About
Danielle A. Macdonald, Ph.D., is an associate professor of anthropology, specializing in Southwest Asian prehistory and lithic (stone tool) analysis. She is interested in the importance of objects in our lives, specifically looking at how material culture shaped human behavior and activities leading up to the origins of agriculture. She co-directs the Kharaneh IV Excavation Project, which explores hunter-gatherer aggregation through artifacts at the Terminal Pleistocene site of Kharaneh IV (Jordan), and also co-directs the Ancient Seafaring Explorers of Cyprus project, addressing questions about the earliest hunter-gatherer communities in Cyprus. In addition to directing these research projects, she works as a lithic use-wear specialist for projects in the U.S., Canada and Turkey.
To further address questions of human-object connections, Macdonald’s research evaluates how past behaviors can be interpreted through traces on archaeological objects, particularly at the microscopic scale using use-wear analysis. Macdonald’s research explores methodological development for use-wear analysis and the applications of 3D microscopy for archaeological research. Through this research she collaborates with engineers specializing in surface metrology and tribology to develop new methods for the quantification of microwear traces.
In addition to her archaeological research, Macdonald works closely with newcomer communities in Tulsa and helps to support UTulsa’s refugee-background students.
Awards & Honors
- Faculty Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Changemaker Award, The University of Tulsa, 2024
Education
- Ph.D., University of Toronto
- M.A., University of Victoria
- B.A., University of Toronto
Research Interests & Areas of Expertise
- Hunter-gatherers
- Stone tools
- Epipalaeolithic
- Southwest Asia
- Microscopy
- Surface metrology
- Early inhabitants of Cyprus
