Andrew Somerville, PhD

Laboratory Director

I am a biological anthropologist and archaeologist in the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Iowa State University. I received by BA in anthropology from Arizona State University (2001-2006) and an MA and PhD from the University of California San Diego (UCSD, 2007-2015). At UCSD, I spent two years as a NSF-IGERT Fellow with Scripps Institute of Oceanography’s project, Global Climate Change, Marine Ecosystems, and Society. After my graduate training, I spent a year lecturing in the Anthropology Department at California State University, Dominguez Hills (2016-2017) and a year serving as a UCMEXUS postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute of Geology at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City (2017-2018). In 2018, I joined the faculty of the Department of World Languages and Cultures at Iowa State University where I am currently an assistant professor of anthropology. My research combines skeletal analysis and archaeological excavation methods with stable isotope analyses of human and animal bones to gain insights about past practices of food production, distribution, and consumption. I am particularly interested in the relationship between food production systems and their relationship to climatic changes.

Stephen Mattingly

Undergraduate Student Researcher

Stephen is an anthropology major and a political science minor. He is interested in the archaeology of the Americas and biological anthropology. He has been working in the Paleoecology Laboratory since the Spring of 2024 and has been involved in several projects involving stable isotope analysis of bones and teeth. Stephen also volunteers in the Archaeology Laboratory, directed by Dr. Matthew Hill, and performs various tasks including inventory, cataloging, measuring faunal bone specimens, and data entry. Currently he serves as an officer for the Anthropology Club at Iowa State University and acts as the representative for the archaeology sub-section.

Madeline Shumaker

Undergraduate Student Researcher

Madeline is a graduating senior at Iowa State pursuing her BA in Anthropology and Graphic Design. She works in the Paleoecology lab creating maps based on Hacienda Metepec excavations in 2023, data entry, helping out with lab work prep, and creating a new logo for the project. She also currently serves as President of the Undergraduate Anthropology Club.

Arann Raven

Undergraduate Honors Student Researcher

Arann is majoring in biology has minoring in anthropology. During the Spring semester of 2024, Arann began working in the Paleoecology Laboratory on her honor’s research project, which tests the use of different chemicals (hydrogen peroxide or sodium hypochlorite) to treat bone mineral for stable isotope analysis of carbonate. She serves as the ecological outreach chair for the Conservation Club in the Biology Department. In 2023, she studied abroad in Cork, Ireland. After graduation, she plans to attend graduate school for biological anthropology.

Seema Smadi

Undergraduate Honors Student Researcher

Seema is majoring in anthropology with a minor in Middle Eastern studies, ethics, and political science. She recently restarted the Arab Student Association on campus after a 5-year hiatus. Currently, she is conducting research in the Paleoecology Laboratory for her senior honor’s thesis. The project is testing the utility of ultrafiltration of collagen samples for stable isotope analysis. She hopes to pursue either a Masters in Anthropology or a law degree post-grad. 

Rachel Ernwine

MA Student

Rachel received her BA in Anthropology from Iowa State University in 2022. She has extensive experience in the stable isotope laboratory and was a recipient of the Dean’s High Impact Award for Undergraduate research that sponsored her participation in several active research projects in the Paleoecology Laboratory. Her MA research that she is conducting in the laboratory will use stable isotope analysis to explore differences in dietary practices according to gender among three ancient farming communities of northwest Mesoamerica.

Mallory Levens

MA Student

Mallory is graduate student in bioarchaeology studying at the Paleoecology Laboratory. Before coming to Iowa State University, she received a BS in Anthropology from the University of Arkansas. Her research interests include human development, osteology, and bioarchaeology. Mallory’s MA research will focus on metric analyses of a collection of human skeletons from northwest Mesoamerica.

Heather Chamberlain-Irwin, MA

PhD student in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (EEB) Interdisciplinary Graduate Program

Heather received a BA in Biology at the University of Northern Iowa followed by a MA in Science Education. She is currently working towards her PhD at Iowa State University in the EEB program and is co-advised by Dr. Matthew Hufford (EEOB) and Dr. Andrew Somerville (WLC). Her research focuses on using plant genetics to understand long-term process of human-plant co-evolution. Her thesis is studying the genetics of ancient maize recovered from archaeological excavations at the Tiwanaku settlements of the Moquegua Valley of southern Peru.

Maddy Tribbett

MA Student

Maddy graduated with a BA in Anthropology and a minor in Chemistry from Northern Arizona University in 2022. She is currently working towards completing a MA degree in Anthropology at Iowa State University and is focusing on bioarchaeological research in Mesoamerica. She has participated in field research at the ancient Maya cities of Xunantunich and Cahal Pech as part of the BVAR field school program. During the summer of 2023, she participated in the PHM excavations at the Teotihuacan neighborhood of Hacienda Metepec. In the Paleoecology Laboratory, she is currently analyzing a collection of historical and ancient teeth from Taiwan, and her MA project focuses reconstructing dietary patterns of the ancient Maya across time and space.

Serena Webster

MA Student

Serena has a BA degree in Anthropology from the University of Maine and is currently working towards completing a MA degree in archaeology at Iowa State University. She is specializing in the analysis of obsidian artifacts in the Americas. Her MA thesis research is using a pXRF instrument to determine source locations of obsidian samples from the ancient Mexican city of Teotihuacan at the Hacienda Metepec neighborhood where she participated in field excavations during the summer of 2022.

Autumn Pauley

Undergraduate Student Research Assistant

Autumn is a double major in Anthropology and International Studies and is working towards a minor in Chinese Studies. She is a McNair Scholar, and the president of the Undergraduate Anthropology Club. She began working in the Paleoecology Laboratory in 2021 on a research project involving the stable isotope analysis of ancient animal bones from western Iowa in order to determine aspects of the environment and to reconstruct the diet of the Oneota people. Her time in the lab was funded by the ISU LAS Dean’s High Impact Award for undergraduate research.

Feben Ruscitti

Undergraduate Student Research Assistant

Feben is an anthropology major and has participated in both archaeological field laboratory studies associated with the Paleoecology Laboratory. In the summers of 2022 and 2023, she participated in field excavations at the archaeological site of Hacienda Metepec/Teotihuacan. In the laboratory, her research is exploring the effect of bone particle size on the consistency of stable isotope data.

Elise Thrap

Undergraduate Student Research Assistant

Elise is a double major in Anthropology and Geology at Iowa State University. She is currently working in the Paleoecology Laboratory on several projects involving the processing of bone samples for stable isotope analysis of collagen and bioapatite including samples from Cerro del Teul, Zacatecas, Mexico. She also works as a research assistant in the Stable Isotope Laboratory in the Department of Geology at ISU.

Colburn Avery

Undergraduate Student Research Assistant

Colburn is an undergraduate student at Iowa State majoring in Anthropology and minoring in Linguistics. He is particularly interested in what linguistics can bring to the practice of anthropology as a whole and archaeology in particular. His work in the Paleoecology Lab has included using Adobe Illustrator to trace field profile and plan view drawings from the 2022 excavations at Hacienda Metepec, Teotihuacan. He is working to digitize field documents and forms.