Archaeologist Wins Desert Research Award
Posted on: Thursday, 3 February 2005, 09:00 CST
RENO, Nev. -- An archaeologist whose research topics have ranged from Neanderthal hunters in France to the ill-fated Donner Party in the Sierra Nevada is the winner of a top research award typically reserved for more narrowly defined sciences.
Donald Grayson, an anthropology professor at the University of Washington for 30 years, is the first archaeologist to win the Desert Research Institute's Nevada Medal in the 18-year-history of the silver medallion and its $20,000 prize.
Past winners have been botanists, chemists, physicists, scientific experts in air quality, water clarity and the evolution of desert landforms.
"Most people stick to one topic or one area. I'm just curious about lots of things. I let my career chase around after questions that interest me," Grayson said Wednesday in a telephone interview from Seattle.
In announcing the 2005 award, institute President Stephen Wells called Grayson an international leader in the study of human interaction with the landscape and the use of archaeological data to unravel biological mysteries.
"He's really a pioneer in the world of archaeology bringing those sciences together that go beyond the evolution of a single culture," Wells said.
The author of eight books, Grayson chronicled the natural history of the Great Basin early in his career. He's best known for research suggesting climate change - not pre-settlement hunters - drove the extinction of wooly mammoths and other large mammals in North America 10,000 years ago.
Grayson's study of the Donner Party confirmed typical mortality rates could accurately predict how many men versus how many women would perish while stranded in the Sierra that winter of 1846.
Since 1995, he's concentrated on a Stone Age site in France studying differences between the earlier Neanderthals and modern humans dating to 65,000 years ago.
Grayson received international attention recently for studies on the affects of climate change on caribou and other reindeer species in Europe and North America.
DRI, established in 1959, is a nonprofit, statewide division of the University and Community College System of Nevada with an emphasis on environmental studies.
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On the Net:
Desert Research Institute: http://www.dri.edu/
University of Washington Department of Anthropology: http://depts.washington.edu/anthweb/
Source: Associated Press/AP Online
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