Archaeology
Archaeologists provide a long-term perspective to human resiliency, studying the ways in which people have seen themselves and their world, organized socially, and have adapted to diverse environments. Our research helps us understand our shared cultural heritage, often directly impacting living communities at home and abroad. Skills in data analytics, laboratory analysis, curation, geospatial techniques, writing, and critical thinking, translate to jobs in cultural resource management, with federal and state agencies, and employers in the academic, business, medical, and other fields.
Our archaeology faculty has strengths in long-term human-environmental dynamics and social complexity, asking questions about climate change, mobility and pastoralism, structural inequality, and ancient trade and economic systems. Research in Africa, Central Asia, South America, and the U.S. Southeast showcase our global perspective. Methodological approaches include geospatial analysis, material culture analysis, archaeometry, biomolecular archaeology, zooarchaeology, and bioarchaeology. Our faculty also work with stakeholder communities to build more inclusive histories and practices though research design, data production, and outreach activities. Our archaeologists maintain active collaborations with the Arkansas Archeological Survey and the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies. All of our faculty can also accept students through the Environmental Dynamics program.
The archaeology program focuses on providing training in environmental, landscape, and public archaeology. Our archaeological laboratories are well-equipped to support field data acquisition, laboratory analyses, and data processing and visualization in these fields.
The Environmental Archaeology Laboratory is dedicated to understanding human – climate interactions and legacies of anthropogenic change since the middle Holocene. Current research projects integrate paleoecological and paleoclimatic proxies with geospatial approaches and focus on Central and South America.
The Hermes Laboratory examines how ancient human subsistence, mobility, and health can be unlocked in the archaeological record and used to inform the present. Research focuses on the analysis of human and animal remains for biomolecules and isotopic compositions. Archaeological field projects in Central Asia explore pastoralist dynamics.
In collaboration with the Center for Advanced Spatial Technologies, students also have access to computer labs and equipment associated with geodetic positioning and topographic survey, low-altitude aerial remote sensing, and terrestrial scanning and close-range photogrammetry.
Research and training opportunities are also available through the Arkansas Archeological Survey. The ARAS maintains archeological collections and records from the state of Arkansas. Funding opportunities for graduate students include the Hester A. Davis Internship in Public Archeology, the Charles R. McGimsey, III Endowment, and a graduate assistantship at the Coordinating Office in Fayetteville. Students have the opportunity to work with artifact collections, participate in field investigations, and conduct original research. The University of Arkansas-Fayetteville station typically directs a local field school project every other year.
Our analytical capabilities are further expanded through close connections other research entities:
- University of Arkansas Museum
- MicroCT Imaging Consortium for Research and Outreach
- The University of Arkansas Stable Isotope Lab
- The State-Wide Mass Spectrometry Facility
- Arkansas High Performance Computing Center
Our Archaeology Faculty: