The geoSTRAT Lab:

A Joint Laboratory for the Archaeological and Geological Sciences

 

DIRECTOR 

 Dr Allen M Gontz, Assistant Professor, Coastal Geology & Geophysics Department of Environmental, Earth and Ocean Sciences

 

COOPPERATING FACULTY

 

Dr Curtis Olsen, Professor, Geochemistry, Department of Environmental, Earth and Ocean Sciences

Dr Ninian Stein, Associate Director of the Environmental Studies Program, Department of Environmental, Earth and Ocean Sciences

 

AFFILIATES, COLLABORATORS & WORKING PARTNERS

 

Dr Ellen Berkland, City Archaeologist, City of Boston, Massachusetts

Mr Victor Mastone, State Underwater Archaeologist, Massachusetts Board of Underwater Archaeological Resources

Dr Duncan FitzGerald, Professor, Coastal Geology, Boston University

Dr Peter Rosen, Professor and Chair, Coastal Geology, Northeastern University

 

CONCEPT:

 

The GeoSTRAT Lab concept was developed by geologists and archaeologists joining together and suggesting that the two sciences are not only closely related, but intertwined. 

 

Presently, the Lab is focused on the Holocene (last 10,000 years of the Earth’s history).  The Holocene has seen the evolution of the human species into the current form, drastically changing sea-levels as ice sheets and continental glaciers melt and the rise of complex societies.  This has been a period of intense change on numerous fronts and represents an exciting time for research that integrates geology and archaeology through paleo-geographic, paleo-environmental, and paleo-societal reconstructions.

 

The GeoSTRAT Lab was originally conceived in response to the 2006 University of Massachusetts President’s Science and Technology Fund (S&T Fund) call for proposals.  While the S&T Fund saw significant value in the proposed collaboration between archaeology and geology, they eventually chose not to support the concept.  The University of Massachusetts-Boston, however, saw great potential for the concept and funded the concept at the campus level. 

 

CURRENT PROJECTS

 

·        Geophysical Assessment of the Proposed Hull Offshore Windfarm Site, Hull, Massachusetts

·        Pre/Post Dredge Monitoring of the UMass-Boston Navigation Channel, Savin Hill Cove, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts

·        Paleo-Drainage System of the Neponset River, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts

·        Paleo-Channels and Early Viking Settlement Sites, Skagafjourur, Iceland

·        Sediment Dynamics of the Lower Hudson River Estuary

 

COMPLETED PROJECTS

 

·        Geophysical Assessment of the Proposed Wreck Site of the USS Niagara, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts

·        Geophysical Assessment of the Proposed Wreck Site of the Le Magnifique, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts

·        Archaeological Site Survey of the Proposed Salt March Reconstruction Site, Thompson Island, Boston Harbor, Massachusetts

 

PUBLICATIONS

 

Kelley, AR, Kelley, JT, Belknap, DF, and Gontz, AM, submitted, Isostatically forced early Holocene drainage divide shifts, Penobscot and Kennebec Rivers, Maine, USA: The Holocene

Gontz, AM and Larkin, K, in prep, Paleo-Channels of the River

Gontz, AM, Belknap, DF, and Kelley, JT, in prep, Pockmarks and their subsurface and surface associations in Penobscot and Muscongus Bays, Maine, USA

Gontz, AM, in prep, Observations of wave-cut features on the Corner Rise Seamount Complex, Atlantic Ocean.

Click Here for complete list of ABSTRACTS and REPORTS

 

CURRENT & PAST STUDENT INVOLVEMENT

 

Jun Zhu, PhD Candidate, Sediment Dynamics in the Lower Hudson River Estuary

Heather Fleming, MS Candidate, Evolution of a Small-Scale, Estuarine Dredging Project

Erin Remillard, MS Candidate, Impacts of Acoustical Equipment on Marine Mammals

Christopher Stillman, Undergraduate, Surficial Geology of a High-Energy Cove, Nova Scotia

Christopher Maio, Undergraduate, Geophysical Assessment of the Proposed Wreck Site of the USS Niagara, Boston Harbor