Anthropology Program Publishes Archaeology Research Report
Utah State University archaeologists have created and published a newsletter-style research report designed especially for citizens of northern Utah and southeastern Idaho.
The full-color report, available free of charge, is the third in the “Southeastern Idaho and Northern Utah Paleoindian Research Program” (SINUPP) annual series.
Hard copies of the newsletter are available throughout the region, including at the Lava Hot Springs, Chesterfield and Franklin museums in Idaho, and Utah’s Brigham City Museum, in addition to the USU Museum of Anthropology on the USU campus. The publication is also available at public libraries in Idaho in Blackfoot, Downey, Grace, Malad, Montpelier, Paris, Pocatello, Preston, Soda Springs and Victor; and in Utah public libraries in Brigham City, Garden City, Hyrum, Lewiston, Logan, Newton, North Logan, Providence, Randolph, Richmond, Smithfield and Tremonton. Those interested can also request a hard copy of the newsletter from USU anthropology staff assistant Holly Andrew via e-mail (holly.andrew@usu.edu; 435-797-0219), or access an online copy of the new volume or the previous two editions.
The 3rd annual SINUPP newsletter highlights archaeological research conducted since publication of the 2010 edition. Stories report an intriguing investigation of the potential for non-impacted ancient human occupation surfaces below the average plow zone; documentation of ice caves of the region; location of 37 “new” 8,000-12,000-year-old (Paleoindian) sites in northern Utah and southeastern Idaho, including several Clovis sites in Teton County, Idaho; and a bison-butchering experiment conducted by USU students using stone tools.
The newsletter also introduces a new feature, “Profiling Our Partners,” with community member interviews conducted by the USU research team.
The SINUPP research program is headed by Bonnie Pitblado, USU anthropology professor and director of the USU Museum of Anthropology and the USU Anthropology Program. A specialist in prehistoric stone tools, Pitblado routinely collaborates with geologists, geochemists and other scientists to answer questions about the distant human past. In the process, she trains USU students, both undergraduate and graduate, in archaeology, a discipline which, despite the challenging economy, offers many job opportunities to those with such specialized training.
To conduct their 2010 research, as in years past, the USU team leaned heavily on private citizens of southeastern Idaho and northern Utah — people who have lived, worked and played on the land for generations and know it best. One couple drew the team’s attention to an ice cave located amidst one of its plowed fields. Backhoe testing during a fallow year demonstrated that artifacts and sediments dating older than 5,000 years remain untouched beneath the zone that has been mixed by the plow and crop roots.
“The fields of our region may well be protecting some of the most ancient and important archaeological sites in North America,” Pitblado said. “Our goal is to enlist as many local collaborators as we can in our research. We cannot have too many eyes scouting for Paleoindian sites, and we treasure the relationships we are building with our neighbors. Our newsletter is a way of sharing what we have pieced together so far from the leads our friends have so willingly shared with us.”
Pitblado has spent 20 years researching Paleoindian use of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. She said she is thrilled to shift her research closer to home and to initiate a decades-long undertaking to unravel the region’s most ancient mysteries while training future archaeologists.
She is now preparing to take a group of 16 archaeological field school students to conduct original survey and excavation in Franklin and Caribou counties, Idaho, in June and July 2011.
“I cannot wait to get started on our work this year,” said 2011 field school student and USU anthropology major Jason Patten.
Related links:
USU Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology
USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Source: USU Anthropology Program
Contact: Bonnie Pitblado (435) 797-1496, bonnie.pitblado@usu.edu
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