Archaeology!: Current Research in the University of Michigan Museum of Anthropology March 2, 2010

Archaeological research by curators, research scientists, and affiliated students of the UM Museum of Anthropology encompasses the full scope of human cultural evolution from our earliest tool-making hominid ancestors to the more recent emergence of ancient states and historic empires. Today's archaeologist makes use of a wide variety of scientific methods and techniques to recover and study material remains in order to ask questions about how human societies developed, lived, and changed over the last 2.5 million years. This exhibition features ongoing research by UM archaeologists to examine both the kinds of questions that contemporary archaeologists ask about the past and the techniques that they use to answer them. Among the many topics featured are: underwater archaeological research beneath Lake Huron, studies of the remains of 19th century Ann Arbor, excavations of ancient village communities in northern Arizona, the analysis of ancient ceramics from Asia and Mesopotamia, and how archaeologists study the diets of ancient people.