Dr. Spielmann's current research concerns socio-ecological systems. She leads a collaborative team of archaeology and ecology faculty and students investigating the long-term ecological changes on Perry Mesa, Agua Fria National Monument, north of the Phoenix Basin that resulted from a pulse of occupation by farmers in the A.D. 1200s and 1300s. Other research interests are in archaeology, bioarchaeology, economic anthropology, exchange and social networks, and ritual economies in small-scale societies. Dr. Spielmann has focused much of her career on prehistoric economies, primarily in North America. She is especially interested in the ways in which economic intensification is fueled by increasing demands for food and goods in ritual, political, and social contexts. One of her primary contributions has been to demonstrate the variety of conditions under which small-scale societies with relatively simple political systems develop complex, specialized economies. She is also interested in the relationship between diet and health under different subsistence regimes. Dr. Spielmann teaches courses on the human dimensions of sustainability, North American archaeology, and economic archaeology.
