40. 32nd Annual Kentucky Heritage Council Archaeology Conference

Just submitted an abstract for this year's Kentucky Archaeology Conference at Lake Barkley State Resort Park. This conference is always interesting and a great way to catch up on what is going on around the state. It would be irresponsible of me not to present.

I'm taking the opportunity to focus in on a portion of what I'll be presenting at the Society for Economic Anthropology Conference. See the current draft of the abstract below:

Rectifying an Archaeological Model

Much of Kentucky’s distilling history is being excluded in favor of lore associated with successful brands. “Bourbon Archaeology” projects highlight these excluded histories while testing an archaeological model of distilling. Popular whiskey histories present three tiers of distilleries that vary in scale. My research correlates each tier with expected material signatures. Since the process of distilling requires key components, the materials associated with alcohol production areas should be similar while site layouts and ancillary components vary between each tier. Preliminary results suggest refinements to this model as various social and technological factors influence the archaeological signatures of these sites.