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Center for the Study of Human Origins

Department of
Anthropology

 
New York University

25 Waverly Place
New York City
NY 10003

telephone:
212.992.9785
fax:
212.995.4907

 

PAM CRABTREE

 
 
Sheep horn core are from the Middle Saxon site
of Brandon in eastern England

Position:Associate Professor of Anthropology

Education: B.A. 1972, Barnard
M.A. 1975, University of Pennsylvania
Ph.D. 1982, University of Pennsylvania

E-mail: pc4@nyu.edu, PamCDougC@comcast.net

Phone:
212-998-8573

Research Sites:
Dún Ailinne, Ireland; Brandon, England;
Delaware Water Gap, NJ

Excavating at the Delaware Water Gap during the 1998 field season
Research Focus: Pam Crabtree is a zooarchaeologist whose research interests center broadly on the uses of faunal remains to study past animal husbandry patterns, hunting practices, and diet. She is also interested in the use of archaeological-recovered animal remains to study trade, social status, ethnicity, and prehistoric ritual. Crabtree’s primary area of interest is later prehistoric and early medieval Europe, but she has also worked on Natufian settlement and subsistence in the Southern Levant and 18th- and 19th-century sites in eastern North America.

Excavating at the Delaware Water Gap during the 1998 field season
Crabtree is currently completing three major research projects. The first is the study of the animal remains from the Iron Age site of Dún Ailinne in Ireland. Dún Ailinne is a large, ceremonial site located southwest of Dublin in County Kildare that was traditionally associated with the kings of Leinster. Excavations were carried out at the site in the late 1960s and 1970s under the direction of Prof. Bernard Wailes of the University of Pennsylvania. The site produced over 18,000 animal bones and fragments, the largest Iron Age faunal collection in Ireland. Pam Crabtree and Doug Campana are also studying the worked bones and bone implements from Dún Ailinne.

Crew chief, Mary Socci, excavating at Salibiya in the West Bank

Pam Crabtree and Doug Campana are also completing the analysis of the mammal and bird remains
from the Middle Saxon site of Brandon in eastern England. Brandon is a high-status residential site that was excavated over nine seasons in the 1980s. The Brandon excavations yielded over 150,000 bird and mammal remains, including exotic species such as grey seal, dolphin, and peregrine falcon. The vast majority of the remains were sheep, which appear to have been kept primarily for their wool. Crabtree and Campana are currently preparing the final report on the Brandon faunal remains.

Exacavating at the Delaware Water Gap during the 1999 field season
Pam Crabtree has just completed a five-year study of the archaeological potential of French-and-Indian-War-period sites in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area in northwest New Jersey. The study was carried out in conjunction with John Wright and Doug Campana of the National Park Service. The project included four seasons of archaeological survey and excavation, including an extensive program of archaeological excavation at Fort Johns, archaeological testing a Fort Naminock, and archaeological survey and mapping of an 18th- and 19th-century African American burial ground. Many NYU undergraduates and graduate students have taken part in the excavation program at the Water Gap. We are currently preparing the artifacts and faunal remains from the Water Gap for final publication.

Harold Fuess excavating at Salibiya in the West Bank
Crabtree’s future research plans include the study of faunal remains recovered from slave cabins in South Carolina, as part of an on-going survey and excavation project. Crabtree regularly teaches graduate courses in faunal analysis, the history of archaeological theory, and medieval archaeology. She has also taught contemporary archaeological theory, Near East I, and environmental archaeology, and she recently co-taught Paleoanthropology 1 with Terry Harrison and Eric Delson. Her undergraduate courses include Barbarian Europe, human ecology, prehistoric hunters and gatherers, and archaeology: early societies and cultures.


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Downloadable CV

Recent and Selected Publications:

  • In press. Anthropological Approaches to Zooarchaeology: Colonialism, Complexity and Animal Transformations, edited by D. Campana, P. Crabtree, S. deFrance, J. Lev-Tov, and A. Choyke. Oxford: Oxbow.

