USU Museum of Anthropology: 40 Some Years in the Desert

Two visiting scholars are guests at the next Saturdays at the Museum activity presented by the Museum of Anthropology at Utah State University.

Kimball Banks of Metcalf Archaeology, Bismark, N.D., and Signe Snortland, environmental specialist and archaeologist with the Bureau of Reclamation in North Dakota, are the featured presentation Saturday, Sept. 3.

The pair will discuss the investigations of the prehistory and paleoenvironments of northeast Africa that took place in the early 1960s under a program known as the Combined Prehistoric Expedition (CPE), one of the oldest on-going archaeological programs in history.             

This international consortium of scientists started as a salvage program mitigating impacts to prehistoric sites from construction of the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River. While most art historians and archaeologists focus on Pharaonic Egypt, the CPE makes major contributions to the understanding of the preceding Paleolithic and Neolithic cultures in Egypt and Sudan and past environmental settings.

The guest presentation begins at 1 p.m. at the museum.

Community members, as well as Utah State students, can visit the museum during its operating hours, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Funding for the Saturday events is provided by a grant from the United States Institute of Museum and Library Services. More information about the IMLS is available online.

The USU Museum of Anthropology is on the USU campus in the south turret of the historic Old Main building, Room 252. Admission is free. For Saturday activities, free parking is available in the adjacent lot, south of the building.

For more information about this event, call museum staff at (435) 797-7545 or visit the museum website.

The Museum of Anthropology is part of the Anthropology Program at USU in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Related links:

• USU Anthropology Program 
• USU Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology
• USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Source: Museum of Anthropology

Contact: USU Museum of Anthropology, (435) 797-7545, anthro.museum@usu.edu