Upton, Samantha
Samantha Upton
MA Student | Anthropological Archaeology
Pronouns: she/her
Chair: Dr. Anneke Janzen
As a Knoxville native, Sam earned her Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville in 2014. Sam has worked as an archaeological contractor for TVA and now serves as a staff archaeologist for Cultural Resource Analysts, Inc. Sam specializes in zooarchaeology and has conducted faunal analyses and historic artifact analyses from various historical archaeological sites in both urban and rural contexts. Sam has worked primarily in the Southeastern United States, particularly across Tennessee and the South Carolina Lowcountry, as well as the Mid-Atlantic region in Virginia. Sam also has human osteological and decomposition research experience, having spent four years working with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s Forensic Anthropology Center. There, Sam led several trainings in human vs. non-human osteology and participated in many public outreach lectures and training courses for members of the general public and law enforcement communities. Her research interests generally include foodways, zooarchaeological methods, historic ceramics, and GIS/data visualization. In her free time, Sam enjoys traveling and being outdoors, eating a good meal with friends and family, and looks forward to the start of baseball every spring, only to be sorely disappointed by the middle of the season (go Reds).
Education
BA, Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville (2014)
Specialties
Zooarchaeology, historical archaeology, human vs non-human identification.