Research Projects/Interests

My research interests include the archaeology of prehistoric California and Great Basin hunter-gatherers, evolutionary ecology, organization and evolution of technology, subsistence, mobility, cultural transmission, and cultural change. My methodological interests include lithic analysis, obsidian studies, and quantitative analysis.

Courses that I teach

• ANTH 003: Introduction to Archaeology
• ANTH 107: The Anthropology of Hunter-Gatherers
• ANTH 111: California Archaeology
• ANTH 126/226: Techniques of Archaeological Analysis
• ANTH 203: Archaeology Core Seminar

Graduate Students

Current:

1. Donley, Eric (chair)
2. Cooper, Jacqueline (reader)

 

Past (Committee Chair):

1. Timothy Slowik; graduated Spring 2023; Prehistoric Chronology and Upland Settlement on Orestimba Creek,Central Diablo Range, California
2. Juliana Wilder; graduated Spring 2023; Prehistoric Land Use, Mobility, and Exchange in Hermit Valley,Alpine County, California.
3. Gloria Brown; graduated Summer 2021; A Systematic Study of Starch Granules from Culturally Significant Plant Taxa of The Central California Coast
4. Brandon Foster; graduated Summer 2021; Prehistoric Ceramic Technology and its Role in Subsistence-Settlement Patterns in the Western Great Basin
5. Katherine Holst; graduated Spring 2021; Sexual Division of Labor in the Late Prehistoric Interval: An Exploration of Women’s Flaked Stone Tool Manufacture and use in the Central Sierra Nevada

 

Past (Committee member):

1. Rachel Davies; graduated Fall 2022; The Sacramento City Garbage Crematory (CA-SAC-1252H) Faunal Assemblage: Early Twentieth Century Consumer Patterns
2. Katie Hanrahan; graduated Fall 2022; Distribution and Chronology of Schist Milling Stones in Owens Valley
3. Heidi Maya Klinger; graduated Spring 2022; The Missing Middle Holocene Record: Climatic Stress or Geological Process?
4. Ryan Bradshaw; graduated Fall 2020; Late Prehistoric Change in the Feather River Watershed, Butte County, California
5. Nick Altieri; graduated Spring 2018; Desert Side-Notched Points as Numic Markers: A Comparison of Numic and Non-Numic Artifacts

Publications

Eerkens, J.W., J.S. Rosenthal, J.R. Bean, H.J. Spero, N.E. Stevens, and G.R. Burns.

2020     Marine shell artifacts from Monitor Valley. Chapter 26 in D.H. Thomas, Alpine archaeology of Alta Toquima and the Mt. Jefferson tablelands (Nevada): 729–742. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History 104.

 

Stevens, Nathan E.

2020     Book review of: Foragers on America’s Western Edge: The Archaeology of California's Pecho Coast by Terry L. Jones and Brian F. Codding. California Archaeology 12(2): 249-251.

 

Stevens, Nathan E., Adrian R. Whitaker, and Jeffrey S. Rosenthal

2019     Bedrock Mortars as Indicators of Territorial Behavior in the Sierra Nevada. Quaternary International 518:57-68. 

 

McGuire, Kelly R. and Nathan E. Stevens

2017    The Potential Role of Geophytes, Digging Sticks, and Formed Flake Tools in the Western North American Paleoarchaic Expansion. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 37 (1), 3-21

 

Stevens, Nathan E.

2015     Book review of: Perspectives on Trade and Exchange in California and the Great Basin. Edited by Richard E. Hughes. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 35(1):161-162.

 

Stevens, Nathan E., and Richard McElreath

2015     When Are Two Tools Better Than One? Mortars, Millingslabs, and the California Acorn Economy. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 37:100-111. [full text]

 

Stevens, Nathan E.

2015     What Steward Got Right: Technology, Work Organization, and Cultural Evolution. In Lithic Technological Systems and Evolutionary Theory. Edited by Nathan Goodale and William Andrefsky Jr., Cambridge University Press. [full text]

 

Stevens, Nathan E., Douglas R. Harro, and Alan Hicklin

2010     Practical Quantitative Lithic Use-Wear Analysis Using Multiple Classifiers. Journal of Archaeological Science 37:2671-2678. [full text]

 

Eerkens, Jelmer W., Jeffrey S. Rosenthal, Nathan E. Stevens, Amanda Cannon, Eric L. Brown, and Howard J. Spero

2010     Stable Isotope Provenance Analysis of Olivella Shell Beads From the Los Angeles Basin and San Nicolas Island. Journal of Island & Coastal Archaeology 5:105–119.

 

Stevens, Nathan E., and Brian F. Codding

2009     Inferring the Function of Projectile Points from the Central Coast of Alta California. California Archaeology 1(1)7-27.

 

Stevens, Nathan E.

2009     Archaeology is for the Living. Proceedings of the Society of California Archaeology 23:175-180. [full text]

 

Eerkens, Jelmer W., Jeffrey S. Rosenthal, Howard J. Spero, Nathan E. Stevens, Richard Fitzgerald, and Laura Brink

2009     The source of Early Horizon Olivella beads: isotopic evidence from CCO-548. Proceedings of the Society for California Archaeology 23:1-11.

 

Stevens, Nathan E., Jelmer W. Eerkens, Richard Fitzgerald, Jeffrey S. Rosenthal, Joanne E. Goodsell, and Jamie Doty

2009     Workaday Windmiller: Another Look at Early Horizon Lifeways in Central California. Proceedings of the Society of California Archaeology 23:175-180. [full text]

 

Jones, Terry, L., Nathan E. Stevens, Deborah A. Jones, Mark G. Hylkema, and Richard T. Fitzgerald

2007     Central Coast: A Mid-Latitude Mileau. In California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity. Altimira Press.

 

Stevens, Nathan E.

2005     Changes in Prehistoric Land Use in the Alpine Sierra Nevada: A Regional Exploration Using Temperature-Adjusted Obsidian Hydration Rates. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 25(2):41-59.

 

2003     Spatial and Temporal Patterning of Bedrock Mortar Sites in the Southern Sierra Nevada: A Regional Exploration. Proceedings of the Society of California Archaeology 16:175-182. [full text]

Map of CSUS Archaeology Master's Theses