Contact Information
Professor, Chair
Director of the Archaeological Research Program (ARP)
Department of Anthropology
California State University, Chico
400 W. First St
Chico, CA 95929-400
mjobrien@csuchico.edu
Embedded Files
My interests center on Native American archaeology spanning a wide range of time periods. While my work has primarily centered on the western US, this research has led to research overseas. Through it all, I have had a lasting interest in how archaeology can reconstruct the social behaviors of past peoples. From my early interests in site formation processes to my dissertation research examining meat sharing between households through anatomical refitting, I have always sought new ways to observe social interaction among foraging communities.
Early on I worked or led excavations on Paleoindian sites in the Northern Plains, the Rockies, and the Southwest. I was drawn to this time period as Paleoindian archaeology explored how people adapted to a landscape so foreign to our own. While Paleoindian sites are often low density sites representing brief seasonal occupations, it was clear that all of them had spatial patterning to the artifact and faunal assemblages. Ethnoarchaeology provided insight into these patterns, and I found efforts to link spatial and social behaviors fascinating. This led to my dissertation focused on the Northern Shoshone site of Eden Farson. This Contact Period site consisted of multiple households, with primary deposition of cultural materials within structures, allowing for the mapping of food sharing between structures. Ethnoarchaeology was useful for spatial patterning of a campsite, but existing work was less useful for intrahousehold or small scale patterning. This led to a major detour in my research agenda, as I explored how people use space in nomadic communities through my work with the Dukha reindeer herders of northern Mongolia. For four field seasons, I partnered with Todd Surovell of the University of Wyoming to examine seasonal variation in how people choose where to do the very things that become manifested in the archaeological record. It was an eye-opening experience, and the collaboration with the Dukha was a special time.
Once I arrived in California, I began exploring new research programs that would allow my students to gain valuable field experience closer to campus, and I chose the Western Great Basin. As a student, I had always been enamored of hypotheses about the Numu, or Numic, peoples' expansion across the basin. An opportunity arose when the BLM identified a rock shelter with clear evidence of looting. Through some testing of the site and subsequent field schools, we demonstrated that buried cultural deposits still remained at the site.
Most recently, I have begun a collaborative research project with the Konkow Valley Band of Maidu and the Plumas National Forest to explore the archaeology of Concow Basin near Oroville, California. Our efforts are centered on supporting the Tribal petition for Federal recognition by identifying the antiquity of ancestral use of the basin and by gaining a better understanding of land-use strategies. Through exploring the spatial aspects of Konkow village sites, I hope to examine site structure in light of generalizations derived from the Dukha Ethnoarchaeology Project. This project aligns with California State Law AB 389, and is developing practical ways to conduct traditional laboratory analyses in the field to meet the wishes of the descendant community. With funding available through 2030, this project provides students with training for careers in CRM while working alongside Tribal members. In addition to the project's scientific goals, we hope it serves as a means to begin restoring trust between Tribal communities, Chico State University, and archaeology.
Education
2013 University of New Mexico. Ph. D (Anthropology)
Dissertation: The Socioeconomic Organization of Communal Hunting: An Archaeological Examination of Shoshone Collective Action.
2006 University of Wyoming. M.A. (Anthropology)
2000 St. Lawrence University. B. A. (Anthropology/Economics)
Publications
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Surovell, T. A., M. L. Litynski, S. A. Allaun, M. Buckley, T. A. Schoborg, J. A. Govaerts, M. J. O’Brien, S. R. Pelton, P. H. Sanders, M. E. Mackie, and R. L. Kelly (2024) Use of hare bone for the manufacture of a Clovis bead. Scientific Reports 14(1):2937. 10.1038/s41598-024-53390-9
Pelton, S. R., T. A. SurovelL, S. A. Allaun, M. L. Litynski, P. H. Sanders, R. L. Kelly, M. E. Mackie, and M. J. O'Brien (2024) Estimating the size and density of the La Prele Site: Implications for Paleoinidan Group Size. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory.
Surovell, T. A., O’Brien, M. J., Pelton, S. (2023) Coupled Time Lapse Photography and Photogrammetry for High Precision Mapping of Human Behavior in Ethnoarchaeology Research. Anthropologie LXI (3): 303-314.
Allaun, S. A., T. A. Surovell, C. V. Haynes, Jr., M. E. Mackie, S. Pelton, R. L. Kelly, M. J. O’Brien, J. M. Capriles, S. Mahan (2023) The geochronological and geoarchaeological context of the Clovis-age La Prele Mammoth site, Converse County, Wyoming. Paleoamerica 9:174-193.
