Archaeology

at

George Mason University

Archaeology is the study of the human past through material remains.  The Department of Sociology and Anthropology has an active program of archaeological fieldwork, museum-based research, and undergraduate education, with a focus on the Pre-Columbian and history eras of the New World.   Facilities include a small archaeology/biological anthropology lab that serves as a base for faculty and student research projects.  We also host the George Mason Symposia on Archaeology, an annual one-day event designed to bring current archaeological research on important social topics to a broad audience.  Our students have attended field schools and volunteered on archaeological projects throughout the United States and abroad; many have gone on to graduate school as well as careers in public archaeology.

Active Project Include

NMAI-GMU Mesoamerican Collections Project

The Tano Origins Project

Full-time Faculty:

Alexander Benitez (Assistant Professor)

Research interests: Archaeology, Mesoamerica-Central Mexico, U.S. Southwest, Ancient Economies (particularly the exchange/trade of obsidian tools), the archaeology of borderlands/periphery regions, the history of and relationships between Anthropologists and Museums

Ann Palkovich (Associate Professor)

Research interests: The Nature of Emergent and Self-Organizing Properties of Human Evolution, The Skeletal Biology of Prehistoric Populations

James E. Snead (Associate Professor)

Research interests:  North America (particularly U.S. Southwest), cultural landscapes, the archaeological study of conflict and warfare

Part-time/Visiting Faculty:

Lori Lee (doctoral candidate, Syracuse University)

Research interests: historical archaeology, US/Carribean, the African diaspora, landscape, migration, the materiality of memory and identity, particularly as it relates to race and gender

AJ Vonarx (doctoral candidate, University of Arizona: Spring 2008)

Research interests: the development of creative techniques for analysis, dating, interpretation of architecture in Mesoamerica and the Southwestern United States, the study of technological innovation, experimental archaeology, pyrotechnologies, geochemical sourcing of artifacts

Partnerships:

Fairfax County Park Authority

Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center

National Museum of the American Indian

Archaeologists in other departments at GMU:

Sheryl Luzzader Beach (Department of Earth Systems and Geoinformation Sciences)

 http://esgs.gmu.edu

Carol Mattusch (Department of History and Art History)

http://historyarthistory.gmu.edu/faculty-and-staff/carol-muttusch/