Colin Quinn
PhD
Research Topics
Political economy, landscape archaeology, mortuary theory, evolutionary theory, signaling theory, increasing social complexity, origins of inequality, cremation, metal procurement, public archaeology, sustainable mining, community engaged-research, archaeological survey, geophysics, radiocarbon analyses, GIS, Europe, North America, Near East.
About
I am an anthropological archaeologist interested in how and why things change. I combine archaeological science with anthropological theory to better understand how people create and experience transformations in social, economic, political, and ideological institutions in the past. I have active research projects on the development of inequality and hierarchy in Eastern Europe and human responses to climate change in Eastern North America.
Education
- PhD, University of Michigan
- MA, Washington State University
- BA, University of Notre Dame
Courses Offered
Undergraduate Courses
- APY 199 | UB Seminar: Collapse, Resilience, & Transformation
- APY 330 | Prehistory of Europe
- APY 434 | Topic - Stuff: Materiality and Inequality
Graduate Courses
- APY 730 | Advanced Problems in Areal Archaeology: Prehistory of Europe
Selected Publications
Edited Books and Journals
2020 Beck, J., and C.P. Quinn. Living and Dying in Mountain Landscapes. Special Issue of Bioarchaeology International, Volume 4, Number 2.
2014 Kuijt, I., C.P. Quinn, and G. Cooney. Transformation by Fire: The Archaeology of Cremation in Cultural Context. Amerind Series at the University of Arizona Press: Tucson.
Journal Articles
2023 Beck, J., and C.P. Quinn. Balancing the Scales: Archaeological Approaches to Social Inequality. World Archaeology: DOI: 10.1080/00438243.2023.2169341 .
2022 Quinn, C.P., E. Walker, and A. Wright. Late Woodland Settlement Ecology of the Appalachian Summit. Southeastern Archaeology 41(1): 32-52.
2021 Ciută, M-M., C.P. Quinn, and R.V. Totoianu. Radiocarbon data of Funerary Discoveries from Middle Bronze Age in the Mureș Valley: The Wietenberg Cemetery from Limba-Oarda de Jos (Alba County, Romania). Journal of Ancient History and Archaeology 8(2):75-83.
2020 Beck, J., H. Ciugudean, and C.P. Quinn. Bioarchaeology and Mountain Landscapes in Transylvania’s Golden Quadrangle. Bioarchaeology International 4(2): 89-110.
2020 Quinn, C.P., H. Ciugudean, and J. Beck. The Politics of Placing the Dead in Bronze Age Transylvania. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 34A: 102574.
2020 Quinn, C.P., H. Ciugudean, G. Bălan, G. Hodgins. Rethinking Time, Culture, and Socioeconomic Organisation in Bronze Age Transylvania. Antiquity 94(373):44-61.
2020 Quinn, C.P. and D. Fivenson. Transforming Legacy Spatial Data into Testable Hypotheses about Socioeconomic Organization. Advances in Archaeological Practice 8(1):65-77.
2019 Quinn, C.P., I. Kuijt, N. Goodale, and J. Ó Néill. Along the Margins? The Later Bronze Age Seascapes of Western Ireland. European Journal of Archaeology 22(1):44-66.
2018 Quinn, C.P. and H. Ciugudean. Settlement Placement and Socio-Economic Priorities: Dynamic Landscapes in Bronze Age Transylvania. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 19:936-948.
2016 Quinn, C.P. and J. Beck. Essential Tensions: A Framework for Exploring Inequality through Mortuary Archaeology and Bioarchaeology. Open Archaeology 2(1):18-41.
2015 Quinn, C.P. Returning and Reuse: Diachronic Perspectives on Multi-Component Cemeteries and Mortuary Politics at Middle Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Tara, Ireland. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 37:1-18.
Book Chapters
2023 Ciugudean, H. C.P. Quinn, C. Uhnér, and J. Beck. From East to West and West to East: Yamnaya Migration and Interaction with Copper Age Carpathian Communities in Transylvania. In Steppe Transmissions: The Yamnaya Impact on Prehistoric Europe. B. Preda Bălănică, M. Ahola, and P. Włodarczak. pp. 204-245. Archaeolingua, Budapest.
2022 C.P. Quinn, D. Glowacki, C. Wendt, and N. Goodale. Situating Households within Broader Socioeconomic Contexts. In Archaeology of Households, Kinship, and Social Change. L.B. Carpenter and A.M. Prentiss (eds). pp. 111-120. Routledge Press, New York.
2019 Quinn, C.P. Costly Signaling Theory in Archaeology. In Handbook of Evolutionary Research in Archaeology, edited by A.M. Prentiss, pp. 275-294. Springer Press: New York.
2018 Bălan, G., Quinn, C.P., and G. Hodgins. The Cultural and Chronological Context of the Bronze Age Cemetery from Sebeș-Între Răstoace. In Bronze Age Connectivity in the Carpathian Basin. R. Németh, B. Rezi, and S. Berecki (eds). pp. 183-216. Bibliotheca Mvsei Marisiensis: Tîrgu Mureș.