Rolfe D. Mandel

Rolfe D. Mandel (born August 25, 1952) is a distinguished professor of archaeology in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Kansas as well as senior scientist and executive director of the Odyssey Geoarchaeological Research Program at the Kansas Geological Survey. Initially trained as a geographer, he has been a major figure in defining the subdiscipline of geoarchaeology and has spent the last thirty years focusing on the effects of geologic processes on the archaeological record. His primary research interests include geoarchaeology, Quaternary soils, geology, paleoecology, and paleoenvironmental reconstruction in the Great Plains region of the United States as well as the Mediterranean. In 1971, he moved to Austin, Texas, to pursue a bachelor's degree (B.S.) in physical geography from the University of Texas at Austin. He completed this with Honors in 1975. Mandel was made a full professor of the Anthropology Department in 2009, and promoted to senior scientist at the KGS the same year. Some of his more recent work includes contributing to a team studying the cultural landscape and qanat systems of southern Afghanistan's Kandahar province. Using remote sensing techniques the researchers were able to locate qanat irrigation systems and archaeological resources in an otherwise inaccessible part of the world. In 2014 Mandel was awarded the title of university distinguished professor by the University of Kansas, a position he currently holds along with his research duties at KGS, and acting as an associate editor for Geoarchaeology.

Odyssey Geoarchaeological Research Program The Odyssey Geoarchaeological Research Program is a privately endowed research program funded by Joseph and Ruth Kramer and housed within the Kansas Geological Survey. It has been under the direction of Rolfe Mandel since its inception in 2003, its primary goal being “to search for evidence of the earliest people to inhabit the Central Great Plains and western portions of the Midwest, and to gain a better understanding of late the Pleistocene and early Holocene paleoenvironments that affected those people”. This is done through laboratory methods at the KGS's Isotope Preparation Laboratory and Geoarchaeology and Paleoenvironmental Research Lab, in addition to field work in Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, South Dakota, and Missouri. The program funds a number of thesis and dissertation research related to Paleo-Indian archaeology and geoarchaeology in addition to supporting graduate and undergraduate students involved in summer field investigations.

Selected publications Mandel, R.D., L.R. Murphy, and M.D. Mitchell, 2014. Geoarchaeology and Paleoenvironmental Context of the Beacon Island Site, an Agate Basin (Paleoindian) bison kill in Northwestern North Dakota, US. Quaternary International 342:91-113. Mandel, R.D., 2008. Buried Paleoindian-age Landscapes in Stream Valleys of the Central Plains, US. Geomorphology 101:342-361. Simmons, A.H., and R.D. Mandel, 2007. How Old is the Human Presence on Cyprus? Science 317: 1679. Mandel, R.D., J.S. Jacob, and L.C. Nordt, 2007. Geoarchaeology of the Richard Beene Site. In Archaeological and Paleoecological Investigations at the Richard Beene Site (41BX831), South Central Texas, edited by A.V. Thoms and R.D. Mandel, pp. 27–60. Center for Ecological Archaeology, Reports of Investigations No. 8, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas. Mandel, R.D. (Editor), 2006. Guidebook of the 18th Biennial Meeting of the American Quaternary Association. Technical Series 21, Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas, Lawrence. Mandel, R.D., 2006. The Effects of Late Quaternary Landscape Evolution on the Archaeology of Kansas. In Kansas Archaeology, edited by R.J. Hoard and W.E. Banks, pp. 46–75. University Press of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. Mandel, R.D., S. Holen, and J.L. Hofman, 2005. Geoarchaeology of Clovis and Potential Pre-Clovis Cultural Deposits at the Kanorado Locality, Northwestern Kansas. Current Research in the Pleistocene 22:56-57. Mandel, R.D., and J.L. Hofman, 2003. Geoarchaeological Investigations at the Winger Site: A Late Paleoindian Bison Bonebed in Southwestern Kansas, U.S.A. Special Issue on Paleoindian Geoarchaeology: Part II. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal 18:129-144. Mandel, R.D., and A.H. Simmons, 2001, Prehistoric Occupation of Late Quaternary Landscapes Near Kharga Oasis, Western Desert of Egypt. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal 16:95-117. Mandel, R.D., and E.A. Bettis III, 2001. Use and Analysis of Soils by Archaeologists and Geoscientists: A North American Perspective. In Earth Science in Archaeology, edited by Paul Goldberg, Vance T. Holliday, and C. Reid Ferring, pp. 173–204. Kluwer Academic/Plenum, Norwell, Massachusetts. Mandel, R.D., 2000. The History of Geoarchaeological Research in the Central Plains of Kansas and Northern Oklahoma. In Geoarchaeology in the Great Plains, edited by R.D. Mandel, pp. 79–136. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman. Mandel, R.D., 1998. Archaeological Geology. Geotimes 43:49-51. Mandel, R.D. and A.H. Simmons, 1997. Geoarchaeology of the Akrotiri Aetokremnos Rockshelter, Cyprus. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal 12:567-605. Mandel, R.D., 1995. Geomorphic Controls of the Archaic Record in the Central Plains of the United States. In Archaeological Geology of the Archaic Period in North America, edited by E. A. Bettis III, pp. 37–66. Geological Society of America Special Paper 297. Mandel, R.D., 1994. Holocene Landscape Evolution in the Pawnee River Basin, Southwestern Kansas. Kansas Geological Survey and the Kansas State Historical Society, Bulletin 236, 117 p. Mandel, R.D., 1992. Soils and Holocene Landscape Evolution in Central and Southwestern Kansas: Implications for Archaeological Research. In Soils in Archaeology:Landscape Evolution and Human Occupation, Vance T. Holliday, editor, pp. 41–100. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. Mandel, R.D. and A.H. Simmons, 1988. A Preliminary Assessment of the Geomorphology of ‘Ain Ghazal’. In The Prehistory of Jordan. Gerrard and H. Gebel, editors, pp. 431–436, B.A.R. International Series 396(i), Oxford, England. Mandel, R.D., and C.J. Sorenson, 1982. The Role of the Western Harvester Ant (Pogonomyrmex occidentalis) in Soil Formation. Soil Science Society of America Journal 46(4):785-788.