Joe Ben Wheat
Encyclopedia
Dr. Joe Ben Wheat was an archaeologist, curator
, teacher, and author known for his expertise on blanket weavings and textiles of the Navajo
and other Indians in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. His research focused on Mogollon, Anasazi, Great Plains
Paleo-Indian, and African Paleolithic archaeology. He served as president of the Society for American Archaeology
for two years (1966–67) and was the first Curator of Anthropology for the University of Colorado Museum
; a position in which he held for thirty-three years (1955–88). Dr. Wheat conducted many excavations, including at Yellow Jacket Canyon, the Olsen-Chubbuck Bison Kill Site
, and the Jurgens Site
. Dr. Wheat also taught for many years as well as contributing numerous articles to archaeological journals and even the Encyclopedia Britannica.
, a small western Texas town. His father, Luther Peers Wheat, was a merchant and his mother, Elizabeth Wheat, was a housewife. It was here in his home town where Dr. Wheat became fascinated in archaeology through exploring the local countryside of western Texas. He began his undergraduate studies at Sul Ross Teachers College (now known as Sul Ross University) before transferring to Texas Technological College (now known as Texas Tech University
). It was at Texas Tech where he studied under anthropology professor William Curry Holden, whom influenced him to pursue an education in anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley
where he went on to receive his Bachelor’s Degree in 1937. After receiving his B.A. from Berkeley, Wheat returned to Lubbock, Texas and Texas Tech, where he began his career in the field of archaeology as a field director for the Works Progress Administration in 1939. In 1941 when the world was at war he joined the U.S. Army Air Forces and served four years of duty, in which he became master sergeant. Shortly after his return from war he married musician, Frances Irene Moore on April 6, 1947 and also went back to school to further his education in anthropology. At this time he also worked for the Smithsonian River Basin Surveys, where he became familiar with the Smithsonian nomenclature for archaeological site numbering, a method in which he made useful later in his career at the Yellow Jacket Colorado excavation site.
Wheat went on to the University of Arizona where he advanced his studies in Anthropology and earned his M.A. in 1949 and Ph.D. in 1953. While studying for his M.A. and Ph.D. he also worked as an instructor of anthropology and field foreman in archaeological field school for the university. Shortly after graduating in 1953 he was hired as the first Curator of Anthropology by the University of Colorado Museum, a position he held for the remainder of his career. Following his graduation he also started his teaching career working as an assistant professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, 1953-57. He then became an associate professor, 1957–62, and ultimately a professor of natural history from 1962 to the end of his career in 1988, all at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Throughout his career he was part of many memberships, organizations, and review boards, but his highest honor came in 1966 when he served two years as President of the Society for American Archaeology.
Point of Pines and Crooked Ridge village were two excavation sites that Wheat began his career working. His dissertation on his work at Crooked Ridge Village was the basis for two publications, which have become standards in Mogollon archaeology. In 1953 shortly after being elected the curator of the University of Colorado Museum Dr. Wheat and the museum received pottery and a letter from a farmer in the small town of Yellow Jacket, Colorado. The letter said that the pottery was found by a burned down house and asked if the museum would be interested in working the site. Wheat had recognized that the pottery was early and probably dated to AD 500-750 so he accepted the offer as an opportunity to expand his interest to the early pithouse sites of the Mesa Verde region. Wheat changed the original name of the site from The Stevenson Site, after the farmer who found it, to a more methodical name using the Smithsonian nomenclature, 5MT1. “This system assigns a separate number for each state, 5 is Colorado, a two letter abbreviation for each county in the state, MT is for Montezuma County, and a sequentially assigned site number, 1 since it was the first excavation at the site.” Wheat’s work at Yellow Jacket spanned over 30 years (1954–1991) These three sites, 5MT1-3, had unusual and interesting features. Many of the features had never been seen before and were a great discovery of the Mesa Verde region. During this long excavation period at Yellow Jacket Wheat also worked on a few other excavation sites such as the Olsen-Chubbuck site 1958-60 and the Jurgens site 1968-70.
In 1972 Dr. Wheat took a sabbatical to conduct research on Southwest textiles. He examined hundreds of chemical tests on yarns and visited many museums to study thousands of 19th century textiles. "His goal was to establish a key for southwestern textiles identification based on the traits that distinguish the Pueblo, Navajo, and Spanish American blanket weaving traditions and provide a better way of identifying and dating pieces of unknown origin.” The years of research resulted in the publication of Blanket Weavings in the Southwest 6 which was released six years after his death with editorial help by Ann Hedlund, a respected textile scholar and protégée of Wheat. "His groundbreaking research created a new view on southwestern textile that goes beyond any other book on the subject."
