R. Lee Lyman

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Richard Lee Lyman (born January 13, 1951 in Dayton , Washington ) is an American archaeologist . As an archaeozoologist , he achieved particular merits in introducing taphonomic and palaeontological rigor into this discipline and setting standards in its methodology and technology.

Life

Studies and academic teaching

Lyman grew up in southeast Washington state and grew up there with two brothers. He later studied at the Washington State University and received there in June 1973, Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology , in June 1976 a Master of Arts in anthropology and one in June 1982. Ph.D. in anthropology. Early on in his studies, Lyman came to the realization in the course of his first archaeological field research that his scientific interest lies in the investigation of animal bones. So the topic of his master's thesis was A Cultural Analysis of Faunal Remains from the Alpowa Locality . This interest deepened as he continued his studies. The topic of his dissertation was The Taphonomy of Vertebrate Archaeofaunas . From September 1982 to August 1986 he taught as an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology at Oregon State University . He then moved to the University of Missouri-Columbia , at whose Department of Anthropology he taught from August 1986 to August 1989 as an assistant professor, from August 1989 to August 1995 as an associate professor and from August 1995 as a professor. In addition, he has been chairman of the Department of Anthropology since August 2000 .

In 2002 he was the first William D. Lipe Visiting Scholar in Archaeological Method and Theory at Washington State University. In April 2011, he received the Society for American Archeology's Fryxell Award for Interdisciplinary Research in the Zoological Sciences category . According to the Society for American Archeology , the results of his many years of work had a decisive influence on the value of the use of archaeological research results in Quaternary research and conservation biology for the understanding of past ecosystems.

He is a member of the Northwest Scientific Association , the Society for American Archeology , the Society for Northwestern Vertebrate Biology , the Society of Ethnobiology, and the Association for Washington Archeology .

Lyman has been married since 1974. The marriage had two children.

Archaeological research

Lyman's archaeological research interests lie primarily in archeozoology and the consideration of its methodology and theory. Furthermore in biogeography , paleobiology , paleoecology and fossilization . The research he carried out at the beginning of his archaeological career to develop a method for measuring animal bone density set standards and expanded the possibilities for statements about the influence of human and non-human factors on the formation of animal groups. His research on deer in particular quickly met with approval in the archaeological community and was soon transferred to other taxa . Further noteworthy research includes his work on marine mammals, taking into account the hunting and processing involved, their resulting demographic development and biogeographical aspects. An example of this is his work on sea otters. After the Aleutian sea otters were introduced to the coasts of Washington, Oregon , and British Columbia in the 1970s, their populations in Oregon and almost entirely disappeared in Washington over the next ten years. When Lyman, who believes archeozoology can make an important contribution to conservation, learned of this phenomenon, he analyzed the remains of prehistoric sea otter populations in Oregon and found that the phenotypic similarities of the shape and size of their teeth to today's sea otter populations in California were greater than the population correspondences in the Aleutian Islands . (Much later DNA studies by other scientists confirmed this.) Lyman now concluded that the wrong sea otter population had been introduced and that California sea otters had a higher chance of survival.

Further areas of interest are the history of the methodology and theory of North American archeology, as well as the cultural and natural history of the western United States, especially that of its home state Washington. He is one of the few researchers who dedicate himself to the state on these topics.

Publications (selection)

  • Prehistory of the Oregon Coast. The Effects of Excavation Strategies and Assemblage Size on Archaeological Inquiry. (1991, Academic Press, San Diego)
  • Vertebrate taphonomy. (1994, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
  • with Michael J. O'Brien , Robert C. Dunnell (Eds.): Americanist Culture History. Fundamentals of Time, Space, and Form. (1997, Plenum Press, New York)
  • with Michael J. O'Brien, Robert C. Dunnell: The Rise and Fall of Culture History. (1997, Plenum Press, New York)
  • White Goats, White Lies. The Abuse of Science in Olympic National Park. (1998, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City)
  • with Michael J. O'Brien: James A. Ford and the Growth of Americanist Archeology. (1998, University of Missouri Press, Columbia)
  • with Michael J. O'Brien: Seriation, Stratigraphy, and Index Fossils. The Backbone of Archaeological Dating. (1999, Kluwer Academic / Plenum Press, New York)
  • with Michael J. O'Brien (ed.): Measuring the Flow of Time: The Works of James A. Ford, 1935–1941. (1999, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa)
  • with Michael J. O'Brien: Applying Evolutionary Archeology. A systematic approach. (2000, Kluwer Academic / Plenum Press, New York)
  • with Michael J. O'Brien (Ed.): Setting the Agenda in American Archeology. The National Research Council Archaeological Conferences of 1929, 1932, and 1935. (2001, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa)
  • with Michael J. O'Brien: WC McKern and the Midwestern Taxonomic Method. (2003, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa)
  • with R. Lee Lyman (Ed.): Style, Function, Transmission: Evolutionary Archaeological Perspectives. (2003, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City)
  • with Michael J. O'Brien: Cladistics and Archeology. (2003, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City)
  • with Kenneth P. Cannon (Ed.): Zooarchaeology and Conservation Biology. (2004, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City)
  • with Michael J. O'Brien, Michael B. Schiffer : Archeology as a Process. Processualism and Its Progeny. (2005, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City)
  • with Michael J. O'Brien: Measuring Time with Artifacts. A History of Methods in American Archeology. (2006, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln)
  • Quantitative Paleozoology. (2008, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
  • with Steve Wolverton (Ed.): Conservation Biology and Applied Zooarchaeology. (2012, University of Arizona Press, Tucson)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ R. Lee Lyman: Vertebrate Taphonomy. (1994, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge)
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Fryxell Award for Interdisciplinary Research , website of the Society for American Archeology
personal data
SURNAME Lyman, R. Lee
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Lyman, Richard Lee (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Dayton , Washington