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Robert Jeske

  • Professor Emeritus, Anthropology

Education

  • PhD, Northwestern University

Courses Taught

  • ANTH 103 - Digging Up the Past: Approaches to Archaeology
  • ANTH 304 - Violence and Warfare in Prehistory (online)
  • ANTH 308 - Archaeology of North America
  • ANTH 501 - Archaeology of Death
  • ANTH 502 - Lithic Analysis: Stone Tools and Behavior
  • ANTH 562 - Techniques and Problems in Archaeology
  • ANTH 566 - Archaeological Analysis and Report Preparation
  • ANTH 567 - Archaeological Field School
  • ANTH 802 - Perspectives on Prehistory
  • ANTH 942 - Seminar on Prehistory and Archaeology (The Organization of Lithic Technology)

Research Interests

My research interests include archaeological method and theory–particularly how economics and population interactions foster group identity and ethnicity. I also actively investigate stone tool production and use, survey methods and settlement models, mortuary studies, canine activities, site formation processes and experimental archaeology. I have performed fieldwork in Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New Mexico, and Ireland. I am currently collaborating on a number of interrelated projects with colleagues and students using radiocarbon, lithic, ceramic, copper, osteological, and environmental data to clarify the culture history and lifeways in the western Great Lakes region. I am also involved in public archaeology and historic preservation and have worked with government, non-profit, Tribal, and private organizations to use archaeology to serve the public interest.

Related Activities

  • President, Midwest Archaeological Conference (2014-2016)
  • Senator, UW Milwaukee Faculty Senate (2012-2017)
  • Board of Directors, Wisconsin Archaeological Survey (2011-2017)
  • Chair, UW Milwaukee Department of Anthropology (2004-2008)
  • Treasurer, Midwest Archaeological Conference (2003-2005)
  • President, Wisconsin Archaeological Survey (2001-2003), Vice President, (1999-2000)
  • Board of Directors, Central States Anthropological Association (1999-2001)
  • Director, UW Milwaukee Archaeological Research Laboratory (1997-present)
  • Indiana State Historic Preservation Review Board (1991-1997)
  • Board of Directors, Council for the Conservation of Indiana Archaeology (1990-1995), Secretary- Treasurer (1991-1994)
  • Executive Board of Directors, Illinois Archaeological Survey (1989-1991; 1998-2000)

Selected Publications

Jeske, R. J., Edwards, R. W., & Katherine, S. M.(Eds). (2020) Life, Death, and Landscapes at Lake Koshkonong: Oneota Archaeology in Southeastern Wisconsin.Midwest Archaeological Conference Occasional Publications /Taylor and Francis.
Jeske, R. J., Sterner, K. M., & Edwards, R. W.(2020) New Perspectives from Lake Koshkonong.Life, Death, and Landscapes at Lake Koshkonong: Oneota Archaeology in Southeastern Wisconsin, 4, 1-26. Midwest Archaeological Conference Occasional Publications /Taylor and Francis.
Jeske, R. J., Edwards, R. W., & Katherine, S. M.(Eds). (2020) The Social Landscape of Eleventh to Fifteenth-Century Lake Koshkonong.Midwest Archaeological Conference Occasional Papers, 103–118. Midwest Archaeological Conference Occasional Publications /Taylor and Francis/.
Karsten, J. K., Jeske, R. J., Edwards, R. W., Strange, D. M., Kubehl, K. , & Behm, J. A.(2019) Assessing subsistence and cultural relationships in the late prehistoric Upper Midwest: a new perspective provided by dental health.American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 1-14.
Sterner, K. M., & Jeske, R. J.(2017) A Multi-Method Approach to Inferring Early Agriculturalists'Stone Tool Use: The Crescent Bay Hunt Club Site.Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, 41(1), 1-27.
Jeske, R. J., & Brown, J. A.(2017) Chipped Stone Assemblage.Brown, J. A.(Ed). Mound City: The Archaeology of a Renowned Hopewell Mound Center, 6, 251-304. Lincoln, Nebraska: National Park Service, United States Department of the Interior.
Edwards, R. W., Jeske, R. J., & Coltraine, J. B.(2017) Preliminary Evidence for the Efficacy of the Canine Surrogacy Approach in the Great Lakes.Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, 13, 516-525.
Jeske, R. J., & Sterner-Miller, K. M.(2015) Microwear Analysis of Bipolar Tools from the Crescent Bay Hunt Club Site (47JE904).Lithic Technology, 40(4), 366-376.
Arnold, B. , & Jeske, R. J.(2014) The Archaeology of Death: Mortuary Archaeology in the United States and Europe 1990-2013.Annual Review of Anthropology, 43, 325-346.
Hart, J. P., Lovis, W. A., Jeske, R. J., & Richards, J. D.(2012) The Potential of Bulk δ13C on Encrusted Cooking Residues as Independent Evidence for Regional Maize Histories.American Antiquity, 77(2), 315-325.
Jeske, R. J., Winkler, D. M., & Blodgett, D. C.(2010) Experimental Heat Alteration of Lithic Raw Materials.Fergusen , J. R.(Ed). Designing Experimental Research in Archaeology: Examining Technology Through Production and Use, 111-128. University Press of Colorado.
Winkler, D. M., & Jeske, R. J.(2009) Late Pleistocene Occupations in the Lake Koshkonong Region, Southeastern Wisconsin.Current Research in the Pleistocene, 26, 126-128.
Jeske, R. J., & Winkler, D. M.(2008) The Clovis Occupation of the Schmeling Site (47je833) in Jefferson County, Wisconsin.Current Research in the Pleistocene, 25, 99-102.
Kuznar, L. A., & Jeske, R. J.(2006) Analogic Reasoning, Ethnoarchaeology, and the Impact of Canines on the Archaeological Record.Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, 16, 37-46.
Jeske, R. J.(2006) Hopewell Regional Interactions in Southeastern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois: A Core/Periphery Approach.Charles, D. K., & Buikstra, J. E.(Eds). Recreating Hopewell, 285-309. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida.
Jeske, R. J.(2003) Langford and Fisher Ceramic Traditions: Moiety, Ethnicity or Power Relations in the Upper Midwest?.Wisconsin Archeologist, 84, 65-180.
(2003) Lithic Procurement and Use within Mississippian Social Networks.Jeske, R. J.(Ed). Theory, Method, and Practice in Modern Archaeology, 223-237. Westport, CT: Praeger Press.
Richards, J. D., & Jeske, R. J.(2002) Location, Location, Location: The Temporal and Cultural Contexts of Late Prehistoric Settlement in Southeast Wisconsin.Wisconsin Archeologist, 83(2), 32-54.
Jeske, R. J., & Kuznar, L. A.(2001) Canine Digging Behavior and Archaeological Implications.Journal of Field Archaeology, 28, 383-394.
Jeske, R. J.(2000) The Washington Irving Site: Langford Tradition Adaptation in Northern Illinois. In Mounds, Modoc, and Mesoamerica: Essays in Honor of Melvin Fowler.Ahler, S. R.(Ed). 265-294. Springfield, Illinois.: Illinois State Museum.

UWM Land Acknowledgement: We acknowledge in Milwaukee that we are on traditional Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk and Menominee homeland along the southwest shores of Michigami, North America’s largest system of freshwater lakes, where the Milwaukee, Menominee and Kinnickinnic rivers meet and the people of Wisconsin’s sovereign Anishinaabe, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Oneida and Mohican nations remain present.   |   To learn more, visit the Electa Quinney Institute website.