Katelyn McDonough
Education
Ph.D. Texas A&M University (2021)
B.S. University of Oregon (2014)
Research Interests
I am an environmental archaeologist interested in long-term relationships between people, foodways, and landscapes. Much of my ongoing research focuses on people’s interactions with plants and changing environments during and since the late Pleistocene in North America. I use approaches from archaeobotany, palynology, and parasitology to investigate these dynamics.
I am currently involved with fieldwork and collections-based research projects throughout the Great Basin and Columbia Plateau. As Director of the Museum of Natural and Cultural History’s Great Basin Archaeology Field School, I am the Principal Investigator of research at the Connley Caves, a place in central Oregon where Indigenous communities intermittently resided for more than 12,500 years. I am also working on collaborative projects examining sediment cores from Paulina Marsh in Oregon, a legacy collection from Lind Coulee in Washington, and coprolites from Last Supper Cave and Bonneville Estates Rockshelter in Nevada.
In partnership with members of the Klamath Tribes and the University of Nevada, Reno, I am working on the Traditional Nutrition Project to understand diet related health in the past and present. The goal of the project is to develop a nutritional database for First Foods in the Great Basin through biannual harvesting events that will concurrently function to strengthen relationships between Tribal members and anthropologists while encouraging Indigenous perspectives, values, and practices.
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
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. In press.
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.