Lisa Janz

Dr. Janz’s research focuses on long-term cultural changes among hunter-gatherers in northern latitudes and arid environments, with emphases on human-animal relationships, palaeoecology, and technology.  Her field research in Mongolia is broadly focused on changing environments and lifeways among East Asian hunter-gatherers from Palaeolithic to the Bronze Age, including how these changes impacted community and human-animal relationships.  Ongoing projects include research on possible wild cattle management in the far eastern steppes of Mongolia, ostrich ecology and post-glacial megafaunal extinctions, and the role of climate change on human diet ~8500 years ago.  Some recent discoveries she has been involved in include evidence for the ritual treatment of extinct megafauna (woolly rhino and giant elk) at a 25-30,000 year old habitation site, the use of domesticated dogs among settled big-game hunters/herders, and evidence for local production of carnelian beads in the Gobi Desert (once thought to have been imported from South Asia).

Education

PhD in Anthropology, University of Arizona (2012)
MA in Anthropology, University of Arizona (2006)
Hon. BA in Anthropology, McGill University (2003)

Teaching

World Prehistory
Introduction to Archaeology: Theories, Methods, and Practices
Climate, Palaeoecology, and Policy: Archaeology of Humans in the Environment
Cavemen, Farmer, Herder, Trader: Evolution of Human Diet

Research Interests

Human-Animal Relationships, Human Ecology, Technological choice, Trade and Interaction

Selected Recent Publications

Odsuren, D., L. Janz, W. Fox, D. Bukhchuluun.  2023.  Otson Tsokhio and Zuun Shovkh: the Initial Upper Palaeolithic in Eastern Mongolia. Journal of Paleolithic Archaeology 6, Article 10. DOI 10.1007/s41982-023-00139-x

Rosen, A. M., L. Janz, D. Bukhchuluun, D. Odsuren.  2022.  Holocene Desertification and Human Resilience in the Eastern Gobi Desert, Mongolia. The Holocene 32(12): 1462–1476. DOI 10.1177/09596836221121777    

Dubreuil, L., A. Evoy, L. Janz.  2022.  The New Oasis: Potential of Use-Wear for Studying Plant exploitation in the Gobi Desert Neolithic, in: Pedersen, P.N., Jörgensen-Lindahl, A., Sørrensen, M., and Richter, T. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 3rd Meeting of the Association of Ground Stone Tools Research.  Archaeopress, Oxford, pp. 116-138. (open access)

Zhao, C., L. Janz, D. Bukhchuluun, D. Odsuren.  2021.  Neolithic pathways in East Asia: early sedentism on the Mongolian Plateau.  Antiquity 95(379): 45-64. DOI 10.15184/aqy.2020.236

Janz, L., A. Cameron, D. Bukhchuluun, D. Odsuren, L. Dubreuil.  2020.  Expanding frontier and building the sphere in arid East Asia.  Quaternary International 559: 150-164. DOI 10.1016/j.quaint.2020.04.041