Ruth DeEtte Simpson (May 6, 1918 – January 19, 2000) was an American

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 ...

and founder of the Archaeological Survey Association of Southern California. Born in

Pasadena, California Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district. I ...

, Simpson received her master's degree from the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

in 1944 and went on to be the curator of the

Heard Museum The Heard Museum is a private, not-for-profit museum in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art. It presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, as well as exhibitio ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

for two years. She worked as a curator at the

Southwest Museum The Southwest Museum of the American Indian is a museum, library, and archive located in the Mt. Washington neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, above the north-western bank of the Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County) canyon and stream. The muse ...

in Los Angeles from 1946 to 1964 and then as a county archaeologist at the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands. She mostly conducted fieldwork in the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily in ...

, including with

Louis Leakey Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972) was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai ...

on the Calico Early Man Site, though this led to disagreements between Louis and his wife

Mary Leakey Mary Douglas Leakey, FBA (née Nicol, 6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996) was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised ''Proconsul A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a consul. A pro ...

. Simpson was a member of the American Anthropologist Association and the

Society of American Archaeology The Society for American Archaeology (SAA) is a professional association for the archaeology of the Americas. It was founded in 1934 and its headquarters are in based in Washington, D.C. , it has 7,500 members. Its current president is Deborah L ...

Selected publications

* Simpson, Ruth D. E. ''The Eastern Calico Mountains District: An Archaeological Survey in the Mojave Desert of Eastern San Bernardino County'' San Bernardino, CA: The Association, 1950. * Simpson, Ruth D. E. ''Coyote Gulch: Archaeological Investigations of an Early Lithic Locality in the Mohave Desert of San Bernardino County''. Los Angeles: Archaeological Survey Association of Southern California, 1961. * Mark Raymond Harrington and Ruth DeEtte Simpson. ''Tule Springs Nevada with Other Evidence of Pleistocene Man in North America.'' Series Number 1. Highland Park, Los Angeles: Southwest Museum Papers, 1961. * Smith, Gerald A, and Ruth D. E. Simpson. ''An Introduction to Basketry of the Contemporary Indians of San Bernardino County''. Bloomington, Calif.: San Bernardino County Museum, 1964. * Simpson, Ruth D. E. ''An Archaeological Survey of Troy Lake, San Bernardino County: A Preliminary Report''. Bloomington, CA: San Bernardino County Museum Association, 1965. * Simpson, Ruth D. E. ''The Hopi Indians''. Los Angeles: Southwest Museum, 1971. * Simpson, Ruth D. E. ''Rock Camp, San Bernardino Mountain Archaeological Excavation''. Bloomington, Calif.: San Bernardino County Museum Association, 1972. * Simpson, Ruth D. E. ''Rock Camp Site: Archaeological Excavation of an Indian Campsite Near Lake Arrowhead, San Bernardino Mountains''. Bloomington, Calif: San Bernardino County Museum Association, 1972. * Simpson, Ruth D. E. ''The Yermo Dump Site, San Bernardino County: An Archaeological Assessment and Mitigation Report''. Redlands, CA: The county, 1981. * Simpson, Ruth D. E, Leland W. Patterson, and Clay A. Singer. ''Early Lithic Technology of the Calico Site, Southern California''. Yermo, Calif: Calico Archeological Site, 1981. * Simpson, Ruth D. E, and George T. Jefferson. ''The Lake Manix Lithic Industry: An Archaeological Survey in the Eastern Calico Mountains District of the Mojave Desert, San Bernardino County, California''. Redlands, CA: San Bernardino County Museum Association, 1998.

References

1918 births 2000 deaths University of Southern California alumni American archaeologists {{Archaeologist-stub