Patty Jo Watson
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Patty Jo Watson is an American archaeologist. Renowned for her work on pre-Columbian Native Americans, especially in the Mammoth Cave region of Kentucky, Watson devoted much of her early career to the archaeological study of the Ancient Near East. She is the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor of Archaeology at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Her husband, philosophy professor Richard Allen "Red" Watson, was one of the founding members of the Cave Research Foundation.
Watson is credited with "defining and pioneering" the field of ethnoarchaeology [link]. She introduced several innovations into the field of archaeology, including the practice of performing recreations/reenactments of ancient lifeways as a method of filling in gaps from incomplete archaeological data: these experiments commenced in the 1960s in Mammoth Cave with modern explorers adopting dress and tools similar to those recovered from archaeological remains in the cave. Her analysis of paleofecal specimens, including the development of physical methods for separating materials from such specimens, enables (using carbon dating) the creation of timelines for transitions between hunter-gatherer culture and plant domestication in the Late Archaic period and early Woodland period cultures.
In 1988, Watson was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.
Education
Watson earned her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1959.External Links
- [Patty Jo Watson] Autobiographical note by Dr. Watson on the Washington University web site, with selected bibliography.
- [Patty Jo Watson--An Intellectual Biography] from the University of Texas.
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