ÌÇÐÄVlog

Research Interests

• Social Bioarchaeology
• Bioarchaeology of Childhood
• Historical Bioarchaeology
• 19th Century United States

About

My research focuses on human skeletal remains from archaeological sites. ÌýSpecifically, I focus on historical sites, social theory and bioarchaeology, and on the remains of children (subadults). ÌýMy research asks questions about how people lived in the past, and what their bodies can tell us about their daily lives and about life in a family and a community. ÌýI am interested in the intersection of the social and the biological, and how those two come together in the human skeletal system.

My work draws on skeletal analysis, archival research, and historical archaeology to tell a story about a life in the past. ÌýI am particularly interested in nutrition and disease, and how evidence for illnesses and for dietary patterns in skeletal remains can tell us about social relationships, environmental conditions, and social norms in a time and place. ÌýThus far my research has focused on sites in the 19th century United States, including the subadults from the abolitionistÌý Ìýin New York City, and trauma and starvation processes from the Donner Party camp in California and from the China Gulch Chinese mining camp in Montana. I am currently working on a NAGPRA compliance project.

My current project examines the skeletal remains of two individuals recorded as having died during the 1928 Lake Okeechobee Hurricane. My writing explores the creation of identity through taphnomic, historic, and memory processes all while sharing a little-remembered natural disaster event. A book is forthcoming on this topic.

By understanding life histories from skeletal remains, and by asking broad anthropological questions about life in the past, my work contributes to interdisciplinary projects that span biological anthropology, archaeology, and history.

Selected Publications

Books

Refereed Journal Articles

2023. Ellis, Meredith A.B. ÌýWeathered Remains: Bioarchaeology, Identity, and the Landscape.Ìý American Anthropologist.

2020. Ellis, Meredith A.B. Still Life: A Bioarchaeological Portrait of Perinatal Remains Buried at the Spring Street Presbyterian Church.Ìý Historical Archaeology. 54(1).

2016. Ellis, Meredith A.B. ÌýPresence and Absence: An Exploration of Scurvy in the Commingled Subadults in the Spring Street Presbyterian Church Collection, Lower Manhattan. ÌýInternational Journal of Osteoarchaeology. 26: 759–766

2011. Ellis, Meredith A.B., Christopher W. Merritt, Shannon A. Novak, and Kelly J. Dixon. Ìý 2011 The Signature of Starvation: A Comparison of Bone Processing at a Chinese Encampment in Montana and the Donner Party Camp in California. ÌýHistorical Archaeology Ìý45(2).

2010. Ellis, Meredith A.B. The Children of Spring Street: Life and Rickets in a Nineteenth Century Congregation. ÌýNortheast Historical Archaeology Ìý39.

Referreed Book Chapters

2024. Ellis, Meredith A.B. Childhoods in Bioarchaeology: The Importance of Categorizing and Analyzing Age. InÌý Historical Archaeology of Childhood and ParentingÌý ed. Suzanne Spencer-Wood, April Kamp-Whitaker, and Jamie Devine. New York: Springer Press.

2018. Baxter, Jane Eva and Meredith A.B. Ellis. ÌýIntroduction. In J. Baxter and M. Ellis (eds.)Ìý Nineteenth Century Childhoods in Interdisciplinary and International Perspectives. Society for the Study of Childhood in the Past Monograph Series, Volume 6. Oxford: Oxbow Books, 1-14.

2014. Ellis, Meredith A.B. ÌýA Disciplined Childhood: A Social Bioarchaeology of the Subadults of the Spring Street Presbyterian Church. InÌý Tracing Childhood: Bioarchaeological Investigations of Early Lives in AntiquityÌý ed. Jennifer Thomson, Marta Alfonso, and John Crandall. Gainsville: University of Florida Press, 139-158.