Bernice S. Warren Center for Archaeological Research Archives

Center for Archaeological Research marks 50th anniversary with unique challenges and big dreams

March 4, 2025 by Lynn M. Lansdown

A small, unassuming building on Missouri State University’s main campus houses one of its busiest and most far-reaching programs — the Bernice S. Warren Center for Archaeological Research.

Nicknamed “CAR,” the Center does more than dig for old bones. In addition to its educational, research and public outreach activities, CAR has provided archaeological services to state and local communities since 1975.

CAR is also headquarters to the Missouri Archaeological Society (MAS).

In fact, CAR is the only public research center dedicated to the archaeology of Missouri and the Ozarks, according to its director, Kevin Cupka Head.

Celebrating 50 years

Man sitting at desk — CAR Director Kevin Cupka Head. Photo credit: Lynn Lansdown.

To mark the Center’s fiftieth anniversary, Cupka Head noted that several activities are in the works, including a CAR alumni reunion and a commemorative history to be published on the web and possibly in book form.

In addition, as part of Missouri’s Archaeology Month in September, CAR will hold a public artifact ID day.

“Members of the public can bring in artifacts or curiosities for identification by experts,” Cupka Head said.

Cupka Head hopes the anniversary activities will bring attention to the Center’s “impressive contributions to the archaeology and history of the Ozarks.”

“The MSU community can take pride in and ownership of our role as stewards of over 15,000 years of Missouri history,” Cupka Head said.

Services in demand

Among its services, CAR’s faculty and staff assist government agencies and the private sector in performing cultural resource assessments. Currently, the Center is working on just under 40 active projects and has proposals out for roughly 30 more, according to Cupka Head.

“It’s often a case where we’ll have one or two really big contracts and then a bunch of small to medium sized contracts,” he said.

Most of CAR’s projects are surveys to assess a potential development project. “New sidewalks. A bridge replacement. Larger than that sometimes, such as industrial developments,” Cupka Head explained.

CAR can conduct various geophysical investigations, such as ground-penetrating radar (GPR) and magnetometry, Cupka Head said. “We can also conduct several specialized laboratory procedures, such as electrolytic rust removal, flotation and the recovery and preparation of C14 samples,” Cupka Head said. CAR evaluates and then makes recommendations as to whether further work is needed.

The Center’s current projects include the Jordan Creek renewal project in downtown Springfield, archaeological monitoring of Boeing’s St. Louis airport expansion project, and numerous transportation and infrastructure projects throughout the state.

Meanwhile, many of CAR’s smaller projects directly serve the Ozarks. “We’re willing to take on a lot of smaller jobs and specialized jobs that some of the larger firms just pass on,” Cupka Head said.

These include HUD projects, rural developments and city improvement projects such as water and sewer line installations.

New book features research of CAR’s Dr. Daniel Pierce

January 13, 2025 by Lynn M. Lansdown

Research archaeologist Dr. Daniel Pierce of the Bernice S. Warren Center for Archaeological Research (CAR), has published his findings on Aztatlán culture in a new book from University of Utah press.

Edited by Michael D. Mathiowetz and John M. D. Pohl, “Reassessing the Aztatlán World: Ethnogenesis and Cultural Continuity in Northwest Mesoamerica” presents the work of leading West Mexican scholars. The book provides a broad perspective of Aztatlán culture through a variety of different studies, Pierce said.

Pierce’s chapter, “Obsidian Usage and Trade in Postclassic West Mexico,” examines the Aztatlán culture’s obsidian trade. Obsidian is a volcanic glass used to make stone tools such as blades, knives and spear points.

“This book has been in the works for nearly a decade, so it is exciting that it has finally seen the light of day,” Pierce said. “I think it will be the go-to text for anyone interested in West Mexican archaeology, as it is the first volume of its kind.”

The book was published in 2024.

Examining Aztatlán culture

According to Pierce, scholars believe that Aztatlán society, especially its trade activity, helped shape Mesoamerican culture in the American Southwest, including religion, culture and exotic goods.

“The Aztatlán culture of West Mexico dominated western Mexico during the Post Classic period (AD 900-1350),” Pierce said. “Though it is less well known than other Mesoamerican cultures, the Aztatlán were seemingly the link that connected the great cultures of the American Southwest with those in Mesoamerica.”

