A Decade of Research at the Institute of Prairie Archaeology

Date/Time: 
Thursday, May 7, 2020 - 8:00am
(ADT)
Organizer(s): 
  • John W. (Jack) Ives, Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta
Contact Email: 
Session Description (300 word max): 

The Institute of Prairie Archaeology was created to conduct and promote archaeological, anthropological and interdisciplinary research relevant to the northern Plains region of western Canada and the northern United States. Its work was intended to enhance public, First Nations and Métis communities, and rural engagement with the University of Alberta in these research areas, and particularly, to provide leadership in the training of archaeologists through field schools and other professional work. Since its inception in 2008, the Institute has supported research connected with the University of Alberta archaeological field school (at both the 10,000 year old Ahai Mneh site on Transalta’s Lake Wabamun area lease and the Avonlea-Old Women’s Phase bison kill complex on the University of Alberta’s Rangeland Research Institute’s Mattheis Ranch in the Brooks area), transdisciplinary Apachean origins research with a specific focus on the rich perishable record of the Promontory caves in Utah, Early Prehistoric Period research spanning the time frame from the Western Canadian Fluted Point Database to the Cody Complex, remote-sensing and GIS based analysis of landscapes throughout western North America, paleoenvironmental studies, new research on Métis wintering sites, application of bison bone bed analytical techniques to a unique Neolithic aurochs bone bed in Jilin, China, and Besant-Sonota era investigations in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and North and South Dakota. As the Institute embarks on a new phase of activity as the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology, the assembled papers will take stock of a highly productive decade of graduate, undergraduate and research associate research.