Native American Archaeology
Native Americans have been present in New York for 13,000 years. Since the mid-19th century, the New York State Museum has conducted archaeological investigations that have helped to write the histories of Native Americans in the state. The Museum continues that tradition today through field- and collections-based research. Current research is aimed at increasing our understandings of the earliest Native American occupants of New York, between 13,000 and 10,000 years ago; the histories of various agricultural crops and the evolution of agricultural systems some 3,000 to 500 years ago; the ways in which Native American groups settled the landscape and how settlements changed through time 3,000 to 500 years ago; and the ways in which different Native American groups interacted with one another through trade, exchange, and symbolism.
Dr. Penelope B. Drooker
Curator of Anthropology Emerita pdrooker@hotmail.com
My archaeological research centers on two areas: the Contact Period in eastern North America (ca. 1500-1750), and perishable material culture, particularly archaeological textiles.
Dr. John P. Hart
Curator Emeritus john.hart@nysed.gov
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.
Dr. Jonathan Lothrop
Curator of Archaeology jonathan.lothrop@nysed.gov
My research is focused on how and when Native Americans colonized and then settled the New York region from near the end of the Pleistocene or Ice Age into the early Holocene, between about 11,000 and 8000 B.C.
Dr. Christina Rieth
State Archaeologist and Co-Director, Cultural Resource Survey Program christina.rieth@nysed.gov
My research focuses on the ways that prehistoric groups interacted with their local environment and the role that such interaction had on the settlement and subsistence strategies of New York’s Late Prehistoric (A.D. 700-1450) occupants.
Single Staff Extended Info
Dr. Jennifer Lemak
Chief Curator of Historyjennifer.lemak@nysed.gov
Prior to my current position as the chief curator of history, I served as the senior historian/curator of social history for a decade. My major exhibition and publication projects include Votes for Women: Celebrating New York’s Suffrage Centennial (2017) and An Irrepressible Conflict: The Empire State in the Civil War (2012). I am also the author of Southern Life, Northern City: The History of Albany’s Rapp Road (SUNY Press, 2008), which focused on a community that migrated to Albany from Shubuta, Mississippi, and the greater migration experience in Albany.
Join the NYSM as we celebrate and honor the cultural heritage, diverse histories, and continuing contributions of Native People.