Anthropology

The Museum's Anthropology Collections span from 11,500 BC to present day and are instrumental to our understanding of the human history of western North America.

Fun Facts

The collections contain more than one million objects, which includes 4,600 Native American artifacts (ethnographic objects) and items recovered from 3,800 archaeological sites.

The Anthropology Lab enables Museum staff to preserve and protect objects from the collection.  The lab keeps records dating to the early 1900s.

The collections emphasize the archaeology of the Intermountain West, with more than six decades of investigation in the Fremont and Anasazi archaeological complexes, the material remains of Utah's prehistoric farmers.

The Museum's Archaeology Collection is home to objects from some of North America's most significant dry cave sites including Danger, Hogup, Cowboy, and Promontory caves. It also curates collections from the Glen Canyon Salvage project prior to construction of the dam at Lake Powell.

Archaeological research at the Range Creek Field Station, managed by NHMU, has produced many artifacts that are now part of these collections.

The Ethnographic Collection includes Native American objects from Utah's native people.