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The Department of Anthropology

Departmental Scholarly Resources

Archaeological Facilities

The Department of Anthropology maintains three lab areas for archaeological research; beyond analysis space for the many projects, the labs are equipped with flotation tanks, computers, microscopes, cameras, scales, calipers, etc., Research and study areas are maintained by the faculty and their graduate students and teaching assistants..

Anthropological Collections and Archaeological Records

In 1949, the faculty intensified archaeological field research along the Missouri and Columbia River basins. This archaeological resource was augmented in 1968 when the Department of Anthropology became the repository for the State of Montana Archaeological Records and many of the state's archaeological collections. The files include the original Smithsonian Institution records from the River Basin Surveys of the 1940s through the 1960s. The Department of Anthropology is charged with assigning the Smithsonian Trinomial Site numbers to all sites discovered in Montana.

The archaeological collections and the files of archaeological site records are curated on a continuous basis. The department works closely with the State Historic Preservation Office, local Native American representatives, federal agencies, and private consulting forms in maintaining a cultural resource inventory of the archaeological sites in the state and to manage the archaeological collections. These records and associated collections are available to students for research.

The ethnographic collection began in the 1940s and continues to grow to the present day. The collection has representative material culture from all the world areas, but the core of the collection is ethnographic material from the Northern Great Plains and the Columbian Plateau.

Physical Anthropology Laboratories

The Physical Anthropology Laboratory, under the direction of Ashley McKeown, houses teaching materials for the study and analysis of human osteology, human variation, forensic studies, and human evolution. Although space is limited, students can acquire experience in aspects of casting techniques, osteology, facial reconstruction, human and primate evolution, and measuring human variation. The nearby biological anthropology laboratory, under the direction of Noriko Seguchi, provides space for graduate research and computers equipped with specialized analysis programs for evolutionary craniofacial studies. The Department also maintains, under the direction of Randall Skelton, a secure study room for examination of forensic cases referred to the Department from the Montana State crime lab.

Linguistics Laboratory and Seminar Room

The Linguistics Laboratory and the Seminar Room is home to a wide array of materials on linguistics. The laboratory contains computer equipment and other technology used in the recording and analysis of language. Students can use the laboratory and reading materials for research.

Social Science Research Laboratory (SSRL)

The Fred W. Reed Social Science Research Laboratory is located in the Social Science building on the same floor as Anthropology. Open to all social science majors with research projects, the lab is extensively used by the Anthropology Department. The laboratory features a networked array of computers, servers, printers, plotters, digitizers, and scanners. Occupying several thousand square feet of space, the SSRL have GIS capabilities as well as qualitative and quantitative research tools.