Matthew J. O'Brien

I am a North American archaeologist with a primary focus on the western United States. Through zooarchaeology, lithic analysis, GIS, and quantitative methods, I am particularly interested in interpreting behavior from the spatial patterning preserved in the archaeological record. My academic research has explored meat sharing among the Eastern Shoshone at the Eden-Farson site, lithic procurement in the American Southwest, ethnoarchaeology research among the Dukha reindeer herders of northern Mongolia, and site structure of the La Prele Mammoth Site. I have most recently begun fieldwork in the Great Basin with excavations of Wagontire Springs Cave with a primary interest in looking at subsistence changes during the Holocene. As Director of Chico State's Archaeological Research Program (ARP), I enjoy working with regional partners to meet their compliance needs and train students for careers in Cultural Resource Management.

Curriculum Vita: Updated Sept 2021 PDF

EDUCATION

2013 Ph.D. (Anthropology) University of New Mexico

Dissertation: The Socioeconomic Organization of Communal Hunting: An Archaeological Examination of Shoshone Collective Action.

2006 M.A. (Anthropology) University of Wyoming

2000 B.A. (Anthropology & Economics) St. Lawrence University

PUBLICATIONS

Huckell, Bruce B., Merriman, Christopher, and O’Brien, Matthew J. (In Press) Boca Negra Wash: Investigating Activity Organization at a Shallowly Buried Folsom Camp in the Middle Rio Grande Valley of New Mexico. In Open Air Camps of the Terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene: Intra-Camp Spatial Organization, Activity Areas, and Technology, edited by Leland C. Bement and Kristin Carlson. In press, University Press of Colorado, Louisville, CO.

Mackie, Madeline E, Surovell, Todd A., Pelton, Spencer, O’Brien, Matthew J., Kelly, Robert L., Frison, George C., Yohe, Robert M., Teteak, Steve, Shapiro, Beth, and Kapp, Joshua D. (In Press) Spatial analysis of a Clovis hearth centered activity area at the La Prele Mammoth site, Converse County, Wyoming. In Diversity in Open Air Site Structure Across the Pleistocene/Holocene Boundary, edited by K. Carlson and L. Bement. University of Colorado Press, Boulder.

O’Brien, Matthew J., Todd A. Surovell, W. Randall Haas, and Spencer Pelton (In Press) The Attraction of Home: The Influence of Fire and Ambient Light on Domestic Space among the Dukha Reindeer Herders of Northern Mongolia. In More than a Shelter, eds. B. Andrews and D. Macdonald. University of Florida Press.

O’Brien, Matthew J. and Danny N. Walker (2022) Communal Hunting and Teasing Out Signs of Cooperation in the Past. In Intrasite Spatial Analysis of Mobile and Semisedentary Peoples: Analytical Approaches to Reconstructing Occupation History, eds. A. E. Clark and J. A. Gingerich. The University of Utah Press.

Surovell, Todd A., O’Brien, Matthew J., and Haas, W. Randall (2022) The Other Invisible Sex: Division of Labor and Domestic Space in the Mongolian Taiga. In Intrasite Spatial Analysis of Mobile and Semisedentary Peoples: Analytical Approaches to Reconstructing Occupation History, eds. A. E. Clark and J. A. Gingerich. The University of Utah Press.

Surovell, T. A., Pelton, S. A., Mackie, M. E., Mahan, C. M., O’Brien, M.J., Kelly, R. L., Haynes, Jr., C.V., and Frison, G. C. (2021) Human-Elephant Interactions: From Past to Present, ed. G. E. Konidaris, R. Barkai, V. Tourloukis, K. Harvati. Tuebingen Paleoanthropology Book Series – Contributions in Paleoanthropology 1. Tuebingen University Press. Link

Mackie, Madeline E., Surovell, Todd A., O’Brien, Matthew J., Kelly, Robert L., Pelton, Spencer, Haynes, Jr., C. Vance, Frison, George C., Yohe, Robert M., Teteak, Steve, Rockwell, Heather M., and Mahan, Shannon (2020) Confirming a Cultural Association at the La Prele Mammoth Site (48CO1401) Converse County, Wyoming. American Antiquity 85(3):554-572. PDF

Haas, R., Surovell, T.A., and O’Brien, M.J. (2019) Dukha Mobility in a constructed environment. American Antiquity. PDF

Haas, R., Surovell, T. A., O’Brien, M. J. (2018) Occupancy and the Use of Household Space among the Dukha. Ethnoarchaeology 10:1-15. PDF

O’Brien, M. J. and Surovell, T. A. (2017) Dukha Reindeer Herder Camp and Household Spacing. Arctic Anthropology 54(1):110-119. PDF

Surovell, T. A. and O’Brien, M. J. (2016) Mobility at the Scale of Meters. Evolutionary Anthropology 26(3): 142-152. PDF

Mackie, M. E., Surovell, T. A., and O’Brien, M. J. (2015) Identifying Stone Alignments Created by Adults and Children: A Case Study from a Dukha Reindeer Herder Summer Camp, Khovsgol Aimag, Mongolia. Siberica 14: 29-44. PDF

O'Brien, M. J. (2015). Evaluating the contemporaneity of households at the Eden-Farson site. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 25(5):653-664. PDF

O’Brien, M. J., Liebert, T. (2014). Quantifying the energetic returns for pronghorn: a food utility index of meat and marrow. Journal of Archaeological Science 46:384-392. PDF

O’Brien, M. J., Storlie, C. M. (2011). An alternative approach to bilateral refitting. Journal of Taphonomy 9(4):245-268. PDF

Huckell, B. B., Shackley, M. S., O’Brien, M. J., Merriman, C. M. (2011). Folsom obsidian procurement and use at the Boca Negra Wash Site, New Mexico, Current Research in the Pleistocene: 49-52. PDF

O’Brien, M. J., Ruth, S., Merriman, C. M., Huckell, B. B. (2009). Reevaluating Folsom mobility and land use in New Mexico, Current Research in the Pleistocene 20: 107-109. PDF