Head of Collections Management

Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2000
M.A., Anthropology, University of Illinois-Chicago, 1992
B.S.LA, Bachelor of Science in Landscape Architecture, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1985

Scott Demel is currently the Head of Collections Management in the Department of Anthropology at the Field Museum where he oversees a staff of collections managers, conservators, and registrars that work as a team on the care of 1.5 million ethnographic and archaeological collections from around the globe. He also administers collections-based grants and coordinates scholarly research visits, and access to collections. Some of the current projects he is working on that involve the collections include: the inventory and cataloguing of thousands of ceramic vessels from a Java Sea shipwreck (ca. A.D. 1200), refitting intricate carved bird bone artifacts from the Middle Woodland Hopewell Site in Ohio (ca. 100 BC to A.D. 200), documenting the archaeological collections from Illinois, and using XRF (x-ray fluorescence) on Hopewell pipestone.

Great Lakes Archaeologist

Scott Demel is a Great Lakes Archaeologist. His dissertation research focused on Archaic settlement patterns along the western coast of Lake Michigan (ca. 9,000 - 2500 years ago), paleo-environmental reconstruction, and identifying archaeological correlates of coastal occupation. His research interests and specialties in archaeology are wide-ranging, including such topics as: Great Lakes prehistory and early history (colonial and American historical/urban archaeology), early Chicago history, coastal zone studies in the Great Lakes region (settlement patterns and ecology), paleo-environmental reconstruction, marine archaeology, the peopling of the Americas, hunter-gatherers of the Archaic period; monumental architecture and the cultural landscape of complex societies, microwear and use-wear analysis of lithic tools, and experimental archaeology.

Scott has conducted archaeological research throughout the Midwest for over 16 years, and has participated in the excavation of over one hundred prehistoric sites and historic sites. He has authored or co-authored over 80 archaeological site reports ranging in scope from Paleoindian campsites to historic farmsteads and cemeteries. See bibliography for some of the latest publications.

He has co-directed archaeological field schools in the Chicagoland area for the last six years and occasionally teaches courses in Anthropology and Archaeology at DePaul University. The last two summer field seasons have been spent in Hopkins Park Illinois teaching 6th-8th graders how to conduct fieldwork in the Budding Archaeology Program.

Demel in the field

Current Projects

Current projects include:
a) Using the assistance of volunteers and interns to help document and photograph the collection of historic artifacts recovered from the lakefront landfill (ca. 1904-1921) during excavation of the Museum’s Collection Resource Center. Some of these artifacts were previewed in the Trash to Treasure exhibition at the museum which ran from 2003 to 2006.

b) Using the assistance of volunteers and interns to help prepare the Report of Excavations at the Chinese-American Museum in Chinatown, Chicago (2005-2006). Demel was co-curator of the Chinatown History and Archaeology: Faces of Change Exhibition at the Chinese-American Museum of Chicago. Objects represent the multi-cultural makeup of Chicago and document the change in this neighborhood over the last hundred and twenty years.

c) Helping write the Report of Excavations at the Pullman State Historic Site, where Demel co-directed the DePaul University archaeological fieldschool during the summers of 2003 and 2004.

d) Continued archaeological excavations at a multi-component site in Hopkins Park, Kankakee County, Illinois where Demel co-directs the Budding Archaeology Program at the Lorenzo R. Smith Elementary School. The 2007 season discovered the remains of a late 19th-century homestead belonging to one of the first black settlers to the county. Students learned the basics of archaeology fieldwork and helped document and map the site and begin excavations. A prehistoric Late Woodland site was also discovered on the same property. Continued excavations are pending.

e) Pending excavation of a shipwreck in Indiana.

f) Continued participation in the excavation of a 12,000 year old mastodon skeleton in the DuPage County Pratt Wayne Woods. This summer will be the second year of an award winning summer camp run by the Museum’s Education Department and the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County. Results of a ground-penetrating-radar (GPR) survey conducted this spring are pending, and will hopefully reveal how much of the mastodon remains buried in the mud. Archaeological techniques applied during excavation by 40 students and teachers during the first summer camp (2007) revealed the presence of 4 flakes of chert in shallow deposits that indicate cultural activity in the area.