Hide Article Text (OCR)
Archaeologist returns to Fox Valley rootsby Jacob Byrnes_byrnej43@uwosh.eduArchaeologist and Professor Jeffery Behm doesn’t have to go too far to get to his hometown of Omro, Wis., 10 miles outside Oshkosh.Behm started out as a chemistry major, but when he took anthropology, an elective class, it reawakened an interest in human evolution.“Most anthropology majors 'Start out somewhere else,” Behm said.Behm received his undergraduate degree at UW Oshkosh. After that Behm did research in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri for Illinois State Museum.While he worked in the Ozarks, Behm came in contact with several professors from UW Madison and in time he came to know many of the faculty there. Later he enrolled at Madison majoring in archaeology with an emphasis on the Midwest.“1 had an interest in coming back to Wisconsin, and Madison really worked out well for me,” Behm said.He started working at Oshkosh in the fall of 1985 and a year later became a part-time lecturer. In 1990 Behm became a professor and permanent staff member. When he received his doctorate inarchaeology, he found most of the jobs involved the consulting field. Behm decided a teaching job was more to his liking with a consulting job to fall back on.“Finding a job teaching archaeology is difficult,” Behm said.Behm is currently working on a number of projects in the Fox Valley, many of which are in various stages of analysis.Major projects in the past have included the excavation of a major village on the shores of Lake Butte De Mort. Behm’s class has traveled all around the country and to Belize.“I enjoy working with Jeff Behm,” Kathleen Foley Winkler, a lecturer in the anthropology and religious studies departments, said. “He is an excellent archaeologist and an active scholar and researcher. Jeff challenges his colleagues but is supportive and encourages them in their academic pursuits.”Behm’s interest in Native Americans started with the early hunter gatherer tribes that inhabited the Midwest in 10000 B.C. Now much of his research focuses on the arrival of French fur traders and their effect on Native Americans. Most of his work takes place inside Wisconsin where the influence of Native AmericansAndrea Weber/ Advance-TitanAnthropology professor Jeff Behm teaches American ethnography in Harrington Hall.can be seen in the names of rivers and counties.“He is very supportive of the research and teaching of his fellow faculty members,” Stephanie Spehar, a professor of anthropology, said.During his time at Oshkosh, Behm has developed a relationship the Meskwaki, a Native American tribe that once lived in the Fox River Valley but relocated to Tama, Iowa.Using shards of potteryfound in trash piles in ancient Meskwaki villages, Behm was able to recreate the tribe’s traditional pottery.He was then able to teach modem Meskwaki tribe members how to make traditional pottery, which they had stopped making in the 1700s. Graduate students and other universities later used the research from this project.“His wide-ranging knowledge and interests mean thathe can always engage with you about your work,” Spehar said.A large part of this work done in archaeology involves locating ancient villages, stockades and houses and finding artifacts. It’s no “Indiana Jones,” but it is a fun and rewarding career Behm said.“Some discoveries will keep mounting and one piece will fit another to create something no one’s ever seen before,” Behm said.
Newspaper Details
Oshkosh Advance Titan
Oshkosh, Wisconsin, US
Thu, Sep 22, 2011
Page 19
Full Page
Clipped by
Johnathan B.
IA, USA 30 Jul 2018
Other Publications Near Oshkosh, Wisconsin
Oshkosh Daily Northwestern
Oshkosh Gazette
Oshkosh Enterprise
Oshkosh Early Dawn
Neenah Menasha Northwestern
