About us


Biographies of the Principals 

Brian E. Ostahowski 
Brian E. Ostahowski has over 10 years of experience working in cultural resource management, with expertise in Section 106 and NEPA compliance and review. His background is in archaeology and anthropology with a focus on hunter-gatherer societies, geoarchaeology, and environmental archaeology. He has a BA in Anthropology from the University of Maryland College Park (2005) and an MA in Anthropology from the University of Wyoming (2011). 



Teddy Marks
Ted is currently finishing his PhD in archaeology at the University of Iowa, where he has been studying stone tool technology, geology, and human and environmental interactions in Southern Africa. He works at the Erb Tanks rockshelter in Central Namibia, although he currently lives in New Orleans and is learning the social and cultural histories of the region. He teaches at Tulane University and occasionally at the University of Iowa.  He recently purchased a home in Holy Cross with his wife, a school teacher in the recovery district, and they both are seeking to make meaningful changes in the region.


Jayur Madhusudan Mehta 


Jayur Madhusudan Mehta just finished his PhD in archaeology at Tulane University. He is interested in a variety of fields from environmental studies to anthropology to archaeology. He is passionate about conserving coastal environments and protecting endangered and threatened 
coastal habitats. He is also interested in studying the modes of economic production among small-scale and complex societies and the degree to which ritual is intertwined in manufacturing, leadership, and power.  His theoretical interests are in defining the role of religion and ideological power within 
prehistoric polities. 

In his dissertation, Mehta wrote about environmental dynamics at the Carson Mounds site, located near Clarksdale, MS.  Once containing over 88 earthen mounds over the extent of one-mile, the site now has only 6 large mounds, 2 of which are double-conical. His research interprets mound chronology, site occupation and labor investment, and defines the engineering principals that made occupation and construction possible in the floodplain. Carson is  unique in this aspect – whereas most Mississippian sites in the LMV were built in lacustrine  environments, it appears portions of the Carson site were built adjacent to an active channel of  the Mississippi river.