  • In press. (With S. A. Johnston, D.V. Campana, and C. Newman.) Beyond the Summit: Geophysical Survey at Dún Ailinne, County Kildare, Ireland. Journal of Field Archaeology.

  • In press. (With S. A. Johnston and D. V. Campana.) “The Use of Archaeological and Zooarchaeological Data in the Interpretation of Dún Ailinne, an Iron Age Royal Site in Co. Kildare, Ireland.” In The Role of Environmental Analysis in the Integrated Investigations of Ritual Deposits, edited by J. Morris and M. Maltby. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.

  • Crabtree, P. 2008. Agriculture. In Oxford Encyclopaedia of Women in World History,, Volume 1, edited by B.G. Smith, pp. 79-82. New York: Oxford University Press.

  • Crabtree, P., general editor. 2008. Encyclopedia of Society and Culture in the Medieval World. New York: Facts on File.

  • Adams, B.J. and P.J. Crabtree. 2008. Comparative Skeletal Anatomy: A Photographic Atlas for Medical Examiners, Coroners, Forensic Anthropologists, and Archaeologists. Totowa, NJ: Humana Press

  • Crabtree, P.J. 2007. “Floral Remains from Dún Ailinne,” pp. 155-156, “Biological Remains,” pp. 156-169, and “Worked Bone" (with D. Campana), pp. 125-131, in Dún Ailinne: Excavations at an Irish Royal Site, 1968-1975, by S. A. Johnston and B. Wailes. Philadelphia: University Museum Press.

  • Crabtree, P.J. 2007. “Animals as Material Culture in Middle Saxon England: The Zooarchaeological Evidence for Wool Production at Brandon,” and “Concluding Remarks.” In Breaking and Shaping Beastly Bodies: Animals as Material Culture in the Middle Ages, edited by A. Plushkowski. Oxford: Oxbow Press.

  • Crabtree, P.J. and D. V. Campana. 2006. Exploring Prehistory: How Archaeology Reveals Our Past. New York: McGraw-Hill.

  • Campana, D.V. and P.J. Crabtree. 2006. The Diet of Washington’s Soldiers at Valley Forge During the Winter of 1777-78. In Integrating Zooarchaeology, edited by Mark Maltby, pp. 28-32. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

  • Crabtree, P.J. 2006. Women, Gender, and Pastoralism. In Handbook of Gender in Archaeology, edited by S. M. Nelson, pp. 571-592. Berkeley, CA: AltaMira Press. Reprinted in Identity and Subsistence: Gender Strategies for Archaeology, edited by Sarah M. Nelson. Berkeley, CA: AltaMira (2007).

  • Crabtree, P.J. 2006. Diet and health in past animal populations: Current research and future directions. Journal of Anthropological Research 62: 142-143

  • Bogucki, P. I. and P.J. Crabtree, eds. 2004. Ancient Europe 8000 BC–1000 AD: An Encyclopedia of The Barbarian World. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

  • Campana, D. V. and P. J. Crabtree. 2003. Soldiers’ Diet at Valley Forge: An Analysis of the Faunal Remains from the 2000 Excavation Season. Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History 44 (1): 199-204.

  • Crabtree, P.J. 2002. Ritual Feasting in the Irish Iron Age: Re-examining the Fauna from Dún Ailinne in Light of Contemporary Archaeologcal Theory. In Behaviour Behind Bones: The Zooarchaeology of Ritual, Religion, Status and Identity, edited by Sharyn Jones O’Day, Win Van Neer, and Anton Ervynck, pp. 62-65. Proceedings of the 9th ICAZ Conference, Durham. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

  • Crabtree, P., D. V. Campana and J. R. Wright. 2002. Exploring the archaeological potential of French and Indian War Fortifications. Culture Resource Management 25(3): 21-22.