Dr. Steve Tomka
      Director                        

       Contact Information: 

       Center for Archaeological Research 
       The University of Texas at San Antonio            

    Phone: 210-458-4378
       Fax: 210-458-4397

     Email: steve.tomka@utsa.edu

Dr. Tomka received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1994. Over the past 19 years his research interests have been split between the archaeology of South American camelid domestication and hunter-gatherer adaptations in Texas.  As an ethno archaeologist, he has conducted extensive research on Andean agro-pastoral systems of food production in Bolivia.  Prior to that, he participated in excavations at the coastal preceramic site of Paloma, south of Lima, Peru. As an archaeologist and lithic analyst, Dr. Tomka has worked with materials from throughout Texas, west-central New Mexico, and Missouri. His interests include hunter-gatherer land use strategies, origins of food production, organization of technology, mission-era changes in technology, and all facets of lithic technology. Dr. Tomka was named Interim Director of CAR in 2001, and was named Director in June 2002.

Education:

1994-1986       Ph.D., Anthropology, The University of Texas at Austin.  Dissertation:  Quinua and Camelids on the Bolivian Altiplano: An Ethnoarchaeological Approach to AgroöPastoral Subsistence Production with an Emphasis on AgroöPastoral Transhumance.  Advisor: Richard P. Schaedel.

 

1985-1980       M.A., Anthropology, The University of Texas at Austin.  Thesis:  Identification of Skill Levels in Experimentally Produced Lithic Debitage.  Advisor: Jeremiah T. Epstein.

 

1980-1976       B.A. with Honors, Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia.  Honors Thesis:  Preceramic Subsistence Patterns on the Central Coast of Peru, as Evidenced in the Paloma Village.  Advisor: Robert A. Benfer.

 

 

RECENT PRESENTATIONS

 

2005                Pedernales Projectile Point Technology: What New Can We Learn? Presented at the Texas Archeological Society 76th         Annual Meeting in Austin, TX, October 2005.

 

2005                Preserving the History of the Alamo Through Archaeology: Telling the Story of the Alamo Through Artifacts. Presented at the Daughters of the Republic Seventeenth Texas History Forum "Preserving the History of the Alamo" in San Antonio, TX, October 21, 2005.

ACADEMIC AND CRM PUBLICATIONS

2001                The Effect of Processing Requirements on Reduction Strategies and Tool Form: A New Perspective.  In Lithic Debitage Context, Form, Meaning, edited by W. Andrefsky Jr., pp. 207-224.  The University of Utah Press.

 

2001               ãUp and Down We Move·ä:  Factors Conditioning Agro-pastoral Settlement Organization in Mountainous Settings.  In Ethnoarchaeology of Andean South America Contributions to Archaeological Method and Theory, edited by L. A. Kuznar, pp. 138-162.  International Monographs in Prehistory, Ethnoarchaelogical Series 4.  Ann Arbor.

 

2000                A MultipleöFluted Folsom Manufacture Failure from South Texas.  Current Research in the Pleistocene

 

1999                Historic Period Lithic Technology at Mission San JosŽ y San Miguel de Aguayo.  Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological Society 70:241ö263.

 

1999                (with Gemma Mehalchick, Karl Kleinbach, Douglas K. Boyd, and Karl W. Kibler)  National Register Testing of 19 Prehistoric Archeological Sites at Fort Hood, Texas: The 1995 Season.  United States Army Fort Hood, Archeological Resource Management Series.  Research Report No. 37.  Prewitt and Associates, Inc., Austin

 

1999                (with Anne A. Fox and Barbara A. Meissner) Mission San JosŽ Repointing and Underpinning Project, San Antonio, Texas.  Archaeological Survey Report, Number 288.  Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio. 

 

1998                (with John Leffler) A Cultural Overview and Assessment of Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge.  Special Report, Number 24.  Center for Archaeological Research, The University of Texas at San Antonio.

1996                (with Douglas K. Boyd et al.) NRHP Significance Testing of 19 Prehistoric Archeological Sites on Fort Hood, Texas: The 1995 Field Season.  Reports of Investigations, Number 116.  Prewitt and Associates, Inc., Austin.

 

1996                (with Douglas K. Boyd et al.), Caprock Canyonlands Archeology: A Synthesis of the Late Prehistory and History of Lake Alan Henry and the Caprock Escarpment.  Reports of Investigations, Number 115.  Prewitt and Associates, Inc., Austin.

 

1994                Quinua and Camelids on the Bolivian Altiplano: An Ethnoarchaeological Approach to Agro-Pastoral Subsistence Production with an Emphasis on AgroöPastoral Transhumance.  Ph.D. dissertation.  University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor.

 

1993                (with Elton R. Prewitt) What do I Call Thee? Projectile Point Types and Archaeological Interpretations: Perspectives from Texas.  Lithic Technology 18(1ö2):49ö58.

 

1993                (Coeditor with Catherine M. Cameron) The Abandonment of Settlements and Region: Ethnoarchaeological and Archaeological Approaches.  Cambridge University Press.

 

1993                New Approaches to Understanding Archaeological Abandonment.  The Abandonment of Settlements and Region: Ethnoarchaeological and Archaeological Approaches, edited by C. M. Cameron and S. A. Tomka.  Cambridge University Press.

 

1993                Site Abandonment Behavior among Transhumant Agropastoralists: The Effects of Delayed Curation on Assemblage Composition.  In The Abandonment of Settlements and Region: Ethnoarchaeological and Archaeological Approaches, edited by C. M. Cameron and S. A. Tomka.  Cambridge University Press.

 

1992                Vicu–as and Llamas: Parallels in Behavioral Ecology and Implications for the Domestication of Andean Camelids.  Human Ecology 20(4):407ö433.

 

1990                Differentiating Lithic Reduction Techniques:  An Experimental Approach.  In Experiments in Lithic Technology, edited by D. S. Amick and R. P. Mauldin.  British Archaeological Reports International Series 528.

 

1988                (with D. S. Amick and R. P. Mauldin) An Evaluation of Debitage Produced by Experimental Bifacial Core Reduction of a Georgetown Chert Nodule.  Lithic Technology 17(1):26ö36.