California

Research Interests:  My research interests involve prehistoric materials conveyance, the ways in which different modes of acquisition, production and use are reflected in the archaeological record, and the relationship between these material signatures and past social, exchange, and ceremonial systems of different scales. My analytical specialization in x-ray fluorescence spectrometry has been directed toward investigating contrasts and continuities in material acquisition through time in far western North America- California and the Great Basin in particular.

Scott Byram has conducted extensive research on intertidal wood stake fishing weir sites on the Northwest Coast of North America. Byram’s research integrates indigenous archaeology with ethnohistory. Recent articles address the effects of colonization on the Yaquina Tribe, the massive loss of shell mounds to early coastal road construction, and the effects of the 1700 A.D. Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake and tsunami on Native communities of the Oregon coast.

I am a North American archaeologist who has worked in New England, the American Southwest, and the Pacific Coast of North America. I specialize in the study of coastal hunter-gatherer peoples, culture contact research, and the archaeology of colonialism. Since joining the Berkeley faculty in 1987, my research has focused on Native Californian peoples and their encounters with early European explorers and colonists. I work primarily in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.