John O'Shea

John O'Shea is Professor of Anthropology and Curator of Great Lakes Archaeology in the Museum of Anthropological Archaeology. He earned his Ph.D. in Prehistoric Archaeology from Cambridge University in 1978. His research focused on the ways in which the archaeological study of funerary customs could be used to recover information on the social organization of past cultures. O'Shea maintains active research interests in Eastern Europe and North America. His topical interests include: tribal societies, prehistoric ecology and economy, spatial analysis, ethnohistory, Native North America and later European Prehistory. His research in Native North America focuses on the late pre-contact and contact periods in the Upper Great Lakes and the Great Plains. In Europe, his research centers on the eastern Carpathian Basin region of Hungary, Romania and northern Yugoslavia during the later Neolithic through Bronze Age. Most recently, he has begun a program of research focused on the study of Nineteenth Century shipwrecks in the Great Lakes. In addition, O'Shea directs a series of programs in local archaeology, including the Archaeology in an Urban Setting project within the City of Ann Arbor, and the Vanishing Farmlands Survey in Washtenaw County. Within the profession, O'Shea is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology (Academic Press). He has also been active in the implementation of the Native American Grave Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and was appointed in 1998 to a six-year term on the NAGPRA Review Committee by the Secretary of the Interior.

Affiliation(s)

• Anthropology
• Museum of Anthropological Archaeology
• Center for International and Comparative Studies

Award(s)

• 2012, American Academy of Arts and Science