Have you ever wanted to visit Maya pyramids hidden in the jungle? Students enrolled in the Anthropology course ANTH 323: Mesoamerican Archaeology will have an opportunity to participate in an optional trip to Belize to explore ancient Maya sites. Costs for the trip are additional. For more information, contact Dr. Beverly Chiarulli (bevc@iup.edu).

Several graduate students in the Anthropology Department’s M.A. in Applied Archaeology program will complete a survey of historic resources in northeast Venango County under the direction of Drs. Ben Ford and Beverly Chiarulli. The project’s kick-off public meeting was covered by the Titusville Herald.

The IUP School of Graduate Studies and Research and the Anthropology Department are now accepting applications for M.A. in Applied Archaeology for the Fall 2010 semester.

On September 10, 2009, Anthropology assistant professor Ben Ford made the final posts to his Web journal, sponsored by the Museum of Underwater Archaeology. These posts detail the process and findings of three years of archaeological investigations along the shores of Lake Ontario.

There are some new faces in the IUP Anthropology Department in Fall 2009. Drs. Elizabeth Cooper, Amanda Poole, and Benjamin Ford have joined the faculty, replacing some long-standing members of the department and supporting the new M.A. in Applied Archaeology.

Tom Wambach, a junior Anthropology/Archaeology Track major, spent summer 2009 working as an intern at the Pennsylvania State Museum in Harrisburg, Pa.

Dr. Victor Garcia of the Department of Anthropology was nominated and accepted as a research scientist member of the National Hispanic Science Network on Drug Abuse.