Archaeology Laboratory

Cartographic Information Center

Cartographic Section

The Coastal Landscapes and Cultures Research Group Laboratory

Computer-Aided Design and Geographical Information Systems (CADGIS) Research Laboratory

Computer Laboratory

FACES Laboratory

The Fred B. Kniffen Cultural Resources Laboratory

Geomorphology Research Laboratories

Paleoclimate and Atlantic Studies (PAST) Laboratory

Geoscience Publications

Miles Richardson Research Laboratory

Louisiana Office of State Climatology

Southern Regional Climate Center

Archaeology Laboratories

Coastal Archaeology in Latin America (CALA) Lab,
Digital Imaging and Visualization in Archaeology (DIVA) Lab,
Regional Archaeology Program Lab,
Museum of Natural Sciences Archaeology Lab:

Coastal Archaeology in Latin America (CALA) Lab:  The CALA lab is a complex of rooms in Howe-Russell focusing on LSU archaeological projects in Belize and Peru. Facilities include a wet lab for processing artifacts, storage cabinets for housing collections while under study, dedicated labs for Maya and Andean research, and a storage room for field equipment. Undergraduate and graduate students (M.A. and Ph.D. program--Anthropology concentration) collaborate with archaeology faculty on research projects. Ongoing lab projects in 2009 include conservation of waterlogged wooden artifacts from Belize, experimental research on tropical tree-ring dating, study of sediment cores from Belize, skeletal analysis of, study of Maya pottery, as part of Professor McKillop’s long-term project “Mapping Ancient Maya Wooden Architecture on the Seafloor, Belize.” Additional projects include study of Maya skeletal and dental remains and Late Woodland burials. Assistant Professor David Chicoine’s Caylan Archaeological Poject in Peru in 2009 expands laboratory research in Andean archaeology in the CALA lab.
The Digital Imaging and Visualization in Archaeology (DIVA) Lab is adjacent to the CALA lab. The DIVA lab is a new initiative from a Board of Regents grant (May 2009) to purchase equipment and software for 3D imaging of artifacts, both in the lab and for field research.
Regional Archaeology Program Lab and Museum of Natural Sciences Archaeology Lab : There is close contact and sharing of equipment with other Archaeology Labs in the Department under the direction of Dr. Rebecca Saunders (Museum of Natural Sciences Collections and lab), and Dr. Rob Mann (Regional Archaeology Program lab). Dr. Saunders’ research in Florida and the SE United States involves LSU students in field and laboratory studies. Dr. Mann’s role as Regional Archaeologist for SE Louisiana, provides opportunities for students in Louisiana.
Our department has five faculty members carrying out archaeological research focused on coastal adaptations, including fieldwork at underwater sites in Belize on the ancient Maya (McKillop), on the desert coast of Peru (Chicoine), ancient coastal adaptations on the Gulf of Mexico coast from Florida to Louisiana (Saunders), and underwater sites in Texas (Hesp). Dr. Hesp’s archaeological project includes analyses of sediment in the Geomorphology Research Laboratories. Adjunct faculty members include the Louisiana State Archaeologist (Dr. Charles McGimsy) and Geoarchaeologist Brooks Elwood (Dept of Geology and Geophysics).
Archaeology faculty and students have developed valuable ties with faculty and labs elsewhere on campus, including labs for thin-sectioning artifacts (Geology and Geophysics Rock Lab), imaging artifacts (Socolofsky Microscopy Center in Biological Sciences), Tree-Ring Lab in Forestry, and geoarchaeology (Dr. Brooks Ellwood’s Paleomagnetism Lab in Geology and Geophysics), as well as in the Department (geomorphology, CADGIS, computer labs in particular). As members of the Coastal Landscapes and Cultures Research Group, Archaeology faculty collaborate with faculty and students on shared research interests.
Popular events include Louisiana Archaeology Month and LSU Maya Archaeology Night.

Cartographic Information Center
The Cartographic Information Center is located in room 313 Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex. With a collection of more than 500,000 cartographic items, the CIC ranks first among map libraries in U.S. academic departments and tenth among all American map collections. As a depository for U.S. government maps, the collection increases at a rate of about 6,000 maps per year.

Holdings in the map library include: USGS Topographic Series (coverage for the entire U.S. at various scales); U.S. Army Topographic Command Maps; NOAA Nautical Charts of the U.S. and foreign waters; Aeronautical Charts (world coverage); Aerial Photos of Louisiana and parts of Eastern U.S.; historic maps of Louisiana; miscellaneous maps from foreign governments, commercial map companies, etc. (world coverage with emphasis on Latin America); wall maps for teaching; and a collection of atlases, transparencies, gazetteers, and globes.

