(BA Middlebury College 1976; Prehistoric archaeology, protohistoric archaeology, settlement archaeology, cultural resource management, Midwest, Plains, Mississippi Valley, Cahokia)

James M. Collins has been an archaeologist on the staff of the Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist since 1988. He has been engaged in Midwestern and Plains archaeology since 1974, having worked extensively throughout Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Wyoming. His interests include, but are not necessarily limited to, the prehistoric and protohistoric archaeology of the Midwest and Plains; the archaeology of settlements and settlement systems; the definition of territories based on social, stylistic, economic, and political parameters; the psychology and structure of complex societies; geoarchaeology; and cultural and natural resource management. Among more than 250 publications, papers, and technical reports, recent contributions include about 50 papers read at professional conferences; articles in American Antiquity (1993), Illinois Archaeology (1993, 1994), Plains Anthropologist (1995, 2003), Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology (1996), The Minnesota Archaeologiest (2005), and the Journal of the Iowa Archeological Society (1990, 1995, 1997, 2005); and chapters in Mississippian Communities and Households (University of Alabama Press, 1995), and Cahokia: Domination and Ideology in the Mississippian World (University of Nebraska Press, 1997). Selected monographs include The Archaeology of the Cahokia Mounds ICT-II: Site Structure (Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 1990), The Iowa River Greenbelt: An Archaeological Landscape (Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist, 1991), Phase III Archaeological Salvage of the Buck Creek Mounds (with Linda Forman, Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist, 1995), The Archaeology of the Dolomite Ridge Site (Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist, 1996) and Prehistoric Archaeology of the Marriott Site (Iowa Office of the State Archaeologist, 1997). A textbook, Archaeological Survey, was recently published (with Brian Leigh Molyneaux, Alta Mira press, 2003). Most recently, his attention has focused on the Woodland Tradition of the upper Mississippi River valley and on-going research in the Iowa River Greenbelt.

Among numerous other conservation organizations, Mr. Collins maintains memberships in the Association of Iowa Archaeologists, the Association of Transportation Archaeologists, the Illinois Archaeological Survey, the Iowa Academy of Science, the Iowa Archeological Society, the Missouri Archaeological Society, the Plains Anthropological Society, Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, the Society for American Archaeology, the Society for Historical Archaeology, and the Wisconsin Archeological Society.

You can e-mail Jim at:

James-Collins@uiowa.edu

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