Lam Career Lecture Series

Karen Anderson, Ph.D. Archeologist

Karen Anderson has a Ph.D in anthropology from UC Santa Barbara with a specialty in archaeology. Her research specialty is pre-Columbian cultures of South America with her fieldwork for the last ten years focusing on the spread of the Tiwanaku empire that controlled most of modern day Bolivia from AD 600-1100. In the talk, she will use data from her excavations to demonstrate how archaeologists apply scientific investigation techniques to understand prehistoric cultures

What is an Archeologist?

An archaeologist is someone who studies people and what they did in the past from the things they left behind. Archaeologists might study early Native Americans, early European settlers, such as the pilgrims, or old factory buildings.

An archaeologist looks for artifacts (objects made by people) that will reveal more about the past. Artifacts can be many different things. An arrowhead is an artifact, or beads made by Native Americans and so is an old coin.

Archaeologists also look for features. When someone disturbs the ground and there is evidence left from that activity, it is called a feature. A feature can’t be moved from the site. One example of a feature is a hearth or firepit, which is like a fireplace. Sometimes an archaeologist might find a hole dug for people to store food or other things. This is called a storage pit. Some storage pits are just trash dumps

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