“They even brought things like chocolate and macaws into the deserts of the southwest,” he added.

Man demonstrating archaeological equipment to group — Dr. Daniel Pierce demonstrates obsidian analysis to university students from Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit in Tepic, Mexico. Photo credit: Maurico Garduño Ambriz.

CAR research archaeologist Christopher Bodine presents at NASA symposium

October 16, 2024 by Lynn M. Lansdown

Missouri State University Research Archaeologist Christopher Bodine recently presented his work at the “NASA and Archaeology from Space” symposium, held Sept. 18-19 at NASA’s Space Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

Bodine, who works at the Bernice S. Warren Center for Archaeological Research, presented “Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (AIRSAR): SAR Data for Detection and Preservation in North American Archaeological Contexts.”

Symposium attendees came from a diverse range of organizations and institutions, Bodine noted. These included NASA, the National Laboratories system, UNESCO, North American and European universities and private industries.

Many of these individuals have been essential in developing and applying arial remote sensing techniques in archaeology, he added.

2024 archaeology summer field school investigates historic company town site

August 6, 2024 by Lynn M. Lansdown

Missouri State University conducted another successful archaeological field school May 20-June 14, 2024, at the historic Phenix Marble Company Town site in northwest Greene County, Missouri.

Once again, Dr. Elizabeth Sobel and Dr. Scott Worman of the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Gerontology (SAG) directed the program. They also co-taught the field school at Phenix in 2019 and 2022.

Twenty Missouri State students, along with three teaching assistants, participated in this year’s field school.

This year the group investigated remnants of a company town where Phenix employees lived from the late 1800s to the 1930s.

Local focus gives professional training at reduced costs

Missouri State has been holding archaeological field schools nearly every summer since the mid-1970s, Sobel said.

“While there have been MSU field schools in places like New Mexico and Jamaica, the costs of travel, food and lodging made those inaccessible to many students,” she explained.

Instead, Sobel and Worman have opted for local field schools. These reduce costs while giving students the training they need to become professional archaeologists.

Sobel said she and Worman direct the field school every other year, alternating with staff from Missouri State’s Bernice S. Warren Center for Archaeological Research (CAR).

Phenix Site has many pluses

Sobel and Worman said they return to Phenix as a field school site for several reasons.

“The fieldwork at Phenix builds on our previous archaeological research, [which explored] daily life of Black families in nearby Ash Grove in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,” Sobel explained. “Like the Phenix community, much of the Ash Grove community worked in the limestone industry.”

“In 2019, we chose to expand this research to include the site of the Phenix Marble Company, which hired and housed only Whites to quarry and process limestone,” Worman added. “Our study can more fully explore both race and class dynamics in this part of the Ozarks in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.”

Several people at archaeological dig — The 2024 archaeological field school hard at work. Photo credit: Lucy Arras.

In addition, the Phenix Marble Company owns the site. The owners give the field school access to the property, maintain the landscape, share historical information about the site and even provide portable toilets, Sobel said.

These, along with the site’s proximity to campus, are additional benefits to returning to the Phenix site.

Center for Archaeological Research helps Christian County Museum with new exhibit opening April 20

April 16, 2024 by Lynn M. Lansdown

The Bernice S. Warren Center for Archaeological Research (CAR) at Missouri State University recently collaborated with the Christian County Museum to develop a new exhibit featuring the Mullins-Taylor farm in Christian County.

The exhibit will debut Saturday, April 20 from 3-5 p.m. at the museum, which is part of the Christian County Historical Society.

The museum is located at 100 E. Elm St., Ozark, Missouri.

CAR director to speak at exhibit opening

The director of CAR, Kevin Cupka Head, will speak at the exhibit’s opening April 20.

Cupka Head will outline the research methods and findings from CAR’s initial examination of the Mullins-Taylor farmstead before it was demolished by its current owner, James River Church, in Sept. 2022.

He first learned about the site in May 2022 when he received an email from P.J. Logan.

According to Cupka Head, Logan who—along with the late Keith Kissee—conducted much of the preliminary archival and historical research about the site, then compiled an Eligibility Assessment (EA) report.

Then in August 2022, CAR then built on this initial research and compiled an addendum of the site’s archaeological, historical and cultural value.

The team presented their findings to James River Church representatives, who granted permission to conduct a preliminary examination but denied permission to excavate the site.