Department of Anthropology

Todd Surovell
Professor Archaeology
Director of the George C. Frison Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology

B.S. 1995, University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.A. 1999, University of Arizona
Ph.D. 2003, University of Arizona

surovell@uwyo.edu • (307) 314-2733 • Anthropology Bldg 118

Visit the Website of Todd Surovell

Dr. Surovell specializes in the archaeology of hunter-gatherers and the first peoples of the New World. He has done fieldwork in Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona, Wisconsin, Denmark, and Israel. He is a proponent of human behavioral ecology, and has used this approach to explore questions of past human demography, subsistence, and technology. He commonly uses mathematical modeling, computer simulation, and geoarchaeological methods in his work.He teaches a variety of courses in archaeology but most regularly Geoarchaeology, Quantitative Methods for Anthropologists, and Old World Archaeology.

 

Courses taught:

ANTH 3600            Archaeological Sciences

ANTH 4135/5135   Quantitative Methods for Anthropologists

ANTH 4130/5130   Old World Archaeology 

ANTH 4150/5150   Seminar: Colonization of the Americas

ANTH 4150/5150   Computer Programming for Archaeologists 

ANTH 4170/5170   Geoarchaeology

Recent/Selected Publications:

Surovell, T. A. (2022) Barger Gulch: A Folsom Campsite in the Rocky Mountains. University of Arizona Press: Tucson. (link)

Surovell, T. A., S. A. Allaun, B. A. Crass, J. A. M. Gingerich, C. E. Holmes, R. L. Kelly, M. Kornfeld, K. E. Krasinski, M. L. Larson, S. R. Pelton, B. T. Wygal (2022) Late Date of Human Arrival to North America: Continental Scale Differences in the Stratigraphic Integrity of pre-13,000 BP Archaeological Sites. PLOS One 17(4): e026409. (link, open access)

Surovell, T. A., S. R. Pelton, M. E. Mackie, C. M. Mahan, M. J. O'Brien, R. L. Kelly, C. V. Haynes, Jr. and G. C. Frison (2021) The La Prele Mammoth Site, Converse County, Wyoming, USA. In Human-Elephant Interactions from Past to Present, edited by G. Konidaris, R. Barkai, V. Tourloukis, and K. Harvati. Tuebingen Paleoanthropology Book Series – Contributions in Paleoanthropology 1, Tuebingen University Press, Tuebingen, pp. 303-319. (pdf) DOI: https://publikationen.uni-tuebingen.de/xmlui/handle/10900/114229

Surovell, T. A., J. L. Toohey, A. D. Myers, J. M. LaBelle, J. C. M. Ahern, and B. Reisig
    2017  The end of archaeological discovery. American Antiquity 82:288-300. 

Surovell, T. A., J. R. Boyd, J. R., C. V. Haynes,  Jr.,and Gregory W. L. Hodgins
    2016  On the dating of the Folsom complex and its correlation with the Younger Dryas, the end of Clovis, and megafaunal extinction.  Paleoamerica 2:81-89 

Surovell, T. A. and M. J. O’Brien
    2016  Mobility at the scale of meters. Evolutionary Anthropology 25:142-152

Surovell, T. A. and S. R. Pelton
    2016 Spatio-temporal variation in the preservation of faunal remains. Biology Letters

Surovell, T. A., S. R. Pelton, R. Anderson-Sprecher, and A. D. Myers
    2016  Test of Martin’s overkill using radiocarbon dates on extinct megafauna. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 113:886-891 

Mackie, Madeline E., T. A. Surovell, and M. J. O’Brien
    2015  Identifying stone alignments created by adults and children: A case study from a Dukha reindeer herder summer camp, Khövsgöl Aimag, Mongolia.  Sibirica 14(2):29-44. 

Prasciunas, Mary and T. A. Surovell
    2015 Reevaluating the Duration of Clovis: The Problem of Non-Representative Radiocarbon Dates Age estimates for the duration of the Clovis complex  In Clovis: On the Edge of a New Understanding, edited by Ashley M. Smallwood and Thomas a. Jennings.  Texas A&M University Press, College Station, Texas, pp. 21-35.

 

Research Interests:

Human Behavioral Ecology, New World Colonization, Lithic Technology, Human Demography, Subsistence, Pleistocene Extinctions, Geoarchaeology, Archaeological Modeling