From a UW press release:A new book by a team of University of Wyoming authors explores the prehistory and early history of the Northwestern Plains through a collection of about 370 partial and full sets of skeletal remains gathered over the past 40 years by UW researchers.
"Skeletal Biology and Bioarchaeology of the Northwestern Plains," published and distributed by the University of Utah Press, features submissions from UW anthropology professor emeritus George W. Gill and 11 of his former students, including Rick L. Weathermon, a research scientist in the UW Department of Anthropology, and Douglas W. Owsley, a UW graduate who now serves as division head for physical anthropology at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
"I'm not sure there's anything that's ever been done exactly like this, a regional story told through the bones," says Gill, who wrote or co-wrote three of the book's 19 chapters. "This may be a first in the country, because I'm just not sure anybody's ever taken a local region and told as much of the story of prehistory and early history just from skeletons and burials. That's what we've done."
He adds, "It's quite the story of Wyoming and Montana over a 10,000-year period."
Gill and Weathermon will sign copies of the book at two Laramie locations Friday, Dec. 5. The first signing is from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. at the UW Bookstore in the Wyoming Union; the second signing is from 3-5 p.m. at Grand Newsstand, 214 Grand Ave.
Photo: Skeletal remains at a site near the Laramie River in southern Wyoming (UW photo).
