Dr. Hannus received his M.A. in Anthropology from Wichita State University and his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Utah. Dr. Hannus has worked in the Great Plains region for almost 30 years and has also conducted archeological field projects in Egypt and Mexico. He was recently (1994 and 2001) involved in excavations at the Neanderthal cave site of Coudoulous in southern France.

His research interests include Early Man in the New World; Communal Land Mammal Hunting and Butchering; and Man and Culture in the Pleistocene. Over the last 20 years he has directed a series of investigations in the White River Badlands of South Dakota, including excavations at the Lange/Ferguson site, a Clovis period (11,200 years B.P.) mammoth kill and butchering locality.

He has most recently overseen completion of the "Archeodome," a new state-of-the-art research and teaching facility at the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village, a National Landmark and National Register site located in Mitchell, SD. This new center will focus on interpreting the lifeways of prehistoric horticultural village groups in the Upper Plains region.