Mark E. Cantin (1959 – 2012)

Mark E. Cantin, Assistant Director of the Archaeology and Quaternary Research Laboratory (formally Anthropology Laboratory) at Indiana State University passed away on Thursday, January 19, 2012.

Mark received his bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from ISU in 1985, and became a field assistant in the Anthropology Lab under then director Bob Pace. He received his MA degree in Physical Geography at ISU with a specialization in geoarchaeology in 2000 and was appointed assistant director of the laboratory. He was an expert on prehistoric stone material identification and the Early Archaic Period of prehistory in Indiana. Many archaeologists in the state sought out his opinion about prehistoric stone sources. He also served as principal investigator for contract archaeology projects conducted for federal and state agencies including the Indiana Department of Transportation and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with particular emphasis on locating buried archaeological sites. He also was project director on one of the lab’s largest projects on the Ohio River near New Albany, (Caesars Archaeological Project) between 1998-2000, which produced one of the largest collections of prehistoric artifacts from a site in the Midwest. He wrote a manual on the descriptions and archaeological use of Indiana chert types which is under development for publication by the Indiana Geological Survey, and may be online soon. Dr. Stafford and Mark have a chapter included in the most comprehensive edited volume concerning the Archaic period of the Midwest which came out in 2009.