Michael J. Kolb (born c. 1960) is an American

anthropologist An anthropologist is a person engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropology is the study of aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms and ...

. He currently holds the position of Professor of Anthropology at Metropolitan State University of Denver and Presidential Teaching Professor Emeritus at Northern Illinois University, where he also served as Associate Vice Provost. Kolb received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1991. Kolb has done field work in Polynesia, Europe, and Africa. Most of his recent contributions have been in the area of

social stratification Social stratification refers to a society's categorization of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social status, or derived power (social and political). As ...

and the political economy of the

Maui The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...

Kingdom in Hawaii, and the rise of

complexity Complexity characterises the behaviour of a system or model whose components interaction, interact in multiple ways and follow local rules, leading to nonlinearity, randomness, collective dynamics, hierarchy, and emergence. The term is generall ...

in early Iron Age Sicily. At MSU Denver Kolb teaches courses in archaeology as well as in field methods, ethnohistory, quantitative analysis, and method and theory. Kolb has worked in Hawaii as the director of the Na Heiau O Maui project, where he conducted an extensive study of ancient Maui temples published in '' Current Anthropology'' suggesting that the island temple system was 400 years older than previously thought. Kolb has also been the director of the Elymi Project in western Sicily, which aims to "describe human landscape transformations around three hilltop settlements" in western Sicily. He has conducted archaeological survey in western Sicily since 1998, revealing a rich settlement system in the community of Salemi that dates from the Copper Age to the medieval period, many of the sites being reoccupied over time. Kolb has also excavated at nearing Salemi, recovering finds that document the presence of residual 6th century BC activity and 4th–3rd century BC settlement, lending credence to the idea that Salemi is the ancient city of

Halyciae Halyciae (Halykiai, Halykiae) is the ancient name for one of the settlements of the Elymians on the island of Sicily, known as ''Alicia'' in more recent Italian scholarship. Though its present location is not known precisely, recent excavation ...

of the Elymians. He has also discovered what appears to be medieval mosque while investigating Salemi's

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

.NIU archaeologist, students uncover possible medieval mosque in Sicily - NIU - Office of Public Affairs

References

External links

Scholarly publications
from

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Official profile
from Metropolitan State University of Denver
Official profile
from Northern Illinois University {{DEFAULTSORT:Kolb, Michael J. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American anthropologists Northern Illinois University faculty University of California, Los Angeles alumni