The Artemisia Archaeological Research Fund (AARF) in an ongoing research program of the University of Nevada, Reno Department of Anthropology. It was founded in 2010 and evolved out of the Sundance Archaeological Research Fund, created in 1994 through a generous endowment given to the University of Nevada, Reno Foundation. The purpose of the endowment is to support long-term archaeological research in the Intermountain West with a focus on the Pleistocene-Holocene transition. Typically, the AARF funds three-to-four graduate research assistantships per year, awarded on a competitive basis. Assistants work with faculty on research projects and undertake independent research of their own.
Current questions driving AARF research include:
- When did people arrive in the Intermountain West?
- What is the technological and chronological relationship between Western Stemmed Tradition (WST) and fluted points?
- What was the relationship between wetland quality/quantity and Paleoindian settlement-subsistence strategies?
- What can tool stone conveyance tell us about the connections between groups who occupied different parts of the Intermountain West?
To address these and other questions, each summer the AARF supports three months of fieldwork in the Intermountain West, which is typically carried out in conjunction with other academic programs and federal land management agencies (the Desert Research Institute, Nevada State Museum, University of Oregon Natural and Cultural History Museum and Great Basin Textile Dating Project, among others). This work offers graduate and undergraduate students opportunities to gain on-the-job training and prepare for a career in academic archaeology. The unit encourage students of all levels to formulate and pursue independent and collaborative research projects and support presentation and publication efforts.
