William H. Walker (archaeologist)

William H. Walker (* 1964 ) is an American archaeologist . His research focus is on the study of prehistoric rituals and religion in America. In doing so, he mainly looks at the Casas Grandes culture , which existed in southern New Mexico and northern Chihuahua .

Life

Studies and academic teaching

William Walker studied from 1982 to 1984 at the University of the South in Sewanee , Tennessee . In 1985 he attended the London School of Economics as part of a general course . He then continued his studies with a major in anthropology and a minor in political science at the State University of New York at Albany , where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1986 . He received a Master of Arts degree from the University of Arizona in Tucson in 1987 . In 1995 , Walker received his PhD from the University of Arizona with a dissertation, Ritual Prehistory: A Pueblo Case Study . His dissertation was in 1996 for the Dissertation Award of the Society for American Archeology nominated.

In 1996 he began to teach at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces , first as Assistant Professor from 1996 to 2002 , then from 2002 to 2010 as Associate Professor and finally since 2011 as Professor.

Walker has been a member of the Society for American Archeology since 1990 . He was also a member of the American Anthropological Association from 1999 to 2005 .

Archaeological field research

Walker's archaeological field research focuses primarily on the North American southwest, and to a lesser extent on the cultural area of ​​the southern Andes . After he first took part in excavations in the Homolovi Ruins State Park in the summer of 1989 and examined the Pueblo Homolovi IV , he kept returning to the state park . In the first half of the 1990s he took part over several summers in various excavations in Homolovi II , a pueblo from the 14th century which had up to 1200 rooms.

Furthermore, in autumn 1992 he was part of the Los Amarillos Project under the direction of Axel E. Nielsen from the Universidad Nacional de Jujuy , which carried out surveys and excavations in the Quebrada de Humahuaca gorge in northwestern Argentina.

In the summer of 1997, he was the director of the Field School at New Mexico State University, which examined the Jackrabbit Pueblo , a Hopi settlement from the 14th century. In the summers from 1999 to 2001, he and James M. Skibo were one of the two co-directors of the La Frontera Archaeological Research Program , a four-year project to explore Joyce Well , a 14th-century pueblo in southwestern New Mexico Century. In the course of the project, which also included a field school , excavations of a Mesoamerican ball playground took place in 1999 , which was reminiscent of similar finds in Casas Grandes , Mexico . In 2000 a large space was uncovered, which also had characteristics of the Casas Grandes culture . Further ceramic finds could deepen the connection to the Casas Grandes culture. After returning to Joyce Well in the summer of 2004, he was director of the field school at the Kipp Ruins , an archaeological site on the Lower Mimbres River in Luna County , New Mexico, in the summers of 2006 and 2007 . These excavations also dealt with connections to the Casas Grandes culture. In the summers of 2010 and 2011 he was again director of a field school at the Kipp Ruins. This time the main focus of this field research was on evidence of the early Pithouse period (Mogollon I, 300 AD to 650 AD) of the Mogollon culture . This was one of the oldest finds from the Mimbres-Mogollon mines.

Publications (selection)

• with James M. Skibo , Axel E. Nielsen: Expanding Archeology. (1995, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City)
• Homol'ovi: A Western Cross-roads. (1996, Winslow Archaeological and Historical Society, Winslow, Arizona)
• with James M. Skibo, Eugene B. McCluney (Eds.): The Joyce Well Site: On the Frontier of the Casas Grandes World. (2002, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City)
• with Linda A. Brown (Ed.): Archeology, Animism, and Nonhuman Agents Special Guest Editor Edition. (2002, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory Volume 15 No. 4.)
• with Barbara J. Mills : Memory Work: Archaeologies of Material Practices. (2008, School of American Research Press, Santa Fe)
• with Axel E. Nielsen: Warfare in Cultural Context. (2009, University Of Arizona Press, Tucson)
• with Kathryn Venzor: Contemporary Archaeologies of the American Southwest. (2011, University Presses of Colorado, Boulder)
• with James M. Skibo (Ed.): Explorations in Behavioral Archeology. (2015, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Curriculum Vitae of archaeologist James M. Skibo, Illinois State University website
2. ↑ Students learn essence of archeology, anthropology , June 22, 2001, New Mexico State University website
3. ↑ Curriculum Vitae of the archaeologist William H. Walker, New Mexico State University website