I am a zooarchaeologist and historical archaeologist with primary interests in the experiences of Native Americans and Europeans in the colonial period. I am interested in the consequences of European colonization of North America, specifically the introduction of Eurasian livestock into indigenous subsistence systems, the effect of livestock on North American landscapes, and the integration of indigenous labor into expanding European market economies.  I work both in the southeastern and southwestern regions of North America.  In both regions I am interested in the role of Native American labor and animal husbandry products in the emergence of global economies in the 18th century. I am also the zooarchaeologist for James Madison's Montpelier and Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. 

 

Degrees

  • Degree Type
    BA
    Degree Details
    Binghamton University (1996)
  • Degree Type
    PhD
    Degree Details
    University of Georgia (2001)
I believe that students learn best through hands-on, experiential learning, and when they feel represented within, and respected by, the course content. I am also a conscientious and hands-on mentor to a diverse community of students, honoring my positionality and that of my students in my mentoring relationships. My students report that I “meet them where they are”, and tailor my mentoring to match their specific needs, backgrounds, and personalities.

I teach courses on a variety of topics for both graduate and undergraduate students, and have developed and taught eight different courses over the course of my career. I currently teach a four-credit 120-student general education laboratory course (ANTH 222: Introduction to Ecological and Evolutionary Anthropology). This course is an expanded version of a course for which I won the University of Arizona’s Provost’s General Education Teaching Award in 2009 . I teach Introduction to Zooarchaeology (ANTH 341/641), a hands-on laboratory methods course for undergraduate and graduate students. I also teach an undergraduate and graduate level seminar (ANTH 455/635: Culture Contact and Colonialism in the Americas), and an Honor's seminar (HONR 239N: Colonial Consequences: American Archaeology in the Era of Colonialism).



Course Name Course Title Semester Syllabus
ANTH341 Introduction to Zooarchaeology Spring 2025

My research addresses Native American and European experiences in the early colonial period, particularly from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries. I am interested in the consequences of European colonization of North America, specifically the introduction of Eurasian livestock into indigenous subsistence systems, the effect of livestock on North American landscapes, and the integration of indigenous labor into expanding European market economies. The technical approach that I take to this research is zooarchaeology, the study of non-human animal remains from archaeological contexts. I work both in the southeastern and southwestern regions of North America. In both regions I am interested in the role of Native American labor and animal husbandry products in the emergence of global economies in the 18th century.

Selected Publications

Pavao-Zuckerman, Barnet, Scott Oliver, Chance Copperstone, Matt Reeves, and Marybeth Harte (2021) African American Culinary History and the Genesis of American Cuisine: Foodways and  Slavery at Montpelier. Journal of African Diaspora Archaeology and Heritage 9:2, 114-    147. DOI: 10.1080/21619441.2021.1909403 

Pavao-Zuckerman, Barnet  (2020) Bears, Bear-Grounds, and Bovines in the Lower Southeast. In Bears: Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Perspectives in Native Eastern North America, edited by Heather Lapham and Gregory Waselkov, pp. 217-234. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, FL.  

Pavao-Zuckerman, Barnet (2018) Environmental Archaeology in Recent Contexts: Migration, Scale, and Landscapes. Northeast Historical Archaeology 47:1-16.  

Pavão-Zuckerman, Barnet, and Júpiter Martínez Ramírez (2019) Zooarchaeology of Mission Nuestra Señora del Pilar y Santiago de Cocóspera. International Journal of Historical Archaeology. Published on-line October 21, 2019. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-019-00514-x      

Zierden, Martha A., Elizabeth J. Reitz, Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman, Laurie J. Reitsema, Bruce L. Manzano (2019) What is this Bird? The Quest to Identify Parrot Remains from the Heyward-Washington House, Charleston, South Carolina. Southeastern Archaeology 38(3): 240-250. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0734578X.2018.1555407  

Mathwich, Nicole M., Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman, and Alexander Ruff (2019) Applying Indigenous Knowledge to Colonial Livestock: Isotopic Patterns in Water and Range Resources in the Desert Landscapes of the Pimería Alta. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.101919   

Mathwich, Nicole, and Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman (2018) Bureaucratic Reforms on the Frontier: Zooarchaeological and Historical Perspectives on the 1767 Jesuit Expulsion in the Pimería Alta. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 52:156-166.

Pavao-Zuckerman, Barnet, Tracie Mayfield, Chance Copperstone, and H. Thomas Foster  (2018) “Horned Cattle and Packhorses”: Zooarchaeological Legacy Collections from the Unauthorized (and Unscreened) Spanish Fort”. Southeastern Archaeology 37(3):190-203.

