Stephen_Williams_(archaeologist)

Stephen Williams (archaeologist)

Stephen Williams (archaeologist)

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Stephen Williams (August 28, 1926 – June 2, 2017)[1] was an archaeologist at Harvard University who held the title of Peabody Professor of North American Archaeology and Ethnography.[2]

Fantastic Archaeology

Williams is best known as the author of Fantastic Archaeology (1991) and a course at Harvard based on the same material; a critical examination of pseudoarchaeological claims such as Atlantis, Mu, fringe related pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact theories, psychic archaeology, etc. He also discusses claims made in the Book of Mormon about the prehistoric Americas. The book has received positive reviews.[3][4][5][6]

Anthropologist Julia C. Lowell commented it "should be read by any archeologist concerned with educating the public about the past".[7] The archaeologist Francis B. Harrold described it as an "important contribution and an "invaluable reference work for anyone interested in unconventional beliefs about the human past".[8]

According to Kenneth Feder, "Williams's book is a valuable contribution to the regrettably short list of publications by professional archaeologists examining, responding to, and debunking extreme claims made in the name of the discipline."[9]

Notable students

Publications

  • An Archaeological Study of the Mississippian Culture in Southeast Missouri (1954) PhD dissertation, Department of Anthropology, Yale University, University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
  • Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory (1991)
  • Excavations at the Lake George Site, Yazoo Country, Mississippi, 1958–1960 (2004) Papers of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.

Notes

  1. [1]
    In Memoriam: Stephen Williams (1926–2017)
  2. [2]
    LMS Archives Online: An Introduction (by Stephen Williams)
  3. [3]
    Goetzmann, William H. (1991). Fantastic Archaeology. The Wild Side of North American Prehistory by Stephen Williams. Science. New Series, Vol. 254, No. 5037. pp. 1528–1529.
  4. [4]
    Hicks, Ronald. (1991). Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology by Kenneth L. Feder; Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory by Stephen Williams. Archaeology. Vol. 44, No. 4. pp. 70–76.
  5. [5]
    Banks, Alan. (1992). Fantastic Archaeology, The Wild Side of North American Prehistory by Stephen Williams. Central States Archaeological Journal. Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 48–49.
  6. [6]
    Poser, William J. (1992). Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory by Stephen Williams. Language. Vol. 68, No. 2. pp. 450–451.
  7. [7]
    Lowell, Julia C. (1992). Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory by Stephen Williams. American Anthropologist. New Series, Vol. 94, No. 4. pp. 1007–1008.
  8. [8]
    Harrold, Francis B. (1992). Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory by Stephen Williams. Journal of Field Archaeology. Vol. 19, No. 4. pp. 521–524.
  9. [9]
    Feder, Kenneth L. (2011). Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum. Greenwood Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-0313379185

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