Anthropology Field and Laboratory Opportunities

ISU's Anthropology Department offers many opportunities for students at all levels to gain hands-on, specialized experience in anthropological and archaeological field and laboratory methods. Some of these opportunities are held abroad, in locations like the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, the Sacred Valley in Peru, and the Polynesia Pacific. Other opportunities take place in the mountains and deserts of eastern Idaho, rural health cooperatives and in the anthropology laboratories on the ISU campus.

Click on the links below to get more information about the current field opportunities in Anthropology at ISU:

Field Projects (Abroad & Non-local)

• Alaska Fisheries Projects
• Medical Anthropology research in the Sacred Valley, Peru

Field Projects (Idaho and local)

• Hispanic Health Projects

2018 Archaeology Field School: Olsen Mammoth Excavation

The 2018 Field School will be recovering a Columbian Mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) from a site in Kimberly, Idaho. The mammoth has been radiocarbon dated to between 15,500 and 14,500 years old. Please click the link below for more information. Please contact Dr. Charles Speer at speechar@isu.edu if you are interested in attending this years field school.

2016 Archaeology Field School: Paleoindian Archaeology in the Sweet Ola Valley

This video shows the area we are exploring for Paleoindian sites from 9,000 to 18,000 years ago in the Sweet-Ola Valley. In the first slides you'll see details of the area we investigated on the Upper Squaw Creek. You'll also see artifacts collected by the landowners of the various sites. We investigated 720 acres of private property adjacent to Boise National Forest. The preliminary results of our investigation are promising. The slides and videos show students from the 2016 field school excavating, sifting dirt, and mapping artifacts with our robotic Total Station survey instrument. There are several time lapse videos, GoPro handheld footage, and iPhone video capture. The last slides show the Fennel family that has been very helpful in procuring permissions to excavate and survey in the Sweet-Ola Valley. Special thanks to them!

Laboratory Internships in Archaeological Science

• Bioarchaeology and archaeological chemistry at the Center for Archaeology, Materials and Applied Spectroscopy (CAMAS)
• Archaeological and Forensic DNA extraction and analysis at the joint Anthropology/Biological Sciences ancient DNA laboratory and ISU's Molecular Research Core Facility (MRCF)
• X-ray Fluorescence of obsidian artifacts and obsidian sources in southeastern Idaho