Department of Anthropology

James Johnson

Lecturer, Asst.

Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh (2014)
M.Sc. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
B.A. University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Office: Anthro 112

James Johnson is an anthropological archaeologist specializing in Bronze and Iron Age pastoralist societies of the Eurasian steppe, ca. 2100 – 200 BCE. His primary project, the Uy River Valley Communities of Practice project, investigates how social integration manifests in mobile societies through household interaction, material culture, especially pottery, landscapes, and settlement patterning. His research has been funded by National Science Foundation, Wenner Gren, National Geographic, and the University of Wyoming. In addition to the steppe, Jim has worked in various areas of Europe and North America for the past two decades. In addition to the University of Wyoming, he has conducted research and taught at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) and the University of Chicago

Courses Taught:

ANTH 1101    Freshman Seminar, Frauds, Phonies, and Archaeological Mysteries
ANTH 1200    Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
ANTH 1300    Introduction to Archaeology
ANTH 1450    World Archaeology
ANTH 4020    Anthropological Approaches to the Human-Technology Interface
ANTH 4130/5130       Old World Archaeology
ANTH 4310/5310       Environmental Anthropology
ANTH 4340/5340       Culture Change

Publications

(eds.) E. Miller Bonney, K. Franklin, and J. Johnson. 2016. Incomplete Archaeologies: Assembling Materials, Practices, and Discourses in Alternate Conceptualizations of the Past. Oxford: Oxbow Books.

Johnson, J. In Press. Community, Trade, and Labor in the Pontic Iron Age Forest-Steppe Region, ca. 700 – 200 BC. Conference Proceedings – Scythians and Other Early Eurasian Nomads. Oxford: Oxbow Press.

Ventresca Miller, A., J. Johnson, S. Makhortykh, L. Lutinova, T. Taylor, and C. Makarewicz 2019. Subsistence and Mobility in the Pontic Iron Age Forest-Steppe: A Strontium and Oxygen Isotopic Study of Urban Elites at Bel’sk. Archaeometry.

Johnson, J. 2016. One Eye Forward, One Eye Back: Multiple Temporalities, Community, and Social Change in the Culture History of the Southern Urals, Russian Federation (2100 – 1400 BCE). In Fitful Histories, Unruly Publics: Proceedings from the Conference on Eurasian Archaeology, (eds.) K. Weber, E. Hite, L. Khatchadourian, and A.T. Smith. Leiden: Brill. Pp. 55-78.

Johnson, J. and B. Hanks. 2012. Society, Demography and Community: Reassessing Bronze Age Sintashta Populations in the Southern Urals, Russia (2100-1700 BCE). In Beyond Elites, (ed) T. Kienlin, Universitätsforschungen zur prähistorichen Archäologie Series, Hastelt Publishing. Pp. 355-368.