Department of Anthropology

Alan P Sullivan

Professor, Department Head
468 Braunstein Hall
513-556-5782
alan.sullivan@uc.edu

Education

Ph.D, University of Arizona, 1980.

Professional Summary

Dr. Alan P. Sullivan is a North American archaeologist whose research focuses on the development of an independent archaeological theory. Drawing on several decades of field experience in the American Southwest, he is exploring how inferences regarding the cultural past can be advanced without dependence on analogs from cultural anthropology. With survey and excavation data from his long-term project in the Upper Basin, which is located just south of Grand Canyon National Park in northern Arizona, Dr. Sullivan is investigating how the dynamic interplay among environmental manipulation, intensive wild-plant production, and unintensive horticulture affects the distribution of perennial settlements and the abandonment patterns of landscapes. He is interested, as well, in applications of high-resolution satellite remote-sensing in heritage-resource research and management.

Research Support

Resolving the Effects of Canopy-Cover Variation on the Detection of Archaeological Sites by Satellite Remote Sensing, CP Taft Research Center. $7,296. Date: 2010.

The Role of Accumulations Research in Inferring the Occupations Spans of Abandoned Settlements, CP Taft Research Center. $9,500. Date: 2008.

Accuracy Assessment of a Satellite-Based Direct Predictive Model of Small-Scale Archaeological Phenomena, CP Taft Research Center. $14,600. Date: 2008.

Determining the Regional Extent of Aboriginal Occupations with High-Resolution Satellite-Based Predictive Models, The National Geographic / Waitt Grants Program. $13,584. Date: 2008.

AP Sullivan and RC Frohn, Satellite-Based Predictive Modeling of Archaeological Phenomena, University Research Council - Interdisciplinary Faculty Research Support. $24,382. Date: 2007.

AP Sullivan and RC Frohn, Testing the Regional Reliability of the Spectral Signatures of Archaeological Phenomena, National Park Service's National Center for Preservation Technolgoy and Training. $40,000. Date: 2005 to 2006.

Peer Reviewed Publications

Carter, SW, B Wiegand, G Mahood, FO Dudas, JL Wooden, AP Sullivan, and S Bowring. 2011 "Strontium Isotopic Evidence for Transport of Prehistoric Ceramic Materials." Geoarchaeology: An International Journal 26:189-218.

Sullivan, A.P. 2008a. "Ethnoarchaeological and Archaeological Perspectives on Ceramic Vessels and Annual Accumulation Rates of Sherds." American Antiquity 73:121-135.

Bayman, J.M. and A.P. Sullivan. 2008b. "Property, Identity, and Macro-Economy in the Prehispanic Southwest." American Anthropologist 110:1-15.

Sullivan, AP, PB Mink, and PM Uphus. 2007. "Archaeological Survey Design, Unites of Observation, and the Characterization of Regional Variability." American Antiquity 72:322-333.

Uphus, PM, AP Sullivan and PB Mink. 2006. "Identifying At-Risk Heritage Resources with GIS: Modeling the Impact of Recreational Activities on the Arhcaeological Record." International Journal of Risk Assessment Management 6:330-343.

Books

Sullivan, AP (editor). 2008. Archaeological Concepts for the Study of the Cultural Past. Foundations of Archaeological Inquiry Series. Universtiy of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

Sullivan AP, and JM Bayman (editors). 2007. Hinterlands and Regional Dynamics in the Ancient Southwest. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

Sullivan, AP (editor). 1998. Surface Archaeology. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.

Book Chapters

Roos, CI, AP Sullivan, and C McNamee. 2010. "Paleoecolofical Evidence for Systematic Indigenous Burning in the Upland Southwest." In The Archaeology of Anthropogenic Environments, edited by R Dean, pp. 142-171. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.

Sullivan AP, and KC Rozen. 2009. "Debitage Analysis and Archaeological Interpretation." In Archaeological Lithic Analysis: Readings from American Antiquity and Latin American Antiquity, complied by George H Odell, pp. 307-331. Society for American Archaeology Press, Washington, D.C.

Sullivan, AP. 2008a. "Time Perspectivism and the Interpretative Potential of Palimpsests: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations of Assemblage Formation History and Contemporaneity." In Time in Archaeology: Time Perspectivism Revisited, edited by SJ Holdaway and L Wandsnider, pp. 31 - 45. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

Sullivan, AP. 2008b. "Forward to the Cultural Past." In Sullivan (editor[2008]), pp.1-6.

Sullivan, AP. 2008c. "An Archaeological View of the Archaeological Record." In Sullivan (editor [2008]), pp. 7-23.

Sullivan, AP. 2007 "Archaeological Anthropology and Strategies of Knowledge Formation in American Archaeology." In Archaeological Anthropology: Perspectives on Method and Theory, edited by JM Skibo, MW Graves, and M Stark, pp. 40-56. University of Arizona Press, Tucson.

Sullivan, AP and JM Bayman. 2007. "Conceptualizing Regional Dunamics in the Ancient Southwest." In Sullivan and Bayman (editors[2007]), pp. 3-10.

Carter, SW and AP Sullivan. 2007. "Direct Procurement of Ceramics and Ceramic Materials, Index Wares, and Models of Regional Exchange and Interaction: Implications of Petrographic and Geological Data from the Upper Basin and Coconino Plateau." In Sullivan and Bayman (editors [2007]), pp. 139-162.

Sullivan, AP and AH Ruter. 2006. "The Effects of Environmental Fluctuations on Ancient Livelihood: Implications of Paleoeconomic Data from the Upper Basin, Northern Arizona." In Environmental Change and Human Adaptation in Ancient American Southwest, edited by DE Doyel and JS Dean, pp. 180-203. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

Reviews

Sullivan, AP. 2006. "Grahame Clark: An Intellectual Biography of an Archaeologist" by BM Fagan (Westview Press). American Antiquity 71:586.

In Press

Sullivan, AP, KS Magee, PB Mink, and KM Forste. "Remote Sensing of Heritage Resources for Research and Management." Park Science.

Work in Progress

Sullivan, AP. "Surface Archaeology, Assemblage Formation Histories, and the Emergence of Quantitative Attribute-Based Artifact Analysis." In Assemblage Formation and Archaeological Interpretation in the 21st Century, edited by D. Olszewski and AP Sullivan. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.

Paper Presentations

Sullivan, AP, CI Roos, and PB Mink.. Innocence, Ignorance, and the Archaeology of Subsistence Agriculture in Coniferous Ecosystems.. What We Don't Know about Agriculture in the Prehistoric North American Southwest, 76th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2011.

Sullivan, AP. Discusant for the Symposium. Grand Archaeology: Life Along the Banks of the Colorado River through Grand Canyon, the 76th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2011.

Sullivan, AP. Discussant for the Symposium. Archaeology of the Arizona Strip, the 75th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2010.

Sullivan, AP. By These Scraps Ye Shall Know HIm: AJ Jelinek's Enduring Theoretical and Methodological Contributions to Southwest Archaeology. From Pecos to the Paleolithic: Papers in Honor of Arthur J Jelinek, 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. 2008.

Sullivan, AP. Saving Antiquities for Everyone. Inadvertent Vandalism of Heritage Resources on Public Lands, Public UC Presentation Community Event. 2008.

CI Roos, AP Sullivan, and C McNamee.. Geoarchaeological Evidence for Prehistoric Burning in the Coniferous Southwest. Archaeology of Anthropogenic Environments, Southern Illinois University Visiting Scholar Conference. 2007.

Service

Member, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory Editorial Board, 2004 to Present.