 211-216. 10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.07.006
R. Feranec, D. Pagnac 2013, Stable Carbon Isotope Evidence for the Abundance of C4 Plants in the Middle Miocene of Southern California, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 388, 42-47. 10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.07.022

2012

A. Kozlowski, R. Feranec 2012, New AMS Radiocarbon Dates from Late Pleistocene Mastodons and Mammoths in New York State, USA, Radiocarbon 54, 275-279. 10.2458/azu_js_rc.v54i2.16009

2011

R. Feranec 2011, Global Problems., Global Research. Legacy: The Magazine of the New York State Museum 6, 14-15
Hart, J., Anderson, L., Feranec, R., 2011. Additional Evidence for cal. Seventh-Century A.D. Maize Consumption at the Kipp Island Site, New York, in: Rieth, C., Hart, J. (Eds.), Current Research in New York State Archaeology: A.D. 700-1300. The University of the State of New York, Albany, New York, pp. 27-40.
R. Kays, R. Feranec 2011, Using Stable Carbon Isotopes to Distinguish Wild from Captive Wolves, Northeast Naturalist 18, 253-264. 10.1656/045.018.0301
N. Miller, R. Feranec, J. Lothrop, R. Graham 2011, The Sporormiella proxy and End-Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinction: A Perspective, Quaternary International 245, 333-338. 10.1016/j.quaint.2011.06.004

2010

R. Feranec, N. Garcia, J. Arsuaga, J. Diez 2010, Understanding the Ecology of Mammalian Carnivorans and Herbivores from Valdegoba Cave (Burgos, Northern Spain) Through Stable Isotope Analysis, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 297, 263-272. 10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.08.006
R. Feranec, E. Hadly, A. Paytan 2010, Isotopes Reveal Limited Effects of Middle Pleistocene Climate Change on the Ecology of Mid-sized Mammals, Quaternary International 217, 43-52. 10.1016/j.quaint.2009.07.018