Slideshow: Diggin' bears with UAA Anthropology

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(All photos by James Evans, Chief of Photography and Videography, University of Alaska Anchorage)

Each fall semester, in a patch of forest near campus, students taking UAA Anthropology's archaeology lab learn to excavate and perform artifact mapping at archeology sites by digging up the bodies of dead bears, killed in defense of life or property, that were donated by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and buried years prior. Here's a look at the 2021 dig's progress over two weeks as students clear soil, learn 3D photo mapping, and eventually reach the first bones of the bear's paws.