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Rick Holmer is professor of anthropology at Idaho State University where he has taught since 1983. He earned a Ph.D. in 1978 from the University of Utah and has conducted archaeological research in Mexico, Samoa, the American Desert West, and Alaska. When not working on campus he resides with his wife, Sharon, and golden retriever, Abby, on the banks of the Henry's Fork River in eastern Idaho near Yellowstone National Park.
Current Activities
Dr. Holmer is writing a book about the archaeology of eastern Idaho and the surrounding region (including Yellowstone, the Tetons, the River of No Return Wilderness, etc.). The book culminates 25 years of thinking about the region's ethnography and archaeology. As he states in the forward to the book: "It's payback time! Idaho taxpayers have generously paid my salary and supported my research for two-and-a-half decades and now it is time for me to share what I have learned." The book is for a general audience - without the jargon common in scientific literature - so that everyone has access to the remarkable saga of 13,000 years of human adaptation in the region we now know as eastern Idaho. The book is expected to be available in 2008.
General Interests and Activities
Dr. Holmer recently published a book on the Aztec sacred calendar, and he is in the drafting stages of two more about ancient Mesoamerica. These books result from 35 years of study of native writing systems, mathematics, astronomy and religion in Central Mexico.
Dr. Holmer's other interest is Native American ecology in the Intermountain West, along with methods and techniques to extract as much information as possible from artifacts and sites. These include statistical methods, digital imaging, geographic information systems, stone tool morphology and typology, obsidian source analysis and faunal analysis.
Academic Appointments
| 2002-2003 | : | Acting Chair, Department of Anthropology, Idaho State University |
| 1998-present | : | Professor of Anthropology, Idaho State University |
| 1992-1994 | : | Chairman, Department of Anthropology, Idaho State University |
| 1989-1993 | : | Director, Idaho Museum of Natural History |
| 1988-1998 | : | Associate Professor of Anthropology (tenured), Idaho State University |
| 1987-1990 | : | Curator of Anthropology and Chair, Division of Anthropology, Idaho Museum of Natural History |
| 1983-1988 | : | Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Idaho State University |
| 1980-1984 | : | Research Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Utah |
Selected Bibliography (with web links, where available)
| 2005 | : | The Aztec Book of Destiny. BookSurge, an Amazon.com Company. Charleston, preview the book at Amazon, or at Google Books. |
| 2004 | : | Vegetation Change in the Upper Snake, Yellowstone, and Green River Drainages: The Last 14,000 Years. In Wildfire Effects on Rangeland Ecosystems and Livestock Grazing in Idaho, pp. 148-163. ISU GIS Center. Pocatello, (with Sharon R. Plager), download *.pdf. |
| 2004 | : | GIS Cultural Resource Predictive Model for the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. Department of Anthropology, Idaho State University. Pocatello (with Sharon R. Plager, Tanya L. Johnson, and Arnold Williams), download *.pdf. |
| 2003 | : | Field Guide to the Identification of Projectile Points from the Upper Snake River Basin, Eastern Idaho. Department of Anthropology, Idaho State University, Pocatello.
| | 1997 | : | Volcanic Glass Utilization in Eastern Idaho. Tebiwa 26(2):186-204. Pocatello, download *.pdf. |
| 1995 | : | Projectile Point Classification: the Eastern Idaho Database. Tebiwa 25:115-121. Pocatello, download *.pdf. |
| 1994 | : | In Search of Ancestral Northern Shoshone. In Across the West: Human Population Movement and the Expansion of the Numa, pp 179-187, edited by David B. Madsen and David Rhode. University of Utah Press. Salt Lake City, download *.pdf. |
| 1990 | : | Prehistory of the Northern Shoshone. Rendezvous 26:41-60. Pocatello, download *.pdf. |
| 1986 | : | Common Projectile Points of the Intermountain West. In The Anthropology of the Desert West, pp 89-115, edited by Carol Condie and Don Fowler. University of Utah Press. Salt Lake City,, download *.pdf. |
| 1980 | : | Archaeological Excavations in Western Samoa. Pacific Anthropological Records 32. Honolulu (with Jesse D. Jennings). |
| 1980 | : | Sudden Shelter. University of Utah Anthropological Papers 103. Salt Lake City, (with Jesse D. Jennings and Alan R. Schroedl). |
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