Sarah Underhill Wisseman

Director, Program on Ancient Technologies and Archaeological Materials (ATAM)
Office: 116 Observatory, MC 190
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Telephone: 333-6629
Fax: 244-0466
E-Mail: wisarc@uiuc.edu

Background | Research Interests | Recent Publications & Presentations | Courses | Other Links

Background

After spending my junior year at Tel Aviv University studying biblical archaeology, I received a B.A. in anthropology (1973) from Harvard University. At Bryn Mawr College, I completed an M.A. and Ph.D in Classical and Near Eastern archaeology in 1981, with advisors Kyle Phillips and Gloria Pinney. After graduation, I worked as an assistant in the conservation laboratory at the Cincinnati Art Museum and then as a curator at the World Heritage Museum at the University of Illinois before joining ATAM. Additional training: several pottery classes and excavation experience in Israel, Italy, and Nevada.

Research

My primary research is in archaeological science/ archaeometry, with a particular interest in ceramic technology and provenance studies. Recent projects have included replication and compositional studies of late Roman pottery from the Palatine East excavation in Rome, compositional analyses of Byzantine and Turkish fresco pigments, and an interdisciplinary study of the medical history and embalming practices of an Egyptian mummy.

Recent Publications & Presentations

S.Wisseman "Archaeometry and the Anthropology of Technology" paper presented at the March 1999 Society for American Archaeology meetings in Chicago.

S. Wisseman, "The Program on Ancient Technologies and Archaeological Materials at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign," paper presented at a symposium "Shedding Light on the Past: Synchrotron X-rays and Archaeology," Argonne National Laboratory, Chicago, Illinois (August 1997), proceedings in press.

S. Wisseman, E. De Sena, S. Landsberger, R. Ylangan, S. Altaner, D. Moore, "Compositional Analyses of Ceramics from Serres and Thessaloniki," in Materials Analysis of Byzantine Pottery, H. Maguire, editor, (Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 1997, pp. 157-170).

S. Wisseman and W. Williams, editors, International Symposium on Archaeometry: Program and Abstracts (May 1996, University of Illinois).

S. Wisseman, "Materials Analysis of the Nasca Drum," Birds on a Drum: Conservation of a Pre-Columbian Musical Instrument, editors (Krannert Art Museum exhibition catalogue, 1996) pp. 18-20.

E. De Sena, S. Landsberger, J. T. Pena, S. Wisseman, "Analysis of Ancient Pottery from the Palatine Hill in Rome," Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, Articles vol. 196, No. 2 (1995) 223-234.

S. Wisseman and W. Williams, editors, Ancient Technologies and Archaeological Materials, Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, 1994, 250 pp. Includes two chapters by S. Wisseman, "From Pots to People: Ceramic Production in the Ancient Mediterranean," and "Imaging the Past: Non-destructive Analyses of an Egyptian Mummy."

S. Wisseman, E. De Sena, J. T. Pena, and S. Landsberger, "Neutron Activation Analysis of Roman Fineware Pottery from the Palatine Hill, Rome" in The Ceramics Cultural Heritage (Faenza, 1994).

S. Wisseman,"The Materials Analysis of Serres Pottery," in Art and Industry: A late Byzantine Ceramics Center, edited by D. Papanikola-Bakirtzis, E.D. Maguire, and H. Maguire, University of Illinois Press (October 1992).

Courses

I teach Anthropology 221, "Materials and Civilization: An Overview of Archaeometry," for which I received the Broadrick-Allen Award for Excellence in Honors Teaching in May 1998.