In theory, highway projects look easy: move the trees and rocks, flatten the land, and pave. But any digging can reveal clues to Oregon's remote past, and that's where Tom Connolly and his team come in.
Connolly heads the archaeological research arm at the University of Oregon's . The team frequently is called out to check out sites of road work to make sure no artifacts of the past are destroyed.
Connolly also recently was part of a team publishing further research on Oregon's Paisley Caves, which bear evidence of human presence more than 14,000 years ago, long before the Clovis people once regarded as the continent's first culture.
We pick Dr. Connolly's brain in this month's edition of Curious: Research Meets Radio, our joint venture with UO.