The program in archaeology emphasizes research and training in the prehistory of the Americas including Alaska, the Pacific Northwest from British Columbia to northern California, the Columbia Plateau, the Great Basin, the Pueblo societies of the Southwest, Mesoamerica, and the Andes. Faculty research employs ceramic analysis, lithic analysis, paleoeconomic and paleoenvironmental approaches including geoarchaeology, zooarchaeology, microbotanical and macrobotanical analysis, as well as well as stable isotope analysis, archaeometry via gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and modeling and simulation. Students gain practical experience in methods through a group of laboratory training courses unique to WSU, and are exposed to explanatory perspectives derived from evolutionary theory, agency and practice theory, and the study of complex adaptive systems.

Please contact the Archaeology Graduate Coordinator or Student Representative for more information:

Archaeology Coordinator: Erin Thornton (erin.thornton@wsu.edu)
Student Representative: Cameron Blumhardt

Archaeology Faculty

DR. JOHN BLONG

Interests: Hunter-gatherer adaptations and landscape use, peopling of the Americas, prehistory of Alaska and the Great Basin, environmental archaeology, geoarchaeology, paleoethnobotany, lithic analysis
Email: john.blong@wsu.edu

DR. ANDREW DUFF

Interests: American Southwest; community formation; organizational transitions associated with increasing population consolidation; social and ethnic identity and migration.
Email: duff@wsu.edu

DR. COLIN GRIER

Interests: Pacific Northwest Coast, complex hunter-gatherers, faunal analysis.
Email: cgrier@wsu.edu

DR. RACHEL A. HOROWITZ

Interests: Organization of technology, lithic technology, Mesoamerica, Maya, economic organization, political economy, lithic sourcing, experimental archaeology
Email: rachel.horowitz@wsu.edu

DR. ERIN THORNTON

Interests: New world societies; zooarchaeology, human osteology and stable isotope analysis.
Email: erin.thornton@wsu.edu

DR. SHANNON TUSHINGHAM

Interests: Pacific Northwest Coast, California; Hunter-gatherers, evolutionary ecology, ethnoarchaeology, archaeometry, colonial encounters, contemporary indigenous communities.
Email: shannon.tushingham@wsu.edu