Two Women Bio-Archaeologists at the University of Iowa Win a Book Award

Two women scholars from the Office of the State Archaeologist at the University of Iowa have been selected as the winners of the 2017 Deetz Award from the Society of Historical Archaeology. The society, based in Maryland, is the largest scholarly organization of individuals concerned with the archaeology of the modern world after the year 1400.

Robin Lillie, a skeletal biologist for the university since 1989, and Jennifer Mack, a bio-archaeologist, are being honored for their book Dubuque’s Forgotten Cemetery: Excavating a Nineteenth-Century Burial Ground in a Twenty-First-Century City (University of Iowa Press, 2015).

When construction began on a condominium project on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River in 2007, human remains were found. The site was Catholic cemetery dating back to the 1830s. The authors conducted extensive field research at the archaeological site and elsewhere to tell the story of some of Dubuque’s earliest residents.