John W. Olsen

Who is John W. Olsen?

John W. Olsen, Ph.D. is an American archaeologist specializing in the early Stone Age prehistory and Pleistocene paleoecology of eastern Eurasia. Olsen is Regents’ Professor of Anthropology, Executive Director of the Je Tsongkhapa Endowment for Central and Inner Asian Archaeology, and Co-Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A. He is also Co-Director of the Joint Mongolian-Russian-American Archaeological Expeditions and the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Zhoukoudian International Paleoanthropological Research Center in Beijing.

Olsen’s research focuses on the Paleolithic archaeology of arid lands and high elevations in Central and Inner Asia, especially Mongolia and Tibet. His interests include Quaternary paleoecology and the impact of environmental degradation on prehistoric societies; cultural ecology and environmental archaeology with emphasis on zooarchaeology, especially animal husbandry among pastoral and nomadic societies; and spatial analysis in archaeology, including applications of remote sensing and geographic information systems.