UALR Mourns Professor
Dr. Mark J. Hartmann, associate professor in the UALR Department of Sociology and Anthropology since 1995, has died following a short illness.
Visitation will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 26 at Griffin Leggett-Forest Hill at 10200 Highway 5 North in Alexander. Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27, at the funeral home.
“Since he joined the Sociology and Anthropology Department in 1995, Mark has been best known for his vibrant passion for anthropology, a passion that inspired his students and colleagues,” said Dr. Deborah Baldwin, dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.
Survivors include his wife, Camille.
A dedicated researcher, Hartmann has conducted archaeological research across the globe, including North America, Central America, and the Middle East. Among his areas of interest were the development of Native American watercraft and the peopling of the New World.
He has conducted underwater research in Guatemala and terrestrial excavations at the sites of Tell Abila in Jordan and Tell Tuneinir in Syria, as well as dozens of projects – nautical and terrestrial – throughout the United States. Hartmann taught courses in general archaeology, North American Archaeology, and Egyptology, as well as conducting semi-regular archaeological field schools.
He has also conducted research on primates, studying aging in captive chimpanzees and cognition in the white-handed gibbon. At the time of his death, he was working on a project detailing arthritic changes in the skeletons of captive orangutans. He was the director of the Primate Enrichment Program at the Little Rock Zoo and regularly taught courses in primatology at UALR.
His work in archaeological work bioarchaeology – the study of human remains – includes the excavated study of human remains from various sites around the world. He was currently excavating a historic cemetery in central Missouri. In addition to his research, Hartmann taught two laboratory courses in physical anthropology and forensic anthropology.
Hartman earned a Ph.D from Texas A&M University in 1996. He was summa cum laude graduate of the University of Missouri in St. Louis with a major in anthropology and a minor in writing.