Richard MacNeish - A Brief Archaeological Biography

MacNeish, one of today's most influential archaeologists, turned to his field through a rather strange coincidence. While struggling through high school, MacNeish discovered Mayan archaeology through his art history class. This discovery, made early in his teen years, gave him a direction by which to follow. After matriculating at Colgate University in 1936, MacNeish fell in with Mortimer Howe, another aspiring archaeologist who took MacNeish on his first dig, an excavation of an Iroquois site in Central New York State. This dig ignited his interest, and the following summer, his archaeological knowledge earned him a stint as supervisor in a Monument Valley (Arizona) site.

His promising talent as an archaeologist sent him to The University of Chicago, where he transferred in 1939 to be with the best and brightest in the field. Upon graduation, he started work as director of a WPA project involving over 80 workers. During this time, MacNeish developed a system by which to organize and train his men. While on his early digs, MacNeish rarely concerned himself with the cultural context of his findings or multi-disciplinary research. Several of his digs during the 40's and 50's, however, caused him to reconsider his views.

From 1937 to 1948, MacNeish had saved artifacts of bone, stone, charcoal, and soils from his dig in the Canyon Diablo of Tamaulipas. The analysis of these artifacts, however, confused MacNeish. In attempting to use the opinions of "experts" to scrutinize the artifacts, several conflicting analyses arose. Frustrated by the results of his excavation, MacNeish talked with Dr. Paul C. Mangelsdorf, a man intrigued by MacNeish's findings of corn-cobs in his digs. To MacNeish's surprise, Mangelsdorf wanted to journey back to Tamaulipas to obtain further corn samples and start an inter-disciplinary program, teaming archaeological studies with botanical ones. Through this joint effort, Mangelsdorf hoped to find out how, when, and where the natives had grown their corn. (MacNeish later investigated this himself at the famed Tehuacan Valley site, discussed later in the paper).

Intrigued and inspired by the idea of multidisciplinary studies, MacNeish and Mangelsdorf traveled back to Tamaulipas. While there, he endeavored to include a wide variety of scientists in his fieldwork, from zoologists to textile experts. In his rush to obtain a broader sense of his sense, however, MacNeish failed to coordinate and organize the reports of his team; the venture turned out a disaster.

In mulling over his failure, MacNeish came up with a 5 point plan by which to work with specialists from other fields : 1) a list must be made of scientists and experts in each field to whom one could send samples. 2) an archaeologist should give his materials to a specialist in such a way that they can be studied to their fullest extent. In other words, one must talk to a specialist before hand, finding out how much of a sample to send; the sample must be presented in such a way that it can be useful to a specialist; and an archaeologist must be specific in what he wants to know from his samples. 3) One must distinguish individuals with real expertise from those who have less. 4) The specialist should visit the dig site as to have a context on which to base their analyses. 5) A conference should be held with all specialists employed, in order that the archaeologist may present the Paleo-ecological problems of the area. Using his plan, MacNeish set out to encompass all sciences in a larger, more effective analysis of data.

Long interested in the cultural impact of his findings, MacNeish began in the late 40's to discuss with ethnologists the possibilities they had of teaming together. Then, during his 1949 digging of La Perra Cave, he found well preserved sample of bone, feces, and plant remains, all of which could shed light on the subsistence of these ancient peoples. The breakdown of meat, wild plants, and agriculture, along with the accompanying cooking utensils, corn grinders, and pottery indicated the mode by which ancient cultures gathered their food - through hunting, seed collecting, and agriculture.
 
 

MacNeish, at times, found himself wary of using ethnographic analogy. This method, by which ethnographers hypothesized the purposes and uses of artifacts, did not base itself on proof but worked through archaeological association. As a result, MacNeish tried to incorporate his scientific data with the hypothetical explanations of ethnographers; he had begun using experimental analogy archaeology. So, with a burgeoning interest in the lifeways of the peoples he studied, MacNeish set off on a new project : his Tehuacan expedition.

