James Schoenwetter Research Papers
James Schoenwetter joined the ASU Department of Anthropology (now School of Human Evolution and Social Change) faculty in 1967 following four years at the Laboratory of Anthropology at Santa Fe, New Mexico; he retired in 2000. His research interests were 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 continued after his retirement. He directed archaeological and botanical fieldwork in the Midwestern and Southwestern United States, California, Oaxaca, Zacatecas, Jalisco, England, and France.
Schoenwetter pioneered the 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.
This collection of unpublished professional writings have not been edited since they were written between 1958 and 2004. The palynological and archaeological information they contain, and the concepts and methods presented, will prove useful to others researching similar problems and situations. These writings have not been subject to professional peer review and should not be recognized as contributions to published scientific literature.
Schoenwetter, James. Preliminary Inventory of the James Schoenwetter Papers 1956-2005.
Complacent pollen records associated with both extinct fauna and archaeological remains argues that Southwest has been semi-arid throughout Late- and Post-Pleistocene.
Abstract of paper presented to the American Ethnological Society, 1961. Subsequently published in the "Journal of East Asian Studies." Vol. 8, No. 1, p. 15-20.
Draft of report published in A.H. Schroeder, 1965, Anthropological Papers of the Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Misc. Coll. Papers 75; 10: 85-110. Pilot study of 3 pollen samples suggests pollen chronology developed for Northern Arizona and New Mexico portions of the Colorado Plateau not applicable to SE Utah.
