Curator of Eastern North American Archaeology, UMMAA; Professor, Anthropology
rabeck@umich.eduArchaeology at Michigan; Eastern North American Archaeology; Anthropological Archaeology; Latin American Archaeology; Community Archaeology; Historical Archaeology; Prehistoric Archaeology
Areas of Expertise
- North America
- Andes
- Colonialism
- Material culture
- Mississippian culture and society
- Survey and settlement patterns
- Historical archaeology
Research Topics
Rob Beck is interested in the changes to human life that followed the climatic transition to the Holocene about 12,000 years ago, including the origins and development of town and village life, monumentality, durable inequality, urbanism, and colonial encounters. He is also interested in how we construct assemblages of material culture, particularly in contexts of intercultural exchange. He has directed fieldwork in eastern North America and the Andes, with his current field projects focusing on an early colonial encounter at the Berry site in North Carolina and on the development of urban landscapes at Cahokia in Illinois.
Courses
- Past Meets Present: Discovering Archaeology
- Making Things: Three Million Years of Materials and Culture
- Complex Societies
