Robert C. Dunnell

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Robert Chester Dunnell (born December 4, 1942 in Wheeling , West Virginia , † December 13, 2010 in Natchez , Mississippi ) was an American archaeologist . His research focus was on the one hand in theoretical archeology, in which he dealt with systematisation and the enforcement of scientific standards, and on the other hand in archaeological field research relating to the prehistory of eastern North America .

Life

Youth, studies and academic teaching

Dunnell grew up in West Virginia. He began to be interested in archeology as a teenager. This is how he classified artifacts that he found near Grave Creek Mound . After graduating from high school, trying to escape the mining economy of West Virginia, he ended up in Tennessee , where he worked as an assembly worker on the Barkley Reservoir Project . After learning that the University of Kentucky was hiring participants for archaeological digs as part of the construction project, he enrolled at the university. During his studies he took part in various excavations and received a Bachelor of Arts in 1964 . Dunnell his studies now seated at the Graduate School of Yale University on. At the same time, he continued to participate in archaeological field work in Kentucky . His results, which were collected in the Fishtrap Reservoir, were incorporated into his dissertation, The Prehistory of Fishtrap, Kentucky: Archaeological Interpretation in Marginal Areas . With this he did his doctorate in 1967 at Yale University and received a Ph.D.

In the same year he moved to Washington with his wife and worked at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Washington . In the course of his teaching activity there, he went through the appointments from assistant professor to full professor and was chairman of the Department of Anthropology from 1972 to 1985 . In addition, 29 doctoral students completed their doctorates under his supervision. In December 1997 he retired . Dunnell published more than 100 articles during his academic career, was the editor or co-editor of six books, and the author of three books.

He was married to the anthropologist Mary Dunnell, who had also studied at Yale University. He died of heart failure near his home in Natchez, Mississippi , in December 2010, aged 68 .

Archaeological research

Dunnell was interested in theoretical archeology and the scientification of archaeological research. At the beginning of his archaeological research he dealt with classification and seriation within archeology. His book Systematics in Prehistory , published in 1971, is considered an important work on topics of archaeological systematics. In the late 1970s, under the influence of his previous work on seriation and contact with evolutionary biologists, Dunnell began to be interested in the theories of Darwinian archeology and became a staunch supporter of them. His work on this topic contributed to making their evolutionary approaches and theories socially acceptable within the archaeological community in the long term. In the 1980s and 1990s he dealt with epistemological aspects of archaeological research.

Within his archaeological field research, he was primarily interested in the prehistory of eastern North America.

Publications (selection)

  • Systematics in Prehistory (1971, Free Press, New York)
  • with David J. Meltzer (Ed.): The archeology of William Henry Holmes. (1992, Classics of Smithsonian Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC)
  • with R. Lee Lyman , Michael J. O'Brien (Eds.): Americanist Culture History: Fundamentals of Time, Space, and Form. (1997, Plenum Press, New York)
  • with R. Lee Lyman, Michael J. O'Brien: The Rise and Fall of Culture History. (1997, Plenum Press, New York)
  • with Michael J. O'Brien, Robert C. Dunnell (Eds.): Changing Perspectives on the Archeology of the Central Mississippi Valley. (1998, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa)

literature

  • Ann F. Ramenofsky, Michael W. Graves : Robert Chester Dunnell (1942-2010) . In: Journal of Anthropological Research , Vol. 67, 2011, pp. 1-3.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ann F. Ramenofsky, Michael W. Graves : Robert Chester Dunnell (1942-2010) . In: Journal of Anthropological Research , Vol. 67, 2011, pp. 1-3.
personal data
SURNAME Dunnell, Robert C.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dunnell, Robert Chester (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 4, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Wheeling , West Virginia
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 2010
Place of death Natchez , Mississippi