Heather Lapham | Archaeology

Associate Director

Research Laboratories of Archaeology; Adjunct Associate Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology

Alumni Hall 107B • (919) 962-3843 • hlapham@unc.edu

Research Interests

My earliest research explored how Native American participation in the historic-period deerskin trade initially altered indigenous lifeways in southwestern Virginia. Changes in the archaeological record in deer hunting, deerskin production, and exchange suggest certain seventeenth-century native communities altered their economic strategies to produce deerskins for commercial trade, and in the process transformed established sociopolitical systems. I continue to pursue my interests in intercultural interactions in a zooarchaeological research project in western North Carolina at the Berry site, the location of Spanish Fort San Juan (AD 1566-1568) and the native town of Joara. I am also studying animal economies in southern Mexico, particularly the use and management of animal resources (dogs, turkeys, and rabbits) and production of animal by-products in the Valley of Oaxaca at Classic and Early Postclassic period Zapotec sites, including the Mitla Fortress and El Palmillo, among others.

Current Research

To learn more about my recent projects, check out the links below. These studies are funded by the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, and other research grants.

• Joara and Fort San Juan
Subsistence, survival, and intercultural interactions and at the Berry site, a Catawba Indian town and Spanish garrison (Fort San Juan; AD 1566-1568) in western North Carolina.

• The Broad Reach Site
Subsistence and the role of domestic dogs at the Middle to Late Woodland (ca. AD 200-1500) Broad Reach site in eastern North Carolina.

• Zapotec Zooarchaeology
Urban economies and animal use at Classic to Early Postclassic (AD 200-1100) Zapotec sites in the Valley of Oaxaca in southern Mexico, including Cerro Danush, Lambityeco, Mitla Fortress, and El Palmillo.

Select Publications

(most available on Academia.edu/HeatherALapham)

2023 • Lapham, H. A., G. M. Feinman, and L. M. Nicholas. From Subsistence to Sacrifice: Dogs for Dinner and Ritual in Classic Period Zapotec Communities. In Ancient Foodways: Integrative Approaches to Understanding Subsistence and Society in the Past, C. M. Scarry, D. L. Hutchinson, and B. S. Arbuckle (eds.), University Press of Florida,
Gainesville.

2020 • Lapham, H. A., and G. A. Waselkov, editors. Bears: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Perspectives in Native Eastern North America. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

2020 • Lapham, H. A. Introduction. In Bears: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Perspectives in Native Eastern North America, H. A. Lapham and G. A. Waselkov (eds.), pp. 160–192. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

2020 • Lapham, H. A. In Feast and Famine: New Perspectives on Black Bear in the Southern Appalachians and Piedmont, AD 1000–1800. In Bears: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Perspectives in Native Eastern North America, H. A. Lapham and G. A. Waselkov (eds.), pp. 1–15. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

2018 • Feinman, G. M., L. M. Nicholas, and H. A. Lapham. Bone Tools and Ornaments in the Classic Period Valley of Oaxaca. Americae: European Journal of Americanist Archaeology 3.

2018 • Cameron, M. E., H. A. Lapham, and C. Shaw. Examining the influence of hide processing on Native American upper limb morphology. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 2018:1–11.

2017 • Lapham, H. A. Tracking the trade in animal pelts in early historic eastern North America. In The Oxford Handbook of Zooarchaeology, U. Albarella, M. Rizzetto, H. Russ, K. Vickers, and S. Viner-Daniels (eds.), pp. 575-591. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

2016 • Lapham, H. A., G. M. Feinman, and L. M. Nicholas. Turkey husbandry and use in Oaxaca, Mexico: A contextual study of turkey remains and SEM analysis of eggshell from the Mitla Fortress. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 10:534–546.

2016 • Lapham, H. A. Fauna, subsistence, and survival at Fort San Juan. In Fort San Juan and the Limits of Empire: Colonialism and Household Practice at the Berry Site, R. A. Beck, C. B. Rodning, and D. G. Moore (eds.), pp. 271-300. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

2016 • Beck, R. A., Jr., G. J. Fritz, H. A. Lapham, D. G. Moore, and C. B. Rodning. The politics of provisioning: Food and gender at Fort San Juan de Joara, 1566-1568. American Antiquity 81(1):1-24.

