Simms 3/1/2017 1
Steven R. Simms
Department of Sociology, Social Work, and Anthropology
Utah State University
Logan, Utah 84322-0730
(435) 797-1277
Education
1984Ph.D. in anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City (Committee: J. F. O’Connell, K. Hawkes, E. L. Charnov).
1978University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1976M.A. in anthropology, University of Nevada, Reno.
1973B.A. in anthropology, Cum Laude. University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
Professional Interests
Archaeology of the American Desert West; archaeological method and theory; history and theory of anthropology; human evolutionary ecology; hunter-gatherers; pastoralists; ethnoarchaeology; food and culture; paleoecology; museums; fieldwork in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, Idaho, Wyoming, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi; Southwest Asia (Jordan).
Professional Experience
Academic and teaching positions:
2015-Professor of Anthropology, phased retirement, Utah State University.
2009-15Professor of Anthropology, Director of Graduate Studies in Anthropology, Utah State University.
2002-09Professor of Anthropology, Utah State University.
2000 - 02Professor of Anthropology, Utah State University. Co-director, Museum of Anthropology.
1998-00Professor of Anthropology and Director, Museum of Anthropology, Utah State University.
1997-99Professor of Anthropology. Directorof Anthropology Program (to 1998) and Museum of Anthropology (1998-99), Utah State University.
1991-97AssociateProfessor of Anthropology. Director, Anthropology Program 1995 - 98. Utah State University.
1988-91AssistantProfessor of Anthropology, Utah State University.
1985-88AssistantProfessor of Anthropology. Director, Archaeological Technician Program, Weber State College, Ogden.
1981-85AssociateInstructor, University of Utah.
1980-83University Graduate Research Fellow, University of Utah.
1982-83Reader, University of Utah Correspondence Study.
1975-76GraduateTeachingFellow, University of Nevada, Reno.
1975FieldSchoolTeachingAssistant. University of Nevada Field School in Historic Archaeology.
Selected research and professional activities:
2015-Editor for “Pioneers” section forJournal of California and Great Basin Anthropology.
2010-1Fremont Irrigation Project. Re-discovery and documentation of Pre-Columbian irrigation system and agricultural economics, Pleasant Creek, Torrey, Utah. Five field sessions. Supported by USU CHaSS and URCO grants 2012-13, and National Geographic Society 2014-16. Report to USFS, December 2012 (see Selected Technical Reports). Final publication in preparation. Collaboration with T. Rittenour, USU Geology Department and M.B. Cannon, Remote Sensing, USU Anthropology.
2014-15Ute Trails Project. Collaboration with Domiguez Archaeological Research Group (DARG), Grand Junction, Colorado for study of historic Ute trails and associated rock art and wickiup sites. Tribal collaboration and ethnographic/oral history project. USU Archaeology Field School 2014. Supported by grant from theHistory Colorado State Historical Fund. Co-P.I. with DARG
2013-14 Dating the Great Gallery, Canyonlands National Park, Utah. Collaboration to date and interpret rock art.
2013-14OSL Dating of Ancestral Puebloan Agricultural Terraces, Moab, Utah. Fieldwork and contract with Utah SITLA
summer 2013. Analysis in progress. Co-P.I. with J. Pederson, USU Geology department.
2010-12The Fremont, the Numic Spread, and the Shoshone: Ancient DNA, Skeletal Remains, and Quids. With Dennis O’Rourke and Shawn Carlyle, University of Utah. USU Catalyst grant funded. NSF proposal pending additional aDNA testing and methodological hurdles. Co-P.I.
2010-11Sabbatical leave. Fieldwork and visiting scholar in San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina. Research and writing.
2009Re-opening the case for Fremont big villages and social complexity. Writing of popular, photo essay book “Traces of Fremont” (April 2010) and analysis of stratigraphic and spatial data on Fremont archaeological sites for technical study of Fremont village size and social inequality. Society for American Archaeology meetings (2010).
2009Sponsor for Visiting Professor, Adolfo Gil, Museo de Historia Natural de San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina. August – November 2009.
2008-09Consultant for U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Nevada State Office. Expert testimony for case before the
United States District Court, 9th District, Nevada: Fallon Paiute Shoshone Tribe vs. U.S. Bureau of Land
Management.
