MEDIA RELEASE

The Department of Anthropology congratulates graduate student Susan Nicholson for receiving a grant from Graduate Studies for research on her MA thesis on Moché Ceramics.   These ancient pottery figurines from West Mexico and Northern Peru depict medical conditions such as tuberculosis, syphilis, cleft palate, and leishmaniasis, a disease caused by the bite of a sandfly, with clinical accuracy and precision.  Susan’s thesis examines them for clues on the kinds of health problems and diseases that individuals in these civilizations suffered.   Her study will help modern archeologists and medical anthropologists understand more about the conditions under which early Latin Americans lived, and how they developed sophisticated techniques to document and heal illnesses.