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Jackie Meier, a graduate student in the Old World Archaeology Program and her co-author Gypsy Price from the University of Florida recently won the prize for the "Best Poster Designed Entirely by Students" at the 2011 Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) meetings in San Antonio.  The poster was entitled "Destruction and Death: Preliminary Observations of Archaeological Fauna from the Petsas House Well" and described the faunal remains recovered from a well dating to the Late Helladic III period at the important site of Mycenae in the Peloponnese, Greece."

http://www.archaeological.org/awards/poster

Alexia Smith, an assistant professor in the Old World Archaeology group in the anthropology department in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has won a rare prize in her field – a National Science Foundation CAREER award.

While CAREER awards, designed to advance the careers of young faculty members, are more common in fields such as chemistry or biology (CLAS currently has six active CAREER awards), to date there have been only two others given in archaeology to any institution, according to the NSF.

Neanderthals Reimagined

Research debunking the position that Neanderthals were "cognitively inferior" comes from Professor Daniel Adler of the University of Connecticut

"For many, the term 'Neanderthal' is still synonymous with 'knuckle-dragging thuggish brute,' " Adler said at the time. "We're going back and rehabilitating the image of the Neanderthals."

You can view the story here.

Feasting in Early Humans

We have a lead story up today on UConn Today about Professor Natalie Munro recent work on feasting in early humans. You can view the story here.

This work has also garnered substantial national and international media attention: it's been covered in BBC/PRI's "The World" radio show, the London Daily Mail, MSNBC.com, the Christian Science Monitor, several major science magazines, and newspapers in Brazil, India, France, South Africa and Germany. Here's a link to a National Geographic story on her work.

Stone Age Atlantis
Archaeologists find relics of the Mesolithic Era deep in Danish waters. What do they tell us of our Stone Age ancestors? Read more

From the Ashes of Mount Vesuvius

Tiziana Matarazzo, a PhD student conducts her field research in what used to be her own back yard. She studies the activity areas at the Early Bronze Age village of Afragola in Southern Italy

Digging underwater for human history

David Robinson, a PhD student in anthropology and professional maritime archaeologist, is intent on studying submerged settlements off the southern New England coast.

http://www.clas.uconn.edu/news/news_2009_09_04.htm

Native American Studies Gaining Ground at UConn

With more than 500 different Native American tribes living today in the United States, faculty and administrators at UConn have been working in recent years to raise the profile of Native American Studies as an academic discipline and provide students greater opportunity to explore their interests in this area. Connecticut is home to five tribal nations: Mohegan, Mashantucket Pequot, Schaghticoke, Eastern Pequot, and Paugusset. Hundreds of other indigenous peoples reside throughout the Americas. Despite this vast, enduring diversity in Native culture, “many people think of Native American Studies as a very parochial pursuit,” says anthropology professor Kevin McBride, director of Native American Studies. “I don’t think people appreciate how integrative it is.”(more)

Professor W. Penn Handwerker new book: The Origin of Cultures: How Individual Choices Make Cultures Change (Key Questions in Anthropology: Little Books on Big Ideas)

Professor Merrill Singer new book: Introduction to Syndemics: A Critical Systems Approach to Public and Community Health

Professor Robert Thorson new book: Beyond Walden

http://www.bookstore.uconn.edu/departments/events/event04.htm

Cara Roure Johnson and Sally McBrearty. Oldest Stone Blades Uncovered

ScienceNOW Daily News 2 April 2009

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2009/402/2

'Johnson and McBrearty found the stone blades in a basalt outcrop known as the Kapthurin Formation, including four cores from which the blades were struck. "These assemblages would have been made by a different species of human," Johnson said. "Who were they?" The blades come from the same part of the formation where researchers have found two lower jaws that have been variously described as belonging to Homo heidelbergensis or H. rhodesiensis, human ancestors in Europe and Africa that predate the origin of our species, H. sapiens.'

NEWS ALERT…..NEWS ALERT…..NEWS ALERT…..NEWS ALERT…..NEWS ALERT…..NEWS ALERT

Raleigh - Gov. Mike Easley has appointed Catherine M. Mitchell Fuentes of Charlotte to the Governor's Crime Commission.

Catherine M. Mitchell Fuentes (MA & PhD MAJOR: Anthropology, University of Connecticut Storrs).

"As an educator and community volunteer, Catherine Mitchell Fuentes brings both the background and experience to provide a significant contribution to the Crime Commission,'' Easley said. "I am confident her knowledge will make her a fine addition to the commission.'' Fuentes is a lecturer in the Department of Anthropology at UNC-Charlotte specializing in medical anthropology, sexual and domestic violence against women and Hispanic immigration. She is a victim's court and jail advocate for United Family Services of Charlotte and a volunteer service provider for homeless youth with Stand Up for Kids in Charlotte. Fuentes was the 2003 volunteer-advocate of the year for the Women's Center of Northeastern Connecticut. She received her undergraduate degree in philosophy from N.C. State University and her Masters and Doctorate in medical anthropology from the University of Connecticut in Storrs. The Crime Commission advises the governor on matters related to the criminal justice system and makes recommendations for improving the justice system, protecting individual rights and promoting public safety. The commission has 44 members, each serving a three-year term. The governor appoints 27 members. The President Pro-Tem of the Senate and the Speaker of the House each appoint two members. The attorney general, superintendent of Public Instruction, director of the State Bureau of Investigation, director of prisons, director of Adult Probation and Parole, director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, a state Supreme Court justice, Assistant Secretaries of the Intervention Prevention Bureau and the Detention Bureau of the Office of Juvenile Justice, and the secretaries of the departments of Health and Human Services, Correction, Crime Control and Public Safety, and Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention also serve on the commission.