Field Notes
The ROSETTA project conducts field research projects every year. The 2021 inaugural project was conducted in Turkey, on Dana Island by Dr. Rauh and Dr. Habbib.
Upcoming Events
November 4-7, 2026: ROSETTA affiliate Dr. Nick Rauh (Professor Emeritus of Classics) is co-organizing an international conference, The Archaeological Footprint of the Macedonian Successors, at Koç University’s Suna & İnan Kıraç Research Center for Mediterranean Civilizations (AKMED, https://akmed.ku.edu.tr/en/) in Antalya, Türkiye. The conference is co-organized by Professors Erkan Dundar of Ak Deniz U. in Antalya Türkiye, and Martin Seyer of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Online access will be available.
Recent News
August 2026, Purdue CLA News: "Purdue Researchers Collaborate Across Disciplines to Study Ancient Iron Smelting." ROSETTA affiliates Drs. Liz Brite (Anthropology), Kory Cooper (Anthropology) and Ali Bramson (EAPS), and Anthropology PhD student, Cassie Apuzzo, conducted archaeological and geophysical remote sensing fieldwork at the important medieval metallurgical site of Abu Muslim Qala in the historic Khorezm region of Uzbekistan. The remains of an ancient settlement and a large iron-smelting furnace is the focus of collaborative research spanning archaeology, materials engineering, geophysics, and environmental sciences.
August 2026, Purdue CLA News: "Purdue hosts GIS Cybertraining workshop sponsored by the National Science Foundation." A team of GIS and Social Science specialists from Purdue hosted an NSF-funded workshop, “GIS Cybertraining for the Social Sciences,” June 29-30 (NSF Award No. 2416650). Led by ROSETTA affilliate, Dr. Ian Lindsay (Anthropology), and faculty and staff from CLA, Purdue Libraries/SIS, and RCAC, the 1.5-day workshop brought together social science educators from California, Texas, Maryland, Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Indiana to learn about incorporating geospatial tools into social science research and pedagogy.
July 2026: ROSETTA faculty coordinator Dr. Ian Lindsay’s co-authored book, Heritage Forensics, was released by Cornell University Press. The book, co-authored with collaborators at Cornell University, explores new methods for using satellite imagery to monitor cultural heritage under threat in conflict zones. The free, open access e-book can be downloaded here.
October 2025: ROSETTA faculty and grad students, Dr. Kory Cooper, Cassie Apuzzo and Ben Grubbs (Anthropology), along with Dr. Ali Bramson (EAPS), were featured in the Society of Historical Archaeology’s Fall Newsletter on their findings during the joint University of Southern Indiana and Purdue University 2025 Field School at Fort Ouiatenon.
November 2025: Graduate student affiliate, Max Gosch (Anthropology) was awarded the top poster prize at the annual Purdue GIS Day conference in the Graduate Student Digital Humanities Category for his poster “The Impact of Fluvial Erosion on Archaeological Sites in Kansas."
November 2025: Dr. Ian Lindsay (Anthropology) contributed GIS analysis for a co-authored article on toxic environmental exposures, "Bone uranium and lead concentrations in Adults from Fallujah, Iraq" in Environmental Pollution, 384: 126963. The article reports on ethnographic research led by Dr. Kali Rubaii (Anthropology) and colleagues in Purdue Public Health.
June 2025: Faculty affiliate Dr. Erik Otárola-Castillo (Anthropology) published an essay in TIME Magazine, "AI Can’t Replace Education—Unless We Let It" discussing whether AI will replace education or if we’ll remain knowledgeable enough to guide it. He argues that while AI can enhance learning, it still needs human oversight, scientific grounding, and the kind of deep understanding that only human ingenuity, not statistical algorithms, can generate.
March 2025, Purdue CLA News: "Unearthing the Secret of Ancient Fortifications: Drs. Nicholas Rauh, Lynn Parrish and the ROSETTA Initiative." ROSETTA teams lead by Drs. Nick Rauh and Lynn Parish break new ground at the location of the ancient city of Plataia while making new discoveries in Turkey in collaboration with Greek and Turkish colleagues