Meghan Buchanan

About Me

Meghan Buchanan’s archaeological research focuses on the consequences of violence and warfare in complex societies. In particular, she is interested in how warfare impacted the daily practices of people as they had to contend with long term threats of violence and restricted mobility. She is also interested in how violence is embedded in social, political, and economic practices. Most of Buchanan’s research has focused on Mississippian Period societies of the Midwest and Southeast; more recently, she has been researching violence in warfare in the South, especially as it relates to the Civil War. Buchanan directed excavations at the Common Field site in Missouri, the Ebert-Canebrake site in Alabama, and has supervised projects at Cahokia Mounds (western Illinois), Kincaid Mounds (southern Illinois), and the Dead Man’s Curve site (southwest Indiana).

Buchanan’s current project, Finding Camp Watts, draws on interdisciplinary methods to locate and document Camp Watts, a Civil War Camp of Instruction. As the first year of the Civil War drew to an end with no resolution in sight, Confederate leadership realized they had a significant looming problem: not enough soldiers. The Confederate States passed the first Confederate Conscription Act in 1862, making any white male between the ages of 18 to 35 eligible for military service and conscription. In Alabama, two Camps of Instruction were established to train new conscripts. One of these was Camp Watts, located in east Alabama, also the site of a hospital and cemetery. In 1864, Union forces made their way to the Camp following the Battle of Chehaw Station and reportedly burned down the Camp facilities, except for the hospital. How did places like Camp Watts create Confederate soldiers who came from diverse backgrounds? How did conscription and Camp life impact those Alabamians who were not in favor of secession and the large numbers of men who did not enthusiastically sign up at the outbreak of war?  What kinds of impacts did this Camp have on local communities?

In addition to her scholarly research, Buchanan was the 2024 Southeastern Archaeological Conference Rising Scholar Award winner and serves as a Commissioner on the Alabama Historical Commission.

Research Interests

Archaeology, warfare, remote sensing, ceramics

Publications

• 2025 Buchanan, Meghan. Searching for Camp Watts. Trails in History: Official Newsletter of the Lee County Historical Society 58(1): 6-9.
• 2024 Malloch, Hayden, Stephanie Shepherd, Lorraine Wolf, Meghan E. Buchanan. Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) Survey and Spatial Analysis of the George and Addie Giddens Cemetery, Opelika, Alabama. Southeastern Archaeology 43(1):1-12.
• 2024 Pauketat, Timothy R., Robert G. McCullough, Susan M. Alt, Jeffrey D. Kruchten, Carrie V. Wilson, Michael G. Farkas, Brandon “Everett” Bandy, Elizabeth Watts Malouchos, and Meghan. E. Buchanan. Circular Mounds and Sweat Lodges in the Greater Cahokia Region. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 48(3):227-268.
• 2022 Buchanan, Meghan E. Life in a Mississippian Warscape: Common Field, Cahokia, and Warfare. University of Alabama Press.
• 2021 Buchanan, Meghan E. and Melissa R. Baltus. Communities of Conflict. In Reconsidering Mississippian Communities and Households, edited by Elizabeth Watts Malouchos and Alleen Betzenhauser, pp. 120-133. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.
• 2020 Buchanan, Meghan E. and Rob Bonney. Rethinking Mississippian Copper Symbol Badges: Two Previously Unreported Examples from East Alabama. Southeastern Archaeology 39(3): 151-165.
• 2020 Buchanan, Meghan E. Diasporic Longings? Cahokia, Common Field, and Nostalgic Orientations. Special issue (Cahokia Dispersion) of the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 27:72-89.
• 2018 Buchanan, Meghan E. Patterns of Faunal Utilization and Sociopolitical Organization at Kincaid Mounds. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 43(2):151-179.
• 2018 Buchanan, Meghan E. Reconfiguring Regional Interactions in the Face of Cahokian Decline: A View from the Common Field Site, Mo. In Modeling Cross-Cultural Interactions in Ancient Borderlands, edited by Ulrike Matthies Green and Kirk E. Costion, pp.114-142. University of Florida Press, Gainesville.
• 2017 Buchanan, Meghan E. Tempering Practices in a Mississippian War-Scape: Ceramics and Technological Production at the Common Field Site. In War and Peace: Conflict and Resolution in Archaeology, edited by Adam K. Benfer, pp. 102-115. Proceedings of the 45^th Annual Chacmool Conference.
• 2017 Buchanan, Meghan E., Jayne-Leigh Thomas, April K. Sievert, and Adam Crane. Mistaken Identity?: A Reassessment of the Angel Mounds State Historic Site’s Historic Cemetery Using X-Ray Fluorescence. Indiana Archaeology 12(2):59-77.