Patty Jo Watson, Ph.D. is currently the chair of the Anthropology Department at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. She is credited with both defining and pioneering the study of enthnoarchaeology-- the relation of studies of pre-industrial peoples to archaeological data. According to her membership listing in the National Academy of Sciences, "her excavations in the Near East and North America have exemplified the very best in multidisciplinary research in archaeology."
Since receiving her doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1959, she has accrued many awards and distinctions. In 1988, she was elected to National Academy of Sciences. She is an Edward Mallinsckrodt Distinguished University Professor specializing in archaeology at Washington University. She was the co-recipient of the 1996 Distinguished Service Award of the American Association of Anthropology (AAA). This award is given to recognize members "whose careers demostrate extraordinary achievements that have served the anthropological profession." Currently, she also serves on the editorial board of the journal Anthropology Today and is a member of the St. Louis Society, a branch of the Archaeological Institute of America which supports archaeological research and teaching.
Watson began her career working on excavations and surveys in Iran, Turkey and Iraq. This work was done through the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago and in collaboration with archaeologist Robert J. Braidwood's inquires on the origins of pastoralism and agriculture. Although Watson remains interested in Old World archaeology even today, her studies soon shifted from this subject.
The shift began in 1955 when she married Rob Watson, an avid caver, and consequently became involved in cave archaeology. Rob Watson later became one of the founding members of Cave Research Foundation. This organization later encouraged her to undertake research in the Mammoth Caves. This was, as she said in one article, despite the fact that her focus was then on Old World pre-history.
Nevertheless, she accepted the offer and, in the summer of 1963, she and other faculty and students from Washington University began work in Salts Cave, Kentucky. This cave is in the lower part of the Mammoth Cave System, which is the largest cave system in the world at over 350 miles in length. About 4000 years ago, people began to explore these caves.The caves probably experienced their largest population around1000 BC to 900 AD. The best understood use of these caves by ancient people is mining. These people mined miles of the caves for what now appear to be medicinal and ceremonial purposes. Some of the rocks and minerals found in the caves have medicinal properties, such as mirabilite and epsomite. Other minerals, like mica, copper, selenite, and gypsum, could be used in ceremonies or traded with others. The caves themselves appear to have been the location for a variety of rituals and ceremonies.
The initial goals of the project were relatively simple, focusing on time space systematics: How old were the remains in the caves? Where were these remains located? Why were the caves used? The research was conducted towards these goals for six years. In 1969, however, the focus shifted as Watson and the other archaeologist realized the great potential for study of diet and agriculture from the well preserved remains in the dry caves. Carbon-14 dating techniques were used to determine the age of the remains so that the archaeologists could know when the people were eating certain foods. By the early 1970's the team was studying the paleofeces for macro and micro plant remains and carrying out flotation. The results of these studies produced empirical evidence that seemed to indicate that the Native Americans had cultivated certain plants before the domesticated plants were introduced from Mexico. The flotation techniques used to garner this information have been imitiated widely, according to the National Academy of Sciences.
In Watson's later studies, she continued to focus on the subsistence, technology and economy of these early people. She developed this research into a long-term project concerning the origins of agriculture in North America. Her work has led to different conclusions about cultural revolutions and maize cultivation in the Woodland period of Eastern North America. For more information about her conclusions about agriculture in this region, consult one of the many books in the bibliography pertaining to this topic.
Shell mounds west of the actual cave system were also excavated and then studied for further clues to diet and agriculture. Many interesting finds have been discovered in these mounds. For example, in one of these mounds, 11 charred fragments of a plant called curcurbita were found. The archaeologists on the site considered this to be very exciting because that species was derived originally from Mexico and could therefore be used to determine when this cultigen was introduced to the area.
Watson also studied the lithics (stone artifacts) found in the caves. She used the caves of Salts Sink and Flint Alley for samples of lithics. These two caves were selected because they appear to be where the prehistroic people made their tools. Such work places are characterized by fragments of chert, cores, and flakes. Experimental archaeology was used to determine that the tools were probably made by a method called percussion flaking. Experimental archaeology is the study of past processes, like toolmaking, through the reconstruction of these processes in a controlled environment. By comparing experimentally created tools to those found in the cave, the experimenters were able to determine how those tools were made.
Watson has written that she considers the work completed so far in Kentucky to be only the good beginning of a long-term project (Watson, 1996 p. 164). Working in archaeologically rich areas, she writes, allows for the aquistion of enough information to define important questions for further study. Preliminary evidence indicates that all of the caves that were accessible to humans were explored and used by early Native Americans. So far, however, the archaeologists have yet to document all of the remains in all of the caves. Also, although the researchers know some information about mining activities in the region, there is still much to be documented and learned. There are many subjects pertaining to the fecal remains that Watson feels warrent investigation. For example, a detailed study of food processing awaits the researchers. These and other questions will ensure many more decades of interesting research in this area.
Watson advocated the processural approach and other New Archaeology ideas in the 1984 book Archaeological Explanation: The Scientific Method in Archaeology which she co-wrote with Steven LaBlanc and Charles Redman. They argued that a explicitly scientific framework should be used for archaeological methods and theories, and that rigorously tested hypotheses should be the basis for explanation.
Even though her primary interest remains processural archaeology, she has become interested recently in the challenges presented by proponents of a concept called post-processural archaeology. The post-processural approach is a reaction to what are preceived as limitations of the processural approach, namely its reliance generalizations. Post-processural explanations rely on an individualizing approach to each site and culture. This method of thought is gaining respect, and Watson writes in her web page that she "pays considerable attention (to the concept and challenges it presents)" in her classes.
Much of the information for this biography came from Patty Jo Watson's homepage and from books listed in the bibliography. Please bear in mind that this bibliography is only a sampling of the works of this prolific author. There is also a video in the series Discovery Women which features Patty Jo Watson that contains interesting information about her life and career.
1984
Archaeological Explanantion: The Scientific Method in Archaeology. With Steven A. LeBlanc and Charles Redman. New York: Columbia University Press.
1985
The Impact of early Horticulture in the Upland Drainages of the Midwest and the Midsouth. In R. Ford, ed. Prehistoric Food Production in North America. Musuem of Anthropology Publication, Anthropological Papers Series No. 75. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
1986
Archaeological Interpretation. In D. Meltzer, D. Fowler and J. Sabloff, eds., American Archaeology:Past and Future. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
1990
The Razor's Edge: Symbolic-Structuralist Archaeology and the Expansion of the Archaeological Inference, with Comments by Michael Fotiadis. American Anthropologist 92:614-629.
1992
The Origins of Food Production in Western Asia ansd Eastern North America, In L. Shane, O. Shane, and E. Cushings, eds. Quaternary Landscapes. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press.
The Origins of Agriculture: An International Perspective. Co-edited with C.W. Cowan. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
1996
Of Caves and Shell Mounds. Co-edited with Kenneth C. Carstens. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press.
This page was last updated on March 20, 1997. Comments can be sent to carolyn.g@mail.utexas.edu