Trevor Lamb

Matriculated September 2020

Research Interests

Coastal hunter-gatherer archaeology, ceramic and durable container technology, foodways, cuisine, organic residue analysis, archaeology of the Arctic and Subarctic, zooarchaeology, paleoethnobotany

About

Trevor Lamb’s research primarily focuses on how coastal hunter-gatherers in the North American Arctic and Subarctic used durable containers—like ceramics—to transform raw foods into meals. To address this question, he plans on applying a number of organic residue analysis techniques—including stable isotope analysis and lipid analysis—to residues associated with durable containers from ancestral Alutiiq sites in Alaska.

Before coming to Boston University, Trevor completed his BA at the University of Maine, and his MA at the University of New Brunswick, where he used stable isotope analysis and lipid analysis to examine how ceramic cooking-pots were used at an ancestral Peskotomuhkati site in Washington County, Maine. He also utilized photogrammetry to produce digital models of sherds modified during lipid sampling procedures.

Awards & Grants

• National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (NSF-DDRIG). (Summer 2023).
• Graduate Internship Funding (GIF) Program Award. (Summer 2023)
• Center for Innovation in Social Science, Boston University. “Archaeology and Alaska Native Cuisine”. Research grant that defrayed the costs of accommodation for a research stay on Unalaska Island, Alaska. (2022).
• Department of Anthropology Research Grant, Boston University. “Clues from Kitchen Nightmares: Identifying Ancient Plant Remains in Burned Food Residues”. Research grant that facilitated air travel to Unalaska Island, Alaska to collect herbaria specimens. (2022).
• Pardee Center for the Longer-Range Future Student Fellowship, Boston University. “Cooking Alutiiq: Revitalizing and Recovering Traditional Foodways through Archaeology on Kodiak Island, Alaska”. Research fellowship that supported ten weeks of research and writing about the cultural value of traditional Alutiiq plant foods. (2022).
• Department of Anthropology Research Grant, Boston University. “Flavoring Food on Kodiak Island: Exploratory Phytolith Analysis”. Research grant that facilitated exploratory analysis of phytoliths preserved in ceramic food-crusts from Kodiak Island, Alaska at Boston University’s Environmental Archaeology Laboratory.  (2021).
• Boston University Dean’s Fellowship. (Fall 2020, Spring 2021).
• Fredrik and Catherine Eaton Graduate Studies Fellowship, University of New Brunswick. “Monhipomatomuwan: Examining Vessel Use in the Middle Woodland Quoddy Region (2200-1350 B.P.)”. Travel fellowship that facilitated my analysis of ceramic lipid residues at Queen’s University Belfast’s Mass Spectrometry Core Technology Unit. (2018).
• Dr. Wu Yee-sun and Mrs. Wu Ho Man-yuen Memorial Bursary, University of New Brunswick. (2018).
• Faculty of Arts Graduate Assistantship, University of New Brunswick. (2017-2019).
• Magee Fellowship in the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of New Brunswick Graduate School. (2017).
• Dr. Wu Yee-sun and Mrs. Wu Ho Man-yuen Memorial Bursary, University of New Brunswick. (2017).
• William and Suzanne Horner Scholarship, University of Maine. (2017).
• Department of Anthropology Award, University of Maine. (2017).
• Stanley W. Stoddard ‘17 Scholarship, University of Maine. (2017).
• William and Suzanne Horner Scholarship, University of Maine. (2016).
• Black Bear Award, University of Maine. (2013-2017).

Publications

• Lamb, Trevor W. (2019). “Incised Lines: Mortuary Ceramics and Their Role in Defining Protohistoric Chronologies in the Far Northeast,” Maine Archaeological Society Bulletin 59(1):41-58.

Technical Reports

• Lamb, Trevor W. (2022). “Report on Phytoliths Recovered from Charred Encrustations Adhered to Koniag Pottery from the Malriik Site (KOD-405), Kodiak Island, Alaska. Report submitted to the Alutiiq Museum
  and Archaeological Repository.
• Hrynick, M. Gabriel, A. Anderson, K. Patton, W.J. Webb, C. Brouillette, T. Lamb, and A. Pelletier-Michaud. (2019). “Report on the 2017–2018 Universities of New Brunswick, Toronto, and New England
  Fieldwork in Washington County, Maine,” Report submitted to the Maine Historic Preservation Commission and the Passamaquoddy Tribal Historic Preservation Office.