2001-06Principal Investigator. Director, USU Archaeology Field Schools 2001, 2002, Principal Investigator for 13 contract archaeology projects (6 field months). Principal Investigator for contracts in Cultural Resource Management for student training.
2005Program Chair, 70th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt
Lake City. Conference of 1,500 papers and 3,500 attendees.
2004-2008President, Great Basin Anthropological Association. Sponsor of the Biennial Great Basin Anthropological Conference.
2003-04Sabbatical leave. Research and writing for book Ancient Peoples and Place: A Basin-Plateau Prehistory. Also continued contract archaeology and work with students.
2000Program Chair for 27th Great Basin Anthropological Conference, Eccles Conference Center Ogden, Utah. Conference of 250 papers and 500 attendees.
1999-04Editor of Utah Archaeology. Refereed journal reaching professional and avocational audiences.
1996-00Principal Investigator. Laboratory and field investigation of farmers and foragers, ceramics and mobility in the west deserts of Utah. Director, USU Archaeology Field Schools, U. S. Army, Dugway Proving Ground (2 field months).
1994-95Sabbatical leave. Petra Ethnoarchaeology Project, Jordan. Research Fellow at the American Center for Oriental Research, Amman, Jordan. October - December, 1994.
1989-95PrincipalInvestigator. The Great Salt Lake Wetlands Project. Survey, excavation, analyses of archaeological sites and human remains along the Great Salt Lake, Utah (6 field months).
1992Principal Investigator. Archaeological investigations in the Jarbidge Mtns., Nevada. USU Archaeological Field School, contract with U. S. Forest Service (1 field month).
1991-94Consultant for Dames and Moore, Santa Barbara, CA. Kern River Pipeline Project, Utah.
1986, 88Co-Investigator, Petra Ethnoarchaeological Project, Jordan with K. W. Russell. Ethnography, and
& 90archaeology of Bidul Bedouin, Petra, Jordan. (6 field months).
1987-89 Consultant and peer review for Intermountain Research, Inc., Silver City, Nevada. Carson-Stillwater Archaeological Investigations, western Nevada.
1986-87Director, Weber State College Archaeological Field Schools. Excavation of Bustos wickiups, eastern Nevada and Orbit Inn, northern Utah. Included public program (4 field months).
1985-86PrincipalInvestigator, Study of site destruction in southeastern Utah. Field school, program for school
teachers and production of educational videotape (2 field months).
1985PrincipalInvestigator, BLM Fieldwork at 42MD300 Paleoindian site in western Utah.
1985Consultant and peer review for Gilbert/Commonwealth, Sevier Desert, western Utah.
1979-85ProjectDirector, University of Utah Archaeological Center. Duties: proposal preparation, direction & administration of fieldwork, analysis, reporting, editing (see list of CRM reports). Supervisors: R.N. Holmer and J.F. O'Connell (10 field months).
1982ProjectDirector, Esca-Tech Corporation. Direction of three field crews for BLM Class II Inventory, northeastern Utah. Supervisor: M.S. Berry (2 field months).
1980-82Experimental replication of aboriginal gathering techniques for dissertation research.
1980CrewMember, Nevada State Highway Department excavations in Pine Valley, central Nevada. Supervisor: T.H. Turner (2 field months).
1978CrewChief, Desert Research Institute, Reno, NV. Eagle Lake Archaeological Project, CA and Intermountain Power Project, western UT. Supervisor: L. Pippin. (3 field months).
1976-77Underground mining ventilation and safety technician, Atlas Minerals Mines, La Sal, Utah.
1972-76CrewChief, CrewMember, Draftsman on numerous survey and excavation projects including (partial list): historic sites, Nevada and Idaho; Tennessee Valley Authority in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi; Anasazi and various Fremont and hunter-gatherer sites in Utah and Nevada. University of Utah Archaeological Field School, Evans Site, Utah; Nevada State Museum. Supervisors: J.D. Jennings, D.R. Tuohy, D.L. Hardesty, J. Winter, C. H. Berry and M.S. Berry (20 + field months).
Refereed Publications (journals, book chapters, books)
In pressExcavations at Three Ancestral Puebloan Sites Near Kanab, Utah in 2001and 2002. Utah Archaeology.
2014The Age of Barrier Canyon-Style Rock Art Constrained by Cross-cutting Relations and New OSL Dating
Techniques. Pederson, J. L, M. S. Chapot, S. R. Simms, R. Sohbati, T. M. Rittenour, A. S. Murray, G. Cox. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences111 no. 36:12986–12991.
