James Louis Giddings Jr. (April 10, 1909 – December 9, 1964) was an American archaeologist who made significant contributions to Arctic archaeology.
[Henry B. Collins,]
"Obituaries"
12 February 2015 During three decades of his fieldwork in Northwest Alaska he established evidence of human occupation ranging as far back as 4,000 B.C.E.
Early life
Giddings was born in
Caldwell, Texas
Caldwell is a city in and the county seat of Burleson County, Texas, Burleson County, Texas, United States. The population was 3,993 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Bryan-College Station metropolitan area.
Caldwell is the home of the Czech ...
on April 10, 1909 to James Louis Giddings (1879-1955) and Maude Matthews (1881-1962).
He received his bachelor of science degree in engineering from the
University of Alaska Fairbanks
The University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF or Alaska) is a public land-grant research university in College, Alaska, a suburb of Fairbanks. It is the flagship campus of the University of Alaska system. UAF was established in 1917 and opened for c ...
in 1932.
[Martha Mitchell]
" J. Louis Giddings", 12 February 2015 From 1932 to 1937 he worked as an assistant engineer with the Fairbanks Exploration Department of Smelting, Refining and Mining Company.
His interest in dendrochronology led him to collect samples of wood from placer gold operations around Fairbanks operations in 1936.
He continued his research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks to teach in 1938.
In the following year, Giddings was invited by Froelich Rainey to participate in an archaeological project at Point Hope, Alaska.
During the excavation, Giddings recognized a new archaeological site in the Arctic.
Giddings with Rainey and Danish archaeologist, Helge Larsen, discovered the origins of the
Ipiutak site, Ipiutak settlement.
Career
After finding the Ipiutak settlement, Giddings turned his interests toward the Kobuk river region to study the living Eskimos and their ancient settlements.
In the forest bordered Kobuk River he began the science of subarctic dendrochronology.
[William N. Irvin]
"Ancient Men of the Arctic"
, 12 February 2015 Using wooden artifacts from Kobuk River sites, he became the first to use this new dating technique in the Arctic.
Giddings continued his research at Norton Bay during the summers of 1948 through 1952. At the site he discovered the Denbigh Flint complex, a previously unknown Paleo-Eskimo culture in Alaska.
Giddings continued to work in Cape Denbigh until 1952. In 1951 Giddings received his PhD from the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
.
After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania, he moved to
Brown University in
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area and the seventh-least populous, with slightly fewer than 1.1 million residents as of 2020, but it ...
where he was appointed professor of anthropology and the director of the
Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology
The Haffenreffer Museum of Anthropology is Brown University's teaching and research museum. The museum has a gallery in Manning Hall on Brown's campus in Providence, Rhode Island. Its Collections Research Center is located in nearby Bristol, Rh ...
in 1956.
Throughout his academic career Giddings built upon his research of Arctic cultures. In 1964, his last year of field work, Giddings returned to
Onion Portage
The Onion Portage Archeological District encompasses a major archaeological site in Kobuk Valley National Park in northwestern Alaska. The site is a deeply stratified site, at which archaeologists have located nine complexes ranging dating from ...
on the Kobuk River for a large scale excavation that would provide a vertical succession of Arctic cultures.
Death
While recovering at Memorial Hospital of
Pawtucket R.I. from an automobile accident Giddings suffered from a heart attack and died on December 9, 1964.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Giddings, J
1909 births
1964 deaths
University of Alaska Fairbanks alumni
University of Pennsylvania alumni
Brown University faculty
People from Caldwell, Texas
20th-century American archaeologists
Historians from Texas