Professor of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh

Office phone: (412) 665-2601
Fax: (412) 665-2751
Email: richardsonj@CarnegieMNH.org

Ph.D. 1969 University of Illinois
M.A. 1963 Syracuse University
B.A. 1960 St. Lawrence University

Introduction
Since 1954 I have participated in or directed prehistoric and historic archaeological investigations in New York (Fort William Henry, Kipp Island, Lamoka Lake, O'Neil, Potts, and Roundtop sites), Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts (Cunningham, Frisby-Butler, Howland, Hornblower II, Mayhew, Petersen and Pratt sites), Western Pennsylvannia (Hannastown), South Dakota (Black Partizan site), and Peru (Honda, Ostra, Ring and Siches sites, plus testing and surveys of Preceramic to Inca Period sites from the Llescus Peninsula, Upper Piura Valley, Chira Valley and Amotape Mountains to Tumbes).

[ RESEARCH INTERESTS | SELECTED PUBLICATIONS ]

General Research Interests:

• Peru and Northeast United States Archaeology
• Maritime Adaptations Worldwide
• Geoarchaeology

Research Emphases:

• Impact of natural catastrophes (El Nino, tectonics, volcanism, tsunamis, drought and floods) on cultural development and change, especially in the Central Andes and in the Eastern United States.
• Human adaptations to changing Late Pleistocene-Holocene environments and resources in the New World: This includes adaptations to coastal environments and marine resources of the west coast of South America and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Focus is upon sea level change, Holocene beach ridge formations, and changing oceanographic resource parameters, including archaeological evidence for El Niño origins.
• Precolumbian contact between the Central Andes, Polynesia (particularly Easter Island), the Galapagos Islands and West Mexico.
• Historic archaeology, focussing upon military sites of the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars in the northeastern United States and WWII sites in Talara, Peru and on Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Museum Exhibits:
Since 1978, I have directed or been involved in 3 major permanent exhibit halls: Polar World: The Wyckoff Hall of Arctic Life (1983), Walton Hall of Ancient Egypt (1990) and Alcoa Foundation Hall of American Indians (1998). In addition I have been involved in numerous temporary exhibits such as Spirits of the Rainforest: The Yanomami of Brazil, Mr. Carnegie's Museum, Carnegie Museum Centennial, etc. I am currently working with anthropologist Dale Mudge in developing an exhibit on the Inuit of the Belcher Islands using expedition photos from 1938 and photos taken in 2004. The exhibit is panned to open in March of 2006. As a board member and chair of the exhibit committee, I am working with the staff of the Martha's Vineyard Museum in the development of the permanent exhibits for a new museum to open in the future.

Selected Publications and Reports

Richardson, J. B., III

• 2002 The Dissappearance of the Monongahela: Solved?. Archaeology of Eastern North America 20:81-96.

• 1998 Looking in the Right Places: Pre-5,000 B.P. Maritime Adaptations in Peru and the Changing Environment. Revista de Arqueologia Americana No. 15: 33-56.

• 1994 People of the Andes Smithsonian Series Exploring the Ancient World. Washington and Montreal: Smithsonian Institution Press and St. Remy Press.

• 1993 Early Hunters, Fishers, Farmers and Herders: Diverse Adaptations in Peru to 4,500 B.P. Revista de Arquelogía Americana 6:71-90.

• 1985 Prehistoric Man on Martha's Vineyard. Oceanus: The International Magazine of Marine Science and Policy 28(1):35-42.

• 1983 The Chira Beach Ridges, Sea Level Change and the Origins of Maritime Economies on the Peruvian Coast. Annals of Carnegie Museum 52:265-276.

• 1981 Modeling the Development of Sedentary Maritime Economies on the Coast of Peru: A Preliminary Statement. Annals of Carnegie Museum 50(5):139-150.

• 1978 Early Man on the Peruvian North Coast: Early Maritime Exploitation and the Pleistocene and Holocene Environment. In Early Man in America from a Circum-Pacific Perspective, edited by A. Bryan. University of Alberta Press, pp. 274-289.

