Archaeological Institute of America lecturer and host Quentin Mackie is an Associate Professor in Anthropology at the University of Victoria, B.C., Canada. He has over 30 years of experience working on the archaeology of the Northwest Coast of North America, with a particular focus on the period of earliest human occupation starting about 14,000 years ago. Dr. Mackie has worked most extensively in Haida Gwaii (formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands), where long-term sea level changes have led him to find and explore archaeological sites that are highly-stranded or deeply-drowned on ancient coastlines, as well as interior “behavioural magnets” such as karst caves, which drew people inland who were interested in hunting bears in their winter dens. Together with his close colleagues Daryl Fedje and Duncan McLaren, their students, and First Nations participants, he has also worked in the Salish Sea on raised paleo-shorelines and on the central coast near Hakai Pass, where the team recently discovered ancient human footprints dating to about 13,000 years ago. Dr. Mackie’s research interests also include stone tool technology, method and theory of coastal adaptations, and the first peopling of the Americas.
Associate Professor in Anthropology at the University of Victoria, B.C., Canada
