"Prehistoric Human Behavior" Brown Bag Lecture

Assistant Professor Ryan Parish from the Department of Earth Sciences at University of Memphis will present a public lecture titled "Prehistoric Human Behavior as Viewed Through Tool-Stone Resources." Archaeologists are often left with very little cultural materials from which to decipher the lives of those who have gone before us. However, much can be learned from the surviving stone artifact assemblages of past cultures. Examining where groups obtained their stone resources can help us uncover cultural interactions with both other peoples and places on the landscape. The use of a multi-disciplinary approach incorporating the fields of geology, geography, chemistry, statistics and anthropology is presented, highlighting potential Paleoindian social-networking and Mississippian chiefdoms’ selection of stone for ceremonial “sword-form” bifaces in the Southeast. Click the "Link" below for more information.