Robert Fleming Heizer (July 13, 1915 – July 18, 1979) was an
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
who conducted extensive
fieldwork
Field research, field studies, or fieldwork is the collection of raw data outside a laboratory, library, or workplace setting. The approaches and methods used in field research vary across disciplines. For example, biologists who conduct fie ...
and reporting in
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
, the
Southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...
, and the
Great Basin
The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic basin, endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja California ...
.
Background
Robert Fleming Heizer was born July 13, 1915, in
Denver, Colorado
Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...
, to Ott and Martha Madden Heizer. He spent most of his childhood in
Lovelock, Nevada
Lovelock is the county seat of Pershing County, Nevada, United States, in which it is the only incorporated city. It is the namesake of a nearby medium-security men's prison and a Cold War-era gunnery range. Formerly a stop for settlers on the ...
, where his lifelong interest in the cultures of
Native Americans began. As a young boy, he collected artifacts in and around where he lived, but he did not participate his first
archaeological excavation
In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...
until he was at
Sacramento Junior College
Sacramento City College (SCC) is a Public college, public community college in Sacramento, California. SCC is part of the Los Rios Community College District and had an enrollment of 25,307 in 2009. It is accredited by the Accrediting Commission ...
(1932–34).
[Robert Heizer Obituary Wiley Online Library] When he graduated from Lovelock High School (1932) in a class of eleven students, he was not eligible to attend the
University of California at Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...
, as some of the requirements were not offered at Lovelock High. He was registering for classes at Sacramento Junior College when a faculty member heard that he was interested in archaeology and took him out of line to meet the president of the college, Jeremiah Beverley Lilliard, who was similarly interested; subsequently he became a
protégé
Mentorship is the influence, guidance, or direction given by a mentor. A mentor is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person. In an organizational setting, a mentor influences the personal and p ...
of Lilliard. After two years, Heizer went on to the
University of California at Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant univ ...
, where he earned a
Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...
with high honors in 1936. There was little interest in local archaeology at Berkeley then, and Heizer dug with the only graduate student at the time, Waldo Wedel.
[Kroeber, C. B., 1981. A dedication to the memory of Robert F. Heizer 1915–1979. ''Ariz. West'' 23:208-12.] He also participated in fieldwork with Alex Krieger and other scholars in Nevada with financial help from Francesca Blackmer Wigg.
[Heizer, R. F., 1970. "Robert F. Heizer". in ''There Was Light, Autobiography of a University, Berkeley: 1868–1968'' Edited and with an introduction by Irving Stone, pp. 207-13. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday.] While in the graduate program, Heizer worked with many professors including
Alfred L. Kroeber
Alfred Louis Kroeber (June 11, 1876 – October 5, 1960) was an American cultural anthropologist. He received his PhD under Franz Boas at Columbia University in 1901, the first doctorate in anthropology awarded by Columbia. He was also the first ...
, who had Heizer write his dissertation on Aboriginal Whaling in the Old and New World. In 1941, Heizer received his
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
from Berkeley. In 1940, he married Nancy Elizabeth Jenkins, and they had three children—two sons, Stephen and
Michael
Michael may refer to:
People
* Michael (given name), a given name
* Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael
Given name "Michael"
* Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian an ...
, and one daughter, Sydney. Robert and Nancy Heizer were divorced in 1975.
[Hester, T. (1996). Robert Fleming Heizer. Washington, D.C.: The National Academic Press]
Career
Upon receiving his doctorate, Heizer taught for a year at the
University of Oregon
The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a public research university in Eugene, Oregon. Founded in 1876, the institution is well known for its strong ties to the sports apparel and marketing firm Nike, Inc, and its co-founder, billion ...
. During World War II, he worked at the
Kaiser Shipyards
The Kaiser Shipyards were seven major shipbuilding yards located on the West Coast of the United States, United States west coast during World War II. Kaiser ranked 20th among U.S. corporations in the value of wartime production contracts. The s ...
in
Richmond, California
Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was municipal corporation, incorporated on August 7, 1905, and has a Richmond, California City Council, city council. , as a
marine
Marine is an adjective meaning of or pertaining to the sea or ocean.
Marine or marines may refer to:
Ocean
* Maritime (disambiguation)
* Marine art
* Marine biology
* Marine debris
* Marine habitats
* Marine life
* Marine pollution
Military
* ...
pipefitter
A pipefitter or steamfitter is a tradesman who installs, assembles, fabricates, maintains, and repairs mechanical piping systems. Pipefitters usually begin as helpers or apprentices. Journeyman pipefitters deal with industrial/commercial/marine pi ...
. After the war, he taught at the
University of California, Los Angeles
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
(1945–46) and then began his thirty-year career at
Berkeley
Berkeley most often refers to:
*Berkeley, California, a city in the United States
**University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California
* George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher
Berkeley may also refer ...
, going from
Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States and Canada.
Overview
This position is generally taken after earning a doctoral degree and general ...
(1946) to
Associate Professor
Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''.
Overview
In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...
(1948) and finally full
Professor
Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...