2015 • Bolin, R. D., H. A. Lapham, and K. D. Floerchinger. An x-ray analysis of dog mandibles from the Black Earth site. Illinois Antiquity 50(3):11-13.

2014 • Lapham, H. A., G. M. Feinman, y L. M. Nicholas. Economías basadas en fauna en el sur de México en tiempos prehispánicos. En La Arqueología de los Animales de Mesoamérica, C. M. Götz y K. F. Emery (eds.), págs. 161-202. Lockwood Press, Atlanta.

2014 • Lapham, H. A., A. K. Balkansky, y A. M. Amadio. Aprovechamiento de animales en la Mixteca Alta, Oaxaca, México. En La Arqueología de los Animales de Mesoamérica, C. M. Götz y K. F. Emery (eds.), págs. 135-159. Lockwood Press, Atlanta.

2013 • Lapham, H. A, G. M. Feinman, and L. M. Nicholas. Animal economies in Pre-Hispanic southern Mexico. In The Archaeology of Mesoamerican Animals, C. M. Götz and K. F. Emery (eds.), pp. 153-190. Lockwood Press, Atlanta.

2013 • Lapham, H. A, et al. Animal use at Tayata, Oaxaca, Mexico. In The Archaeology of Mesoamerican Animals, C. M. Götz and K. F. Emery (eds.), pp. 129-151. Lockwood Press, Atlanta.

2011 • Lapham, H. A. Animals in southeastern Native American subsistence economies. In Subsistence Economies of Indigenous North American Societies, B. D. Smith (ed.), pp. 401-429. Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, Washington, D.C.

2010 • Zeder, M. A., and H. A. Lapham. Assessing the reliability of criteria used to identify postcranial bones in sheep, Ovis, and goats, Capra. Journal of Archaeological Science 37(11):2887-2905.

2010 • Lapham, H. A. A Baumer phase dog burial from the Kincaid site in southern Illinois. Illinois Archaeology 22(2):437-463.

2008 • Duncan, W. N., A. K. Balkansky, K. Crawford, H. A. Lapham and N. J. Meissner. Human cremation in Mexico 3,000 years ago. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(14):5315-5320.

2006 • Lapham, H. A. Southeast animals. In Environment, Origins, and Population, D. H. Ubelaker (ed.), pp. 396-404. Handbook of North American Indians Vol. 3. W. C. Sturtevant, general editor. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

2005 • Lapham, H. A. Hunting for Hides: Deerskins, Status, and Cultural Change in the Protohistoric Appalachians. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

2004 • Lapham, H. A. “Their complement of deer-skins and furs”: Changing patterns of white-tailed deer exploitation in the seventeenth-century southern Chesapeake and Virginia hinterlands. In Indian and European Contact in Context: The Mid-Atlantic Region, D. B. Blanton and J. A. King (eds.), pp. 172-192. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

2004 • Lapham, H. A. Zooarchaeological evidence for changing socioeconomic status within early historic Native American communities in Mid-Atlantic North America. In Behaviour Behind Bones: The Zooarchaeology of Ritual, Religion, Status and Identity, S. J. O’Day, W. Van Neer, and A. Ervynck (eds.), pp. 293-303. Oxbow Books, Oxford.

2003 • Wall, R. D., and H. A. Lapham. Material culture of the Contact period in the upper Potomac Valley: Chronological and cultural implications. Archaeology of Eastern North America 31:149-175.

2002 • Lapham, H. A., and W. C. Johnson. Protohistoric Monongahela trade relations: Evidence from the Foley Farm phase glass beads. Archaeology of Eastern North America 30:97-120.

2000 • Lapham, H. A. More than “a few blew beads”: The glass and stone beads from Jamestown Rediscovery’s 1994-1997 excavations. The Journal of the Jamestown Rediscovery Center 1.