Heidi M. Luchsinger


(PhD, Texas A&M University, 2006)
Office: 215 Flanagan Building
Telephone: (252) 328-9445
E-mail: luchsingerh@ecu.edu

About Me

Dr. Luchsinger is an archaeologist who specialized in geoarchaeology. Her research focuses on the prehistoric archaeology of northern Patagonia and the Pampas of Argentina and how paleoenvironmental change had an impact on the prehistoric inhabitants of this region. She reconstructs the geological context of the archaeological record in order to determine how this context affects our understanding of past human behavior (e.g., are sites absent because an area was abandoned or are sites deeply buried and simply difficult to locate.) In addition to the numerous grants, fellowships, and scholarships she has received including a Fulbright fellowship and grants from the National Science Foundation and Geological Society of America, she was the 2006 Winner of the Society for American Archaeology’s Douglas C Kellogg Award for her research in Northern Patagonia. Currently Dr. Luchsinger continues to work on publication of her research in Argentina including a new Middle Holocene site in the Pampas. Dr. Luchsinger is also the Faculty Advisor for the Anthropology Student Organization (ASO).

At East Carolina University, Dr. Luchsinger teaches:

  • Introduction to Anthropology
  • Global Understanding
  • Understanding Human Culture: Our Ticket for Survival in an Era of Globalization and Climate Change (Seminar for the Honors College, Spring 2011)
  • Around the World in 15 Weeks: An Investigation of Cultural Similarities Through Global Conversations with College Students in Africa, Asia, and Latin America (Seminar for the Honors College, Spring 2012)
  • Archaeology Around the World
  • Latin American Archaeology

Recent Publications

Prates, L., Luchsinger, H. M., Scabuzzo, C., & Mansegosa, D. (2011). Investigaciones Arqueologicas en el Sitio La Victoria 5 (Departamento de Pichi Mahuida, Rio Negro). Intersecciones en Antropologia, 12, 109-120.

Gutierrez, M., Martinez, G., Luchsinger, H. M. , Grill, S., Zucol, A., Gabriela S. Hassan, M. Paula Barros, Cristian A. Kaufmann, María C. Álvarez, (2010). Paleoenvironments in the Paso Otero locality during Late Pleistocene Holocene (Pampean region, Argentina): An interdisciplinary approach. Quaternary International.

Waters, M. R., Pevny, C. D. , Carlson, D. L. , Dickens, W. A. , Smallwood, A. M. , S. A. Minchak, E. Bartelink, J. M. Wiersema, J. E. Wiederhold, H. M. Luchsinger, D. A. Alexander, and T. A. Jennings, (2009). A Clovis Workshop in Central Texas: Archaeological Investigations of Excavation Area 8 at the Gault Site.

Luchsinger, H. M. & Prates, L. (2009). “Evolución del paisaje en el valle medio del río Negro e el impacto potencial en la preservación del registro arqueológico y patrones de ocupación: interpretaciones arqueológicas y geoarqueológicos preliminares (Landscape Change in the Middle Río Negro Val”, In Press, In Politis, Gustavo (Ed.) Diez años de Arqueología Pampeana. Olavarria, Argentina: INCUAPA.

Luchsinger, H. M. (2008). Geoarchaeology. In Pearsall, Deborah M. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Archaeology, (pp. 1409-1414). New York: Academic Press.

Luchsinger, H. M. & Prates, L. (2007). Geological Context of the Archaeological Record from the Late Pleistocene through Holocene in the Middle Río Negro Valley, Argentina. Current Research in the Pleistocene, 24, 62-64.