Elizabeth Reitz

Professor
Graduate Coordinator
Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Florida, 1979
ereitz@uga.edu

I base my research on the study of animal remains from archaeological sites, for which purpose I manage the Zooarchaeology Laboratory. The lab specializes in the identification of vertebrate remains and contains a comparative skeletal collection of 4,200 vertebrate and invertebrate specimens from throughout the southeastern United States and adjacent waters, as well as from the Caribbean. It has been used since 1977 in support of archaeological research, service, and training, during which time over 200 archaeological faunal assemblages from the southeastern United States, the Caribbean basin, Peru, and Ecuador have been studied.

Research is conducted within a service framework. Both historic and prehistoric materials are studied with most analysis conducted within the context of examining adaptations to coastal and aquatic settings. Laboratory personnel are particularly active in research involving coastal adaptations of Spanish, plantation, and Native American populations. This research examines such questions as differences in rural/urban subsistence strategies, Native American contributions to European subsistence strategies, and the use by Native Americans of terrestrial or marine resources. Anthropology and biology are combined in studies of allometric relationships, incremental growth in deer, fishes, and mollusks, DNA analysis of Georgia deer, isotopic analysis of mollusk valves and otoliths, feeding behavior of a number of rodent and carnivore species, and change in deer size through time currently being conducted using the comparative collection.

Study of the faunal assemblages is funded by contracts with archaeologists from such agencies as the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Agriculture, and the Georgia Department of Natural Resources; as well as private companies. Students are encouraged to participate in these service activities, with contract funds used to support them. Several of these projects have been analyzed by students as part of their dissertation or thesis research.

Recent publications:

• Reitz, Elizabeth J. and Elizabeth S. Wing. 1999. Zooarchaeology. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. In Press.
• Reitz, Elizabeth J. 1997. Evidence for Environmental Change at a Coastal Archaic Site, Ostra, Peru. Anthropozoologica 25/26:247-253.
• Reitz, Elizabeth J., Lee A. Newsom, and Sylvia J. Scudder, eds. 1996. Case Studies in Environmental Archaeology. Plenum Publishing: New York.
• Reitz, Elizabeth J. 1995. Pork on the Southern Coastal Plain: Nutrition or Symbol? Symbolic Role of Animals in Archaeology, edited by K. Ryan and Pam J. Crabtree. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, MASCA 12:79-89. Philadelphia, PA.
• Reitz, Elizabeth J. 1995. The Wells of Spanish Florida: Using Taphonomy to Identify Site History. Journal of Ethnobiology 14(2):141-160.
• Reitz, Elizabeth J. and Bonnie G. McEwan. 1995. Animals, Environment, and the Spanish Diet and Puerto Real. Puerto Real: The Archaeology of a Sixteenth-Century Spanish Town in Hispaniola, edited by K. Deagan. PP. 287-334. University Press of Florida: Gainesville.
• Reitz, Elizabeth J. 1994. Zooarchaeological Analysis of a Free African Community: Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose. Historical Archaeology 28(1):23-40.
• Reitz, Elizabeth J. and Barbara Ruff. 1994. Morphometric Data for Cattle from North America And the Caribbean Prior to the 1950's. Journal of Archaeological Science 21(5):699-713.
• Reitz, Elizabeth J. 1993. Evidence for Animal Use at the Missions of Spanish Florida. The Spanish Missions of La Florida, edited by B. G. McEwan, pp. 376-398. University Press of Florida: Gainesville.
• Purdue, James R., and Elizabeth J. Reitz. 1993. Decrease in Body Size of White-tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) During the Late Holocene in South Carolina and Georgia. Morphological Change in Quaternary Mammals of North America, edited by Robert A. Martin and Anthony D. Barnosky, pp. 281-298. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
• Hales, L. Stanton, Jr., and Elizabeth J. Reitz. 1992. Historical Changes in Age and Growth of Atlantic Croaker, Micropogonias undulatus (Perciformes: Sciaenidae). Journal of Archaeological Science 19(1):73-99.
• Reitz, Elizabeth J. 1992. The Spanish Colonial Experience and Domestic Animals. Historical Archaeology 26(1):84-91.
• Reitz, Elizabeth J., and Martha A. Zierden. 1991. Cattle Bones and Status from Charleston, South Carolina. Bemers, Bobwhites, and Blue-points: Tributes to the Career of Paul W. Parmalee, edited by J. R. Purdue, W. E. Klippel, and B. W. Styles, pp. 395-407. Illinois State Museum.
• Reitz, Elizabeth J. 1991. Dieta y alimentación hispano-americana en el Caribe y la Florida en el siglo XVI. Revista de Indias 51(191):11-24. Madrid, Spain.
• Reitz, Elizabeth J. 1991. Animal Use and Culture Change in Spanish Florida. Animal Use and Culture Change, edited by P. J. Crabtree and K. Ryan, pp. 62-77. MASCA 8, Supplement, Philadelphia, PA.
• Reitz, Elizabeth J. 1990. Zooarchaeological Evidence for Subsistence at La Florida Missions. Columbian Consequences, Probing the Spanish Borderlands East, edited by D. Hurst Thomas, pp. 543-554. Smithsonian Press: Washington, D.C.