User:Vswenson8790/Lynne sullivan

Dr. Lynne P. Sullivan is an American archaeologist who currently holds a duel position as curator at the Frank H. McClung Museum and adjunct associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee. She has published numerous works and achieved great strides for women in the field of archaeology. She has conducted research that has contributed to Southeastern U.S. prehistory, Mississippian chiefdoms, social inequality, gender roles, mortuary analysis, history of archaeology, and archaeological curation.

Early Years and Education
Dr. Sullivan was born on December 25, 1952 in Kingsport, Tennessee. She grew up in the small East Tennessee town of Cleveland. When she was a little girl Sullivan read recent findings of archaeologists in the popular, scientific magazine National Geographic. She was an active Girl Scout member and recalls one summer when she was chosen to attend a national Round-up in Iowa. The program on American Indian life was rather juvenile for a high-schooler, Luckily an archaeological dig was taking place, and Sullivan, along with four other Scouts, volunteered at the excavation. From reading National Geographic and actively participating in an archaeological dig, Sullivan knew archaeology was her calling. She grew up at a time when women were discouraged from participating in, and often not allowed to do, archaeological field work in the South, but she persevered and accomplished her goal of becoming a respected archaeologist.

In 1970 Sullivan came to the University of Tennessee to pursue an undergraduate degree in anthropology but was not allowed to participate in summer archaeological digs because she was a woman. This led her to veer into the sub discipline of cultural anthropology and continued her pursuit of a degree.

On June 23, 1972, Title IX was passed, which states “No person in the United States shall judge on the basis of sex, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.” After passage of this law, females could no longer be barred from working on federally-funded archaeological projects and women began to get jobs on field projects in the South. Sullivan and many other female students finally obtained field technician jobs on the large Tellico archaeological project in the summer of 1973.

Sullivan originally wanted to study the Mayan civilization in Mesoamerica, but during the 1970s the Mexican government only wanted Mexican archaeologists to work on Mayan archaeology. As a result, Sullivan directed her attention to the Mississippian cultures in the southeastern United States

In 1974 Sullivan spent the summer and fall working at the Cahokia Mounds in Illinois as a laboratory assistant for the east palisade excavations, under the direction of eminent Cahokia archaeologist, Melvin L. Fowler. At Cahokia she met female, advanced graduate students in archaeology from Wisconsin and was offered a job by one of them to continue to work on collections from Cahokia at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, She also was accepted into the graduate program there, with the help of Fowler, but became an advisee of Lynne G. Goldstein, a young then assistant professor, who was up-and-coming in the study of Mississippian Period mortuary practices.

While working on her M.S. in Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, Sullivan earned a Certificate in Museology through a joint program with the Milwaukee Public Museum. Nancy O. Lurie, Head Curator of Anthropology at the MPM, was the director of the museology program. Sullivan worked as a summer assistant in anthropology at the MPM and as a museum aid at the Milwaukee County Historical Society. While working for these museums, she conducted exhibit research and maintained various collections. In December of 1977 she received her Masters degree and after a stint working for the University of Illinois doing archaeological surveys for the state highway department, she returned to Milwaukee in the fall of 1978 to begin work on her doctorate, which she completed in 1986. Her dissertation was entitled “The Late Mississippian Village: Community and Society of the Mouse Creek Phase in Southeastern Tennessee.” This study, an analysis of mortuary practices and community plans at three sites, used collections made by New Deal-era archaeologists before inundation of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Chickamauga Reservior near her hometown of Cleveland, Tennessee. Sullivan received a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant and fellowships from the University of Wisconisn-Milwaukee to support the research. The collections from the Chickamauga Reservoir are curated at the Frank H. McClung Museum, where Sullivan now works.

Career
Before completing her dissertation, Sullivan worked temporarily for the Dickson Mounds branch of the Illinois State Museum to help write a grant for new exhibits, and then was hired as the Curator for the Center for Archaeological Investigations at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. She made a decision to stay in museum work, partly because of the glass ceiling that still existed for female archaeolgists in academic departments, but also because she enjoyed the museum atmosphere. Museums employ a a diversified workforce and they are open to the public, which provides opportunities for cross-disciplinary interaction similar to a university, but in a less formal setting. In 1986, she left SIU to take a job as a Senior Scientist-Archaeology and Curator of Anthropology at the New York State Museum. She also was grant an Adjunct Assistant Professor title at the State University of New York-Albany.

In 1991, Sullivan was promoted to Associate Scientist-Archaeology and Curator of Anthropology at the New York State Museum and made an Adjunct Assistant Professor at SUNY-Albany. In 1992, Dr. Sullivan was appointed Chair of the Anthropology program at the NYSM and served in that capacity until 1996, when she stepped down to be able to spend more time on research. During her employment at the NYSM, Sullivan obtained grant funds from NSF to conduct the first inventory of the archaeological collections in the institution’s 150-year history and to organize the records associated with collections. She obtained funds from the National Park Service to begin the NYSM’s compliance with the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Sullivan also initiated new research into the the late prehistoric Ripley Site in western New York State, a site orginally excavated by Arthur C. Parker. This project was a collaborative effort with the Indiana University of Pennsylvania and was supported by NSF.

While working at the New York State Museum, Dr. Sullivan found it difficult to fulfill her passion for the archaeology of the Southeastern United States. She had kept up with her research on the Mississippian Period in Tennessee, through funds from the Tennessee Valley Authority and from NSF for publications and a pottery study, and by collaborating with Appalachian State University and the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga for field schools on the Hiwassee Island site in the Chickamauga Reservior. But, the distance and divided loyalties with the NYSM proved to be formidable obstacles to these efforts.

