Dr. John P. Hart

Curator Emeritus
john.hart@nysed.gov
518-474-3895

My research has focused primarily on the histories of maize, bean, and squash in New York and the greater Northeast and the interactions of human populations with these crops. Through collaborations with numerous colleagues both at the Museum and other institutions, this research resulted in new understandings of these histories and interactions. A primary focus has been on charred cooking residues adhering to the interior surfaces of pottery sherds in the collections of the Museum. These residues contain microfossil evidence (phytoliths, starch, lipids) of the plants cooked in the pots. In addition the residues can be directly radiocarbon dated through accelerator mass spectrometry. These methods and techniques have provided new evidence that is radically altering our understandings of the histories of agriculture in New York State. Theory building to develop understandings of these new histories is another focus. This research has broad implications for Native American history in New York and the greater Northeast.

Most recently I have been working with colleagues on Social Network Analyses (SNA) of northern Iroquoian sites dating from A.D. 1350 to 1650. SNA is a formal graphing method, which in archaeology is used to identify relationships between sites based on similarities of artifact assemblages. This research is helping to build new understandings of interactions between village populations and how these interactions changed through time during the last centuries before and then after European involvements.

My Research Projects

Publications

2019

R. Feranec, J. Hart 2019, Fish and maize: Bayesian mixing models of fourteenth- through seventeenth-century AD ancestral Wendat diets, Ontario, Canada, Scientific Reports 9, 16658. 10.1038/s41598-019-53076-7
Larisa DeSantis, Jonathan Crites, R. Feranec, Kena Fox-Dobbs, Aisling Farrell, John Harris, Gary Takeuchi, Thure Cerling 2019, Causes and Consequences of Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinctions as Revealed from Rancho La Brea Mammals, Current Biology 29, 2488-2495. 10.1016/j.cub.2019.06.059

2018

Sarah Heins-Ledogar, R. Feranec, Jessica Zuhlke 2018, Isotopic evidence for broad diet including anadromous fish during the mid-Holocene in northeastern North America, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 19, 505-512. 10.1016/j.jasrep.2018.03.029
Wysocki, M., Feranec, R., 2018. Analyzing the Tooth Development of Sabertooth Carnivores: Implications Regarding the Ecology and Evolution of Smilodon fatalis, in: Werdelin, L., McDonald, H., Shaw, C. (Eds.), Smilodon: The Iconic Sabertooth. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, pp. 139-152.
Kozlowski, A., Bird, B., Lowell, T., Smith, C., Feranec, R., Graham, B., 2018. Minimum Age of the Mapleton, Tully, and Labrador Hollow Moraines Indicates Correlation with the Port Huron Phase in Central New York State, in: , Quaternary Glaciation of the Great Lakes Region: Process, Landforms, Sediments, and Chronology. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado, pp. 191–216.
Feranec, R., Kozlowski, A., 2018. Onset Age of Deglaciation Following the Last Glacial Maximum in New York State Based on Radiocarbon Ages of Mammalian Megafauna, in: Kehew, A., Curry, B. (Eds.), Quaternary Glaciation of the Great Lakes Region: Process, Landforms, Sediments, and Chronology. Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado, pp. .

2017

R. Feranec, A. Kozlowski 2017, Ice Age Mammals Colonize New York: A STEM Lab Derived from Collections-Based Research at the New York State Museum, New York State Museum Education Leaflet New York State Education Department, Albany, New York
L.C. Eastham, R. Feranec, D. Begun 2017, Trace Element Analysis Provides Insight into the Diets of Early Late Miocene Ungulates from the Rudab\ anya II Locality (Hungary), Geologica Acta 15, 231-243. 10.1344/GeologicaActa2017.15.3.6
R. Feranec, D. Pagnac 2017, Hypsodonty, horses, and the spread of C4 grasses during the middle Miocene in southern California, Evolutionary Ecology Research 18, 201–223.
R. Feranec, A. Kozlowski 2017, Ice Age Mammals Colonize New York: A STEM Lab Derived from Collections-Based Research at the New York State Museum, New York State Museum Education Leaflet New York State Education Department, Albany, New York