MSU Department of Anthropology

09/03/2026

The soil had been sitting in museum collections for years, most of it never analyzed. This summer, anthropology senior Megan Berry set out to find what was hiding in it.

Working with Dr. Phyllis Johnson on a College of Social Science-funded research project, Berry spent the summer sorting soil from sites in the Ohio Valley, material collected in earlier excavations and held in storage. The search took her to museums in Dayton and Cincinnati, a specialized lab at Vanderbilt University, and MSU's own Cultural Resources Lab.

The sorting is slow, close work. But the payoff was real, and it opened up a direction Berry hadn't expected, toward zooarchaeology, the study of animal remains. She says the summer gave her "a glimpse into what real archaeology is."

Read her story:

https://anthropology.msu.edu/2026/09/02/msu-anthropology-senior-megan-berry-finds-big-questions-in-archaeologys-smallest-fragments/

09/01/2026

Why anthropology? 🤔 We asked our faculty this question and got a room full of different answers. Here’s what they said. How would you answer?

08/28/2026

The Department of Anthropology and the MSU Anthropology Club had a great time meeting new students at this morning’s College of Social Science Colloquium! Welcome to campus, Class of 2030!

08/26/2026

We look forward to seeing all of our newest Social Scientists this Friday at our College Colloquium in Berkey Hall!

Come out and learn more about the college!

08/26/2026

Saints' Rest was Michigan State's first dormitory, built in 1856 and lost to a fire in 1876. The site went on to become one of the most excavated spots on campus and the birthplace of the MSU Campus Archaeology Program.

Now anthropology PhD students are photographing artifacts recovered from Saints' Rest and rebuilding them as 3D models. The Michigan State University Museum is turning those models into a VR experience that lets you see each object as part of someone's day-to-day life, not just a piece behind glass.

The Museum documented the project with Dr. Stacey Camp, PhD candidates Madelyn McKinney and Rylee Lalonde, and MSU Museum educator Carrie Wicker.

The MSU Museum is transforming archaeological discoveries into new ...

08/14/2026

Iron scissors, glass beads and iconographic rings from the 1630s, recovered at a site in Marquette County. They may have arrived before any European did, moving inland along Indigenous exchange networks that were already centuries old.

In her opening chapter in Post-Contact Archaeology of Michigan and the Upper Great Lakes Region (Berghahn Books), Dr. Jessica L. Yann asks what happens when archaeologists stop treating "contact" as a single moment and start asking how Indigenous communities persisted and adapted across two centuries of shifting power in the Great Lakes. Her answer is a four-part continuum that reframes the questions the field asks about colonialism, persistence and resilience.

Dr. Yann earned her doctorate in MSU's Department of Anthropology in 2019 and now serves as the university's NAGPRA Program Manager, with a secondary appointment in the department.

Read the full article: https://anthropology.msu.edu/2026/08/13/rethinking-contact-what-michigans-earliest-trade-goods-actually-show/

08/07/2026

Ancient health. Modern questions.

ANP 445, Paleopathology: The Science of Ancient Health and Disease explores how health, disease, human biology, culture and environment interacted in past populations.

Through lectures, hands-on analysis and an independent research project, students examine the evidence and challenges involved in understanding health in the past.

📅 Fall 2026
🕐 Mondays and Wednesdays, 10:20–11:40 a.m.
📍 Business College Complex N125
👤 Instructor: Dr. Gabriel Wrobel

Interested? Find ANP 445 in the MSU student information system to view availability and enroll.

08/07/2026

Congratulations to Dr. Phyllis Johnson, assistant professor in the MSU Department of Anthropology, on her new article in the Cambridge journal Advances in Archaeological Practice.

The piece looks at how cultural resource management, the branch of archaeology that makes up most of the field's jobs in the US, can build healthier and more sustainable workplaces. Drawing on her experience directing an archaeology lab, she offers a practical model for putting staff wellbeing at the center of how the work gets done.

She now leads MSU's cultural resource management lab, where she trains students for careers in the field.

The artcile is open access, so anyone can read it in full.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/advances-in-archaeological-practice/article/putting-the-people-before-the-work-creating-healthy-working-environments-in-crm/3C2CAB4BA8C1AA6E0F412E83587BEBB9

08/06/2026

Everything leaves a trace. Archaeology learns how to read it.

ANP 203: Introduction to Archaeology introduces the theory, methods and techniques archaeologists use to investigate past human behavior through material evidence.

📅 Fall 2026
🕐 Tuesdays & Thursdays, 10:20–11:40 a.m.
📍 Ernst Bessey Hall 108

Interested? Find ANP 203 in the MSU student information system to view availability and enroll.

08/06/2026

The past leaves clues. Methods make them speak.

ANP 491: The Archaeological Toolbox is a first-time course offering exploring how archaeologists reconstruct life in the past through radiocarbon dating, paleoenvironmental reconstruction, stable isotope analysis, remote sensing and more.

📅 Fall 2026
🕐 Tuesdays & Thursdays, 1–2:20 p.m.
📍 McDonel Hall 38
Instructor: Dr. Madeline Mackie

Interested? Find ANP 491 in the MSU student information system to view availability and enroll.