Luke J. Pecoraro, PhD 

 Luke is a historical archaeologist employed as the Director of Archaeology at George Washington’s Mount Vernon. He has worked in cultural resource management archaeology in the mid-Atlantic, the Chesapeake and New England on a variety of prehistoric and historic sites, and for several years as a staff archaeologist on the Jamestown Rediscovery project. Luke is also a research archaeologist for the First Colony Foundation, searching for the 16th century “Lost Colony” on Roanoke Island, and a team member of the Survey and Landscape Archaeology on Montserrat (SLAM) project in the British West Indies. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in history (Virginia Commonwealth University) a Master’s in archaeology (Boston University) and a PhD from Boston University with his dissertation focused on the cultural landscape of Daniel Gookin Jr. (1612-1687).

Luke is an active member of several professional organizations including the Society for Historical Archaeology, Post-Medieval Archaeology, and the Society of Early Americanists. Recent publications include “We have done very little investigation there; there is a great deal yet to do”: The archaeology of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, in Stewards of Memory: The Past, Present, and Future of Historic Preservation at Mount Vernon, edited by Carol Borchert Cadou, Luke J. Pecoraro, and Thomas Reinhart (forthcoming fall 2018), and a book chapter as a co-author with John Cherry and Krysta Ryzewski, “A Kind of Sacred Place”: The Rock and Roll Ruins of AIR Studios, Montserrat.” In Archaeologies of Mobility and Movement, edited by M.C. Beaudry and T.G. Parno. New York: Springer [2014].