"Although Wheat was a consummate scholar, recognized internationally for his contributions to PaleoIndian and Southwestern archaeology and to textile studies, he considered one of his most important roles to be that of teacher and mentor. The field school at Yellow Jacket was an important part of his life for this reason as much as for the archaeology done there." Joe Ben Wheat died of heart complications June 12, 1997 at the age of 81 and his ashes were scattered at Yellow Jacket Canyon close to the site he began excavating nearly fifty years prior.
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
, teacher, and author known for his expertise on blanket weavings and textiles of the Navajo
Navajo people
The Navajo of the Southwestern United States are the largest single federally recognized tribe of the United States of America. The Navajo Nation has 300,048 enrolled tribal members. The Navajo Nation constitutes an independent governmental body which manages the Navajo Indian reservation in the...
and other Indians in Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado. His research focused on Mogollon, Anasazi, Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
Paleo-Indian, and African Paleolithic archaeology. He served as president of the Society for American Archaeology
Society for American Archaeology
The Society for American Archaeology is the largest organization of professional archaeologists of the Americas in the world. The Society was founded in 1934 and today has over 7000 members. The Society holds an annual conference and publishes the flagship journal of American archaeology,...
for two years (1966–67) and was the first Curator of Anthropology for the University of Colorado Museum
University of Colorado Museum of Natural History
The University of Colorado Museum of Natural History is a museum of natural history in Boulder, Colorado. With more than four million artifacts and specimens in the areas of anthropology, botany, entomology, paleontology and zoology, the museum houses one of the most extensive and respected...
; a position in which he held for thirty-three years (1955–88). Dr. Wheat conducted many excavations, including at Yellow Jacket Canyon, the Olsen-Chubbuck Bison Kill Site
Olsen-Chubbuck Bison Kill Site
The Olsen-Chubbuck Bison kill site is located southeast of Kit Carson, Colorado. The Paleo-Indian site dates back to an estimated 8000-6500 B.C. and provides evidence for bison hunting long before the use of the bow and arrow or horses. The site was named Olsen-Chubbuck after the amateur...
, and the Jurgens Site
Jurgens Site
The Jurgens Site is an Paleo-Indian site located near Greeley in Weld County, Colorado. While the site was used primarily to hunt and butcher bison antiquus, there is evidence that the Paleo-Indians also gathered plants and seeds for food about 7,000 to 7,500 BC.-Geography:The site is located on a...
. Dr. Wheat also taught for many years as well as contributing numerous articles to archaeological journals and even the Encyclopedia Britannica.
Background
Joe Ben Wheat was born April 21, 1916 and was raised in Van HornVan Horn, Texas
Van Horn is a town in and the county seat of Culberson County, Texas, United States. The population was 2,435 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Van Horn is located at ....
, a small western Texas town. His father, Luther Peers Wheat, was a merchant and his mother, Elizabeth Wheat, was a housewife. It was here in his home town where Dr. Wheat became fascinated in archaeology through exploring the local countryside of western Texas. He began his undergraduate studies at Sul Ross Teachers College (now known as Sul Ross University) before transferring to Texas Technological College (now known as Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University
Texas Tech University, often referred to as Texas Tech or TTU, is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and originally known as Texas Technological College, it is the leading institution of the Texas Tech University System and has the...
). It was at Texas Tech where he studied under anthropology professor William Curry Holden, whom influenced him to pursue an education in anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
where he went on to receive his Bachelor’s Degree in 1937. After receiving his B.A. from Berkeley, Wheat returned to Lubbock, Texas and Texas Tech, where he began his career in the field of archaeology as a field director for the Works Progress Administration in 1939. In 1941 when the world was at war he joined the U.S. Army Air Forces and served four years of duty, in which he became master sergeant. Shortly after his return from war he married musician, Frances Irene Moore on April 6, 1947 and also went back to school to further his education in anthropology. At this time he also worked for the Smithsonian River Basin Surveys, where he became familiar with the Smithsonian nomenclature for archaeological site numbering, a method in which he made useful later in his career at the Yellow Jacket Colorado excavation site.
