John W. Olsen

About John W. Olsen

Capping a 36-year career on the faculty of the University of Arizona, John Olsen retired from UA in 2016 to focus his energies on fieldwork and research. He is a former Head of the UA Department of Anthropology (1998-2008) and is now Executive Director of the Je Tsongkhapa Endowment for Central and Inner Asian Archaeology; a Lead Scientific Researcher at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Siberian Branch, Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography in Novosibirsk (Ведущий научный сотрудник, Институт археологии и этнографии Сибирского Отделения Российской академии наук); and a Guest Research Fellow at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing (中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所客座研究员). Olsen is also a Foreign Expert affiliated with The Yak Museum in Lhasa, Tibet (西藏牦牛博物馆国外专家).

Olsen is concurrently Co-Director of the Joint Mongolian-Russian-American Archaeological Expeditions and Co-Director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Zhoukoudian International Paleoanthropological Research Center (中国科学院周口店国际古人类研究中心联席主任).

Areas of Study

Central & Inner Asia, especially ethnic Mongolia & ethnic Tibet
East Asia, especially China
Siberia & the Russian Far East

Research Interests

Eastern Eurasian prehistory focusing on the Paleolithic archaeology of arid lands and high elevations in Central and Inner Asia, especially that transnational and multiethnic region formerly glossed as “Haute-Asie” that encompasses ethnic Mongolia (the Gobi Desert) and ethnic Tibet (the Trans-Himalaya System); Siberia and greater Northeast Asia.
Paleoecology and the impact of environmental changes on prehistoric societies in marginal environments, especially arid zones and high altitudes.
Dr. Olsen has conducted collaborative archaeological fieldwork in the United States (Florida & Arizona), Colombia, Belize, the Philippines, Egypt, the Sudan, the People’s Republic of China (Xinjiang, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, Hebei, Gansu, & Ningxia), Viet Nam, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Türkmenistan, the Russian Federation (Siberia and the Altai Republic), ethnic Mongolia, and ethnic Tibet. As of 2021, he has directed or co-directed 21 separate archaeological expeditions.