Beauty may be skin deep, but like archaeology, it’s what lies beneath the surface that counts. That’s certainly true for Dr. Elizabeth Sobel, associate professor of anthropology, who thinks the secrets of the past reveal a great deal about who we are today.

Sobel’s research focus spans the lives of indigenous Americans, African Americans and uneducated immigrants, and she has received several grants for her work on the Trail of Tears.

At two local sites – the Nathan Boone homestead in Ash Grove, Missouri, and the McKinley farm in Walnut Grove, Missouri – Sobel and her students have searched for more archaeological evidence to see a clearer picture about the lives of African Americans and Euroamericans in the pre-Civil War era.