UNC Asheville will host a talk on "Anthropology and Ancestry in Nineteenth-Century France: Craniometric Profiles of Merovingian-Period Populations" by archaeologist Bonnie Effros at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 15, at UNC Asheville's Ramsey Library, Whitman Room. In her talk, Effros will discuss the contributions made by physical anthropology and French identity, and its long term impact on the use of racial categories on French and German archaeology and anthropology. The event is free and open to the public.

Effros holds a doctorate in history from the University of California, Los Angeles. Early in her career, she excavated at Tel Haror in Israel, at an Augustinian priory at Haverfordwest in Wales and at a basilique of Saint-Denis in France. Effors research specializes in early medieval history, the history of European archaeology and on American collecting of early medieval artifacts. She currently teaches history at Binghamton University in New York.

The talk is co-sponsored by UNC Asheville's Classics Department and the WNC Chapter of Archaeological Institute of America. For more information, contact Laurel Taylor, UNC Asheville adjunct professor of classics, at 828/251-6290 or ltaylor@unca.edu.