Research Grants
The mission of the PaleoWest Foundation is to support archaeological research, education, and preservation worldwide to advance the profession and create and sustain knowledge relevant to today’s world. To this end, the Foundation has established a research grant program to support innovative archaeological research. If selected, grants up to $5000 will be awarded to applicants. The number of awardees will depend on funding availability and the quality of the grant applications. Applicants must fill out the application form and submit it by April 30. There are no restrictions on who may apply. Requirements include allowing the Foundation to feature any Foundation-supported project on the Foundation’s website, on social media, and in presentations to the public. Phased research projects may be considered.
PaleoWest Foundation 2023 Research Grant Award Winner
The PaleoWest Foundation is pleased to announce that this year (2023) the Foundation selected Dr. Robert Walker at the University of Missouri as the winner of the research grant award for his research project entitled “Discovery and exploration of ancient Amazonian geoglyphs.” This project focuses on the ancient geoglyphs of Amazonia, hundreds of which are likely still hidden beneath forest canopy. His team seeks to find geoglyphs still preserved by the forest before they are damaged or destroyed by deforestation and agricultural expansion. They are developing an interactive website with digital exploration of geoglyphs to offer an engaging and immersive experience that educates users about cutting-edge archaeological approaches. Those with ancestral or scholarly ties to these ancient cultures will have new ways to access and learn about a form of cultural heritage that was, until recently, completely hidden by Amazonian rainforest. As such, their project makes significant contributions to the understanding of pre-Columbian Amazonia and promotes the recognition and protection of ancient indigenous cultural heritage. Using machine learning, LiDAR, and surveys they address the following questions: What is the full geographic distribution of geoglyphs, and how best can they be detected in forested areas? Are geoglyphs found only in certain locations or distributed broadly across the landscape? What were the functions of geoglyphs, and how much work did they take to create as estimated from 3D models? The long-term goal of their project is to fully develop longitudinal remote surveillance that catalogs known locations of geoglyphs and can help policy makers make informed decisions that will increase protection for important archaeological sites.
Congratulations, Dr. Walker!
PaleoWest Foundation 2022 Research Grant Award Winner
The PaleoWest Foundation is pleased to announce that this year (2022) the Foundation selected Marie Meranda at the University of South Florida as the winner of the research grant award for her research project entitled “An investigation into the longue durée of the Maritime Cultural Landscape of LaSoye Bay, Dominica.” This project is the maritime component of a larger investigation into a colonial era-settlement on the small volcanic island of Dominica in the Lesser Antilles. This site is one of the few dating to the sixteenth century in the eastern Caribbean, a tumultuous period of political and economic shifts in the region due to the arrival of Europeans. Situated along an active trading channel between Marie Galante, Guadeloupe, and Dominica, the bay is shielded by a headland, Pointe LaSoye. This bay is one of the nearest sheltered anchorages for vessels arriving from Africa and Europe, and thus, has the potential to reveal novel insights into trade, exchange, and development of the port town. In 2019, her team was the first to investigate LaSoye Bay, where they discovered the archaeological remnants of the town’s anchorage. The monies from PaleoWest will be used to conduct underwater research to record submerged port remains, and to search for shipwrecks and other materials associated with the remnants of the port and document how it has changed over time.
Congratulations to Ms. Meranda.
PaleoWest Foundation 2021 Research Grant Award Winner
The PaleoWest Foundation is pleased to announce that this year (2021) the Foundation selected the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe of the San Francisco Bay Area as the winner of the research grant award for their research project entitled “An Ethnohistory of Santa Clara Valley and Adjacent Regions.” This project is an outgrowth of a larger data recovery project that was conducted at Site CA-SCL-30H, which contains the third location of Mission Santa Clara de Asís and includes an “Indian rancheria”—a large, Native American living complex associated with the Mission (A.D. 1777–1836). As such the site contains architectural, ceremonial, and domestic-activity materials that are directly ancestral to the Ohlone people. This project therefore represents an important component of Ohlone history and connection to their ancestral past. The ethnohistory portion of the project will advance a history of the project and surrounding cultural landscape in the Tribe’s own voice. The project will thus be an important contribution to understanding the Ohlone perspective on the past and how the past and present are directly linked.
Congratulations to the Ohlone Tribe and their researchers.
PaleoWest Foundation 2020 Research Grant Award Winner
The PaleoWest Foundation is pleased to announce that this year (2020) the Foundation was able to fund two research grant awards. The first one was awarded to Dr. Debra Martin, Professor of Bioarchaeology at UNLV. Her project, entitled “Bioarchaeological Excavation and Analysis of a Genízaro Mission Church and Cemetery (1800-1850)” seeks to recover, analyze, and repatriate disturbed burials from an important historical moment in New Mexico’s history. Her excavations will focus the original mission church and plaza of Belen, NM, and its associated cemetery, which was located both within and outside the church walls. The burials contained within this site have frequently been disturbed over the years by flooding, freeze/thaw cycles, and residential development. Dr. Martin’s ultimate goal is to publish and make widely available to the community the individual microhistories generated from her analyses of these threatened resources, providing an intimate lens through which this early colonial history can be viewed.
The second grant was awarded to Dr. Nesta Anderson, Office Principal for PaleoWest’s Austin office. The subjects of her research project, entitled “First Street Cemetery Infant Bioarchaeological Analysis,” are the 31 infants recovered from First Street Cemetery in Waco, Texas. This analysis will allow her to discuss the infants as a group and part of a larger population that would provide insights for the members of the Waco community who were interred in First Street.
Congratulations to both of these stellar researchers.
PaleoWest Foundation 2019 Research Grant Award Winner
Congratulations to Dr. Jon Spenard of California State University San Marcos for winning this year’s PaleoWest Foundation Research Grant award. The PaleoWest Foundation is pleased to support the 2019 field season of the Rio Frio Regional Archaeology Project.
The 2019 fieldwork is the second field season of a multi-year project in the marginally studied Mountain Pine Ridge/Rio Frio region of Belize. The long-term goal of the project is to document the ritual landscape through the detailed study of modification and material remains within caves, rock shelters, and other natural features, continuing both researchers’ work in the Belize Valley. It also seeks to understand how prehistoric Maya people used the unique resources of the region, to identify basic settlement patterns, and to model how local sites fit into regional exchange networks. Goals of the 2019 season include excavation, mapping, and digital documentation of several cave sites to build initial chronologies, identify regional affiliations, and document modification within the caverns as well as conducting limited surface reconnaissance to locate Maya settlement.
Another primary goal of the larger project is to advance digital documentation methods of cultural sites and conduct paperless fieldwork. Recent efforts include 3D feature and excavation mapping, 3D cave mapping, and the creation of virtual cave tours using spherical panoramas as well as the use of database driven field forms on iPads. Project staff have spent the last several years developing photogrammetric techniques for mapping features and portions of the caves nearly tripling the amount of data captured each season. These virtual recreations are an important tool in writing more detailed and accurate descriptions of cave environments after the research team has left the field and virtually bringing others into the cave. They can also be used as a baseline for assessing the effects of tourism and looting by modeling yearly changes.
Additionally, the project seeks to continue building community relationships with native Maya living in the nearby village of San Antonio, through project employment as guides and workmen and training of volunteers and local observers. This project comports perfectly with the mission of the PaleoWest Foundation and we are very proud to be a part of it.