Stephen Williams (archaeologist)
Stephen Williams is an archaeologist at Harvard University, currently holding the title of Peabody Professor of North American Archaeology and Ethnography, Emeritus.[1]
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.[2][3][4][5]
Anthropologist Julia C. Lowell commented it "should be read by any archeologist concerned with educating the public about the past."[6] 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."[7]
According to Kenneth L. Feder "William'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."[8]
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
- ^ LMS Archives Online: An Introduction (by Stephen Williams)
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Poser, William J. (1992). Fantastic Archaeology: The Wild Side of North American Prehistory by Stephen Williams. Language. Vol. 68, No. 2. pp. 450-451.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Feder, Kenneth L. (2011). Encyclopedia of Dubious Archaeology: From Atlantis to the Walam Olum. Greenwood Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-0313379185
Sources
