Miriam Stark

Professor

Background
General Interests
Current Research
Selected Publications
Courses Taught
Additional Information

Background: I have a B.A. from the University of Michigan (1984), an M.A. from the University of Arizona (1987), and a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona (1993). Throughout my undergraduate and graduate school years, I was fortunate to be able to participate in archaeological field projects in North America (first the Midwest, and then the Southwest), in the Near East (Israel and Turkey), and in Southeast Asia (Philippines, Thailand). I spent the 1994-1995 as a post-doctoral fellow at the Conservation Analytical Laboratory at the Smithsonian Institution, and have been employed at the University of Hawai'i since 1995. Since then I have co-directed the Lower Mekong Archaeological Project (LOMAP) in Takeo Province of Southern Cambodia. I have edited the journal Asian Perspectives, the leading archaeological journal devoted to the prehistory of Asia and the Pacific region, published by the University of Hawai'i Press, since 2000.

General Interests:

I specialize in Southeast Asian archaeology, and currently edit the journal Asian Perspectives. I study these topics using archaeological and ethnoarchaeological approaches. My theoretical interests in my archaeological research focus on aspects of political economy and state formation (including economic intensification, regional networks, and the social relations of gender). My ethnoarchaeological background has stimulated a deep interest in the anthropology of technology, and my ceramic research in the American Southwest and in the Philippines reflects this focus (ARTICLE).

Current Research:

I currently work in two areas of Southeast Asia: Cambodia and the Philippines. My Cambodian research, begun in 1995, consists of a collaborative archaeological project to study early state formation, and has been funded previously by the University of Hawai'i and the East-West Center. In our 1996 field season, we began to establish a chronology for the site of Angkor Borei through radiocarbon and thermoluminescence dating. We also investigated one of the many collapsed brick structures that are found across the site, and developed a preliminary field map. Our 1999 field season tested one section of a large settlement that underlies much of the site's central portion, and we initiated a paleoenvironmental research program for the region through geomorphological studies. Our third field season (scheduled for May-July 2000) will further explore the cemetery, explore the construction sequence of brick architectural features at the site, and extend our paleoenvironmental studies in and around Angkor Borei.

My Philippines research, begun in 1987 in connection with my doctorate, is a longitudinal ethnoarchaeological study in Kalinga Province (northern Luzon) that examines the relationship between ceramic production and distributional networks among small-scale societies. Substantial technological change has taken place in the Pasil municipality since the beginning of the Kalinga Ethnoarchaeological Project in 1973 by Dr. William Longacre (University of Arizona). I documented some of these changes during 1987-1988 in the Pasil village of Dalupa as part of my doctoral research. Still more changes in agricultural and domestic technology have occurred in the Kalinga villages where we work since that time: field visits in 1997 and 1999 have investigated the nature and directionality of these shifts. Despite such profound change, pottery-making and pottery use continue to play important roles in the lives of Kalinga villagers in Dalupa and are the source of continuing study for the Kalinga project.

Cambodian Research: I co-direct the Lower Mekong Archaeological Project (or LOMAP), which seeks to understand the origins of state formation in the Mekong Delta. Southern Cambodia contains a rich yet poorly understood record of early historic period occupation, between ca. 200 B.C. and A.D. 500. Chinese travelers to this region in the third and sixth centuries A.D. described walled and moated cities that housed rulers, elites, and artisans of fine goods such as precious metals, jewelry, and other crafts. Archaeological work at contemporary sites in Vietnam suggests that this area was a thriving economic center in the trade routes that linked India to China by way of mainland Southeast Asia.

In most areas of the world, the transition to history is associated with the appearance of writing. Indigenous writing system first appeared in the early seventh century A.D. in southern Cambodia. Yet foreign accounts suggest that the Mekong Delta housed some of the earliest states in mainland Southeast Asia many centuries before this time. In Cambodia, we know these polities (or states or mandalas) solely through documentary evidence. The Lower Mekong Archaeological Project is the first archaeological project to examine the establishment, growth, and decline of early historic period settlements in Cambodia's Mekong Delta.