The primary mission of the Cartographic Information Center is to support instruction and research in the Department of Geography and Anthropology, in particular, and the University community in general. Researchers on dissertations, theses, and grants constitute the largest group of users. Recent research projects include Louisiana coastal erosion, environmental and ecological studies, hydrological surveys, flood control projects, and archaeological excavations.

The CIC also provides maps for field trips, supplies wall maps for use in classes, maintains a collection of maps on reserve for classes with map-related assignments, and provides appropriate assistance to students whose map-reading skills need improvement.

The collection is open to the general public. Private sector patrons include consulting engineers, coastal environmental agencies, soil testing engineers, petroleum companies, architects, attorneys, and many others. Among state and local governmental patrons are the Attorney General's Office, State Lands, Department of Environmental Quality, Historic Preservation, East Baton Rouge District Attorney's Office, and others. CIC patrons also include backpackers, genealogists, civil war and local historians, fortune-hunters, puzzle-workers, and tourists. As a depository of government maps, our commitment is service to the public.

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Cartographic Section
The Cartographic Section (430 Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex) provides cartographic drafting, scientific illustration, and design services for the faculty of the Department of Geography and Anthropology at no charge. These services are also provided to other university faculty and all students at a reasonable fee. Services include drafting illustrations for publication, preparation of large-scale posters, and PowerPoint presentations for lectures and academic conferences. The section is staffed by a cartographic manager and a research associate. The excellence of the Cartographic Section has been recognized nationally and internationally.

Click here to view examples of the Cartographic Section's work.

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The Coastal Landscapes and Cultures Research Group Laboratory
The Coastal Landscapes and Cultures Research Group was founded in 2006 by faculty members in Geography and Anthropology to focus on coastal research on both the environment and culture, currently and in the recent and remote past. The formation of the Coastal Landscapes Research Group was founded on our joint research interests and the potential for intensifying the level of collaboration, sharing of knowledge among faculty and grad students, and expanding the horizons of existing largely separate foci on either the environment or culture dimensions of coastal research. The members of the research group are interested in facilitating linkages between research in environmental and cultural research on coasts worldwide. The group draws on LSU’s existing high reputation in environmental research on coasts, by expanding to include the cultural dimension.  The Coastal Landscapes Research Group was recently provided a lab that has physically brought together faculty and their students to work on projects, share ideas and equipment, and incubate new joint research initiatives. We launched a Voices from the Coast lunch talk series in the Coastal Landscapes and Cultures Research Group Lab.

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Computer-Aided Design and Geographical Information Systems (CADGIS) Research Laboratory
The CADGIS Lab, a jointly operated facility of the Department of Geography and Anthropology and the College of Design, supports instruction and research in computer mapping, architecture, and engineering. Mapping applications encompass computer cartography, geographic information systems, and remote sensing.

The lab complex, located in 215 College of Design, has a varied complement of hardware and software. In the four separate labs, students are able to use over 60 regularly upgraded desktop computers. Both negative film and flatbed scanners also are available. The computers host software such as AutoCAD, Photoshop, Reality Studio, Dreamweaver, Erdas Imagine, and Office 2000.

Capable of creating and storing digital data for graphic and nongraphic databases, CADGIS also functions as a repository for digital maps, images, and databases. These data constitute the beginnings of the foundation for an atlas of Louisiana and a statewide geographic information system. As part of its work in this area, CADGIS has a major role in the Louisiana Coastal GIS Network: a USGS-funded project to help Louisiana organize and disseminate coastal information.

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Computer Laboratory
Established in 1988, the Computer lab provides a variety of computing facilities for instruction and research in computer cartography, remote sensing, geographic information systems, and spatial analysis.  Through support from faculty research and equipment grants, the Computer lab has gone through several generations and continued to upgrade its computing facilities.

Click here for the Teaching Lab's Spring 2008 Class Schedule

Click here for the CADGIS Spring 2008 Class Schedule

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FACES Laboratory
The FACES (Forensic Anthropology and Computer Enhancement Services) Laboratory of the Department of Geography and Anthropology, located in the small building adjacent to the Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex, provides services to state and parish law enforcement agencies. The forensic anthropologist is concerned with the personal identification of badly decomposed human bodies and skeletal remains. Our experience best applies when more traditional criteria such as facial appearance, fingerprints, tattoos, and scars from previous injuries or operations are of limited value because of poor soft tissue preservation.

