Meagan Bell is an alum of the CHRM program, having received her master's degree in 2024. Her thesis is titled Revisiting Chert Preferences and Lithic Supply Zones of Early Archaic Northwestern Ohio: A Least Cost Path Analysis. Bell’s thesis presented an innovative analysis of the distribution of lithic materials that circulated through quarry sites recorded in Erie and Huron Counties during compliance projects over the last several years. Meagan’s objective was to assess changes in lithic supply zones and apparent preference for local and exotic cherts, and relate these data to hunter-gatherer migration patterns during the Early Archaic Period, ca. 10,000-8,000 years before present. Least cost path analysis uses GIS to broadly infer lithic procurement travel routes, based on quantitative analysis of lithic material distributions sourced to specific quarries, especially diagnostic projectile point types, and environmental variables. Meagan identified several distinct travel routes linking chert sources, and also differences in utilization of cherts and migration spanning three major horizons dividing the Early Archaic Period, based on chronologically-diagnostic point styles.
Following below is an archived profile
Meagan is an archaeologist with a research background in the Midwest region and experience concentrated in Michigan and Ohio. Currently, she works at a civil and environmental engineering consulting firm as the Archaeological Laboratory Director. Her specializations include artifact analysis, curation, and geographic information systems. She has fieldwork experience in archaeological monitoring, Phase I, Phase II, and Phase III projects. Her research interests are in the archaeology of the Southern Great Lakes Region and the Midwestern U.S.
Areas of Interest
- Anthropology of Food / Indigenous Foodways
- Archaeology in the Midwest (U.S.)
- Archaeology of Religion and Ritual
- Cultural Heritage and Resource Management
- Cultural Materials Preservation
- Environmental Archaeology / Anthropology
- Folklore Studies
- Southern Great Lakes Region
Degrees
-
Degree TypeB.ADegree DetailsAnthropology - University of Toledo
Awards
-
2018-05-04Honor's in Major - Anthropology Department, University of Toledo
-
2018-05-01College of Arts & Letters Dean’s Essay Award - University of Toledo
-
2017-09-01Jeanette Stephens Undergraduate Paper Award - Illinois State Archaeological Survey
Conferences
-
Society for Industrial Archaeology Conference. Supporting author of "The Armory Park Gasometer: Documenting Toledo’s 19th-Century Utility Infrastructure" (Chidester et al. 2023)
-
Midwest Archaeology Conference Poster: The Armory Park Gasometer Site: An Investigation into Toledo’s Early Manufactured Gas Utility. Meagan N. Bell , Daniel Hershberger, Robert C. Chidester.
-
Midwest Archaeology Conference. Supporting author of "Mapping a Landscape of Lithic Exploitation: Pipe Creek Chert Quarries and Workshops in North-Central Ohio" (Chidester et al. 2021) paper presented by Athena Zissis.
Research
- Chidester et al. 2021: Mapping a Landscape of Lithic Exploitation: Pipe Creek Chert Quarries and Workshops in North-Central Ohio (unpublished Midwest Archaeological Conference paper)
- Bell, Meagan N. 2018: Trading with the Otherworld: Native American Religious Identity and European Contact in the Protohistoric Great Lakes (unpublished undergraduate honor's thesis)
- Bell, Meagan N. 2017: Understanding the Moorehead Phase at the Copper Site: Lithic Procurement and Use as Compared to the Cahokian Political-Administrative Complex (unpublished undergraduate research paper)
