Dr. Mark Plew first became interested in the archaeology of the Snake River Plain when he conducted his doctoral dissertation research in the Owyhee Uplands of Idaho. He earned his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1985 in Anthropology, with an emphasis in Archaeology and minors in Geography and Museology, and has taught in the Department of Anthropology at Boise State University since then. He has conducted numerous archaeological and ethnographic projects, working in Indiana, Illinois, North Dakota, Nevada, Oregon, Wyoming, Utah and Arizona and extensively throughout Idaho. In South America he has experience in Brazil, Columbia and Guyana, and outside the Americas in Western Australia. For the past twenty years he has worked extensively in Guyana where he serves as a member of the national Scientific Advisory Board of the Walter Roth Museum of Anthropology, as an Associate Editor of the national journal, the Journal of Anthropology and Archaeology, and as Archaeological Director of the Denis Williams School of Anthropology. He has received numerous grants and contracts in support of his research and has published over 340 works that include books, journal articles, monographs and technical reports.
Dr. Plew’s primary research focus, however, and greatest interest over many years has been the archaeology of the Snake River Plain. He serves as a member of the Advisory Board of the Archaeological Survey of Idaho and as editor of the Idaho Archaeologist, the journal of the Idaho Archaeological Society.