I was inspired to become an archaeologist by a bunch of anthropology books my mom had laying around from college and (of course) the glorified portrayal of archaeology in the Indiana Jones movies (yes, I even bought a hat like his). I was always interested in old things, which was fueled by articles in National Geographic, books on Egyptian mummies, and a family trip to the southwest when I was in middle school (Mesa Verde was the place that convinced me I'd be a southwestern archaeologist).

I went off to college with the goal of becoming an archaeologist, and after my first two semesters of classes, I took a summer field school in archaeology. There I realized that despite the discovery of whole black-on-white pots that were hundreds of years old, my interest was piqued when someone uncovered a fragment of a human upper jaw bone. At that point, I realized I was in the wrong subfield of anthropology. I returned to classes that fall with a focus on human osteology and stumbled upon a class in forensic anthropology. After that I was hooked and continued to study forensic anthropology in both academic and practical settings. (And I never did give up fully on the archaeology...I spent two field seasons excavating a cemetery in Egypt!)

I do what I do because I have the chance to take all that I've learned and apply it to problems that really matter to people. In a medico-legal setting, the impact of assessing the profile of a set of remains, as well as interpreting any trauma or pathology present, lies in the eventual identification of an individual and providing closure to families regarding what happened to their loved one. To me, this is more important to the general public than performing the same task for skeletons at an archaeological site that they've never heard of (though this would be of interest to me and the academic community).

In forensic anthropology, I have the chance to make a real difference in the lives of people, at particularly difficult time for them. This endeavor has proved to be very rewarding for me, even though most often my role in death investigation (contributing a piece of the puzzle) is not apparent to those outside of the medical investigator's office.

Wendy Potter