You can find more information on the Lower Mekong Archaeological Project by consulting articles on our research in the Spring 1999 issue of Asian Perspectives. You can also learn more about the project by consulting the "Papers" section of the Khmer Institute's web page: http://www.khmerinstitute.org

Philippine Research: I began my ethnoarchaeological research in Dalupa and the Pasil Municipality in 1987, as a member of Bill Longacre's Kalinga Ethnoarchaeological Project, through the University of Arizona. I spent the 1987-1988 academic year (and then some!) in the Pasil Municipality, and concentrated my research in the village of Dalupa. Dalupa is a moderate-sized village by Pasil standards, with approximately seventy-eight households and approximately 400 residents. What makes Dalupa unusual for Pasil is that many of its female residents make pottery as a part-time specialization. The Dalupa potters also attracted me to the village, as they humored me throughout the many long months of my interminable interviews, inventories, photographs, and record-keeping.

What I had intended to write as a dissertation on Kalinga pottery exchange transformed into a more holistic study of pottery "economics": that is, the production, distribution, and uses of pottery across the landscape. My research collected useful information on these three domains, and I also pursued related research on household economics, technological change, and social boundaries. Many archaeologists believe that source-side research in societies like the Kalinga provides useful insights and information that can be used to model prehistoric behavior (ARTICLE). Work by many members of the Kalinga Ethnoarchaeological Project has already been used in these ways, and continues to provide new ideas for archaeologists.

Selected Publications:

2006. (with D.C.W. Sanderson and R. G. Bingham) Monumentality in the Mekong Delta: Luminescence Dating and Implications. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 26: 110-120. Download PDF file.

2006 Pre-Angkorian Settlement Trends in Cambodia’s Mekong Delta and the Lower Mekong Archaeological Project. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 26: 98-109. Download PDF file.

2006. Textualized Places, Pre-Angkorian Khmers, and Historicized Archaeology. In N. Yoffee and B. Crowell (ed.) Excavating the Relations between History and Archaeology in the Study of PreModern Asia, pp. 307-326. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Download PDF file.

2006 Early Mainland Southeast Asian Landscapes in the First Millennium A.D. Annual Review of Anthropology, Volume 35, in press. Download PDF file.

2006 From Funan to Angkor: Collapse and Regeneration in Ancient Cambodia. In After Collapse: The Regeneration of Complex Societies, edited by G. M. Schwartz and J. J. Nichols, pp. 144-167. University of Arizona Press, Tucson. Download PDF file.

2004 Pre-Angkorian and Angkorian Cambodia. In A Cultural History of Southeast Asia: From Earliest Times to the Indic Civilizations, edited by P. Bellwood and I. Glover, pp.89-119. Routledge Curzon Press, New York. Download PDF file.

2004 (with P. Bion Griffin) Archaeological Research and Cultural Heritage Management in Cambodia's Mekong Delta: The Search for the 'Cradle of Khmer Civilization.' In Marketing Heritage: Archaeology and the Consumption of the Past, edited by Y. Rowen and U. Baram, pp. 117-142. AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, California. Download PDF file.

2003 Angkor Borei and the Archaeology of Cambodia’s Mekong Delta. In Art & Archaeology of Fu Nan: Pre-Khmer Kingdom of the Lower Mekong Valley, edited by J. Khoo, pp. 87-106. Orchid Books, Bangkok. Download PDF file.

2003 (with Paul Bishop, David C. W. Sanderson) OSL and Radiocarbon Dating of a Pre-Angkorian Canal in the Mekong Delta, Southern Cambodia. Journal of Archaeological Science 31(3):319-336.
Download PDF file.

2003 Current Issues in Ceramic Ethnoarchaeology. Journal of Archaeological Research 11(3):193-242.
Download PDF file.

2003 (with D. C. W. Sanderson, P. Bishop, and J.Q. Spencer) Luminescence Dating of Anthropogenically Reset Canal Sediments from Angkor Borei, Mekong Delta, Cambodia. Quaternary Science Reviews 22 (2003): 1111-1121. Download PDF file.

2003 (with P. Bishop, D. Penny, and M. Scott . A 3.5 ka Record of Paleoenvironments and Human Occupation at Angkor Borei, Mekong Delta, Southern Cambodia. Geoarchaeology 18(3):359-393. Download PDF file.

