#  Harvard Gazette: Marine vet’s future was a puzzle. Then he found archaeology. 

 





May 27, 2025

 

 

The Department of Anthropology at Harvard University is glad to share a new story published in *The Harvard Gazette*, featuring recent graduate Shane Rice ('25) and Professor Jason Ur.

> The professor’s office was wallpapered with declassified U.S. intelligence photos.
> 
> “I walked in and the first thing I saw were these floor-to-ceiling printouts of [**U2**](https://jasonur.scholars.harvard.edu/u2-aerial-photography-middle-east) and [**CORONA**](https://jasonur.scholars.harvard.edu/pages/corona-photography-1) aerial imagery,” recalled Shane Rice ’25. “I took one look and thought — maybe there’s something here.”
> 
> Rice, 26, a [**U.S. Marine Corps veteran**](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2024/11/number-of-armed-services-veterans-at-harvard-on-the-rise/), needed a new scholarly focus. When he first arrived at Harvard from Warrenton, Virginia, he had his sights set on environmental engineering. But the field proved a poor fit for his interests and talents. “So I went on this search,” he recalled. “I got lunch with all these different department heads including integrative bio and environmental science public policy.”
> 
> The quest ended in the office of [**Jason Ur**](https://jasonur.scholars.harvard.edu/), Stephen Phillips Professor of Archaeology and Ethnology, with its collection of aerial landscapes. The display resonated with Rice, in part due to his military training. As a mortarman, he frequently worked with maps and satellite imagery over three deployments.

**Read the full story** [**here**](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2025/05/marine-vets-future-was-a-puzzle-then-he-found-archaeology/)**.**



 

 

 



 

 

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