Karisa Terry

Karisa Terry is a Senior Lecturer at Central Washington University, specializing in Paleolithic archaeology with a focus on Northeast Asia. Her research examines hunter-gatherer adaptations, migration patterns, and technological innovations in prehistoric contexts. She has conducted extensive fieldwork in Siberia, Japan, and the Kuril region, analyzing settlement patterns, lithic technology, and ceramic emergence.

Her work emphasizes cross-disciplinary approaches, combining archaeological data with geological and climatic analyses to understand human-environment interactions during the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. Key research themes include coastal migration routes, site formation processes, and the socio-technical dynamics of ceramic and microlithic technology emergence.

Dr. Terry's publications address critical debates in Upper Paleolithic chronology, particularly challenging traditional Beringian standstill models through Northeast Asian archaeological evidence. She has contributed to understanding how populations adapted to glacial maximum conditions in Siberia and Japan, with recent studies focusing on Transbaikal campsite organization and ceramic origins in eastern Eurasia.