Sandra L. Orellana

The present collection of data, which also includes statues representing both elite and common people, will help to explain the origins of early dynastic costumes and the foundations of textile manufacture and processing which developed along with dynastic rule in the Nile Valley.

Sandra Orellana in front of the Seshem-Nefer tomb, Giza, Egypt

Orellana’s current project, Costume dur-ing the Old Kingdom in Egypt, involves a survey and analysis of costumes during the Old Kingdom period (ca. 3150-2181 bc) in Egypt. Paintings on tomb walls at sites such as Giza, Saqqara, Dashur, Abusir, and Meidum are being studied, as well as additional resources located at major museums around the world. The goal is to understand the role of costume in Egyptian life and use it as a key to explain social, political, and religious differentiation.

Colleen Delaney-Rivera

Chiefdom-level societies did not develop in an intensive way in the Lower Illinois River valley, which is unexpected given its proximity to other Mississippian societies located to the north and south. Research focused on the interaction of Late Woodland and Mississippian societies will shed additional light on the processes of emergent complexity.

Excavations at Audrey-North revealed several Mississippian semi-subterranean structures, such as this one from block 6. This site was excavated by Center for American Archeology Education Program Fieldschools.

Delaney-Rivera’s research focuses on Late Woodland and Mississippian societies in west-central Illinois in order to understand the nature of chiefdoms and sociocultural interaction. Specifically, she is interested in the conditions and circumstances that allow hereditary social inequality to develop. Her most recent work concentrates on ceramic assemblages from the Audrey-North site, a late prehistoric site with Mississippian and Late Woodland components, in order to better understand the contemporaneity and interaction of individuals from these societies. The next stage of this work will include an intensive, systematic survey of the Lower Illinois River valley.