Dr. John P. Hart

Curator Emeritus
john.hart@nysed.gov
518-474-3895

My research has focused primarily on the histories of maize, bean, and squash in New York and the greater Northeast and the interactions of human populations with these crops. Through collaborations with numerous colleagues both at the Museum and other institutions, this research resulted in new understandings of these histories and interactions. A primary focus has been on charred cooking residues adhering to the interior surfaces of pottery sherds in the collections of the Museum. These residues contain microfossil evidence (phytoliths, starch, lipids) of the plants cooked in the pots. In addition the residues can be directly radiocarbon dated through accelerator mass spectrometry. These methods and techniques have provided new evidence that is radically altering our understandings of the histories of agriculture in New York State. Theory building to develop understandings of these new histories is another focus. This research has broad implications for Native American history in New York and the greater Northeast.

Most recently I have been working with colleagues on Social Network Analyses (SNA) of northern Iroquoian sites dating from A.D. 1350 to 1650. SNA is a formal graphing method, which in archaeology is used to identify relationships between sites based on similarities of artifact assemblages. This research is helping to build new understandings of interactions between village populations and how these interactions changed through time during the last centuries before and then after European involvements.

My Research Projects

Publications

2006

Geyer, G., Landing, E., 2006. Morocco Field Excursion 2006. Ediacaran-Cambrian Depositional Environments and Stratigraphy of the Western Atlas Regions, in: Geyer, G., Landing, E. (Eds.), Morocco 2006. EdiacaranCambrian Depositional Environments and Stratigraphy of the Western Atlas Regions. Explanatory Description and Field Excursion Guide. , , pp. 47-112.

2005

Landing, E., 2005. Ancient Life, in: Eisenstadt, P., Moss, L. (Eds.), The Encyclopedia of New York State. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, NY, pp. 83-86.
Landing, E., 2005. Geology and Plate Techtonics, in: Eisenstadt, P., Moss, L. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of New York State. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse, New York, pp. 632-636.
E. Landing 2005, Early Paleozoic Avalon — Gondwana Unity: An Obituary — Response to ’Palaeontological Evidence Bearing on Global Ordovician-Silurian Continental Reconstructions’ by R. R. Fortey and L. R. M. Cocks, Earth-Science Reviews 69, 169-175. 10.1016/j.earscirev.2004.10.002
E. Landing 2005, Fabulous Fossils-The State Museum’s Trilobites. Legacy: The Magazine of the New York State Museum 1, 8-9

2004

G. Geyer, E. Landing 2004, A Unified Lower-Middle Cambrian Chronostratigraphy for West Gondwana, Acta Geologica Polonica 54, 233-273.
E. Landing 2004, Fossils and "Deep Time" In New York, New York State Museum Educational Leaflet The University of the State of New York, Albany, NY
E. Landing 2004, Precambrian-Cambrian Boundary Interval Deposition and the Marginal Platform of the Avalon Microcontinent, Journal of Geodynamics 37, 411-435. 10.1016/j.jog.2004.02.014
Landing, E., Westrop, S., 2004. Environmental Patterns in the Origin and Evolution and Diversification Loci of Early Cambrian Skeletalized Metazoa: Evidence from the Avalon Microcontinent, in: Lipps, J., Wagoner, B. (Eds.), Neoproterozoic-Cambrian Biological Revolutions. Paleontological Society, , pp. 93-105.

2003

E. Landing 2003, Self-Taught American Scientist. New York Archives 2, 13-15