Shawn Lambert
Assistant Professor
Education
PhD, University of Oklahoma, 2017
MA, University of Oklahoma, 2013
BA, University of Alabama, 2011
Research Interests & Specialty Areas
Dr. Lambert is an archaeologist specializing in the ceramic economies, iconography,
and social histories of the Indigenous Southeast, with a career-long focus on the
Caddo and Mississippian traditions. His work traces how pottery, as both a craft and
a carrier of meaning, moved between communities, tying together questions of craft
specialization, apprenticeship, exchange, and identity across the Caddo homeland and
its connections to Cahokia and the broader Mississippian world. A parallel thread
in his research examines Mississippian iconography and cosmology, particularly the
imagery of the Spiro/Craig Mound corpus, which he approaches through object itineraries
and stylistic/iconographic analysis.
Alongside this iconographic and ceramic work, Lambert has built a substantial program
in archaeological geophysics (ground-penetrating radar and remote sensing), applied
at mound sites, shell rings, plantation landscapes, and historic cemeteries throughout
the Southeast. He is also a leading voice in community-engaged and public archaeology,
directing field schools and excavations at Native American sites and historic plantation
sites that recover the material lives of enslaved and formerly enslaved communities,
and extending that work internationally through his research connecting Mississippi
and Liberia. His scholarship is further defined by a strong commitment to decolonizing
archaeological practice. He collaborates directly with Tribal Nations on NAGPRA compliance,
ceramic reclassification, and archaeological repatriation. Dr. Lambert is also passionate
about working with colleagues and students in field-shaping research developing evidence-based
practices to decrease and prevent sexual harassment and assault in archaeological
field schools.
Selected Publications
Lambert, Shawn P. (in press) 2027 Movement as Method: The Social Flows of Early Caddo Pottery in the Past, Present, and Future. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.
Whitaker, James Andrew, Andrew N. Wegmann, and Shawn P. Lambert (in press) 2026 Building an African Republic: History and Identity in Americo-Liberian Memory. Indiana University Press.
Lambert, Shawn P., D. Shane Miller, Matthew C. Sanger, Olivia Baumgartel, Madeleine Hale, Hector Neff, and Laure Dussubieux 2024 Copper on the Mississippi Coast: Assessing Provenance of a Copper Bead at the Claiborne Site (22HA501) through LA-ICP-MS Compositional Analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 53(2024):1–11.
Lambert, Shawn P., and Paige A. Ford 2023 Understanding the Rise of Complexity at Cahokia: Evidence of Nonlocal Caddo Ceramic Specialists in the East St. Louis Precinct. American Antiquity 88:361–385.
Stauffer, Grant, Brett T. Giles, and Shawn P. Lambert 2022 Archaeologies of Cosmoscapes in the Americas. American Landscape Series, Oxbow Books, Oxford.
Giles, Bretton T., and Shawn P. Lambert 2021 New Methods and Theories for Analyzing Mississippian Imagery. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.
Colaninno, Carol E., Emily L. Beahm, Carl G. Drexler, Shawn P. Lambert, and Clark H. Sturdevant 2021 The Field School Syllabus: Examining the Intersection of Best Practices and Practices that Support Student Safety and Inclusivity. Advances in Archaeological Practice 9(4):366–378.
Lambert, Shawn P., Timothy K. Perttula, and Nelish Gaikwad 2021 Production Matters: Organic Residue Evidence for Late Pre-Columbian Datura-Making in the Central Arkansas River Valley. Advances in Archaeological Practice 10(2):149–159.