2002 (with J. M. Heidke) Early Ceramics in Southeastern Arizona: Technology, Iconography, and Function. In Eureka: The Archaeology of Innovation & Science, edited by R. Harrison, M. Gillespie, and M. Peuramaki-Brown, pp. 345-356. Archaeological Association of the University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada. Download PDF file.

2001 (with Bong Sovath) Recent Research on the Emergence of Early Historic States in Cambodia's Lower Mekong Delta. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 21(5):85-98. Download PDF file.

2001. Some Preliminary Results of the 1999-2000 Archaeological Field Investigations at Angkor Borei, Takeo Province. Udaya: Journal of Khmer Studies 2(1):19-36. Download PDF file.

2000 (with Ronald Bishop and Elizabeth Miksa) Ceramic Technology and Social Boundaries: Cultural Practices in Kalinga Clay Selection and Use. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 7(4):295-331. Download PDF File

2000 Pre-Angkor Earthenware Ceramics from Cambodia's Mekong Delta. Udaya. Journal of Khmer Studies 1:69-90. Download PDF File

2000 Exploring Archaeology. Carolina Academic Press, Durham. Co-edited with J. Bayman.

1999 (with P. Bion Griffin, Chuch Phoeurn, J. Ledgerwood, M. Dega, C. Mortland, N. Dowling, J.M. Bayman, Bong Sovath, Tea Van, Chhan Chamroeun, and D. K. Latinis) Results of the 1995-1996 Field Investigations at Angkor Borei, Cambodia. Asian Perspectives, 38(1): 7-36. Download PDF file.

1998 The Transition to History in the Mekong Delta: A View from Cambodia. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 2(3):175-204. Download PDF file.

1998 (with S. Jane Allen) The Transition to History in Southeast Asia: An Introduction. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 2(3):163-174. Download PDF file.

1998 (with J. M. Heidke) Ceramic Manufacture, Productive Specialization, and the Early Classic Period in Arizona's Tonto Basin. Journal of Anthropological Research 54(4):499-520.

1998 The Archaeology of Social Boundaries (editor). Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. Download PDF file.

1996 (with K. Kvamme and W. A. Longacre) Alternative Procedures for Assessing Standard ization in Ceramic Assemblages. American Antiquity 61(1):116-126.

1995 Economic Intensification and Ceramic Specialization in the Philippines: A View from Kalinga. Research in Economic Anthropology 16:179-226.

1994 Pottery Exchange and the Regional System: A Dalupa Case Study. In Kalinga Ethnoarchaeology, edited by W. A. Longacre and J. M. Skibo, pp. 169-198. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

1994 (with M. Aronson and J. Skibo) Production and Use Technologies in Kalinga Pottery. In Kalinga Ethnoarchaeology, edited by W. A. Longacre and J. M. Skibo, pp. 83-112. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

1992 From Sibling to Suki: Social and Spatial Relations in Kalinga Pottery Exchange. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 11(2): 137-151.

1991 Ceramic Change in Ethnoarchaeological Perspective: A Kalinga Case Study. Asian Perspectives 30(2):193-216.

1991 Ceramic Production and Community Specialization: A Kalinga Ethnoarchaeological Study. World Archaeology 23(1):64-78.

1988 (with C. Kramer) The Status of Women in Archaeology. American Anthropological Association Newsletter 29(9):1, 11-12.

Courses Taught:

I have taught introductory courses in anthropology (four-field approach) and archaeology. I also teach courses in in archaeological theory, including Archaeological Theory and Interpretation, History of Archaeological Thought, The Archaeology of Complexity, and Technology and Culture. I also teach Ceramic Analysis. My primary geographic specialty is Southeast Asia; I teach Southeast Asian Archaeology and Asian Archaeology. I have also taught Southwestern Archaeology.

Additional Information:

I serve in a number of capacities at the local and national levels. I am currently the Undergraduate Advisor for the Department of Anthropology here at UH, and am happy to meet with undergraduates to discuss their course work and their futures. I also serve on the Meetings Development Committee for the Society of American Archaeology, and was elected to the Committee on the Status of Women in Anthropology in 1997 for the American Anthropological Association.

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