Michelle Carpenter       Michelle Carpenter

Contact:

Project Archaeologist, Lab Technician,
Graduate Student in Residence, Legacy Outreach Program Coordinator


  • Michelle Carpenter has experience in the fields of archaeology and anthropology. She has conducted archaeological fieldwork in throughout the American Southwest, Idaho, Virginia, and Northern Mexico. Research interests include low-level agricultural systems, stable isotope research, and mortuary practices. Current interests are reconstruction of health, diet, and mobility of humans and fauna through stable isotopes, as well as Archaic burial and mortuary practices.

  • Michelle has presented papers and posters at professional meetings for the Society for American Archaeology, the Mogollon Archaeology Conference, UTSA spring research conference, and the Southwest Symposium. She has worked as a graduate laboratory assistant since 2013. Michelle currently serves as a Doctoral student laboratory assistant on a National Science Foundation Grant from Dr. Robert Hard in UTSA’s Anthropology Department. This collaborative project strives to analyze human remains from mortuary sites in Texas through aDNA, stable isotopes, and radiocarbon analyses.

EDUCATION
  • 2017-Present
    Ph.D. in Anthropology, UTSA, in progress
    Dissertation topic: Analysis of stable isotopes at La Playa (SON:F:10:3), Sonora, Mexico
  • 2017
    M.A. in Anthropology from Idaho State University
  • 2015
    B.A. in Anthropology from Idaho State University
PUBLICATIONS AND REPORTS
  • 2019. Michelle Carpenter, Robert J. Hard. A Preliminary Examination of Double and Triple Rock Rings on Sanchez (AZ: CC: 2: 452). Collected Papers from the 20th Biennial Mogollon Archaeology Conference. Ed Lonnie Ludeman. Friends of Mogollon Archaeology. Pp. 253-258. Las Cruces, NM.
  • 2015. Carpenter, Michelle. An Analysis of Heavy Metals in Human Remains. Unpublished Bachelor’s Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Idaho State University, Pocatello.