Pavao-Zuckerman, Barnet, Derek T. Anderson, and Matthew Reeves (2018) Dining with the Madisons: Elite Consumption at Montpelier. Historical Archaeology 52(2):372-396.

Grimstead, Deanna N. and Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman (2016) Historical continuity in Sonoran Desert free-range ranching practices: Carbon, oxygen, and strontium isotope evidence from two 18th-century missions. Journal of Archaeological Science Reports 7:37-47.

Pavao-Zuckerman, Barnet, Trica Oshant Hawkins, Stanley Bond (2016) Linking Students to Latino Heritage Through Archaeology. Journal of Community Archaeology and Heritage 3(3):202-219.

Pavao-Zuckerman, Barnet and Diana Loren (2012) Presentation is Everything: Foodways, Tableware and Colonial Identity at Presidio Los Adaes. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 16(4):199-226.

Reitz, Elizabeth J., Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman, Daniel C. Weinand, and Gwyneth A. Duncan (2010) Mission and Pueblo of Santa Catalina de Guale, St. Catherines Island, Georgia: A Comparative Zooarchaeological Analysis. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History, No. 91, New York, NY. ISBN-13: 978-1939302175

Pavao-Zuckerman, Barnet (2011) Rendering Economies: Native American Labor and Secondary Animal Products in the Eighteenth-Century Pimería Alta. American Antiquity 76(1):3-23.

Pavao-Zuckerman, Barnet (2007) Deerskins and Domesticates: Creek Subsistence and Economic Strategies in the Historic Period. American Antiquity 72(1):5-33.

Pavao-Zuckerman, Barnet and Vincent LaMotta (2007) Missionization and Economic Change in the Pimería Alta: The Zooarchaeology of Mission San Agustín del Tucson. International Journal of Historical Archaeology 11(3):241-268.

Pavao-Zuckerman, Barnet (2000) Vertebrate Subsistence in the Mississippian-Historic Period Transition. Southeastern Archaeology 19(2):135-144.

Pavao, Barnet and Peter W. Stahl (1999) Structural Density Assays of Leporid Skeletal Elements with Implications for Taphonomic, Actualistic and Archaeological Research. Journal of Archaeological Science 26(1):53-66.

Current Students

Former Students

  • Nicole Mathwich (PhD, University of Arizona, 2018)
    Assistant Professor of Anthropology, San Diego State University
  • Siobhan Summers (MAA, University of Maryland, 2018)
    PhD student, University of Florida
  • Gabriela Ruiz Velez (MAA 2023))
  • Scott Oliver (MAA, University of Maryland, 2017)
    Assistant Lab Manager, Veteran's Curation Program
  • Stewart Williams (MAA 2023)
  • Ben Curry (PhD, University of Arizona, 2017)
    Archaeologist, Environmental Science Associates
  • Robby Outland (MAA 2023)
  • Alex Vindas Cruz (MAA 2019)
    Archeologist, Monocacy National Battlefield, National Park Service
  • Tracie Mayfield (PhD, University of Arizona, 2015)
    Lecturer, University of Southern California
  • Chance Copperstone (MA, University of Arizona, 2014)
    Field Director, Faunal Analyst, & Osteologist, Tierra Right of Way Services
  • Donelle Huffer (MA, University of Arizona, 2013)
    Vanishing Treasures Archaeologist, Grand Canyon National Park
  • Lauren Jelinek (PhD, University of Arizona, 2012)
    Archaeologist, Bureau of Reclamation
  • Kelly Jenks (PhD, University of Arizona, 2011)
    Associate Professor of Anthropology, New Mexico State University
  • Deanna Grimstead (PhD, University of Arizona, 2011)
    Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Ohio State University
  • Ashley Blythe Haverstock (MA, University of Arizona, 2009)
    Assistant Forest Archaeologist, U.S. Forest Service - Inyo National Forest
  • Rachel Diaz de Valdes (MA, University of Arizona, 2007)
    Training and Development Manager, Amgen
  • Daniel Broockmann (MA, University of Arizona, 2007)
    Archaeologist, Bureau of Land Management
  • Michael Margolis (MA, University of Arizona, 2007)
    ENERCON Cultural Resources Line Leader/Archaeologist

Related Students (Listed by Student on Student's Profile)

  • Valerie M. J. Hall
  • Elizabeth McCague
  • Gabriela Ruiz Velez
  • Cameron Walker
  • Emma Weikert
Photograph of Dr. Pavao-Zuckerman. She is wearing a blue and white polka-dot shirt, and has light-colored skin, chin-length brown hair, and glasses.
2101C Woods Hall
Department of Anthropology
Phone
(301) 405-0697
Email
bpavao [at] umd.edu