Erika Blecha
Project Archaeologist
Center for Big Bend Studies
Sul Ross State University
Ferguson Hall, Suite 114, Box C-71
Alpine, TX 79832
Fax: (432) 837-8381
Email: erika.blecha@sulross.edu
Erika Blecha, M.A.
Erika is currently a PhD candidate with honors at the University of Kansas, where she is studying past human-environmental and human-animal relationships through the analysis of zooarchaeological remains. She is specifically interested in what animals people were hunting, processing, and eating. She is also interested in understanding how the use of space in rockshelters and caves changes through time and what this can tell us about human behavior. Erika holds an M.A. in Archaeology from the University of Montana and a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. While in school, her research interests extended from Mesoamerica to reservation-era archaeology, federal management of archaeological sites in wilderness areas, and Paleoindigenous archaeology. She has been a professional archaeologist since 2009, working as an archaeological field technician, crew chief, GIS specialist, and project archeologist. She has extensive experience conducting surveys and excavations in academic and compliance archaeological settings in Texas, California, Nevada, Montana, and Wyoming, as well as in Belize, Honduras, and Peru. While at Sul Ross, her research interests have included Biographic rock art, violence, mortuary practices, subsistence, settlement patterns, and zooarchaeology.
Selected Publications
Blecha, Erika S.
2024 The Marks They Left: Indigenous Biographic Rock Art and Early Ranching Boulder Glyphs Along the Rio Grande of Southwest Texas. Occasional Papers No. 14. Center for Big Bend Studies at Sul Ross State University, Alpine, Texas.
Blecha, Erika S.
2021 Transitional Paleo-Archaic Earth Oven Facility at the Genevieve Lykes Duncan Site (41BS2615), Brewster County, Texas. Journal of Big Bend Studies 33:67-101.
Blecha, Erika S. and Robert J. Mallouf
2020 Prehistory in the Calamity Creek Valley, Brewster County, Texas. Papers of the Trans-Pecos Archaeological Program No. 7. Sul Ross State University. Alpine, Texas.
Schroeder, Bryon A., David Keller, and Erika S. Blecha
2019 An Introductory Field Guide to the Archaeology of Pinto Canyon Ranch in the Big Bend of Texas. Sul Ross State University. Alpine, Texas.
Cloud, William A., Erika S. Blecha, and Robert J. Mallouf
2019 Archaeological and Historical Research on the 02 Ranch, Brewster and Presidio Counties, Texas. Submitted to Lykes Brothers Inc. Tampa, Florida.
Blecha, Erika S.
2019 Boulder Glyphs: Evolving Hypotheses About Boulder Glyphs of the Sierra Viejas. La Vista de la Frontera, 29:1-2, 14
Blecha, Erika S. and Kelly J. Dixon
2015 Early Reservation Era Survey Results for 24RB0164: Birney Day School Village. Submitted to Chief Dull Knife College and the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Historic Preservation Office, Lame Deer, MT.