People
John W. Arthur
Associate Professor
contact
Office Phone: (727) 873-4960
Fax: (727) 873-4526
E-Mail: arthurj@mail.usf.edu
research
John W. Arthur's present research focuses on interpreting social stratification from African archaeological and living contexts. Since 2005, Arthur has been engaged in a project with Kathryn Arthur and Matthew Curtis on studying the history and prehistory of the Gamo people, who live in the highlands of southwestern Ethiopia, through the dialogue between oral history, ethnoarchaeology, life histories, and archaeology. The team have since revealed the origin, location, and organization of historical settlements in the region and have found evidence of households belonging to different caste groups. This research is briefly described in the Society for American Archaeology Archaeological Record published in the January 2010 issue. They have also located and conducted test excavations on several caves and rockshelters from the Gamo highlands that date back to 6000 years before present. Consequently, have recently published in the journal Science describing a 4,500 year old male human skeleton from Mota Cave that has provided the first complete ancient human genome sequenced from the African continent found.
Arthur's previous ethnoarchaeological research used the life cycle approach (i.e., procurement to discard), to view the many contexts that ceramics can undergo in a complex stratified society, revealing that household ceramics are an excellent indicator of household social stratification. This research is the focus of my book published in 2006 by the University of Utah Press Foundations of Archaeological Inquiry Series and is titled, Living with Pottery: Ethnoarchaeology among the Gamo of southwest Ethiopia and peer-reviewed articles (African Archaeological Review 2014, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 2014, Asian and African Study Monographs, Kyoto University 2013, American Antiquity 2009). Arthur's studies in Ethiopia also indicated that beer production is visible in the form of residues on archaeological ceramics, and as a consequence beer producing elite households can be distinguished from non-beer producing commoner households, (Anthropology Now 2014, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 2002 and World Archaeology 2003). In addition to the research in Ethiopia, Arthur has collaboratively written with Kathryn Weedman Arthur about the methodological importance of ethnoarchaeology, which is the study of present-day material culture to help interpret the archaeological past (Handbook of Archaeological Methods 2005).
Since 2009, Arthur has begun to work at the Weedon Island site (8PI1) in Pinellas County, Florida with USFSP students doing small test units near the shell mound. While training the students in archaeological methods, additional responsibilities include trying to delineate house features and to develop a method of understanding calories from the different shells continuously being uncovering. By looking at the resources Native Americans were utilizing 1,000 years ago to today, they hope to determine the ecological changes Tampa Bay has undergone over the last millennia.
John W. Arthur is a proud member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.