American Bottom Survey Division Graphic Production Manger; Site File Coordinator; Cartographer E-mail: mahertel@uiuc.edu

General Interest/Area of Focus

Mera Hertel began seasonal archaeological work for the University of Illinois in 1989, intermittently working for the Department of Anthropology until 1993.  From 1993 to 1995 she was employed with Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Anthropology Department.  In 1995 she returned to U of I permanently and became a valuable part of the ITARP team.  Mera has over 15 years of graphic design experience in addition to her substantial understanding of field and laboratory work.

Mera oversees the graphic report and presentation productions for the American Bottom Survey Division, specializing in artifact illustration, photography, and computer graphics. She routinely shares her expertise by training ABSD field photography personnel, and has written the photography section of the ITARP Field Manual. She’s responsible for the processing and storage of the digital field and lab photos, as well as maintaining the historic map archives.  She serves as ABSD’s in-house cartographer processing GPS, SDR, GIS, and Illinois site/survey data to create a variety of maps for use by the Belleville staff.  As Site File Coordinator she oversees new site/survey submittals to the Illinois State Museum, and maintains the Illinois Archaeological Survey records at the ABSD.  When necessary she facilitates in rim profiling and ceramic analysis, field photography &  mapping, and field excavations.

Mera’s general areas of interest include the prehistory and history of the American Bottom region in Illinois.  Through her photography she has helped to document over 50 local private artifact collections, and is currently working with members of the St. Clair County Genealogical Society in an effort to locate and record lost and forgotten cemeteries.

Mera’s artifact illustrations and maps can be found in the following selected publications:

Transportation Archaeological Research Reports No. 1, 15, 18, 19, 21, 22 and 23.

Koldehoff, Brad and Joseph M. Galloy
2005 Late Woodland Land Use in the American Bottom: An East St. Louis Perspective. Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program, Research Reports, No. 89. Urbana: University of Illinois.

Koldehoff, Brad, and John A. Walthall
2004 Settling In: Hunter-Gatherer Mobility during Pleistocene-Holocene Transition in the Central Mississippi Valley. In Essays in Honor of Howard D. Winters, edited by A. Cantwell and L. Conrad, Illinois State Museum, Springfield.

Galloy, Joseph M.
2002 Late Woodland Settlement Dynamics and Social Interaction in the American Bottom Uplands, A.D. 650-900. Doctoral dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University.

Koldehoff, Brad, Dawn E. Cobb, and Jack R. Nawrot
2002 The Eastern Woodrat (Neotoma floridana) and Its Archaeological Significance: A Southern Illinois Case Study. Illinois Archaeology, vol. 14, in press.

Koldehoff, Brad, R. Daniel Boone, and Kris Richards
2000 The Sauget Industrial Park Survey: Archaeological Investigations within the Goose Lake Meander, St. Clair County, Illinois. Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program, Research Reports, No. 74. Urbana: University of Illinois.

Koldehoff, Brad, William F. Harrison, Charles W. Markman, Claude Karch
1999 The Anderson Site: A Paleoindian Campsite in DeKalb County, Illinois. The Wisconsin Archeologist 80:97-109.

Booth, Donald L. and Brad Koldehoff
1999 The EWP Project: Archaeological Investigations for the 1998 Metro East Ditch Cleanout Project in Madison and St. Clair Counties, Illinois. Illinois Transportation Archaeological Research Program, Research Reports, No. 62. Urbana: University of Illinois.

Koldehoff, Brad
1999 Attica Chert and Clovis Land Use in Illinois: The Anderson and Perkins Sites. Illinois Archaeology 11:1-26.

1998 The Louis S. Sondag Collection: Documenting the History and Prehistory of Valmeyer, Illinois. Rediscovery 4:49-63.

1996 AG Church Site Lithics: Technology, Economy, and the Mississippian Emergence. Illinois Archaeology 8:117-145.

Kelly, John E., Brad Koldehoff
1995 The Sand Prairie Phase Occupation of the Merrell Tract, Cahokia. Central Mississippi Valley Archaeological Research Institute.

Kelly, John E.
1994 The Archaeology of the East St. Louis Mound Center: Past and Present. Illinois Archaeology 6:1-57.

Sampling of Mera's Work:

(click for larger image)

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