Areas of Interest:
I specialize in archaeology and am curator of Anthropology Collections, Hartwick's Yager Museum of Art & Culture. I have served as the director of the Institute for Ancient Equestrian Studies (IAES) since 1994.
My principal job at Hartwick is to teach the prehistoric archaeology of North America, Europe, and the Eurasian steppes. As curator of Anthropology in the Yager Museum I try to research and mount one exhibit every other year, usually on an American Indian theme. I have recently (2007) researched and helped mount two exhibits. One was on wilderness tourism in the northern forests in 1911, and the other, Containers of Belief, was an examination of the changing spiritual beliefs and ideals invested in a variety of Native American artifacts.
My wife is Dorcas Brown, M.A., Museum Studies, Cooperstown Graduate Program 2000. She co-directs our field excavations and teaches adjunct courses (Field Methods in Archaeology, various courses in Museum Studies). We have co-authored many journal articles and collaborated on many field excavations. She is President of the Greater Oneonta Historical Society.
We led archaeological projects in the steppes of Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan beginning in 1989. Two or three Hartwick students excavated with us each year during the Samara Valley Project, 1999-2002, funded by the National Science Foundation; and a few Hartwick students helped with the early fieldwork funded by the National Geographic Society before that. An earlier project, studying the origins of horseback riding by examining bit wear on the teeth of ancient horses in museums from Kazakhstan to Hungary, was funded by the NSF 1992-94. Our discovery of the earliest evidence for bits and therefore for horseback riding was covered on Dan Rather’s CBS Evening News, All Things Considered, and CNN and was published in Scientific American in 1990-91. A portion of The Riddle of the Desert Mummies, an hour-long television feature shown on the Discovery Channel, was filmed in the Anthropology Lab at Hartwick. My recent book, The Horse, the Wheel, and Language, was published by Princeton University Press. See more under the link for the Institute for Ancient Equestrian Studies.
We directed an archaeology field school at the Pine Lake Environmental Campus near Oneonta in 1989 and 1991. Another professor, C. Klink, re-started the Pine Lake excavations in collaboration with Dr. R. Walker at the State University/Oneonta in June 2003 and 2005. The Pine Lake excavations have found a series of hunter-gatherer Native American sites dated 3000 BCE-1100 CE. One former student at the Pine Lake field school, Sean Rafferty, is now a professor in archaeology at SUNY Albany, and another, Christina Reith, is now state archaeologist for NY at the State Museum in Albany.
Education:
Ph.D. in Anthropology/Archaeology, University of Pennsylvania, 1985
M.A. in Anthropology/Archaeology, University of Pennsylvania, 1974
B.A. in History, Princeton University, 1971
Positions:
1987-present: Professor, Anthropology Department/ Anthropology Curator, The Yager Museum of Art & Culture, Hartwick College
2006:
Fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies, School of Historic Studies, Princeton University
1999-2002:
Advisory Editor for Russian Archaeology, Antiquity
1999-Present:
Archaeology Co-Editor, Journal of Indo-European Studies
1996-99:
Hardy Chair Professor of Anthropology, Hartwick College
1994-present:
Director, Institute for Ancient Equestrian Studies
1977-87:
P.I. or Project Manager for Native American archaeology on CRM projects for various firms in MA., RI, VA., and PA
Selected Publications:
Books
2007. The Horse, the Wheel, and Language. How Bronze Age Riders from the Eurasian Steppes Shaped the Modern World. Princeton University Press.
Articles and Chapters
2006. Co-authored with Dorcas Brown and Christian George. "Early horseback riding and warfare: the importance of the magpie around the neck." In Horses and Humans: The Evolution of the Equine-Human Relationship, edited by Olsen, Sandra, Susan Grant, Alice Choyke, and Laszlo Bartosiewicz, pp. 137-156. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports International Series 1560.
2005. Co-authored with Dorcas Brown, Emmett Brown, Audrey Goodman, Aleksandr Kokhlov, Pavel Kuznetsov, Pavel Kosintsev, Oleg Mochalov, Eileen Murphy, Anne Pike-Tay, Laura Popova, Arlene Rosen, Nerissa Russell, and Alison Weisskopf. "The Samara Valley Project: Late Bronze Age economy and ritual in the Russian steppes." Eurasia Antiqua (Berlin) 11:395-417.
2000. Co-authored with Dorcas Brown. "Eneolithic horse exploitation in the Eurasian steppes: diet, ritual and riding." Antiquity 74: 75-86.
1997. "Prehistoric Migration as Social Process." In Migrations and Invasions in Archaeological Explanation, edited by John Chapman and Helena Hamerow. BAR International Series 664: 21-32.
1995. "Horse, Wagon, and Chariot: Indo-European Languages and Archaeology." Antiquity 69(264): 554-565.
1991. Co-authored with Dimitri Telegin and Dorcas Brown. "The Origin of Horseback Riding." Scientific American 265(6): 94-100
1990. "Migration in Archaeology: the Baby and the Bathwater." American Anthropologist 92(4): 23-42.
1986. "The 'Kurgan Culture,' Indo-European Origins, and the Domestication of the Horse: A Reconsideration." Current Anthropology 27(4): 291-313.
Contact Information
Dr. Anthony can be reached via e-mail:
anthonyd@hartwick.edu
