Dr. Coil’s research focuses broadly on reconstructing hominin behavior at Paleolithic archaeological sites, which includes disentangling hominin and carnivore competition and space use through spatial analyses and taphonomy/zooarchaeology. Reed is currently part of the international team of scientists working at the Paleolithic site of Dmanisi, Georgia, where he is exploring the spatial patterning of the archaeological material in order to understand the site formation processes that contributed to the rich archaeological and paleontological deposits at the site. Through this research, Reed is very interested in how humans and carnivores contribute to the accumulation of bones at archaeological sites and whether there are predictable patterns that help us distinguish these processes. As part of this interest, Reed is currently involved in an experimental bone breakage project, which aims to determine different factors affecting how bones break during marrow extraction and if there are characteristics that help archaeologists determine whether bones were broken by humans, carnivores, or other processes.

Educational Background

1. Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Minnesota, 2016
2. M.A. Anthropology, University of Minnesota, 2012.
3. B.A. Archaeological studies, University of Wisconsin-Superior, 2007