We are very pleased introduce Eric Olson, our AmeriCorps-Ohio History Service Corps member, who is serving the Ohio Historic Preservation Office, the Ohio History Connection Archaeology Department, and various outreach locations across Ohio.

He recently received his M.A. in anthropology from Ball State University in May, 2016. His thesis research focused on a specific prehistoric architectural design known as the paired-post circle. Eric developed four models to test competing functional interpretations of the structure using multiple correspondence analysis and GIS. His research interests include the Early Woodland period of Ohio, systematics, lithic debitage analysis, and statistical modeling.

Eric received his B.A. in anthropology from the University of Akron in 2014. His undergraduate studies focused on the statistical analysis of chert debitage, or flint waste materials. He has spent hundreds of hours analyzing thousands of Hopewell ceramics and lithics as part of National Science Foundation research on Scioto Hopewell social networks. Eric’s interests are the Early Woodland prehistoric period, prehistoric agriculture, gender archaeology, and cultural resource management.