2022 Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecturer Announced

Dr. Benjamin Pykles has been named as the 2022 Leonard J. Arrington Mormon History Lecturer. He will deliver “Historical Archaeology and the Latter-day Saint Past” on October 13 at 7 p.m. at the Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall.

At its core, archaeology is an effort to understand the human past through the study of the material remnants of the past. Although archaeology is often associated with the ancient world, the material remains that archaeologists study don’t have to be thousands of years old. The branch of archeology known as historical archeology focuses on the more recent past, the last 600 years of human history.

This lecture will review the history of archeological investigations at sites connected to the Latter-day Saint past and examine the ways historical archaeology has contributed to our understanding of that past. Examples from various sites, where historical archaeologists have utilized a wide range of methods, illustrate the potential of historical archaeology to confirm, complete, correct and sometimes confuse our understanding of the Latter-day Saint past.