Bio

I am a PhD candidate with the Palynology Research Laboratory and Center for the Study of the First Americans. My dissertation research investigates human-environment interactions and hunter-gatherer foodways in the Great Basin region of North America. Much of my research centers on the Fort Rock basin in central Oregon where I co-direct the University of Oregon Archeology Field School at the Connley Caves. My first dissertation project examines human health and dietary choices through analysis of macrobotanical, palynological, and parasitological components of coprolites from middle and late Holocene contexts at the Connley Caves. I am also conducting a paleoethnobotanical analysis of combustion features there to answer questions regarding plant use and settlement-subsistence patterns during the terminal Pleistocene. Lastly, I am running a sediment coring project in Paulina Marsh aimed at reconstructing vegetation history in the Fort Rock basin. Prior to attending Texas A&M University, I earned a B.S. from the University of Oregon and gained four years of archaeological experience while working for the University of Oregon Museum of Natural and Cultural History, the Bureau of Land Management, and private CRM firms throughout Oregon and California.

Select Publications

2020    McDonough, Katelyn. Review of “The Crimson Cowboys: The Remarkable Odyssey of the 1931 Claflin Emerson Expedition” by Jerry D. Spangler and James M. Aton. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology. In press.

2019    McDonough, Katelyn and Richard Rosencrance. Gifts from the Pueblo Valley: Analysis of a Donated Collection from Far Southwestern Oregon. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology. 39(2):213-229.

2019    McDonough, Katelyn. Middle Holocene Menus: Dietary Reconstruction from Coprolites at the Connley Caves, Oregon, USA. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 11: 5963-5982. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00828-1.

2019    Beck, Chase, Vaughn Bryant, and Katelyn McDonough. Evidence for Non-Random Distribution of Pollen in Human Coprolites. Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences, 11: 5983-5998. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-019-00839-y.

2018    Lisa-Marie Shillito, John C. Blong, Dennis L. Jenkins, Tom W. Stafford, Helen Whelton, Katelyn McDonough, and Ian Bull. New Research at Paisley Caves: Applying New Integrated Analytical Approaches to Understanding Stratigraphy, Taphonomy, and Site Formation Processes. PaleoAmerica. 4(1):82-86.

2018    McDonough, Katelyn and Dennis L. Jenkins. University of Oregon’s Northern Great Basin Field School Excavation Update for the Connley Caves, Fort Rock Basin, Lake County. CAHO 43(1):12-16. Association of Oregon Archaeologists, Eugene, Oregon.

2017    Jenkins, Dennis L., Justin A. Holcomb, and Katelyn 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.

2016    Jenkins, Dennis L., Loren G. Davis, Thomas W. Stafford, Jr., Thomas J. Connolly, Michael Rondeau, Linda Scott Cummings, Bryan Hockett, Katelyn McDonough, Ian Luthe, Patrick W. O’Grady, Karl J. Reinhard, Mark E. Swisher, Frances White, Robert M. Yohe II, Chad Yost, Eske Willerslev. Younger Dryas Archaeology and Human Experience at the Paisley Caves in the Northern Great Basin. Stones, Bones, and Profiles: Exploring Archaeological Context, Early American Hunter-Gatherers, and Bison. Edited by Marcel Kornfeld and Bruce B. Huckell, University Press of Colorado, Boulder.