The University of Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist General Contracts Program, Meoldy Pope, director
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General Contracts Program
Key Personnel


Cynthia L. Peterson (M.A., Anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno, 1996).
Peterson is a Project Archaeologist for the General Contracts Program at the UI-OSA; she specializes in historic period archaeology, including in urban/industrial settings, although she has considerable experience in Phase I, II, and III projects involving prehistoric sites. Peterson has been employed at the UI-OSA since July 1992. Her work includes many types and sizes of projects, for which she supervises fieldwork and writes technical reports. Click here to see one of her reports. Peterson served as Project Archaeologist for the data recovery of six sites in Jones County, Iowa along US 151, including the Bowen’s Prairie townsite. She directed the fieldwork and lab analyses for these sites and was primary author of the multi-volume report for the three-year project. Previously, she completed an extensive ISTEA-funded research project focusing on the Sand Road Heritage Corridor in Johnson County south of Iowa City that resulted in discovery of Johnson County’s earliest fur trading post. Peterson has authored more than 200 publications, technical reports, and professional papers on Midwestern archaeology.

William E. Whittaker (Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Iowa, 2002).
Whittaker is a Project Archaeologist for the General Contracts Program at the UI-OSA. Whittaker’s work at the UI-OSA includes many Phase I investigations throughout Iowa and a growing number of Phase II testing and Phase III data recovery projects. Whittaker has been employed at the UI-OSA since October 2002. He recently completed the analysis and reporting for the Lafayette Mound (23LF3) data recovery (Phase III) project for the Missouri DOT. Whittaker is a Registered Professional Archaeologist (RPA) and is responsible for the GCP’s ground-penetrating radar (GPR) investigations, for which he collects the field data and conducts the post-processing and data analyses. He is currently working on a GPR study investigating burial mound structure at Effigy Mounds. His role in GCP projects consists of fieldwork supervision, lab analyses, and report writing. Whittaker has authored or co-authored more than 50 publications, technical reports, and professional papers on prehistoric and historic archaeology and is a faunal specialist with extensive Midwestern experience. Click here to see one of his reports.

Cindy L. Nagel (B.A., Anthropology, University of Iowa, 1997)
Nagel is an Assistant Project Archaeologist for the General Contracts Program at the UI-OSA where she has been employed full-time since 2002 after being involved with many OSA projects as an hourly employee since her graduation. Nagel was an integral part of the Bowen’s Prairie Project under Cindy Peterson’s direction—she was responsible for the data recovery excavations at Site 13JN196 and was lead author of the report chapter on this site. Nagel also works directly with the GCP Program Director conducting field survey and completing report write-ups for Phase I projects such as DNR wildlife area improvements, wireless towers, and sewer improvements. Click here to see one of her reports. Nagel has been lead author on, or contributed sections to, more than 40 GCP reports. Nagel also assists individual GCP Project Archaeologists with specific field tasks (often acting as Crew Chief directing a team of technicians) and report preparation, especially using ArcView GIS and CorelDraw to make high quality maps.

Joe Alan Artz (M.A., Anthropology, University of Kansas, 1983).
Artz is a geoarchaeologist and GIS specialist at the UI-OSA. Joe conducts project-specific geomorphological and geoarchaeological investigations on GCP projects. Click here for more about Joe.


Updated by Mary De La Garza, August 2007.
Designed by Tricia R. Bender
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