Katelyn McDonough
Education
Research Interests
I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oregon and affiliated faculty with the Native American and Indigenous Studies Program and the Food Studies Program.
As an environmental archaeologist, I am interested in long-term relationships among people, foodways, plants, and changing environments. Much of my research examines these relationships from the late Pleistocene to the present across the Western Hemisphere, with a particular focus on western North America. I draw on approaches from archaeobotany, palynology, and parasitology to investigate past foodways, environmental change, and the ways people have interacted with and shaped the places they call home.
I am currently involved in fieldwork and collections-based research throughout the Great Basin and Columbia Plateau. I co-direct the Northern Great Basin Collaborative Archaeology Field School, developed in partnership with the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Tribal Historic Preservation Office, GeoVisions, the University of Oregon, and the University of Nevada, Reno. The field school brings together students, archaeologists, and Tribal partners for archaeological research, training, and knowledge sharing across the northern Great Basin. I am also the Principal Investigator of ongoing research at the Connley Caves, a series of rockshelters in central Oregon where Indigenous communities intermittently resided for nearly 13,000 years. Additional projects include research on sediment cores from Paulina Marsh in Oregon, archaeological assemblages from Lind Coulee in Washington and Paisley Caves in Oregon, and coprolites from Last Supper Cave and Bonneville Estates Rockshelter in Nevada.
In partnership with members of the Klamath Tribes and researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno, I am also involved in the Traditional Nutrition Project, which explores relationships between Indigenous foodways, nutrition, and health in the past and present. The project is developing a nutritional database for First Foods of the Great Basin through biannual harvesting events that also create opportunities for knowledge sharing, relationship building, and research grounded in Indigenous perspectives, values, and practices.
I am especially excited about teaching and mentorship, exploring the microscopic world, and creating welcoming and accessible spaces for students in archaeology and academia. I especially value opportunities to support students as they develop their own research interests, gain hands-on experience, and work toward their professional goals.
More information is available on my lab and the field school websites:
Publications
Books
McDonough, K., R. Rosencrance, and J. Pratt (editors). Current Perspectives on Stemmed and Fluted Technologies in the American Far West. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City. https://uofupress.lib.utah.edu/current-perspectives-on-stemmed-and-fluted-technologies-in-the-american-far-west/
Selected Publications
2026. Connolly, T. J., P. Chocktoot, K. McDonough, R. L. Rosencrance, and D. L. Jenkins. Tobacco Use and Its Early Consumption with Smoking Pipes. American Antiquity. In press. DOI: 10.1017/aaq.2026.10217
2026. McDonough, K., R. L. Rosencrance, D. L. Jenkins, J. A. Holcomb, G. M. Sanchez, and G. M. Smith. Human Resilience in Cold Desert Environments: Late Pleistocene Archaeology at Connley Cave 4, USA. Quaternary Science Reviews. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2026.109997
2026. Rosencrance, R. L., G. M. Smith, K. McDonough, C. S. Jazwa, E. A. Kallenbach, T. J., Connolly, M. Antonosyan, B. J. Culleton, K. Puseman, M. McGuinness, D. L. Jenkins, D. O. Stueber, and P. E. Endzweig. Late Pleistocene Complex Perishable Technologies from the North American Great Basin Inform Human Cold Adaptation and Global Dispersals. Science Advances 12:eaec2916. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aec2916.
2026. McDonough, K., R. L. Rosencrance, S. G. Saper, G. M. Smith, J. A. Holcomb, J. C Mueller, and D. L. Jenkins. An Early Holocene Crescent from a Dated Context at Connley Cave 6, Oregon. North American Archaeologist 47(1-2):3-22. DOI: 10.1177/0197693125138178.
2024. Smith, G. M., R. L. Rosencrance, S. N. Saper, K. McDonough, D. C. Felling, and T. N. Layton. The Western Stemmed Tradition Component of Last Supper Cave, Nevada. PaleoAmerica. 10 (2-3):226-245. DOI: 10.1080/20555563.2024.2422133.
