Lithic Lab

A unique way NAU anthropology students can learn outside the classroom

The NAU Lithic Casting Lab houses one of the largest collections of museum-quality lithic artifact cast collections in the world. The current collection contains over 1,500 casts of unique and diagnostic ancient and modern-made stone artifacts. The Lab collection holds a million years of human lithic technology with special concentrations in Clovis, Folsom, and Colorado Plateau materials.

Principal investigator

Dr. Francis Smiley has been involved in research on lithic artifacts for the past 40 years and has taught and done research at NAU for the past 25 years. Dr. Smiley is an expert lithic caster, experimental lithics researcher, and flintknapper.

Get involved!

The Lab has a wide range of research and experimental archaeology opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students.

Location

The NAU Lithic Casting, Research, and Teaching Lab is housed in Bilby Research Center (Building 52) — the small dome on NAU mid-campus. The Lab occupies rooms 166, 166A, and 166B.

Dates

Research in the Lab takes place year-round.

Contact

Cast collections are available for academic research and for the public. Interested persons should contact Dr. Francis E. Smiley at 928-523-6923 or by email.