Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
M.A. Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago
B.A. Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago

Illinois Experts Profile

Brian Adams' dissertation focused on the Middle to Early Upper Palaeolithic transition in Central Europe and included analyses of settlement patterns, lithic raw material use, and lithic tool utilization based on high-power microwear analysis. He supervised excavations at Early Upper Palaeolithic sites in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt, and assisted with the analysis of lithic artifacts from these sites. At the same time, he gained practical experience in cultural resource management in the Midwest, conducting Phase I, II and III investigations at prehistoric and historic sites. His technical skills include lithic analysis and high-power microwear analysis. In addition, he is interested in historic preservation, and has participated in several efforts to landmark historic structures.

Society for American Archaeology
Registry of Professional Archaeologists
Illinois Archaeological Survey
Preservation and Conservation Association

2014 Talking Bones: Scapulae and European Upper Palaeolithic Rituals. In Aeolian Scripts: New Ideas on the Lithic World. Studies in Honour of Viola T. Dobosi. Edited by Katalin T. Biró, András Markó, and Katalin P. Bajnok. Pp. 257-278. Budapest: Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum.

2014 Leavitt Manufacturing Company Building, 208 West Griggs Street, Urbana, Illinois. Preservation Matters 34(½). Preservation and Conservation Association, Champaign, Illinois.

2013 The Meneley Mill Site, Vermilion County, Illinois. Illinois Archaeology (25): 1-26.

2012 Urbana National Guard Armory, Troop B, First Cavalry (1915). Preservation Matters 32(3-4). Preservation and Conservation Association, Champaign, Illinois.

2012 The Obscure and Untimely Fate of Urbana’s C.R. Griggs House. Preservation Matters 32(1). Preservation and Conservation Association, Champaign, Illinois.

2011 Joseph William Royer: Urbana’s Architect. Champaign, Illinois: The News-Gazette, Inc.

2011 The Joseph and Adelaide Royer Residence: Treasures of Art and Architecture in Urbana. Historic Illinois 34(1): 7-11.

2011 Joseph W. Royer’s First Christian Church at Urbana. Preservation Matters 31(1). Preservation and Conservation Association, Champaign, Illinois.

2011 Recent Archaeological Investigations at 11V122, A Historic Mill (Meneley Mill) and Prehistoric Site in Vermilion County, Illinois. Research Report No. 165. Public Service Archaeology & Architecture Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

2009 Phase I Archaeological Reconnaissance of the Proposed White Oak Wind Energy Project in Illinois. Research Report No. 136. Public Service Archaeology & Architecture Program. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

2009 The Impact of Lithic Raw Material Quality and Post-depositional Processes on Cultural/Chronological Classification: the Hungarian Szeletian Case.In Lithic Materials and Paleolithic Societies, edited by Dr. Brian Adams and Dr. Brook Blades. Pp. 247-255. Blackwell Publishing, Oxford.

2009 The Bükk Mountain Szeletian: Old and New Views on “Transitional” Material from the Eponymous Site of the Szeletian. In Sourcebook of Paleolithic Transitions, edited by M. Camps and P. Chauhan, pp. 427-440. Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. New York.

2008 National Register of Historic Places Eligibility Assessment of Two Historic Sites (23PU413 and 23PU603) in Pulaski County, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. Research Report No. 156. Public Service Archaeology & Architecture Program. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

2008 Phase I Archaeological Survey of 1,089 Acres at Fort Leonard Wood, Pulaski County, Missouri. Research Report No. 121. Public Service Archaeology & Architecture Program. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. November 2008.

2008 National Register of Historic Places Evaluation of 11MG431 in Morgan County, Illinois. Research Report No. 130. Public Service Archaeology Program. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 29 October 2008.

2007 National Register of Historic Places Evaluation of Three Sites in Vermilion County, Illinois. Research Report No. 111. Public Service Archaeology Program. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Co-authored with Ilona Matkovszki). 30 January 2007.

2007 Gulyás Archaeology: The Szeletian and the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Transition in Hungary and Central Europe. In Upper Paleolithic “Transitional” Industries: New Questions, New Methods, edited by Geoffrey A . Clarke and Julien Riel-Salvatore, pp. 91-110. BAR International Series 1620, 2007.

2004 New C14 dates for the Hungarian Early Upper Palaeolithic. Current Anthropology 45(4):541-551(with Árpád Ringer).

2002 New Radiocarbon dates from Szeleta and Istállós-kö caves, Hungary. Praehistoria 3:53-55.

2001 The Stemler Bluff Site: Lithic Analysis at a Late Woodland to Mississippian Occupation Overlooking the American Bottom. Illinois Antiquity 36(3):11-17.

2000 Archaeological Investigations at Two Open Air Sites in the Bükk Mountain Region of Northeast Hungary. In Neanderthals and Modern Humans-Discussing the Transition: Central Europe from 50,000 - 30,000 B.P., edited by Jörg Orschiedt and Gerd-C. Weniger, pp. 167-180. Neanderthal Museum, Mettmann, Germany.

2001 Sajóbábony-Méhésztetö, Eponymous Site of the Middle Palaeolithic Bábonyian Industry: Microwear Studies Made on Tools Found at the Site During the 1997 Excavation. Praehistoria I:117-128. (With Árpád Ringer).