2024. Rosencrance, R. L., K. McDonough, G. M. Smith, C. S. Jazwa, D. L. Jenkins, J. Clements, D. G. Duke, D. O. Stueber, and L. S. Henrickson. Bayesian Analysis of Haskett Projectile Point Radiocarbon Dates in the Intermountain West. PaleoAmerica. DOI: 10.1080/205555.63.2024.2407212
2024. McDonough, K., D. Gavin, R. Rosencrance, L. Davis, S. Kuehn, M. Smith, C. Saban, and R. Szymanski. Multi-proxy Paleoenvironmental Data from Paulina Marsh Inform Human-Environmental Dynamics in the Northern Great Basin, U.S.A. Quaternary Science Advances. 14:100184. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.qsa.2024.100184
2024. McDonough, K., R. Rosencrance, and J. Pratt. A History of Stemmed and Fluted Technology Research in the American Far West. In Current Perspectives on the Western Stemmed-Clovis Debate in the Far West, edited by K. McDonough, R. Rosencrance, and J. Pratt. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
2024. Smith, G. M., D. L. Jenkins, D. J. Reaux, S. Jamaldin, R. L. Rosencrance, and K. McDonough. WST Toolstone Conveyance and its Role in Understanding How Early Populations Settled into the Northwestern Great Basin. In Current Perspectives on the Western Stemmed-Clovis Debate in the Far West, edited by K. McDonough, R. Rosencrance, and J. Pratt. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
2023. Holcomb, J. A., K. McDonough, R. L. Rosencrance, L. Shillito, and D. L. Jenkins. Frost Action During the Younger Dryas Inferred from Soil Micromorphology at Connley Caves 5, Oregon. PaleoAmerica 9(4):289-303. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20555563.2023.2282316
2023. McDonough, K., T. Johnson, T. Goebel, K. Reinhard, and M. Coe. Paleoparasitology of Human Acanthocephalan Infection: A Review and New Case from Bonneville Estates Rockshelter, Nevada, USA. Journal of Parasitology 109(2):65-75. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1645/22-92.
2022. McDonough, K., J. Kennedy, R. L. Rosencrance, J. Holcomb, K. Puseman, and D. L. Jenkins. Expanding Paleoindian Diet Breadth: Archaeobotany of Connley Cave 5, Oregon. American Antiquity 87(2):303-332. DIO: https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2021.141.
2022. Rosencrance, R. L., K. McDonough, J. A. Holcomb, P. E. Endzweig, and D. L. Jenkins. Dating and Analysis of Western Stemmed Toolkits from the Legacy Collection of Connley Cave 4, Oregon. PaleoAmerica 8(3):264-284. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20555563.2022.2088132.
2022. Holcomb, J. A., R. D. Mandell, E. Otárola-Castillo, K. Rademaker, R. L. Rosencrane, K. McDonough, D. S. Miller, B. Wygal. Does the Evidence at Arroyo del Vizcaíno (Uruguay) Support the Claim of Human Occupation 30,000 Years ago? PaleoAmerica 8(4):285-299. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20555563.2022.2135476.
2020. Rosencrance, R. L., and K. McDonough. Ten Thousand Years in the High Rock Country: New Radiocarbon Dates from Hanging Rockshelter (25WA1502), Nevada. Nevada Archaeologist 32:26-44.
2019. McDonough, K., and R. L. Rosencrance. Gifts from the Pueblo Valley: Analysis of a Donated Collection from Far Southeastern Oregon. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 39(2):205-221.
2019. McDonough, K. Middle Holocene Menus: Dietary Reconstruction from Coprolites at the Connley Caves, Oregon, USA. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11(11):5963-5982. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00828-1.
2019. Beck, C., V. M. Bryant, and K. McDonough. Evidence for Non-Random Distribution of Pollen in Human Coprolites. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 11(11):5983-5998. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00839-y.
2018. Shillito, L., J. C. Blong, D. L. Jenkins, T. W. Stafford, H. Whelton, K. McDonough, and I. Bull. New Research at Paisley Caves: Applying New Integrated Analytical Approaches to Understanding Stratigraphy, Taphonomy, and Site Formation Processes. PaleoAmerica 4(1):82-86. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20555563.2017.1396167.
2017. Jenkins, D. L., J. A. Holcomb, and K. McDonough. Current Research at the Connley Caves (35LK50): Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene Western Stemmed Tradition Occupations in the Fort Rock Basin, Oregon. PaleoAmerica 3(2):188-192. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/20555563.2017.1297082.
Teaching
Courses Taught
- Principles of Archaeology (ANTH 145)
- Oregon Archaeology (ANTH 344)
- Great Basin Archaeology and Paleoecology (ANTH 399, 410/510)
- Peopling of the Americas (ANTH 456/556)
- Cultural Resource Management (ANTH 449/549)
- Archaeology Field Methods (Field School, ANTH 408/508)
- Introduction to Museum Collections and Lab Methods (ANTH 401/601)