EDR congratulates Matthew Weiss on the recent publication of Our Hidden Landscapes: Indigenous Stone Ceremonial Sites in Eastern North America, a collection of current research regarding built stone structures and their importance as sacred Indigenous sites and significant cultural landscapes. Matthew co-authored the chapter entitled “Stones and Their Places: An Application of Landscape Theory to Ceremonial Stone Landscapes of West Virginia”, which describes research originally presented at the Institute for American Indian Studies 12th Annual Native American-Archaeology Round Table conference in 2017.
Matthew describes the importance of this research for Eastern North American archaeology: “Until relatively recently, stone features have received little attention as they’ve widely been assumed to represent piles of stones cleared from agricultural fields by farmers. Indigenous peoples have repeatedly stated that many of these structures were built by their ancestors for ceremonial purposes. Heeding their call, archaeologists have begun to take a closer look at these structures in an attempt to ascertain their origins. Study of these features has the potential to protect significant sites from destruction and connect Indigenous peoples with the sacred architecture of their ancestors”.
Matthew is a Project Archaeologist with more than a decade of professional experience in Cultural Resource Management. Matthew meets the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Archaeology and Historic Preservation (per 36 CFR 61) and is a Registered Professional Archaeologist. He received his MA in European Prehistory from the University of Sheffield and a BS in Anthropology/Archaeology from Mercyhurst University. Matthew has several publications focused on indigenous stone ceremonial sites, a significant and ongoing research area in northeastern North American Archaeology.
Founded in 1979, EDR is a certified Woman Owned Business (WBE) dedicated to creating and sustaining a better environment for our clients, employees, and communities. EDR is a diverse group of environmental professionals, including ecologists, botanists, wildlife biologists, GIS specialists, archaeologists, historians, visualization specialists, planners, landscape architects, and engineers.