2014Some Thoughts on Evolution, Ecology, and Archaeology in the Great Basin. Co-author with J.F. O’Connell and K.T. Jones. InArchaeology in the Great Basin and Southwest: Papers in Honor of Don D. Fowler, edited by N.J. Parezo and J.C. Janetski. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
2012On Prey Mobility, Prey Rank, and Foraging Goals. American Antiquity77:179-185. Co-author with A. Ugan. Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Davis, California.
2010Traces of Fremont: Society and Rock Art in Ancient Utah.University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
BookRecipient Society for American Archaeology Book Award 2011 and Utah Book Award, nonfiction 2011.
2010Reprinted articles, “Ceramics from Camels Back Cave and Mobility in Farmer-Forager Systems in the Eastern
Great Basin” and “Bedouin Hand-Harvesting of Wheat and Barley: Implications for Early Cultivation in Southwest
Asia.” In Evolutionary Ecology and Archaeology: Applications to Problems in Human Evolution and Prehistory, edited by J. M. Broughton and M. Cannon. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
2009A Determination of Cultural Affiliation of Ancient Human Remains from Spirit Cave, Western Nevada.Prepared for
Monographthe U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Nevada State Office. Expert testimony for case before the
United States District Court, 9th District, Nevada: Fallon Paiute Shoshone Tribe vs. U.S. Bureau of Land
Management.
2008Making a Living the Desert West. In The Great Basin: People and Place in Ancient Times, edited by
C. Fowler and D. Fowler. Popular Archaeology Series, School of American Research Press, Santa Fe.
2008Ancient Peoples of the Great Basin and the Colorado Plateau. Left Coast Press, WalnutCreek California.
Book
2005Ceramics from Camels Back Cave and Mobility in Farmer-Forager Systems in the Eastern Great Basin. Co-
author with J. Bright and A. Ugan. In The Archaeology of Camels Back Cave, by D. Schmitt and D. Madsen. University of Utah Anthropological Papers 125. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
2003The Desert and the Sown: Observations from an Americanist. Mediterranean Archaeology 16:13-18. (Oct 04)
2002Ancient American Indian Life in the Great Salt Lake Wetlands: Archaeological and Biological Evidence. Co-author with M. Stuart. In Great Salt Lake, Utah 1980 Through 1998, edited by J. Wallace Gwynn, Utah Geological Survey Publications, Salt Lake City.
1999Playa View Dune: A Mid-Holocene Campsite in the Great Salt Lake Desert. Co-author with D. N. Schmitt and K. Jensen. Utah Archaeology 12:31-49.
1999Farmers, Foragers, and Adaptive Diversity: The Great Salt Lake Wetlands Project. In Understanding
Prehistoric Lifeways in the Great Basin Wetlands: Bioarchaeological Reconstruction and Interpretation, edited by B. E. Hemphill and C. S. Larsen, pp. 21-54. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
1999No One Owns the Deceased! The Treatment of Human Remains from Three Great Basin Cases. Co-author with A. Raymond. In Understanding Prehistoric Lifeways in the Great Basin Wetlands: Bioarchaeological Reconstruction and Interpretation, edited by B. E. Hemphill and C. S. Larsen, pp. 8-20. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
1999Modeling the Gastric: Great Basin Subsistence Studies Since 1982 and the Evolution of General Theory in
Archaeology. Co-author w/D. Zeanah. In Models for the Millennium: The Current Status of Great Basin Anthropological Research, edited by C. Beck, pp. 118-140. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
1999Chasing the Will-o’-the Wisp of Social Order. In Models for the Millennium: The Current Status of Great Basin Anthropological Research, edited by C. Beck, pp. 105-110. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
1998The Fremont Complex: A Behavioral Perspective. Co-author with D. Madsen. Journal of World Prehistory 12:255-336.
1997Tur Imdai Rockshelter: The Archaeology of Recent Pastoralists in Jordan. Co-author with K. Russell.
Journal of Field Archaeology 24:459-472.
1997Bedouin Hand-Harvesting of Wheat and Barley: Implications for Early Cultivation in Southwest Asia. Co-author with K. Russell. Current Anthropology 38:696-702.
