James H. Burton

Ph.D., Arizona State University, Geology, 1986
Senior Scientist and Associate Director, Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry
At UW-Madison since 1988

Archaeology

Research

Jim Burton’s research interests include the development of new archaeometric methods, particularly the use of chemical and isotopic methods for provenience studies, not only for traditional materials but also for humans who relocated. Current projects include exploration of alkaline-earth elements and various isotopic systems in the study of human mobility and the development of non-destructive methods to characterize historical materials. Recent projects include studies of the effect of marine resources on bone levels of barium and strontium, the origins of the Gila Polychrome tradition and the eastern, selvatic origin of unusual pottery found at Late Formative sites in the Ecuadorian Andes.

Teaching

• Biannually teach Anth 311: "Archaeology in the Laboratory" with T.D. Price. 
• Research supervisor for UW Undergraduate Research Scholars Program.
• Mentor for Madison Metropolitan School District’s Summer Science Intern Program and Edgewood High School Honors Program

Select Publications

• Burton, J.H., and A.W. Simon (1996)
  A pot is not a rock: a reply to Neff, Glascock, Bishop, and Blackman. American Antiquity 61:405-413.
• Burton, J.H., and T.D. Price (2000)
  The use and abuse of trace-elements for paleodietary inferences.  In Biogeochemical Approaches to Paleodietary Analysis , edited by S.H. Ambrose and M.A. Katzenberg, Kluwer  Academic/Plenum Publishers, pp. 159-171.
• Burton, J.H., T.D. Price, L. Cahue, and L.E. Wright (2003)
  The use of barium and strontium abundances in human skeletal tissues to determine their geographic origins.  International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 13:88-95.
• Burton, J.H., and T.D. Price (2003)
  Interpreting the trace-element components of bone - a current perspective from the Laboratory for Archaeological Chemistry. In: Deciphering ancient bones: The research potential of bioarchaeological collections, edited by G. Grupe and J. Peters, Documenta Archaeobiologiae, pp. 159-163. Rahden: Verlag Marie Leidorf.
• Burton, J.H., T.D. Price, L. Cahue, & L.E. Wright (2005)
  Alkaline-earth ratios in teeth as indicators of human mobility. In H. Kars & E. Burke (eds.), Proceedings of the 33rd International Symposium on Archaeometry, 22-26 April 2002, Amsterdam, pp. 449-451. Insitute for Geo- and Bioarchaeology, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Curriculum Vitae

James H. Burton CV

Contact

Office: 5444 Sewell Social Science Bldg.
Office phone number: (608) 262-4505
Email address: jhburton@wisc.edu

Links

http://www.anthropology.wisc.edu/LARCH/index.htm