Abby K. asks, “What made you want to become an archaeologist or anthropologist?”
Hi Abby, I always tell my mom it is her fault I got interested in archaeology. Growing up, my family moved around a lot. On these cross-country trips, my mom, a high school history teacher, made us stop at every historical marker and archaeological site we found. I remember climbing the mounds at Cahokia and marveling at their massive size. I loved the artistry of the beautiful, beaded clothing of Plains Indian cultural groups at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, WY. We learned about the more recent history of the west at the Gold Spike National Monument in Utah. When I went off to college, it was my first anthropology class that really introduced me to the possibility of a career in archaeology. My ah ha moment in that first class came when my professor showed a slide of the changes in pottery in Egypt over millennium and talked of how these objects helped us understand the lives of ancient people. Since this early introduction, I’ve always been fascinated with what people made and how those objects can tell a story of what life was like in the past. Now that I’m here at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology as the new curator of archaeology, I get to continue learning and helping to show others how we can better understand the past by looking at the objects that are important to us.
- Kari Schleher
