Collectors, Public Archaeology, and Regional Surveys: Contributions of Stuart Struever

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Village, the Region, and Beyond: Stuart Struever (1931–2022) and the Lower Illinois River Valley Research Program" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Stuart Struever developed several important and innovative approaches during his time in Illinois. I use my own Lower Illinois Valley research to focus on Struever’s contributions in three areas: 1) working with collectors and amateur archaeologists, 2) focusing on engaging and interacting with the public, and 3) encouraging archaeological surveys of large regions. Many years ago, when I was an undergraduate, Struever had me conduct a study of plummets by interviewing 70 landowners and amateur archaeologists, determining their collector territories, how long they had collected, then examine their collections to see if they had ever found a plummet. I documented a total of 350 plummets with good provenience and with individual collecting territories covering the majority of the region by about 70 years. Struever loved interacting with the public and argued that archaeology had an obligation to inform, engage, and interact with the public in a variety of ways. Having spent a number of years as Struever’s assistant, I outline some of his perspectives on public engagement. Finally, Struever consistently argued for a regional perspective, although he did not necessarily understand statistical sampling. Nonetheless, he worked to include the entire Lower Illinois Valley region for many research questions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• The Village, the Region, and Beyond: Stuart Struever (1931–2022) and the Lower Illinois River Valley Research Program

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38134.0