1997Plain-Ware Ceramics and Residential Mobility: A Case Study from the Great Basin.Co-author with A. Ugan and J. Bright. Journal of Archaeological Science 24:779-792.
1994Unpacking the Numic Spread. In Across the West: Human Population Movement and the Expansion of the Numa, edited by D. Rhode and D. Madsen, pp. 76-83. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
1994Archaeological Salvage Investigations at a Fremont Site in the Jordan River Delta. Co-author with D. N. Schmitt and G. P. Woodbury. Utah Archaeology 7:69-79.
1993The Past as Commodity: Consultation and the Great Salt Lake Skeletons. Utah Archaeology 6:1-5
1992An Obsidian Cache from the Great Salt Lake Wetlands, Weber County, Utah. Co-author with A. Cornell and M. Stuart. Utah Archaeology 5:154-159.
1992Wilderness As A Human Landscape. In, Wilderness Tapestry: An Eclectic Approach to Preservation, edited by L.M. Vause, S.I. Zeveloff, and W.H. McVaugh. University of Nevada Press, Reno.
1992 Ethnoarchaeology: Obnoxious Spectator, Trivial Pursuit, or the Keys to a Time Machine? In, Quandaries and Quests: Visions of Archaeology's Future, edited by L. Wandsnider. Center for Archaeological Investigations Occasional Paper No. 20, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.
1990Site Structure of the Orbit Inn: An Application of Ethnoarchaeology. Co-author with K. M. Heath. American Antiquity 55:797-812.
1990Fremont Transitions. Utah Archaeology 3:1-18.
1989The Structure of the Bustos Wickiup Site, Eastern Nevada. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 11:1-34.
198942MD300: An Early Holocene Site In the Sevier Desert. Co-author with L. Lindsay. Utah Archaeology: 2:56-65.
1988Conceptualizing the Paleoindian and Archaic in the Great Basin. In, "Early Human Occupation in Western North America, 12,000 - 7,000 B.P.", edited by J. Willig and C.M. Aikens. Nevada State Museum Anthropological Papers Number 21. Carson City.
1988The Archaeological Structure of a Bedouin Camp. Journal of Archaeological Science 15:197-211.
1988Some Theoretical Bases for Archaeological Research At Stillwater Marsh. In: Preliminary Investigations In the Stillwater Marsh: Human Prehistory and Geoarchaeology, edited by C. Raven and R. Elston. Cultural Resource Series, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Region 1. Portland, Oregon.
1987Behavioral Ecology and Hunter-Gatherer Foraging: An Example from the Great Basin. BAR International
MonographSeries S381, Oxford.
1986New Evidence for Fremont Adaptive Diversity. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 8:204-216.
1985Pine Nut Use in the Great Basin: Data, Theory and a Fragmentary Material Record. Journal of California and Great
Basin Anthropology 7:166-175.
1985Acquisition Cost and Nutritional Data on Great Basin Resources. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 7:117-125.
1984Radiocarbon-dated Reconnaissance of Late Quaternary Hydrochronology in the Sevier Arm of the the Bonneville
Basin, Utah. Co-author with M.C. Isgreen, D.R. Currey, M.S. Berry, D.B. Madsen. Encyclia 61:105-110.
1983The Effects of Grinding Stone Reuse on the Archaeological Record in the Eastern Great Basin. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 5:98-102.
1983Comments on Bettinger and Baumhoff's Explanation of the Numic Spread. American Antiquity 48:825-830.
1982Some Thoughts on Prehistoric Archaeology in the Great Basin. Co-author with J.F. O'Connell and K.T. Jones. In, Man and Environment in the Great Basin, edited by D.B. Madsen and J.F. O'Connell. Society for American Archaeology Papers 2:227-240.
1979Changing Patterns of Information and Material Flow at the Archaic-Woodland Transition in the Northeastern United States. Pennsylvania Archaeologist 49:30-44.
1979A Cultural Resource Inventory of the Glen Canyon to Sigurd Transmission Line, Arizona and Utah. Western Anasazi Reports 2.
1977A Mid-Archaic Subsistence and Settlement Shift in the Northeastern Great Basin. In, Models and Great Basin Prehistory: A Symposium, edited by D.D. Fowler. Desert Research Institute Publications in the Social Sciences 12.