Data recovery is based upon intensive osteological, morphologic, and radiographic examination of the skeleton and dentition. The dental examination is frequently completed in conjunction with a forensic odontologist.
Other services provided by our facility include:

1. Consultation with state and public personnel in matters concerning evidence used in the personal identification of human remains.
2. Assistance with crime scene analysis involving the investigation of the locality for human skeletal remains (e.g., burned structures and burial sites), and the recovery of such remains.
3. Presentation of lectures and seminars to a variety of civic and law enforcement personnel on forensic anthropology and its associated techniques and methodologies.
4. Repository for unidentified human remains submitted for forensic analysis until positive identification is achieved.

This work is done in conjunction with crime laboratories in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Our laboratories include two large analysis labs, x-ray facilities and equipment (including water, gas, and air fume hood, X-ray machine, film processor, and immersion table), and miscellaneous equipment for statistical analysis of skeletal elements.

The Forensic Anthropology Laboratory offers a vital and unique public service to the community, state, and region. In addition, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has designated LSU as a Model Age Progression Site. Mary Manhein is director of this facility. Using sophisticated computer software, researchers and students create age progression on missing children and adults and conduct other educational and research projects.

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The Fred B. Kniffen Cultural Resources Laboratory
The Fred B. Kniffen Cultural Resources Laboratory (E212 Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex) furthers inquiry into the development of historic landscapes—particularly those of the Gulf South. The lab thus carries forward the scholarship initiated by Professor Fred Kniffen in the 1930s—scholarship that combined keen interests in the interpretation of historic landscapes, material culture, and folk culture through the perspectives of cultural geography and anthropology.

Varied courses draw upon the laboratory's facilities. These include, among others, vernacular architecture, material culture, and the study of folklore. These are field-oriented courses that enable students to participate in fieldwork and interpretation of the folk cultural legacy of Louisiana and the South. Course projects include the construction of scale models and museum dioramas.

To aid in the interpretation of Louisianian and Southern cultures, the Cultural Resources Lab functions as a repository for information on the culture history of the area. Its resources include cultural surveys, a library of books and reports on Louisiana and its material culture, examples of historic American building surveys, and resources for dating historic buildings.

Students and faculty participate in research and writing of professional reports on various aspects of the culture and culture history of the state and region. Research projects are often funded by federal and state agencies. Recent projects include surveys of historic plantation buildings, environmental and cultural impact statements, and reports on the culture and history of Louisiana's ethnic communities. Summer jobs are often available to students with appropriate training. The lab also edits a publication series interpreting cultures of the Gulf South.

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Geomorphology Research Laboratories
The H.J. Walker Geomorphology Research Laboratory is named after Boyd Professor H. Jesse Walker, a pioneer in Arctic studies, coastal and fluvial geomorphology. This laboratory is used primarily for working with electronics, instrumentation and 'dry' activities, and houses a wide array of instrumentation used to study landform dynamics and the processes which drive them. Major field equipment includes a Sontek hydra ADCM/OBS/PT, 2 Marsh-McBirney 2-d current meters, a Price-type current meter, 8 high-resolution submersible pressure transducers, 3 OBS turbidity probes, 12 RM Young 3-d sonic anamometers, 30 3-cup anemometers, a Delta-T soil moisture meter with 8 probes, numerous sensors for monitoring temperature, humidty, wind direction, etc., 2 portable data aquisition systems (A Campbell-Scientific CR23x and an IOTECH laptop-based system), a variety of survey gear (total stations, auto levels, clinometers, etc.), a variety of sediment and water sampling tools, several types of sediment traps, and numerous other items.

The R. Kesel Laboratory is used primarily as a wet laboratory and is equipped with various equipment for processing sediment samples. Major equipment includes a Sedigraph x-ray diffraction unit, ultrasonic and vibratory sieving systems, a high speed centrifuge, drying oven, high temperature furnace, portable fume hood, a core/sample storage refrigerator, digital-image capable microscope, and precision balances.

The Department also has several vehicles available for field research. These include a 24 foot bay boat suitable for nearshore or short-term offshore marine research, a 4WD F350 quad cab pickup truck, and a Honda Rincon 650 ATV.

Paleoclimate and Atlantic Studies (PAST) Laboratory

The PAST Lab is active in developing paleoclimate records and data mining existing records to investigate past climate. Paleoclimate records include tree-rings, ice cores, corals, cave deposits, marine and lake sediments. Investigating paleoclimate records involves statistical and time series analysis to characterize and extract the information from the records.