1999 Lower, Middle or Upper Paleolithic? A Classificatory Analysis of the Bársony House Hand Axes from the North Carpathian Basin. Lithic Technology 24(1):7-26.

1998 The Strong Site and the Dennis Hollow Phase: A Middle Archaic Logistical Foraging Adaptation in the Southern American Bottom Upland Margin(with Gregory R. Walz, Paul P. Kreisa, Kevin P. McGowan, and Jaqueline M. McDowell) . Illinois Archaeology, Vol. 10.

1998 An Archaeological Site Inventory Along Wildcat Creek, Fort Riley, Riley County, Kansas. (With Paul P. Kreisa). Research Report No. 35. Public Service Archaeology Program. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

1998 The Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Transition in Central Europe: The Record from the Bükk Mountain Region. British Archaeological Reports (BAR) International Series 693. Archaeopress, Oxford, England.

1997 Lithic Analysis. In Archaeological Investigations for the Relocation of Valmeyer, Monroe County, Illinois. Volume 2: The Strong Site, by Brian Adams, Gregory R. Walz, Paul P. Kreisa, Kevin P. McGowan, Jaqueline M. McDowell, and Cynthia L. Balek, pp. 41-64. Research Report No. 28. Public Service Archaeology Program.  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

1997 Lithic Analysis. In Archaeological Investigations for the Relocation of Valmeyer, Monroe County, Illinois. Volume 3: The Stemler Bluff Site, by Gregory R. WALZ, Brian Adams, Jaqueline M. McDowell, Paul P. Kreisa, Kevin P. McGowan, Kristin Hedman, and Cynthia L. Balek, pp. 153-178. Research Report No. 28. Public Service Archaeology Program. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

1997 Phase I Archaeological Survey of 3,000 Acres at Fort Leonard Wood, Pulaski County, Missouri. Public Service Archaeology Program Research Report No. 33. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

1995 Functional Analysis of Modified Items (with Steven R. Ahler). In Excavation and Resource Evaluation of Sites 23PU2, 23PU255 and 23PU235 (Miller Cave Complex), Fort Leonard Wood, Pulaski County, Missouri, by Steven R. Ahler, Paul P. Kreisa, James L. Theler, Gregory R. Walz, Robert E. Warren, Eve A. Hargrave, Brian Adams, and Cynthia L. Balek, pp. 262-279. Public Service Archaeology Program Research Report No. 19. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

1994 Microwear analysis of selected Archaic Period lithic artifacts from the Evergreen Lake site. In Archaeological Investigations at Evergreen Lake Site #2 (11-ML-15), Maclean County, Illinois, compiled by Dr. Paul Kreisa, pp. 69-79. Public Service Archaeology Program Research Report No. 13. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

1994 Microwear analysis of selected stone artifacts from recent excavations at Mezhirich, Ukraine. In Recent Excavations at Mezhirich: Progress Report, edited by Olga Soffer.

Selected Papers Presented

2014 Archaeological Investigations at the Ernat Site (11LS267), LaSalle County, Illinois. 58th Annual Midwest Archaeological Conference, October 2-4, Champaign, Illinois.

2014 We’ve Been Working on the Railroad: Archaeological Resources Along the Chicago to St. Louis High-Speed Rail Corridor. 2014 Prairie Lightning Symposium. March 20, 2014. I Hotel and Conference Center, Champaign, Illinois. Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

2014 A Forge on the Prairie: A History of Urbana’s Enterprise Foundry & the Leavitt Manufacturing Company, 1872-1956. Presentation to the Urbana Historic Preservation Commission, Urbana, Illinois. November 5, 2014.

2009 Recent Investigations at Meneley Mill, Vermilion County, Illinois. 53rd Annual Meeting, Illinois Archaeological Survey. Illinois State Museum, September 25-26, 2009.

2006 The Martin Homestead: Early Prosperity on the Wabash Border. Midwest Archaeological Conference, October 13, 2006. Urbana, Illinois. With Alice Berkson, Ilona Matkovszki, and Michael E. Smith.

2006 New Dates from the Upper-Middle Paleolithic Transition in Central Europe. 36th International Symposium on Archaeometry (ISA 2006), Quebec City, Canada. May 2-6, 2006. With Anne R. Skinner, Bonnie Blackwell, and Árpád Ringer.

2004 The Impact of Lithic Raw Material Quality and Post-depositional Processes on Cultural/Chronological Classification: The Hungarian Szeletian Case. Paper presented at the 69th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Montreal. March 31–April 4, 2004. [Paper presented in symposium “Paleolithic Landscapes and Lithic Material Utilization”, organized by Dr. Brian Adams and Dr. Brook Blades].

2003 The Impact of Post-Depositional Processes on Open-Air Palaeolithic Sites: An Example from Northeast Hungary. Paper presented at the 68th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Milwaukee. April 9-13, 2003.

2002 Gulyás Archaeology: The Szeletian and the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic Transition in Hungary and Central Europe. Paper presented at the 67th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Denver. March 20-24, 2002.

2001 Recent Investigations at Szeleta and Istállóskö Caves, Hungary. Paper presented at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. New Orleans. April 18–22, 2001.

2001 Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) and Lithic Technology (With Anne R. Skinner, Árpád Ringer, and Bonnie A.B. Blackwell). Poster presented at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. New Orleans. April 18–22, 2001.