Michael Barton
Professor
Ph.D., Archaeology, University of Arizona
SHESC Theme: Societies and their Natural Environments
Field Specializations: Archaeology, Human Ecology, Geoarchaeology, Agrarian Societies, Hunter-Gatherers, Lithic Technology, Paleoanthropology, Landscape Studies, Spatial Studies
Regional Foci: Europe, Mediterranean, North America
Contact: Michael Barton, SHESC 152A
Research:
Michael Barton's research interests center on long-term human ecology and landscape dynamics with ongoing projects in the Mediterranean (late Pleistocene through mid-Holocene) and American Southwest (Holocene-Archaic). He has done fieldwork in Spain, Bosnia and various locales in North America and has expertise in hunter/gatherer and early farming societies, geoarchaeology, lithic technology and evolutionary theory, with an emphasis on human-environmental interaction, landscape dynamics and techno-economic change. He is actively involved in applying quantitative methods in archaeological research, emphasizing spatial technologies (including GIS and remote sensing), exploratory data analysis and morphological analysis. He is a member of the GRASS GIS international development team.
Barton is a co-founder of the Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity and is currently a member of its steering committee. He also directs an international, multidisciplinary team studying the long-term interactions of humans and landscapes in the Mediterranean, with support from the National Science Foundation Biocomplexity in the Environment program. This five-year project, Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics, is developing multi-dimensional computer models of landscape change and agricultural land use practices for a 6,000-year period spanning the beginning of farming to the beginning of urban civilization.
His diverse publications—including five books and monographs—deal with prehistoric technology, land-use and ecology, geoarchaeology, Darwinian theory, prehistoric rock art and the peopling of the Americas. He is a member of the Governor's Archaeology Advisory Commission and the AZSITE Consortium (a multi-institutional organization that manages the digital information about the state of Arizona's archaeological and historic resources).
Research Projects:
Integrating Socio-Ecological Sciences Through a Community Modeling Framework
Mediterranean Landscape Dynamics
Mogollon Region Small Sites
Teaching:
Barton teaches courses in Human Impacts on the Environment, Spatial Technologies in Anthropological Research, Geoarchaeology, Lithic Technology and Issues in Old World Domestication Economies. He also serves as the school's director of Graduate Studies.
Select Publications:
Barton, C. M. (in press). General fitness, transmission, and human behavioral systems. In M. J. O'Brien (Ed.), Cultural transmission. Washington, DC: Society for American Archaeology Press.
Indruszewski, G. & Barton, C. M. (in press). GIS modeling of Viking age seafaring in the Baltic Sea. In B. Frescher (Ed.), Beyond illustration: New applications of 3D computer technology to archaeological research. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports.
Miller, A. & Barton, C. M. (in press). Exploring the land: A comparison of land-use patterns in the Middle and Upper Paleolithic of the western Mediterranean. Journal of Archaeological Science.
Popescu, G., Riel-Salvatore, J., & Barton, C. M. (in press). Standing at the gates of Europe: Human behavior and biogeography in the southern Carpathians during the late Pleistocene. Journal of Archaeological Research.
McClure, S. B., Jochim, M. A., & Barton, C. M. (2006). Foraging theory, domestic animals, and the transition to agriculture in eastern Spain. In KD. Kennett & B. Winterhalder (Eds.), Foraging theory and the transition to agriculture (pp. 197-216). Berkely: University of California Press.
Barton, C. M., Bernabeu Auban, J., Garcia Puchol, O., Schmich, S. & Molina Balaguer, L. (2004). Long-term socioecology and contingent landscapes. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 11, 253-395.
Barton, C. M., Bernabeu, J., Emili Aura, J. & Molina L. (2004). Historical contingency, nonlinearity, and the neolithization of the western Mediterranean. In L. Wandsnider & E. Athanassopoulos (Eds.), Current issues in Mediterranean landscape archaeology (pp. 99-124). Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Barton, C. M., Clark, G. A., Yesner, D. & Pearson, G. (Eds.) (2004). The settlement of the American continents: A multidisciplinary approach to human biogeography. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.
Riel-Salvatore, J. & Barton, C. M. (2004). Late Pleistocene technology, economic behavior, and land-use dynamics in southern Italy. American Antiquity, 69(2), 273-290.