The PAST Lab is involved in investigations of paleoclimate in the Atlantic region, specifically the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and Atlantic Ocean in conjugation with the Atlantic Studies program at Louisiana State University. The Atlantic Studies program is a multi-disciplinary working group of specialists in the humanities, social and natural sciences. The larger Atlantic Studies project will re-examine human experiences in Gulf-Caribbean-South Atlantic-West African area as a product of the interactions of environments, histories and cultures. The paleoclimate perspective allows the discussion of how climate and climate variability may have influenced the environment and the people of Atlantic area. The vast archive of records from the Atlantic region provide environmental histories that can be used to understand climate conditions at key intervals of the past.

Visit the PAST Lab website.

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Geoscience Publications
Geoscience Publications (236 Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex) communicates the scholarly advances of department faculty, students, and symposia. Among its various publications is the prestigious monograph series Geoscience and Man. The series currently includes more than 39 volumes, representative of which are Atchafalaya Swamp Life; Grasslands Ecology; Man and Cultural Heritage; Traces in Prehistory; Coastal Resources; Historical Archaeology of the Eastern United States; Place: Experience and Symbol; The American South; Tojolabal Maya; Cultural Diffusion and Landscapes; The Poverty Point Culture; The Uneven Landscape: Geographic Studies in Post-reform China; Person, Place, and Thing: Interpretative and Empirical Essays in Cultural Geography; Culture, Form, and Place: Essays in Cultural and Historical Geography; Latin American Geography; and The Coastal Zone.

Geoscience Publications also houses the journal Historical Geography, and the monograph series of the Fred B. Kniffen Cultural Resources Laboratory, which includes Louisiana's Remarkable French Vernacular Architecture, Historic Louisiana Nails, Historical Maps of Louisiana: An Annotated Bibliography, and Plantations by the River. In addition, it distributes digitized maps—the China County Boundary File and the Historical United States (HUSCO) County Boundary Files—as well as publishes occasional papers authored by departmental faculty, such as New Orleans Weather, 1961-1980 and An Atlas of Louisiana Surnames of French and Spanish Origin.

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Miles Richardson Research Laboratory
 
The Richardson Lab houses equipment for students and faculty engaged in cultural, ethnographic, historical, linguistic, and landscape oriented field investigations.  Audio ethnographies are supported by a digital recorder, voice activated software, and transcribing equipment.  A digital video camera and microphone are available for video ethnographies and software for editing is avaiable on an Mac computer.  Still photographic equipment, a large format scanner, and a GPS are available for landscape studies.  The lab has space for students to meet and spread out large-format materials obtained in archives or the field.  Recent investigations on the Applachian Trail, community resilience, and traditional whaling practices in the north Atlantic have benefited from these facilities.

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Louisiana Office of State Climatology
The Louisiana Office of State Climatology (LOSC) (E328 Howe-Russell Geoscience Complex) is responsible for maintaining the climatic records of the state in paper copy and as computer data sets. Climatic data are mainly from the first-order and cooperative station networks of the National Weather Service (NWS) and the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), with some data sets extending back 100 years to about 1890. The office accesses specialized data sets; an important example is the daily observations from the 12-station automated agroclimatic network of the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station operated from the LSU Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering. LOSC also maintains a collection of daily weather maps, reports, and reprints on selected topics in climatology.

LOSC receives realtime weather and climate data (hourly observations) for Louisiana and other nearby places on the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Wire and selected weather maps for the U.S. and the entire northern hemisphere by satellite receiver from the NWS Forecast Office just outside of Washington, D.C. The staff publishes a monthly climatic newsletter, Louisiana Monthly Climate Review, which describes the status of Louisiana's climate in traditional as well as in synoptic and water-budget terms; the newsletter is distributed to more than 600 interested agencies, companies, and individuals in the United States, with about three-quarters of the subscribers in Louisiana.

The office provides climatic information and data in response to requests by mail, over the phone, and at the office. Routine data are normally free to members of the LSU community and local, state, and federal agencies, but modest fees are charged for the general public and for non-routine requests and interpretations.

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Southern Regional Climate Center
The Southern Regional Climate Center (SRCC) is a federally funded facility (the NOAA) organized together with the LOSC within the Department of Geography and Anthropology. The SRCC is responsible for climatic data, informational services, and applied research for a six-state region including Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee. The SRCC is closely affiliated with the state climatologists (SCs) in each of the states and with the Climatic Analysis Center (CAC) of the National Weather Service (NWS), located in Washington, D.C., and the National Climatic Data Center (NCDC) in Asheville, North Carolina. By means of a satellite-data system, the staff is able to monitor regional climatic variability and some of its impacts on a day-to-day basis. The SRCC also maintains computerized climatic data sets that span as much as 100 years.

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