Archaeology Laboratory and Curation Facility

The Archaeology Laboratory maintains five research collections intended to educate an interested community, train the next generation of archaeologist, facilitate professional collaboration, and preserve our shared cultural heritage.

• The Bentley Teaching Collection: Kenneth J. Bentley was an avid collector of artifacts from across Mississippi, Texas, and Kansas. His son, Nelson D. Bentley, donated these materials to USM as a resource to train students. Materials include artifacts dating as far back as 13,000 BP. This collection is featured in The Human Experience (ANT 101) and the Survey of Archaeological Methods (ANT 331) classes.
• USM Research Collections: In the past 51 years, our program has generated its own share research collections from surveys, excavations, and field schools held across the state. These assemblages are studied by outside researchers and provide ready data sets for Capstone paper (ANT 401), honors projects, and graduate theses.
• The Scott Zooarchaeological Collection: The Susan Scott Comparative Zooarchaeological Collection contains more than 800 individual skeletons of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fishes indigenous to the Southeast that are used to identify animal remains recovered from archaeological contexts. This repository is one of the crown jewels in USM’s care, facilitating specialized training in archaeological fauna analysis (ANT 439)
• Southern Hall Archives: The USM historic research collections are housed in our Southern Hall Archives. This resource contains a range of pre- and post-bellum assemblages from the Pine Hills of Mississippi and beyond.
• The Stewart Comparative Lithic Collection: Lee Stewart, a graduate of our MA program in 2000, collected geologic samples from up and down the Lower Mississippi Valley. Researchers consult this collection to confirm identification of stone materials and identify instances of long-distance procurement and exchange.

In addition to our archaeological collections, the Archaeology Laboratory contains several other student resources.

• The Archaeological Library: The lab’s library puts foundational and hard-to-find books, journals, and articles at your fingertips. This includes a section dedicated to pre-colonial archaeology, historical archaeology, and gray-literature (containing reports, thesis, and dissertations that are not in limited circulation).
• Technology: Dedicated laboratory computers feature statistical (SPSS), digital imaging, photogrammetry, and geographical information systems (GIS) software.

Here are a few ways to get involved in active archaeological research at USM:

• Recommended classes
  • ANT 231 - Introduction to Archaeology and Biological Anthropology
  • ANT 331 - Survey of Archaeological Methods
  • ANT 431  - Advanced Prehistoric Analysis
  • ANT 432 - Prehistoric Foodways
  • ANT 436 - Archaeology Field Methods
  • ANT 438 - Archaeology of Complex Societies
  • ANT 439 - Topics in Archaeology
  • ANT 491 - Internship
• Volunteering: Volunteering to help is an excellent way to get your foot in the door and begin building your CV. Contact Dr. LaDu (Daniel.LaDuFREEMississippi) for more information.
• Join the Southern Miss Anthropology Society (SMAS):  Our student organization meets monthly in the Archaeology Laboratory. If you are interested in learning more, follow them at @USM_SMAS on Instagram and the Southern Miss Anthropological Society.