James Schoenwetter
Professor Emeritus
Ph.D., Southern Illinois University, 1967
SHESC Themes: Societies and Their Natural Environments
Field Specializations: Archaeology, Cultural Ecology, Research Methodologies
Regional Focus: Europe, North America
Contact: James Schoenwetter
About:
Schoenwetter joined the department faculty in 1967, following four years at the Laboratory of Anthropology at Santa Fe, New Mexico, and retired in 2000. His research interests lie in the areas of prehistoric cultural ecology, applications of pollen analysis in archaeology and research methodology.
Prior to retirement, he directed the department's palynology laboratory. Pollen research by Schoenwetter and his students has involved a variety of sites in Mesoamerica, North America and Europe, and continues since his retirement. He has directed archaeological and botanical fieldwork in the Midwestern and Southwestern United States, California, Oaxaca, Zacatecas, Jalisco, England and France.
He pioneered study of pollen records from archaeological site-context deposits in the Southwest and Midwest in the 1960s, identified palynological evidence of Archaic Horizon maize cultivation in Arizona, Illinois and Mexico in the 1970s and was among the earliest students of the palynological records of historic archaeology site-context deposits. Currently, he consults with students and archaeologists on the development of methods of pollen analysis for the resolution of archaeological problems and has prepared a corpus of the unpublished reports and meeting papers written during his research career. This material can be accessed here.
Select Publications:
Schoenwetter, J. (1990). Applications of pollen analysis in landscape archaeology. In W. Kelso (Ed.), Earth patterns. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
Schoenwetter, J. (1990). Lessons from an alternative view. In S.M. Nelson and A.B. Kehoe (Eds.), Powers of observation: Alternate views in archaeology (pp. 103-112).
Schoenwetter, J. (1998). Lower Sonoran agricultural complex and upper Sonoran agricultural complex. In G. Gibbon (Ed.), Archaeology of prehistoric Native America: An encyclopedia (pp. 479 and 861-2). New York: Routledge.
Schoenwetter, J. (2002). Palynology and pollen analysis. In C.E. Orser (Ed.), Encyclopedia of historical archaeology (pp. 411 and 432-3). New York: Routledge.
Schoenwetter, J. (1994). Palynology results. In K.J. Schroeder (Ed.), Pioneer and Military Memorial Park archaeological project in Phoenix, Arizona, 1990-1992, Volume 1: Project parameters and the prehistoric component (pp. 232-243). Phoenix: Roadrunner Publications in Anthropology 3.
Schoenwetter, J. (1998). Rethinking the paleoethnobotany of early woodland caving. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology, 23(1), 23-44.
Schoenwetter, J. & Hohmann, J.W. (1997). Landuse reconstruction at the founding settlement of Las Vegas, Nevada. Historical Archaeology, 31(4), 41-58.
Schoenwetter, J. & Geyer, P.S. (2000). Implications of archaeological palynology at Bethsaida, Israel. Journal of Field Archaeology, 27(1), 63-73.