Wheat went on to the University of Arizona where he advanced his studies in Anthropology and earned his M.A. in 1949 and Ph.D. in 1953. While studying for his M.A. and Ph.D. he also worked as an instructor of anthropology and field foreman in archaeological field school for the university. Shortly after graduating in 1953 he was hired as the first Curator of Anthropology by the University of Colorado Museum, a position he held for the remainder of his career. Following his graduation he also started his teaching career working as an assistant professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, 1953-57. He then became an associate professor, 1957–62, and ultimately a professor of natural history from 1962 to the end of his career in 1988, all at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Throughout his career he was part of many memberships, organizations, and review boards, but his highest honor came in 1966 when he served two years as President of the Society for American Archaeology.
Point of Pines and Crooked Ridge village were two excavation sites that Wheat began his career working. His dissertation on his work at Crooked Ridge Village was the basis for two publications, which have become standards in Mogollon archaeology. In 1953 shortly after being elected the curator of the University of Colorado Museum Dr. Wheat and the museum received pottery and a letter from a farmer in the small town of Yellow Jacket, Colorado. The letter said that the pottery was found by a burned down house and asked if the museum would be interested in working the site. Wheat had recognized that the pottery was early and probably dated to AD 500-750 so he accepted the offer as an opportunity to expand his interest to the early pithouse sites of the Mesa Verde region. Wheat changed the original name of the site from The Stevenson Site, after the farmer who found it, to a more methodical name using the Smithsonian nomenclature, 5MT1. “This system assigns a separate number for each state, 5 is Colorado, a two letter abbreviation for each county in the state, MT is for Montezuma County, and a sequentially assigned site number, 1 since it was the first excavation at the site.” Wheat’s work at Yellow Jacket spanned over 30 years (1954–1991) These three sites, 5MT1-3, had unusual and interesting features. Many of the features had never been seen before and were a great discovery of the Mesa Verde region. During this long excavation period at Yellow Jacket Wheat also worked on a few other excavation sites such as the Olsen-Chubbuck site 1958-60 and the Jurgens site 1968-70.
In 1972 Dr. Wheat took a sabbatical to conduct research on Southwest textiles. He examined hundreds of chemical tests on yarns and visited many museums to study thousands of 19th century textiles. "His goal was to establish a key for southwestern textiles identification based on the traits that distinguish the Pueblo, Navajo, and Spanish American blanket weaving traditions and provide a better way of identifying and dating pieces of unknown origin.” The years of research resulted in the publication of Blanket Weavings in the Southwest 6 which was released six years after his death with editorial help by Ann Hedlund, a respected textile scholar and protégée of Wheat. "His groundbreaking research created a new view on southwestern textile that goes beyond any other book on the subject."
"Although Wheat was a consummate scholar, recognized internationally for his contributions to PaleoIndian and Southwestern archaeology and to textile studies, he considered one of his most important roles to be that of teacher and mentor. The field school at Yellow Jacket was an important part of his life for this reason as much as for the archaeology done there." Joe Ben Wheat died of heart complications June 12, 1997 at the age of 81 and his ashes were scattered at Yellow Jacket Canyon close to the site he began excavating nearly fifty years prior.
Key excavations
- Yellow Jacket Colorado: Yellow Jacket Colorado is where Joe Ben Wheat spent nearly his entire career excavating. It consists of three major sites 5MT1, 5MT2, and 5MT3.
- 5MT1: Originally known as the Stevenson Site, it was the first of the Yellow Jacket excavation sites. It has an occupation that dates back to A.D. 675-700 represented by four semi-subterranean habitation structures and two arcs of work and storage rooms arranged around two small plazas.
- 5MT2: The research at this site was focused on exposing contemporaneous household occupations. The excavations exposed two small hamlets that were successively occupied in the period of A.D. 1160-1280.
- 5MT3: The largest of the three sites excavated, it is multi-component pueblo with occupation components dating between A.D. 600-1300. The site consists of four pitstructures with associated storage rooms. The site was abandoned for three centuries then became occupied again.
- Olsen-Chubbuck Bison Kill SiteOlsen-Chubbuck Bison Kill SiteThe Olsen-Chubbuck Bison kill site is located southeast of Kit Carson, Colorado. The Paleo-Indian site dates back to an estimated 8000-6500 B.C. and provides evidence for bison hunting long before the use of the bow and arrow or horses. The site was named Olsen-Chubbuck after the amateur...
