Archaeobiology at Penn State
program description
Archaeobiology – the interdisciplinary study of human populations, subsistence economies, past natural environments, and natural resources – represents one of the most exciting and rapidly developing areas of archaeological research today. It is a natural bridge between studies focusing on ancient societies and other scientific disciplines including demography, biology, and geography. Archaeologists contribute long-term perspectives spanning millennia to several pressing contemporary societal concerns, most importantly the growth in human populations and the long-term impacts of humans on their environments.
research emphasis
Geographical: Eastern North America, the Caribbean, and Mesoamerica.
Cultural and Temporal: Mobile to settled hunter-gatherers, village agriculturists, and members of complex societies including chiefdoms and early states.
Forensic Anthropology: This complement to osteology and archaeology encompasses individual identification (including age and sex estimation), taphonomic processes, and the recovery of human remains.
Human Land Use: The department emphasizes an integrated approach to ancient land use that incorporates settlement patterns, subsistence practices, and human population dynamics, including long-term growth (or decline) and migration.
Osteology: The archaeological component of the department's osteology concentration covers age and sex estimation for paleodemographic and mortuary studies. Pathological lesions, trauma, and cultural modifications of bones and teeth are used to characterize the life experiences of ancient peoples (Link)
Paleodemography: The department emphasizes an integrated approach to demography and health uniting studies of archaeological and osteological remains. Human remains are used to reconstruct life in individual communities, and settlement patterns document long-term population histories. The latter involves the application of GIS to study natural and cultural landscapes.
Paleoethnobotany: Plant remains are used to investigate past subsistence practices, the origins of plant domestication, prevailing environmental conditions , and long-term change in coupled human-environmental systems.
department anthropologiests
Kenneth G. Hirth, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology (kgh2@psu.edu): Settlement Patterns
George R. Milner, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology (ost@psu.edu): Human osteology (paleodemography and paleopathology) and land use
Lee Newsom, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Anthropology (lan12@psu.edu): paleoethnobotany, plant domestication
Dean R. Snow, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology (drs17@psu.edu): Paleodemography, migration, and settlement patterns
David L. Webster, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology (dxw16@psu.edu): Long-term population trends and agricultural staples and systems
departmental facilities and field school
Students regularly participate in laboratory and field-based research on individual projects and in shared facilities such as the department's Geographic Information System (GIS) facility.
Bioarchaeology: For analyses of human skeletal remains and archaeological materials from the American Midwest and Southeast.
GIS Facility: For computer-based spatial analyses of cultural and ecological data.
Mesoamerica: For analyses of lithic technology, use wear, petrographics, and spatial analysis (GIS)
Copan archaeology: For analysis of a huge spatial data base acquired since 1980.
North America: For analyses of archaeological materials from the American Northeast.
Paleoethnobotany: For analyses of plant remains in various preservation states and forms, with emphasis on the Neotropics and southeastern North America
Matson Museum: For training in collections management and exhibit design
Other University Facilities and Programs
Breazeale Nuclear Reactor
Center for Quantitative Imaging
Forensic Science Program
Institutes of the Environment
Materials Research Institute
courses
ANTH 410 Osteology
ANTH 411 Skeletal Forensic Anthropology
ANTH 497 Paleoethnobotany
Graduate application and undergraduate registration information
links
Population Research Institute
Anthropology/Demography Dual-Degree Program
