Roots of Southwest Archaeology Oral History Interviews

The Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society (AAHS) presents the following video interviews with notable southwestern archaeologists and anthropologists.  The interviews are part of the AAHS Oral History Project, documenting the history of the Arizona Archaeological and Historical Society and the historiography of southwestern archaeology and anthropology.

Roots of Southwest Archaeology was begun by Don Burgess, when he was president of AAHS. It originally received support from the Southwestern Foundation for Education and Historical Preservation under the auspices of Director Diane Bret Harte.  At that time, the AAHS Oral History Project Committee consisted of Alex Cook, Madelyn Cook, Tom Euler, and Sarah Herr.  AAHS has continued this project under the leadership of Pat Gilman and Fran Maiuri. It is our goal to continually expand the list of interviewees and to link to similar interviews done by others.

Presently Available Interviews and Biographies:

Paul R. Fish

Suzanne K. Fish

John R. Roney

Raymond H. Thompson (Interviewed by Beth Grindell)

James E. Ayres and Bunny Fontana  

Gloria J. Fenner

Emil W. Haury 

C. Vance Haynes (interviewed by Jesse Ballenger)

Our colleagues at the Society for American Archaeology are engaged in a similar project.

SAA’s “Archiving the Archaeologists” series is an oral history project designed to capture personal insights and recollections of archaeologists near retirement or already retired. Archaeologists interviewed in the series reflect on their careers, how and why they became archaeologists, and their contributions to the discipline. This series not only archives the words and images of senior archaeologists, but it also provides other archaeologists, avocationalists, students, and the public insight into what it is like to be an archaeologist in a particular time and place. The series “Archiving the Archaeologists” is funded by the Society for American Archaeology and is a project of the History of Archaeology Interest Group.

Published interviews are posted on the SAA YouTube channel. Presently these include Paul Minnis, Jeff Dean, Lynne Sebastian, Curtis Schaafsma, Bill Lipe, Lori Pendelton and Arleyn W. Simon.