• 1977 A Bibliography of Archaeology, Pleistocene Geology, and Ecology of the Departments of Piura and Tumbes, Peru. Latin American Research Review 12(1):122-137.

• 1977 The Impact of European Contact upon the Art Styles of the Northeastern Iroquois and Algonkian. In Current Perspectives in Northeastern Archaeology, Essays in Honor of William A. Ritchie, edited by R. Funk and C.F. Hayes. Researches and Transactions of the New York Archaeological Association 26(1):113-119.

• 1973 The Preceramic Sequence and the Pleistocene and Post-Pleistocene Climate of Northwest Peru. In Variation in Anthropology: Essays in Honor of John C. McGregor, edited by Donald Lathrap and Jody Douglas, pp. 199-211. Illinois Archaeological Survey.

• 1972 The Pre-Columbian Distribution of the Bottle Gourd (Lagenaria siceraria): A Re-Evaluation. Economic Botany 26:265-273.

Keefer, D.K., S.D. deFrance, M.E. Moseley, J. B. Richardson III, R.D. Satterlee, and A. Day-Lewis.

• 1998 Early Maritime Economy and El Nino Events at Quebrada Tachhuay. Science 281: 1833-1835.

• 1971 The Reconstruction of Kinship from Archaeological Data: The Concepts, the Methods and the Feasibility. American Antiquity 36(1):41-53.

• 1980 The Archaeological Significance of the Mausoleums in the Allegheny and Homewood cemeteries of Pittsburgh: A Preliminary Statement, Markers. Annual Journal of the Association of Gravestone Studies 1:157-165.

• 1990 The Northern Frontier of the Kingdom of Chimor: The Piura, Chira, and Tumbez Valleys. In The Northern Dynasties: Kingship and Statecraft in Chimor, edited by M.E. Moseley and A. Cordy-Collins. Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, pp. 419-445.

• 1996 The Petroglyphs Speak: Rock Art and Iroquois Origins. Journal of Middle Atlantic Archaeology 12:43-51.

• 1976 Hanna's Town and Charles Foreman: The Historical and Archaeological Record: 1770-1806. The Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine 59:52-83.

• 2001 Late Paleo-Indian Coastal Foragers: Specialized Extractive Behavior at Quebrada Tachuay, Peru. Latin American Antiquity 12(4):413-426.

Moseley, M. E., D. Wagner, and J. B. Richardson III

• 1991 Space Shuttle Imagery of Recent Catastrophic Change Along the Arid Andean Coast. In Paleoshorelines and Prehistory: An Investigation of Method, edited by L. L. Johnson and M. Stright, pp. 236-249. CRC Press, Boca Raton.

Rollins, H. B., J. B. Richardson III, and D. H. Sandweiss

• 1986 The Birth of El Niño: Geoarchaeological Evidence and Implications. Journal of Geoarchaeology 1(1):3-16.

Sandweiss, D., D.K. Keefer and J.B. Richardson III.

• 1999 First Americans and the Sea. Discovering Archaeology 1 (1): 59-65

Sandweiss, Daniel H., Kirk A. Maasch, Richard L. Burger, James B. Richardson III, Harold B. Rollins and Amy Clement.

• 2001 Variation in Holocene El Nino Frequencies: Climate Records and Cultural Consequences in Ancient Peru. Geology 29(7):603-606.

Sandweiss, D. H., J. B. Richardson III, E. J. Reitz, J. T. Hsu, and R. A. Feldman

• 1989 Early Maritime Adaptations in the Andes: Preliminary Studies at the Ring Site, Peru. In Ecology, Settlement, and History in the Osmore Drainage, Peru, edited by D. S. Rice, C. Stanish, and P. R. Scar. BAR International Series 545 (i):35-84.

• 1996 Geoarchaeological Evidence from Peru for a 5000 Years B.P. Onset of El Niño. Science 273:1531-1533.

• 1997 Determining the Early History of El Niño: Response [to comments]. Science 276:965-967.

• 1983 Landscape Alteration and Prehistoric Human Occupation on the North Coast of Peru. Annals of Carnegie Museum 52:277-298.