Lew-Levy, S., R. Reckin, S.M. Kissler, I. Pretelli, A.H. Boyette, A.N. Crittenden, R.V. Hagen, R. Haas, K.L. Kramer, J. Koster, M.J. O’Brien, K. Sonoda, T.A. Surovell, J. Stieglitz, B. Tucker, N. Lavi, K. Ellis-Davies, and H.E. Davis (2022) Socioecology shapes child and adolescent time allocation in twelve hunter-gatherer and mixed-subsistence forager societies. (2022) Scientific Reports 12(1):8054. DOI:10.1038/s41598-022-12217-1
Mackie, M. E., Surovell, T. A., O’Brien, M. J., Kelly, R. L., Pelton, S., Haynes, Jr., C. V., Frison, G. C., Yohe, R. M., Teteak, S., Rockwell, H. M., and Mahan, S. (2020) Confirming a Cultural Association at the La Prele Mammoth Site (48CO1401) Converse County, Wyoming. American Antiquity 85(3):554-572.
Haas, R., Surovell, T.A., and O’Brien, M.J. (2019) Dukha Mobility in a constructed environment. American Antiquity.
Haas, R., Surovell, T. A., O’Brien, M. J. (2018) Occupancy and the Use of Household Space among the Dukha. Ethnoarchaeology 10:1-15.
O’Brien, M. J. and Surovell, T. A. (2018) Dukha Reindeer Herder Camp and Household Spacing. Arctic Anthropology 54(1):110-119.
Surovell, T. A. and O’Brien, M. J. (2016) Mobility at the Scale of Meters. Evolutionary Anthropology 26(3): 142-152.
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.
O'Brien, M. J. (2015). Evaluating the contemporaneity of households at the Eden-Farson site. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 25(5):653-664.
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.
O’Brien, M. J., Storlie, C. M. (2011). An alternative approach to bilateral refitting. Journal of Taphonomy 9(4):245-268.
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.
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.
Contributions to an Edited Volume
Huckell, B. B., Merriman, C., and O’Brien, M. J. (2022) 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, M. E, Surovell, T. A., Pelton, S., O’Brien, M. J., Kelly, R. L., Frison, G. C., Yohe, R. M., Teteak, S., Shapiro, B., and Kapp, J. D. (2022) 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, M. J., Surovell, T. A., Haas, W. R. and Pelton, S. (2022) 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, M. J. and Walker, D. N. (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, T. A., O’Brien, M. J., and Haas, W. R. (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.
Technical Reports
O’Brien, M. J. and Merwin, C. A. (2021) Evaluating the stratigraphic integrity of subsurface deposits at Wagontire Springs Cave, High Rock Canyon, Nevada. BLM Report Number CR2-3407. Submitted to Bureau of Land Management, Blackrock Field Office, Winnemucca District Office.
Jones, N. M., O’Brien, M. J., Kohler, B., Simons, D. (2019) Bare Allotment Renewal Project, Washoe and Humboldt Counties, Nevada. California State University, Chico;s Archaeological Research Program, Report No. 80.
O’Brien, M.J. (2018) Addendum Report to ARP Report No. 77: Sand Slough Class III Survey, Red Bluff, Tehama County, CA. California State University, Chico’s Archaeological Research Program, Report No. 79.
Hensler, R., O’Brien, M.J. (2018) Addendum to: Archaeological Survey Report Sacramento River Channel Restoration Project: Rio Vista and Lake California. California State University, Chico’s Archaeological Research Program, Report No. 79.
Jones, N. M., Johnson, R., Hensler, R., O’Brien, M. J. (2017) Archaeological Survey Report: Sacramento River Channel Restoration Project. CSU, Chico’ Archaeological Research Program Report No. 77, Submitted to CSU, Chico’s Geographic Information Center.
Mackie, M. M., Surovell, T. A., Kelly, R. L., O’Brien, M. J., and Pelton, S. R. (2017) The 2016 Field Season at the La Prele Mammoth Site. Submitted to QUEST Archaeological Research Program, Southern Methodist University.
O'Brien, M.J., C.W. Merriman, and N.M. Waguespack. 2013. Site Testing of Barger Gulch Locality C (5GA195). Report drafted for fulfillment of the Colorado State Historic Fund Archaeological Assessment Grant.
Merriman, C.W., M.J. O'Brien, J.H. Mayer, T.A. Surovell, and N.M. Waguespack. 2011. Geoarchaeological Investigations at Barger Gulch Locality C. Field Report on file with Bureau of Land Management, Submitted October 15, 2011
Huckell, B.B., C.W. Merriman, and M.J. O'Brien. 2010. Archaeological Assessment of the Hidden Ridge Site (TONT00068), and Archaic Occupation in Tonto National Monument. Report submitted to the National Park Service (Tonto National Monument).
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