Mark Rees

Dr. Mark Rees is a Registered Professional Archaeologist and Professor of Anthropology specializing in the archaeology of Louisiana and the Lower Mississippi Valley.

He established the Louisiana Public Archaeology Lab in 2014 for the advancement of public archaeology in the State. Since then, he has been awarded more than 2.5 million dollars in support of sponsored research. His recent and ongoing research include:

• The New Acadia Project's investigation of the home sites and graves of Acadians who arrived in south-central Louisiana in 1765
• Archaeological investigations in Kisatchie National Forest
• Managing the impacts of climate change and land loss on Native American archaeological sites in coastal Louisiana
• Cultural resources management for the Natural Resources Conservation Service
• Testing and assessment of the effects of an oil spill on coastal archaeological sites

Dr. Rees is editor of Louisiana Archaeology, the bulletin and newsletter of the Louisiana Archaeological Society, Vice Chair of the Louisiana Archaeological Survey and Antiquities Commission, and Coordinator of the Anthropology Program at UL Lafayette.

Ph.D., Anthropology, 2001
University of Oklahoma

M.A., Historical Archaeology, 1991
University of Massachusetts

B.A., History, 1985
Louisiana State University

Dr. Rees's research interests are in:

• Archaeology, historical anthropology and ethnohistory of the Lower Mississippi Valley, Gulf Coast, and eastern North America, ca. 400 – 1800 CE;
• Colonialism, diaspora, and identity
• Materiality, landscape, and memory
• Public archaeology and cultural resource management
• Geoarchaeology and remote sensing
• Historic and prehistoric ceramics

Opportunities for Student Research/Collaboration:

• Undergraduate student research assistant appointments
• Internships on sponsored research with the Louisiana Public Archaeology Lab

Britt, Tad, David J. Watt, Mark A. Rees, Kory Konsoer, and Samuel M. Huey

• 2020 A Perfect Storm: An Archaeological Management Crisis in the Mississippi River Delta. Parks Stewardship Forum: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Place-Based Conservation 36(1):70-76. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5070/P536146376; Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2v21z1vr.

Konsoer, K., D. Watt, M. A. Rees, M. Linton, T. Britt, and S. Huey

• 2022 Using sUAS to Map and Quantify Changes to Native American Archaeological Sites Along Coastal Louisiana Due to Climate Change and Erosion. In sUAS Applications in Geography. Geotechnologies and the Environment, Vol 24, edited by K. Konsoer, M. Leitner, and Q. Lewis, pp. 71–93. Springer, Cham, Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-01976-0_4

Rees, Mark A.

• 2019 Finding Nouvelle Acadie: Lost Colonies, Collective Memory and the New Acadia Project. In Rethinking New Acadia: Recent Interpretations on the Acadians’ Dispersal and Arrival in Louisiana, edited by Michael S. Martin, pp. 71-91. University of Louisiana at Lafayette Press, Lafayette.
• 2012 Monumental Landscape and Community in the Southern Lower Mississippi Valley during the Late Woodland and Mississippi Periods. In The Oxford Handbook of North American Archaeology, edited by T. Pauketat, pp. 483-496. Oxford University Press, New York.
• 2011 The Past that Lies Ahead: Some Recent Developments and Future Directions for Archaeology in Louisiana. Louisiana Archaeology 32(2005):78-105.
• 2010 Paleoindian and Early Archaic. In Archaeology of Louisiana, edited by Mark A. Rees, pp. 34-62. Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge.
• 2010 Plaquemine and Mississippian. In Archaeology of Louisiana, edited by Mark A. Rees, pp. 172-194. Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge.

Rees, Mark A., editor

• 2010 Archaeology of Louisiana. Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge.

Rees, Mark A., and Aubra L. Lee

• 2015 On the Monumentality of Events: Refiguring Late Woodland Culture History at Troyville. In The Archaeology of Events: Cultural Change and Continuity in the Pre-Columbian Southeast, edited by Zackary I. Gilmore and Jason M. O’Donoughue, pp. 160-195. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

Rees, Mark A., and Rebecca Saunders

• 2020 Plaquemine Culture. 64 Parishes. Online Encyclopedia of Louisiana. Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. Online at: https://64parishes.org/entry/plaquemine-culture 
• 2020 Mississippian Culture. 64 Parishes. Online Encyclopedia of Louisiana. Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. Online at: https://64parishes.org/entry/mississippian-culture 

Watt, David J., Mark A. Rees, Tad Britt, Kory Konsoer, and Samuel M. Huey

• 2020 Mitigating Engineered Disaster on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast. The SAA Archaeological Record 20(5):16-21, 40.

• 2010 – 25 E. P. Nalley/LEQSF Professorship in Social Sciences, University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
• 2016 – 17 Research Excellence Award, University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
• 2015 – 16 Certificate of Achievement in Sponsored Research, University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
• 2013 – 14 Certificate of Achievement in Sponsored Research, University of Louisiana at Lafayette.