An Archaeologist’s Geologist: A Symposium in Honor of William R. Dickinson

Part of: Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

No other geologist has contributed more to Pacific Islands archaeology than William “Bill” Dickinson. His pioneering work in the 1960s on identifying sources of temper sands in prehistoric pottery provided a rigorous technique for understanding modes of ceramic production, interaction and exchange. His continuing pursuits in this field across the spread of Oceania provide an archaeological service and insights that truly are outstanding. His research on sea level change, paleo-shoreline documentation and island geomorphologies are central to our modeling of human colonization in the Pacific, and fundamental to our discovery and understanding of associated sites. And despite his parallel career as an internationally renowned and decorated geoscientist, he has been a prolific author/co-author of over 125 publications on geoarchaeology and ceramic petrography. This symposium honors Bill's five decades of interdisciplinary collaboration with Pacific archaeologists, and the many significant contributions he has made.

Other Keywords
Lapita • Geoarchaeology • Ceramics • Exchange • Lapita Pottery • Polynesia • Resilience • geomorphology • Interaction • SEM

Geographic Keywords
Oceania • Caribbean

Resources Inside This Collection (Viewing 1-14 of 14)

  • Documents (14)
Documents
  1. Assessing Island Habitability and Land Use on Polynesia’s Smallest Islands (2015)
  2. "By all means let us complete the exercise ": the 50 year search for Lapita on Aneityum, southern Vanuatu comes to a conclusion. (2015)
  3. Clay and Technology: Micronesian ceramic tradition (2015)
  4. Connection and Competition: some early insights gained from petrographic studies of New Caledonian Lapita pottery (2015)
  5. Determining Geochemical Variability of Fine-Grained Basalt Sources/Quarries for Facilitating Prehistoric Interaction Studies in Polynesia (2015)
  6. From Sea to Shining Sea: The Influence of Bill Dickinson’s Pacific Island Ceramic Petrography on Caribbean Research (2015)
  7. Geological subsidence and sinking Islands: the case of Manono (Samoa) (2015)
  8. Lapita - the Australian connection (2015)
  9. Marquesan voyaging during the East Polynesian Archaic era (2015)
  10. Mid-sequence colonization and occupation at Nukubalavu, Vanua Levu, Fiji (2015)
  11. The Mussau Islands Lapita Exchange Network: A Review of Three Decades of Analysis (2015)
  12. Paleo-sea levels, Bill Dickinson, and Interpretive Modeling for the Lapita Settlement of Fanga ‘Uta Lagoon, Kingdom of Tonga (2015)
  13. Petrographic and geochemical evidence reveals the local focus of interaction throughout Samoa’s prehistory (2015)
  14. The Use of a Bench-top SEM in Ceramic Characterization in Oceania (2015)