About the UUAC

The University of Utah Archaeological Center (UUAC) is a research and teaching arm of the Department of Anthropology. The Center’s mission is to train the next generation of anthropological archaeologists, facilitate collaborative archaeological research and promote the understanding of archaeology and prehistory in the wider community.

Originally founded in 1948 as the "Statewide Archaeological Survey," its mission was to investigate the prehistoric archaeology of Utah. It was renamed in 1978 and its mission broadened. The Archaeological Center now coordinates research that explores past and present human behavior from the perspective of evolutionary ecology.

The Archaeological Center is located in the Gardner Commons, in the central campus of the University of Utah. It includes a central analysis laboratory, the Zooarchaeological Laboratory (directed by Jack Broughton) and a Stable Isotope Facility (directed by Joan Brenner-Coltrain). The Center has two large laboratory rooms for teaching and research, a newly remodeled meeting and seminar room, a new artifact documentation station capable of high resolution photographs for morphometric studies, a small library that includes archives of local (Great Basin and Colorado Plateau) research records, a store of archaeological field equipment including high precision GPS units and excavation equipment, and office space for faculty and students. The Center is also home to the Zooarchaeological Laboratory (directed by Jack Broughton) and the Stable Isotope Facility (directed by Joan Brenner-Coltrain). UUAC researchers also work in the Red Lab (directed by Andrea Brunelle) and the Natural History Museum of Utah (with Tyler Faith, Lisbeth Louderback, and Duncan Metcalfe).