Before his dig, MacNeish put forth two questions which he sought to answer though the excavation : 1) How did maize come to be domesticated? and 2) How did this domestication affect later Mesoamerican civilization? The site chosen, nestled in the highland village of Puebla, Mexico, seemed a logical place to answer his questions: the dry climate lent itself to outstanding preservation; and his finding of corn in Tamaulipas indicated that corn had been domesticated before.

MacNeish undertook a study of over 575 square miles and 450 sites, spread a series of 12 caves. Through radiocarbon dating, MacNeish could accurately construct a period of over 12,000 years, at that time the longest yet recorded in the New World. His findings illuminated presedentary society, a time in which the people traveled in small bands and gathered their food in a variety of ways. The plant and animal remains of the area indicated the people's yearly regime, one determined by seasonality and scheduling of resource availability.

In this project, MacNeish employed his newfound tenets of multidisciplinary research to fine results. He had scientists called in to study squash, feces, beans, corn, land snails, pollen; he even had a scientists conduct studies of the valley's zoology, geology, irrigation, and skeletal remains. Through organization, coordination, and communication, the team worked together to answer the questions which MacNeish had set to answer. In accordance with the guidelines he set forth, MacNeish held coordinating conferences, meetings which used analyses of the area's rainfall, temperature, elevation, topography, soils, flora, and fauna to elucidate the lives of Tehuacan's early inhabitants. MacNeish himself said "our Tehuacan interdisciplinary studies... gave fine results."

Still striving to fully answer the questions posed at Tehuacan, MacNeish began another dig, this time in Rough Canyon, about 13 miles west of Orogrande, New Mexico. His intrigue with Mesoamerican agriculture had not yet let up, and he strove to determine its origins and spread in the area. While studying this canyon, in the Jornada region of New Mexico, he found two important caves : the Pintada Shelter and Pendejo Cave. In studying these caves, MacNeish found evidence which pointed to habitation of the region around 40,000 years ago. Though the final analyses of the site have not yet been confirmed, its validation would contradict the long standing theory of the Clovis Barrier. This hypothesis, which dates human life in the New World to about 11,000 years ago, seems destined to fall, according to MacNeish. "The evidence from Pendejo Cave will force a re-thinking of early man in the America's," says MacNeish, "and will place him in the region between 40,000 and 50,000 years ago."
MacNeish guiding a dig in China. 

Instead of focusing on all of MacNeish's work, which would make for an extremely lengthy paper, I have focused on specific periods and times which represent his views on archaeology and the stages he went through to reach those views. Hopefully, through these examples, one can see the indelible impression which MacNeish has made upon the world of archaeology. Through his groundbreaking work, other archaeologists now have new and exciting questions to ponder. In his words, "In a brief span of time, American archaeology has come a long way. Few, in any, people would not agree that the field is moving ahead rapidly and that it is a fascinating one." I couldn't agree more.

The home page for AFAR, the Andover Foundation for Archaeological Research. MacNeish is directing a dig in Mexico where AFAR volunteers can work as part of his team.
Another page for AFAR
A Newsweek article describing early man in America, mentions MacNeish's Orogrande excavation.
A listing of MacNeish's Credentials as a part-time professor at UTEP

MacNeish, Richard S. Fort Bliss Archaeological Project Annual Report and Briefing Booklet : Excavation of Pintada and Pendejo Caves Near Orogrande, New Mexico. Andover Foundation for Archaeology, Massachusetts, 1992.

MacNeish, Richard S. "Summary of the Cultural Sequence and Its Implications in the Tehuacan Valley," The Prehistory of the Tehuacan Valley. Vol. 5, University of Texas Press, 1972

MacNeish, Richard S. "The Independent Investigator," Identification of Non-artifactual Archaeological Materials, National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, No. 563, Washington D. C., 1957.

MacNeish, Richard S. An Introduction to the Archaeology of Southeast Manitoba. National Museum of Canada, 1958.

MacNeish, Richard S. Preliminary Investigations of the Archaic in the Region of Las Cruces, New Mexico. 1993.

MacNeish, Richard S. The Science of Archaeology? Duxbury Press, Stituate, Massachusetts, 1978.

Price, T. Douglas, and Feinman, Gary M. Images of the Past. Mayfield Publishing Company, Mountain View, California, 1993.
 

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Last modified : 3/20/97