"Someone is trying to smear me," he said, "Iwould suggest that whoever has these complaints gothrough [the established] procedures."

Contacted this week for comment on allegationsthat have surfaced since the December interview,van der Merwe said: "This has gotten out of hand,What is happening here is a very clear case ofharassment. I am speaking to Harvard's legalcounsel."

Then, he hung up.

Whatever the truth of the allegations, thearcheology wing has been badly divided by thecharges. students say.

"There are lots of rumors about [van derMerwe]," Michael Wilcox, a graduate student, says,"but I don't know if they are true."

Suzanne Young, a van der Merwe advisee,says van der Merwe has never sexually harassedanyone and that certain students "many be out todamage his reputation."

Young says that many professors, including vander Merwe, tell sexually explicit jokes. She saysthat when she is told such jokes, she simply tellspeople to stop.

David Kallick, a former student of van derMerwe's and now an assistant professor at theUniversity of Arizona, says he knows of noallegations against van der Merwe.

One professor closely associated with theDepartment of Anthropology says that severalfemale students are extremely difficult to teachand are intimidating to professors and othergraduate students. "But [van der Merwe] hasn'thelped the problem," he says.

Two students and a professor charge that thewomen are intent upon "engendering archaeology,"or bringing issues of gender to traditionallymale-dominated field.

"These women make life impossible around here,"one graduate student says. "They definitely dohave an agenda."

They charge that it is "convenient" for thewomen's agenda to be sexually harassed by the maleanthropology professors.

Judi H. Pettit, who works part-time for van derMerwe, says it was "a riot' that people accusedvan der Merwe of sexual harassment.

"He has over a one hundred publications to hisname... he has never been accused of sexualharassment," Pettit says.

Robert Tykot, a van der Merwe advisee who hasacted as a teaching fellow in van der Merwe'sclasses, says the professor has never sexuallyharassed anyone.