Mousterian

University of Minnesota Collection

Albert E. Jenks is a seminal individual in the development of anthropology at the University of Minnesota. He helped establish and was the first chairman of the Department of Anthropology. While on excavation in Algeria and France in 1930, Jenks purchased a large collection of Paleolithic assemblages from Europe. This purchase included an assemblage from the site of Le Moustier. This upset the University of Regents and his funding for out-of-state work was cut.

Purchasing artifacts is generally held in disdain by the archaeological community as it encourages looting and forgeries. Archaeologists need assemblages to have properly provenance and integrity in order for proper research to be done; maintaining the cultural heritage throughout the world is the primary goal of today's archaeologist.