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Brian McKee

 

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Brian R. McKee
Ph.D. University of Arizona 2007
DIA Fellow, Fall 2010


Brian's research interests include environmental archaeology – particularly the study of the impacts
of sudden environmental perturbations on societies, household archaeology, and the study of
formation processes – the processes that occur between past behaviors of interest and archaeologists’
reconstruction of those behaviors. He received bachelor’s degrees in both anthropology and geology,
as well as a master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Colorado. He completed his Ph.D.
in anthropology at the University of Arizona in 2007 majoring in archaeology and minoring in
geosciences. His dissertation, "Comparative Household Archaeology in the Zapotitán Valley,
El Salvador," focused on reconstructing domestic activities at two sites. The first, Cerén, was
catastrophically buried by a volcanic eruption around A.D. 650, leading to the exceptional
preservation of structures, artifacts, and activity areas, and allowing the detailed reconstruction
of many aspects of the daily lives of the village inhabitants. By comparing the items that were
in use or storage contexts when the eruption struck with those that had been discarded, he
developed models to interpret materials recovered at the nearby site of San Andrés, which was
minimally affected by the eruption. McKee also has conducted research in Costa Rica and
Guatemala, as well as a variety of regions in the United States, including the Great Plains, the
Great Basin, the Southwest, and the Southeast. Current projects include the construction of a GIS
to study the relationship between the locations of archaeological sites recorded by the Zaptotitán
Valley Archaeological Survey in the 1970s and environmental variables.

Selected Publications

McKee, Brian R.
2011 Volcanoes and Human Response in the Zapotitán Valley, El Salvador. In Apocalypse
Then and Now: Proceedings of the 35th annual Chacmool Conference, Calgary, Alberta.
In press.

2002 Household 2 at Cerén: The Remains of an Agrarian and Craft-Oriented Corporate
Group. In Before the Volcano Erupted, edited by Payson Sheets pp. 58-71. University of
Texas Press, Austin.

2002 Structure 9: A Precolumbian Sweat Bath at Cerén. In Before the Volcano Erupted,
edited by Payson Sheets, pp. 89-96. University of Texas Press, Austin.

1999 Household Archaeology and Cultural Formation Processes: Examples from the Cerén
Site, El Salvador. In The Archaeology of Household Activities, edited by Penelope M.
Allison, pp. 30-42. Routledge Press, London and New York.

1997 La Estructura 9 de Joya de Cerén: Un Temazcal del Periodo Clásico. In Proceedings
of the X Simposio de Investigaciones Arqueológicas en Guatemala, edited by Juan Pedro
Laporte and Héctor L. Escobedo, pp. 237-249. Instituto de Antropología e Historia,
Guatemala City.

1995 La Reutilización de Materiales Arqueológicos en el Sitio Cerén, El Salvador. In
Proceedings of the VIII Simposio de Arqueología Guatemalteca, edited by Juan Pedro
Laporte y Héctor L. Escobedo, pp. 79-89. Instituto de Antropología e Historia, Guatemala
City.

McKee, Brian R., and Thomas L. Sever
1994 Remote Sensing in the Arenal Region. In Archaeology, Volcanism, and Remote Sensing
in the Arenal Region, Costa Rica, edited by Payson D. Sheets and Brian R. McKee, pp.
135-141. University of Texas Press, Austin.

McKee, Brian R., Thomas L. Sever, and Payson D. Sheets
1994 Prehistoric Footpaths in Costa Rica: Remote Sensing and Field Verification. In
Archaeology,Volcanism, and Remote Sensing in the Arenal Region, Costa Rica, edited by
Payson D. Sheets and Brian R. McKee, pp. 142-157. University of Texas Press, Austin.

McKee, Brian R., and Payson D. Sheets
2003 Volcanic Activity and Abandonment Process: Cerén and the Zapotitán Valley of El
Salvador. In Abandonment Processes in Mesoamerica, edited by Takeshi Inomata and
Ronald Webb, pp. 61-76. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.