USU 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 second 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 Downey, Grace, Lava Hot Springs, Malad, Montpelier, Paris, Pocatello, Preston and Soda Springs and in Utah public libraries in Garden City, Hyrum, Lewiston, Logan, Newton, North Logan, Richmond and Smithfield. Those interested can also request a copy of the newsletter from USU anthropology staff assistant Holly Andrew via email (holly.andrew@usu.edu), by calling (435) 797-0219 or access a copy online.

 

The newsletter highlights exciting new additions to the USU Anthropology Program — a new master’s program, a geospatial laboratory, private cultural resource management business and a historic new home for the Museum of Anthropology — as well as summer 2009 archaeological research. The field research entailed test-excavation of a southeastern Idaho site dating to the Paleoindian era, the time period when humans colonized the Americas, starting in the Ice Age and ending around 8,000 years ago. Human occupation of the site tested in summer 2009 dates to latest Paleoindian time.

 

The 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 graduates, in archaeology, a discipline which, despite the challenging economy, offers many job opportunities to those with such specialized training.

 

To conduct their 2009 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 such citizen drew the crew’s attention to the site, which is located on his property, and even helped the team geologist by excavating several backhoe trenches for close examination of the site’s stratigraphy.

 

“Our goal is to enlist as many local collaborators as we can in our research,” Pitblado said. “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. In fact —   and fair warning to our partners in northern Utah — this coming summer (2010), we will focus on Cache and Rich counties, identifying and documenting as many Paleoindian sites in those counties as we can.”

 

Pitblado has spent more than 15 years researching Paleoindian use of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. She said she has been 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.

 

A team of 19 USU students were involved in the summer 2009 activities as both excavators and lab analysts.

 

“It has been an absolutely outstanding opportunity to be part of this project,” said 2009 field school student and USU anthropology major Frank Jese. 

 

 

Source: USU Anthropology Program

Contact: Bonnie Pitblado (435) 797-1496, bonnie.pitblado@usu.edu