Research and CRM Are Not Mutually Exclusive: J. Stephen Athens—Forty Years and Counting

This collection contains the abstracts of the papers presented in the session entitled "Research and CRM Are Not Mutually Exclusive: J. Stephen Athens—Forty Years and Counting," at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

During the past four decades, J. Stephen Athens has set a sterling example as a professional archaeologist whose research has blended CRM and academic archaeology. True to the intention of historic preservation laws, Steve has held the complementary view that CRM must contribute to the broader research issues of archaeology while providing clients with support in fulfilling their historic preservation obligations. While running a successful CRM company in Honolulu and Guam, he has conducted research throughout Hawai‘i, Micronesia, Ecuador, and French Polynesia. He is known especially for his paleoenvironmental wetland coring research as it relates to human colonization and environmental impacts in the Pacific basin. Using this approach, he also documented the advent of maize farming in northern highland Ecuador, and climate and vegetation changes in the tropical Amazon region of Ecuador. Among his contributions are the identification of the major role that the Polynesian-introduced Pacific rat played in the rapid demise of Hawai‘i’s endemic lowland forest; the development of a chronology for northern highland Ecuador; investigation of the megalithic architecture of Pohnpei; and prehistoric landscape studies of Kosrae. This symposium celebrates Steve’s legacy through presentations by his colleagues, covering topics related to, or inspired by, his research.