Profile

Rory is a graduate student in the archaeology program in the University of Oregon Department of Anthropology. Rory’s undergraduate work was conducted in both archaeology and East Asian Studies. Her coursework included the archaeology of Northern China from the Neolithic to the Han dynasty, the prehistoric and early historic periods of Korea and Japan, and some training in the art history and archaeology of the Near East and Mediterranean regions. Her senior thesis discussed human sacrificial practices at the late Shang dynasty site of Anyang. She is proficient in Mandarin Chinese, and has traveled to Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the People’s Republic of China. Her primary research interests include early East Asian states, the archaeology of the Yellow River basin, paleoenvironment (including paleoethnobotany and faunal analysis), mortuary archaeology, and the transmission of art and iconography across East Asia. Rory’s field experience includes work on an early 20th century urban site in Indianapolis, Indiana (see the Ransom Place Archaeology link), a survey recovering the remains of the Neolithic Hongshan culture near Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, China, and the Yiluo Project, a regional study that tracks the development of the first Chinese states in Henan, China. Rory hopes to use her degree to teach at the university level, and continue to build relationships between archaeologists on both sides of the Pacific.