(1952). While teaching, he worked closely with both undergraduate and graduate students, who helped inspire ''A Guide to Field Methods in Archaeology'' (1949) and ''The Archaeologists at Work'' (1959). He also organized and directed the University of California Archaeological Survey (1948–60), which conducted many major excavations and various field studies around the state and produced 75 volumes in its ''Reports'' series. Dr. Heizer retired from teaching in 1979 and died later that year at the age of 64.
Awards and honors
Heizer received many awards and honors during his lifetime. He received an Honorary Doctorate of Sciences from the
University of Nevada
The University of Nevada, Reno (Nevada, the University of Nevada, or UNR) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Reno, Nevada. It is the state's flagship public university and primary land grant ...
in 1965; two Guggenheim fellowships in 1963 and 1973; a year as a fellow in the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Science from 1972–1973; an award for having distinguished scholarly contributions from the Southwestern Anthropological Association in 1976; awarded the Henry R. Wagner Medal of the
California Historical Society
The California Historical Society (CHS) is the official historical society of California. It was founded in 1871, by a group of prominent Californian intellectuals at Santa Clara University. It was officially designated as the Californian state hi ...
in 1977; and was elected to the
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...
in 1973.
Key excavations and studies
Heizer's excavations included the Cooper-Molera Adobe Project in Monterey County, California, from 1971 to 1978.
He did work in the Sacramento Valley from 1936 to 1939,
[Baumhoff, M. A., 1980. Robert Fleming Heizer, 1915–1979. ''Am. Anthropol.'' 82:843-47.] and in later years at
Lovelock Cave
Lovelock Cave (NV-Ch-18) is a North American archaeological site previously known as Sunset Guano Cave, Horseshoe Cave, and Loud Site 18. The cave is about 150 feet long and 35 feet wide.Heizer, Robert F., and Lewis K. Napton (1970). ''Archaeology ...
,
Humboldt Cave
Humboldt Cave is an archeological site in Churchill County, Nevada. Thirty-one caches were excavated from the cave, but there is only one radiocarbon date of 1953±175 14C BP (~2000 years ago) from the cave, which suggests that Humboldt Cave may h ...
, and Eastgate Cave, all in Nevada.
[Barker, P. (2011). Robert Heizer. onlinenevadaencylclopedia. from http://www.onlinenevada.org/robert_heizer] His primary area of study was the Great Basin of the United States. Heizer decided early on that more was going on in the west 10,000 years ago, although in the 1950s and 1960s it was widely accepted that there was not much going on.
He had never traveled out of the United States until he went to
Tabasco
Tabasco (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tabasco ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tabasco), is one of the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa.
It is located in ...
to work at the
La Venta
La Venta is a pre-Columbian archaeological site of the Olmec civilization located in the present-day Mexican state of Tabasco. Some of the artifacts have been moved to the museum "Parque - Museo de La Venta", which is in nearby Villahermosa, ...
site in 1955, examining the Olmec society with his colleague
Philip Drucker
Philip Drucker (1911–1982) was an American anthropologist and archaeologist who specialized in the Native American peoples of the Northwest Coast of North America. He also played an important part in the early excavations under Matthew Stirlin ...
, who had contacted him about his findings there.
[Drucker, P, Heizer, R, & Squier, R. (1959). Excavations at La Venta. Washington: US Government Print.] There they found large stone monuments in the shapes of faces and statues. They also uncovered a shrine that was buried on purpose because of its sacredness. One of his lesser known, but highly important studies was the continuation of the work of
C. Hart Merriam
Clinton Hart Merriam (December 5, 1855 – March 19, 1942) was an American zoologist, mammalogist, ornithologist, entomologist, ecologist, ethnographer, geographer, naturalist and physician. He was commonly known as the 'father of mammalogy', a ...
. Merriam spent a great deal of his life doing fieldwork on the Native Americans of California. After his death Merriam's family donated all his materials to the Anthropology Department at the University of California at Berkeley where Heizer and Kroeber took over the studies. Heizer had over 1,000 of Merriam's articles published so others could learn from them.
Research emphases
Most of Heizer's research was in prehistoric and historic Native American peoples of the western United States, particularly in Nevada and California. He conducted numerous analyses of preserved materials from the caves in Nevada, particularly fossil feces or
coprolites
A coprolite (also known as a coprolith) is fossilized feces. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour (in this case, diet) rather than morphology. The name is de ...
, which helped determine what the human diet consisted of and dietary changes over time. Heizer also helped lay the groundwork for scientific applications in archaeology. This research included involvement with radiocarbon dating during the 1950s, and trace elements analysis of obsidian artifacts in the 1960s and 1970s.
He was never one to focus exclusively on theory, but was interested in discovering basic facts and methods in research areas of interest.
Heizer also used neuron activation analysis to determine trace elements on samples from his excavations in Mexico, one of the applications of this method. He then used the same idea when he tested petroglyphs.
Selected works
Heizer wrote hundreds of different works in the course of his lifetime. He wrote 415 papers, reprinted papers, reports and prefaces. He also wrote 30 books (authored and co-authors) and 53 different book reviews, and was a part of 2 films.