: It dates to about 8000-6500 B.C. Skeletal remains of 190 bison were found in an ancient arroyo, in association with 27 Plano points, a few scrapers, and other ancient artifacts. Wheat has suggested that the number of people involved in the butchering and consumption was probably 150-200. - Jurgens SiteJurgens SiteThe Jurgens Site is an Paleo-Indian site located near Greeley in Weld County, Colorado. While the site was used primarily to hunt and butcher bison antiquus, there is evidence that the Paleo-Indians also gathered plants and seeds for food about 7,000 to 7,500 BC.-Geography:The site is located on a...
: is a Late Paleoindian Cody complexCody complexThe Cody complex is a Paleo-Indian culture group first identified at a bison antiquus kill site near Cody, Wyoming in 1951.The tradition is generally attributed to the North American, primarily in the High Plains portion of the American Great Plains. The discovery of the Cody complex broadened the...
site on a South Platte RiverSouth Platte RiverThe South Platte River is one of the two principal tributaries of the Platte River and itself a major river of the American Midwest and the American Southwest/Mountain West, located in the U.S. states of Colorado and Nebraska...
terrace in Northeastern Colorado. It was the scene of extensive bison-procurement located on a long term habitation, a short term camp, and a butchering station. Among the 2,635 stone and bone artifacts recovered were 63 Kersey points, 32 knives, 84 end scrapers, 30 ground stone tools, 55 stone or mineral specimens, 271 utilized flakes, 2,023 debitage flakes, and 9 bone artifacts.
Education
- University of California, Berkeley, B.A., 1937.
- University of Arizona, Tucson, M.A., 1949.
- University of Arizona, Tucson, Ph.D., 1953.
Memberships and employment
- Society for American Archaeology (President, 1966–67).
- American Anthropological Association (fellow).
- American Association for the Advancement of Science (fellow). American Ethnological Society
- Sigma Xi.3
- Works Progress Administration.
- Field director of archaeological project at Texas Technological College (now Texas Tech University), Lubbock, 1939-41.
- Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, archaeologist for river basins survey, 1947.
- University of Arizona, Tucson, instructor in anthropology, 1948–50, 1952, field foreman in archaeological field school, 1949, 1950, 1951.
- U.S. National Park Service, Grand Canyon, AZ, ranger and archaeologist, 1952-53.
- University of Colorado, Boulder:
- Assistant Professor, 1953-57.
- Associate Professor, 1957–62.
- Professor of Natural History, 1962-1988.
- Curator of anthropology at university museum, 1953-1988.
- Chair, Plains Anthropological Conference, 1960.
- Member of project review board National Foundation of Arts and Humanities, 1971.
- Consultant to McGraw-Hill Publishers, 1966.
- Consultant to Time-Life Publications, 1972--.
- Military service: U.S. Army Air Forces, 1941–45; became master sergeant.
- Ford Foundation fellowship, 1952-53.
- National Science Foundation grants, 1961–65, 1968-69.
- Smithsonian Institution research grants, 1962–63, 1966–67.
- John Wesley Powell lectureship of American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1969.
Selected publications
- Ann Hedlund (1993) Why Museums Collect,Papers in Honor of Joe Ben Wheat Archaeological Society of New Mexico, Vol. 19.
- Wheat, J.B. Blanket Weaving in the Southwest, edited by Ann Lane Hedlund, University of Arizona Press (Tucson, AZ), 2003.
- Wheat, J.B. Prehistoric People of the Northern Southwest, Grand Canyon Natural History Association, revised edition, 1963.
- Wheat, J.B. An Archaeological Survey of Addicks Dam Basin, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1953.
- Wheat, J.B. Crooked Ridge Village, University of Arizona Press, 1954.
- Wheat, J.B. & Irwin, H.T. & Irwin, L.F. University of Colorado Investigations of Paleolithic and Epipaleolithic Sites in the Sudan, Africa, University of Utah Press, 1968.
- Wheat, J.B. The Olsen-Chubbuck Site: A Paleo-Indian Bison Kill, Society for American Archaeology, 1972.
- Wheat, J.B. The Gift of Spiderwoman: Southwestern Textiles, the Navajo Tradition, University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA), 1984.
External links
- The Yellow Jacket Project: http://yellowjacket.colorado.edu/index.html
- New York Times Farewell to Joe Ben Wheat: http://www.nytimes.com/1997/06/16/us/joe-ben-wheat-81-archeologist-and-navajo-weaving-authority.html
- University of Arizona Book Review Blanket Weaving in the Southwest: http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/books/BID1509.htm