Director, New Mexico Office of Archaeological Studies
Dr. Eric Blinman
Eric’s degrees in anthropology are from UC Berkeley and Washington State University. He has worked in contract archaeology across the western United States, and he joined the Museum of New Mexico’s archaeology program in 1988. His specialties are pottery technology, human response to climate change, yucca and basketry textiles, Puebloan social history, public education, and archaeomagnetic dating.
WATCH
Dr. Eric Blinman, director of the New Mexico Office of Archaeological Studies, explains how archaeomagnetic dating can help archaeologists determine the age of their site. When dirt is superheated, magnetic minerals in the soil realign to match the positions of the Earth’s poles. This technique reads that magnetic signature, and then scientists can match it to a plot of where the poles have been.