Selected articles and monographs
*A Unique Type of Fishhook from Central California 1937 Southwest Museum ''The Masterkey'' 11; 96-97
*A "Folsom-like" Point from the Sacramento Valley 1938 Southwest Museum ''The Masterkey'' 12; 180-182
*A Complete Atlatl Dart from Pershing County, Nevada 1938 ''New Mexican Anthropologist'' Volume 2: 70-71
*A Note on Folsom and Nepesta Points 1940 ''American Antiquity'' 6(1): 79
*The Origin and Authenticity of an Atlatl Dart from Lassen County, California 1941 ''American Antiquity'', Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 134–141
*The Use of Narcotic Mushrooms by Primitive Peoples 1944 ''Ciba Symposium'' vol. 5(2):1713–1716
*Archaeological Dating by Chemical Analysis of Bone, by Cook, Sherburne Friend Heizer, Robert Fleming 1953 ''Southwestern Journal of Anthropology'' 231-238
*A San Nicolas Island Twined Basketry Water Bottle 1960 University of California Archaeological Survey pg 1-3
*Specific and Generic Characteristics of Olmec Culture 1958–60 ''Proceedings of the International Congress of Americanists'' . v. 2. pp. 178–182
*Inference on the Nature of Olmec Society Based upon Data from the La Venta Site 1961–62 ''Kroeber Anthropological Society'' 25:43-57
*Archaeology of Hum-67, the Gunther Island Site in Humboldt Bay, California: Correspondence 1948–66 ''Reports of the University of California Archaeological Survey'' 62:5-122
*Biological and Cultural Evidence from Prehistoric Coprolites 1969 ''Science'' Vol. 165 no. 3893 pp. 563–568
*A Question of Ethics in Archaeology—One Archaeologist's View 1974 ''The Journal of California Anthropology'' 145-151
Selected books
*''Francis Drake and the California Indians, 1579'' University of California Press 1947
*''A Manual of Archaeological Field Methods; Prepared for Use by the California Archaeological Survey of the University of California and the Department of Anthropology at Berkeley'', edited by Heizer, Robert Fleming The National Press 1949
*''The California Indians'', edited by Heizer, Robert Fleming and Whipple, Mary Ann 1947–70 University of California Press
*''The Four Ages of Tsurai; A Documentary History of the Indian Village on Trinidad Bay'', by Heizer, Robert Fleming Trinidad Museum Society
*''A Guide to Archaeological Field Methods'' (revised edition of ''A Manual of Archaeological Field Methods'') The National Press
*''The Archaeologist at Work; A Source Book in Archaeological Method and Interpretation 1957–60'' Greenwood Press
*''An Introduction to Prehistoric Archaeology'', by Hole, Frank Heizer, and Robert Fleming Holt, Rinehart and Winston Publisher
*''Languages, Territories, and Names of California Indian Tribes 1966'' University of California Press
*''To Make My Name Good: A Reexamination of the Southern Kwakiutl Potlatch'' (Original title: ''Southern Kwakiutl Potlatch'') by Drucker, Philip Heizer, and Robert Fleming 1965–67 University of California Press
*''Almost Ancestors: The First Californians'', by Kroeber, Theodora and Heizer, Robert F. 1969 Brick House Publishing Company
*''The Other Californians; Prejudice and Discrimination under Spain, Mexico and the United States to 1920'', by Heizer, Robert Fleming University of California Press
*''The Destruction of California Indians; Collection of Documents from the Period 1847–1965 in Which are Described Some of the Things that Happened to Some of the Indians of California'', edited by Heizer, Robert Fleming Bison Books Publisher
*''The Costanoan Indians: An Assemblage of Papers on the Language and Culture of the Costanoan Indians who in Aboriginal Times Occupied San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda and Parts Of Contra Costa, Monterey and San Benito Counties'', edited by Heizer, Robert Fleming 1974. De Anza College Press
Death
Heizer died July 18, 1979. He was first put in the hospital in 1978 for cancer, but his health had been declining for several months before. He fought hard against the disease, and despite the handicaps it put on him he continued to teach and conduct research up until a few days before his death.
References
External links
A Guide to the Robert Fleming Heizer Papers The Bancroft Library
The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...
A Guide to the Robert Fleming Heizer papers University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries (UTSA Libraries)
The University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries (UTSA Libraries) is the academic library of The University of Texas at San Antonio, a state research university in San Antonio, Texas, United States. UTSA Libraries consists of the John Peace Libra ...
Special Collections.
A photo of Heizer*
*
*http://www.scahome.org/
*http://anthropology.berkeley.edu/
*http://www.ancient-wisdom.co.uk/mexicolaventa.htm
*http://www.onlinenevada.org/lovelock_culture
*http://www.archaeologyinfo.com/perspectives001.htm
National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heizer, Robert
1915 births
1979 deaths
Archaeologists of California
Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
People from Lovelock, Nevada
20th-century American archaeologists