Colorado State University’s Department of Anthropology to Host Second Neanderthal Workshop

How Neanderthal are you?

That’s one of the many questions that will be discussed Saturday, Feb. 23, when Colorado State University’s Department of Anthropology hosts the second Front Range Neanderthal Workshop. Scholars and their students from universities along the Front Range will gather for the daylong workshop to discuss the Paleolithic people in detail.

“There has been a great deal of discussion recently about how Neanderthal we all are, so that will be among the topics,” said Mica Glantz, associate professor of anthropology at Colorado State. “We all have some Neanderthal in us – estimates are as much as 4 or 5 percent – so it’s an interesting topic. But we’ll be talking about all things Neanderthal.”

Glantz is CSU’s resident Neanderthal expert and one of the event’s hosts. Her most recent field studies have been in Central Asia, on the eastern edge of known Neanderthal range.

Keynote speaker Steven Holen, curator of archaeology in the Department of Anthropology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and founder of the Center for American Paleolithic Research, will discuss his theories on Neanderthal presence in the New World. Most scholars believe the first Americans appear around 13,000 B.C., while Neanderthal populations were limited to Europe and parts of Asia, disappearing around 30,000 B.C.

Students and faculty from CSU, University of Colorado-Boulder, University of Colorado-Denver, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, Metro State University and Wyoming will make presentations. The program begins at 9 a.m. with Holen’s presentation and runs through 4:15 p.m. in Room 107 of CSU’s Behavioral Sciences Building. The workshop is free and open to the public.

For information, contact CSU’s Department of Anthropology (970) 491-5447 or visit the department website.

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