IUP Anthropology Program

IUP Anthropology Program IUP Anthropology is part of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Department of Anthropology, Geospatial and Earth Sciences. degrees.

We offer undergraduate specializations in Applied Anthropology and Archaeology, and a master's degree in Applied Archaeology. Students who major in anthropology at IUP receive a solid grounding in all aspects of the discipline and are exposed to all subdisciplines in the field. While all our students receive a general degree in anthropology, they may choose to build expertise in a particular area

by pursuing specialized tracks. In addition to the general anthropology track, the department also offers tracks in applied anthropology and archaeology as well as Social Science Education. We have also recently added an Honors Program to provide advanced research training and experience for many of our majors. The Master of Arts in Applied Archaeology Program was initiated in 2009 and has thus far enrolled 47 students. The program is designed to meet industry and government needs for professional archaeologists in response to recent studies by the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) that found that there is a continuing and increasing need for archaeologists with applied M.A. Most of the program’s graduates are employed in the fields of cultural resource management (CRM), historic preservation, and heritage tourism. Our graduates work for engineering and environmental firms, private archaeological companies, and state and federal agencies.

08/19/2026
08/17/2026

Archaeologist Olga Soffer spent much of her career asking a deceptively simple question: What if archaeologists had been overlooking some of the most important technologies of the Ice Age because they did not survive in the ground?

Soffer, who died June 20 at age 83, helped challenge a familiar picture of prehistoric life dominated by men hunting large animals with stone weapons. Her research drew attention instead to technologies often associated with women: weaving, basketry, cordage, net-making and textile production.

Working with colleagues on archaeological material from Eastern Europe, Soffer examined impressions preserved in fired clay and other evidence suggesting that sophisticated fiber technologies existed as early as roughly 30,000 years ago.

The implications went well beyond clothing.

A net could capture fish, birds or small animals. Baskets made gathering, carrying and storing food more efficient. Cordage could be used for traps, shelters and countless everyday tasks. Textiles offered protection in brutally cold environments.

But there was a problem with how prehistory had traditionally been reconstructed. Stone survives. Plant fibers usually do not.

A spear point can remain in the earth for tens of thousands of years, while a woven bag, fishing net or length of cord disappears. Archaeologists therefore inherited a record that naturally made some kinds of labor far more visible than others.

Soffer helped demonstrate how easily preservation could become interpretation. If the evidence of women's work vanished, their contribution could vanish from the story with it.

Her work did not simply add women back into prehistory. It forced archaeologists to reconsider what counted as technology in the first place.

IUP Anthropology in the news!
08/14/2026

IUP Anthropology in the news!

Most students enter Abigail Adams’ anthropology courses at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania thinking there’s nothing new to learn about Native Americans. A weeklong trip to the Navajo Nation in Arizona showed quite the opposite. Ten students — led by Adams and IUP anthropolog...

Week 2 and 3 of underwater CRM field school included some shipwreck recording and sediment coring, as well as data proce...
08/12/2026

Week 2 and 3 of underwater CRM field school included some shipwreck recording and sediment coring, as well as data processing.

Who has culture?
08/12/2026

Who has culture?

Dolphins off the coast of Queensland, Australia, have been captured on film using a rarely-sighted technique known as 'shelling' to hunt their prey.

Smell the archaeology.
08/11/2026

Smell the archaeology.

For all the trials and heartbreaks of modern life there is at least one luminous and gratifying reward.

If you would like your State Attorney General to weigh in on the proposed changes to the National Historic Preservation ...
08/08/2026

If you would like your State Attorney General to weigh in on the proposed changes to the National Historic Preservation Act, you can use this link to send them a message.

The Archiving the Archaeologists series is an oral history project of video interviews of archaeologists near retirement or already retired. Listen to real archaeologists reflect on their careers, how and why they became archaeologists, and their contributions to the discipline on the SAA YouTube ch...

Updates on our exciting new collaboration with Forensic Science Research and Training Laboratory!
08/07/2026

Updates on our exciting new collaboration with Forensic Science Research and Training Laboratory!

Underwater archaeology field school. IUP partnering with Texas A&M, Seneca Nation THPO, and Anthropocene Research Center...
08/07/2026

Underwater archaeology field school. IUP partnering with Texas A&M, Seneca Nation THPO, and Anthropocene Research Center.

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