Ashley Lemke is an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, and Chair of the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology.
She is a leading researcher on the archaeology of hunter-gatherers and has worked extensively on both terrestrial and underwater archaeological projects from the Lower Paleolithic in Europe to 19th-century Nunamiut archaeological sites in the Arctic. She is an expert on submerged ancient sites in the Americas and has researched such sites in the Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, and Atlantic Ocean.
Lemke’s doctoral dissertation sought to understand the social and economic organization of Great Lakes caribou hunters 9,000 years ago. Her research involved an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle survey of the Alpena-Amberley Ridge in Lake Huron. Detailed mapping of hunting sites provides an understanding of how prehistoric hunter-gatherers modified their environments and utilized strategic places to intercept migrating animals. This research provides new data demonstrating that ancient peoples living in the Great Lakes region had complex economic strategies which relied on a sophisticated knowledge of the local environment and animal behavior. She continues to research submerged cultural heritage in Lake Huron.
Ashley’s book The Architecture of Hunting is available here https://www.tamupress.com/book/9781623499228/the-architecture-of-hunting/
Read Ashley’s Dissertation here.
Ashley’s book Foraging in the Past: Archaeological Studies of Hunter-gatherer Diversity is available here.