Reference Articles, Book Reviews, Comments, and Other Articles
2017Pioneers: Memories of Emma Lou Davis (1905-1988), with M.E. Basgall, R.L. Kaldenberg, and D.S. Whitley.
Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 37: in press.
2016Pioneers: Memories of Isabel T. Kelly (1906-1982) and Julian H. Steward (1902-1972), with C.S. Fowler and V. Kerns.Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 36(1):138-145.
2015Pioneers: Memories of Jesse D. Jennings (1909-1997), with J.M. Adovasio, J. Bauman, C. Condie, K.T. Jones, W.
Lipe, L. Sebastian. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 35(1):150-160.
2012North American Prehistory and Early History of: The North American West. In The Oxford Companion
to Archaeology 2e, edited by Neil Asher Silberman. Oxford University Press.
2011Book Review of “The Archaeology of Meaningful Places” edited by Brenda Bowser and Maria Nieves Zedeño. New Mexico Historical Review.86:273-274.
2011Contributor to “The Ceramic Gap” Mammoth Trumpet 26(1) January.
2010In Memoriam, Claudia F. Berry (1942-2010). Utah Archaeology 23: 1–4
2009Foreward for reprint of The Fremont Culture by James Gunnerson (originally published in 1969 by Peabody Museum, Harvard University). University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City.
2009Book Review of Paleoindian or Paleoarchaic? Great Basin Human Ecology at the Pleistocene-Holocene
Transition, edited by K. Graf and D. Schmitt. Journal of Anthropological Research 65:139-141.
2008Book Review of House of Rain, by Craig Childs. Utah Archaeology.
2006The Fremont. The World Book Encyclopedia. Print and online editions.
2004Book Review of Scenes from the High Desert: Julian Steward’s Life and Theory, by Virginia Kerns. Western Historical Quarterly. Winter 2004.
2002The Link Between the Fremont and Modern Tribes. Co-author with N. Coulam. Utah Archaeology 15:1-4.
2002Human Influences on Biogeography w/ vignettes “Elk in Yellowstone,” and “The Wilderness Myth.” In
Encyclopedia of Evolution, edited by M. Pagel. Oxford University Press.
2001Book Review of The Art of the Shaman: Rock Art of California, by David Whitley. Utah Archaeology 14:49-51.
1998Late Prehistoric in the Eastern Great Basin. In Archaeology of Prehistoric North America: An Encyclopedia, edited by G. Gibbon. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado.
1997Bidul Bedouin. In Encyclopedia of Vernacular Architecture of the World. Co-author with K. Russell, pp. 1503-1504. Blackwell, London.
1996North American Prehistory and Early History of: The North American West. In The Oxford Companion to Archaeology, edited by B. M. Fagan, pp. 523-525. Oxford University Press.
1996Moveable Homes: Its A Temporary Thing. In Zinj: Dinosaurs, Fossils, Ancient People and Other Really Old Stuff (nationally distributed science magazine for children). Zinj Education Project, Salt Lake City, Utah.
1996Torn By Ideals. Illinois Antiquity 31:11.
1996Steven Simms, Archaeologist. In Cultural Anthropology: Understanding Ourselves and Others by R. Crapo. Brown and Benchmark, Dubuque, IA
1996The Bedul Bedouin of Petra, Jordan: Traditions, Tourism, and an Uncertain Future. Co-author with D. Kooring. Cultural Survival Quarterly 19:22-25.
1995Archaeologists and Native American Graves: A Clash of Ethics. Society for American Archaeology Bulletin.
1995Prehistoric Life Along the Great Salt Lake. Friends of the Great Salt Lake 2(2).
1994A Human Wilderness. Petroglyph: A Journal of Creative Natural History Writing 5:42-44. Utah State University.
1994Book Review of Ethnoarchaeological Approaches to Mobile Campsites, edited by C. Gamble and W. Boismier. American Antiquity 59:376.
1992Book Review of Foragers in Context: Long-Term, Regional, and Historical Perspectives in Hunter-Gatherer Studies, edited by P. T. Miracle, L. E. Fisher, and J. Brown. American Anthropologist 95:201.
1992Memorial for Kenneth W. Russell. Utah Archaeology 5.
1991Book Reviews of Nch' i - Wa'na, The Big River, by E. S. Hunn and Indians of the Rio Grande Delta, by M. Salinas. Western Historical Quarterly 22:500-501.