Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma
Ph.D., Anthropology, Univ. of Florida, 2010
M.A., Anthropology, Univ. of Florida, 2002
B.A., Archaeological Studies, Boston Univ., 1999
Background and Research Interests
Asa’s early research centered on the technology and mobility practices of Paleoindian and Early Archaic societies (12,000-9000 years ago) along Alabama’s middle Tennessee River Valley. In 2003, Asa joined Ken Sassaman’s long term project investigating the histories of Middle to Late Archaic (ca. 7000-4000 years ago) communities along the middle St. Johns River Valley in northeast Florida. This region is best known for monumental shell mounds, many of which were places of habitation and ceremonial practices. Asa’s research has examined how communities modified and politicized shell mounds through time in the context of regional hydrological and social change.
Current Research Projects
Asa’s research along the middle St. Johns continues. His fieldwork is currently centered on the preceramic Archaic shell works at the Silver Glen Run complex, which affords an unparalleled opportunity to reconstruct the emergence of multiple shell mounds in place. Asa is also developing a regional geodatabase of Archaic shell mounds using historic observations, excavation results, and contemporary geospatial data. A similar integrative approach to fieldwork and historic resources is being planned for use along the Lower Suwannee River Valley. In both cases cultural resources have suffered in the past century from shell mining and erosion.
Recent Publications
- Randall, Asa R. , and Zackary I. Gilmore. 2018. The Itineraries of Late Archaic Shell and Ceramic Cooking Vessels. In Investigating the Ordinary: Everyday Matters in Southeast Archaeology, edited by S. E. Price and P. J. Carr, pp. 95-111. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.
- Randall, Asa R., and Kenneth E. Sassaman 2017. Terraforming the Middle Ground in Ancient Florida. Hunter-Gatherer Research 3:9-29.
- Randall, Asa R. 2015. Constructing Histories: Archaic Freshwater Shell Mounds and Social Landscapes of the St. Johns River, Florida. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
- Randall, Asa R. 2015. How Jeffries Wyman put Florida and Shell Mounds on the Map (1860-1875). Bulletin of the History of Archaeology 25(3):1-12. 2014. LiDAR-Aided Reconnaissance and Reconstruction of Lost Landscapes: An Example of Freshwater Shell Mounds (ca. 7500-500 cal B.B.) in Northeast Florida. Journal of Field Archaeology 39(2):162-179.
- Randall, Asa R. 2013. The Chronology and History of Mount Taylor Period (ca. 7400-4600 cal B.P.) Shell Sites on the Middle St. Johns River, Florida. Southeastern Archaeology 32(2):193-217.
- Randall, Asa R., and Bryan Tucker. 2012. A Mount Taylor Period Radiocarbon Assay from the Bluffton Burial Mound (8VO23). The Florida Anthropologist 65:219-225.
- Sassaman, Kenneth E., and Randall, Asa R. 2012. Shell Mounds of the Middle St. Johns Basin, Northeast Florida. In Early New World Monumentality, edited by R. Burger and R. Rosenswig, pp. 53-77. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
- Wallis, Neill and Asa Randall (Editors). 2014. New Histories of Pre-Columbian Florida. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
For further information visit Asa Randall’s website