When the position of Curator of Archaeology at the Frank H. McClung Museum at the University of Tennessee became available in 1999, Sullivan applied for and was offered the job she really wanted. She also was granted the title of Adjunct Associate Professor within the Department of Anthropology. Sullivan has taught independent study classes to graduate students on the archaeology of the Mississippian Period, social dimensions of mortuary practices, and preserving archaeological collections. She also continues to study, and to inspire students to study the New Deal-era collections curated by the McClung Museum. The collections were made during the Great Depression as part of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s programs to help the unemployed as well as the economy. Large excavations were conducted in conjunction with the construction of Tennessee Valley Authority reservoirs, but as the United States entered World War II, in 1942, the programs were shut down and reports of the investigations were not completed. The recovered artifacts were eventually curated in the McClung Museum when it was constructed in the 1960s. Sullivan began working on this treasure trove of artifacts and information about past residents of eastern Tennessee for her dissertation project, and she and a handful of graduate students each year continue to analyze them to this day. In her role as curator of these collections, she also has initiated a number of grant-funded projects designed to better preserve these materials. These projects include: creating an on-line archive and archival digital images of the photographs from the New Deal-era excavations associated with TVA reservoirs in Alabama and Kentucky as well as Tennessee ; rehousing of the fragile and temporally diagnostic artifacts cabinets in the collections at the McClung Museum into state-of-the-art museum and creating an inventory of these objects in a digital collections management program; and creating digital copies of the original field maps and records from the New Deal-era projects.

Service in Professional Associations
Throughout her career Dr. Sullivan has held numerous offices and been a member of professional associations. One of her more outstanding appointments was being elected editor of the Southeastern Archaeology, the peer-reviewed journal of the Southeastern Archaeologcal Conference. Serving three years as editor, Sullivan was the first female editor in the history of this academic publication. She has also been appointed to numerous other offices in professional associations including the Quality Control Committee in the Illinois Archaeological Survey from 1984-1986, the Task Force on Curation for the Society for American Archaeology in 1993, the Permanent Financial Advisory Committee for the Southeastern Archaeological Conference in 1996, Book Review Editor of Southeastern Archaeology between 1994-1999, and the Society for American Archaeology’s Task Force on proposed regulations for culturally unidentified human remains under the federal Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act in 2008.

Dr. Sullivan served as the chair of the Committee on Museums, Collections, and Curation for the Society of American Archaeology from 2006 to 2009, and she currently is on the editorial board for the Society for American Archaeology Press and the Board of Directors for the Tennessee Council for Professional Archaeology

Publications
Dr. Sullivan has published numerous works throughout her career, including eight books. Her most praised book was edited with Nancy Marie White, and Rochelle A. Marrinan. “Editors and contributors successfully walk a line between discussing individual accomplishments of these women and pointing out some of the obstacles that stood in the way of females attempting to navigate their way through a discipline dominated largely by males...Highly recommended for any archaeologist interested in the history of the discipline” – wrote Choice. This book gives a glimpse of the lives of women archaeologists in the southeastern United States from the 1920s through the 1960s.These incredible women either were interviewed, wrote their own stories or were discovered from archival research. Another of Sullivan’s books, written with Terry Childs of the National Park Service, focuses on the curation of archaeological collections and is the first book published in the United States that deals specifically with this topic. In several articles, Sullivan also has broken ground with her research on gender roles in the late prehistoric Southeast. She discovered that gender-based differences in Mississippian Period mortuary practices in southeastern Tennessee had more to do with the kinds of leadership roles held by women and men than with male dominance in such roles. Her research with Christopher Rodning, of Tulane University, has shown that late prehistoric women in the Southern Appalachians were more involved in community politics and leadership than has been proposed for other areas of the Southeast. Sullivan’s most recent book, entitled Mississippian Mortuary Practices: Beyond Hierarchy and the Representationist Perspective, is expected to be released in December of 2009.

Selected Publications
Mississippian Mortuary Practices: Beyond Hierarchy and the Representationist Perspective. (L.P. Sullivan & Robert C. Mainfort, Jr., eds.) 2009. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.  Curating Archaeological Collections: From the Field to the Repository. (L.P. Sullivan & S. Terry Childs) 2003 Alta Mira Press, Walnut Creek, CA.

Archaeology of the Appalachian Highlands. (L.P. Sullivan & Susan C. Prezzano, eds.) 2001. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville.

Grit-Tempered: Early Women Archaeologists in the Southeastern United States. (Nancy M. White, L. P. Sullivan, & Rochelle Marrinan, eds.)1999.

Florida Museum of Natural History, Ripley P. Bullen Series, University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

Ancient Earthen Enclosures of the Eastern Woodlands. (Robert C. Mainfort, Jr. & L. P. Sullivan, eds.). 1998. Florida Museum of Natural History, Ripley P. Bullen Series, University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

Reanalyzing the Ripley Site: Earthworks and Late Prehistory on the Lake Erie Plain. (L.P. Sullivan, ed.). 1996. New York State Museum Bulletin 489. The State Education Department, Albany.

The Prehistory of the Chickamauga Basin in Tennessee (2 vols.).(L.P. Sullivan, ed.) 1995. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville. Some Recent Articles

Residential Burial, Gender Roles, and Political Development in Late Prehistoric and Early Cherokee Cultures of the Southern Appalachians. (L.P. Sullivan & Christopher B. Rodning). 2010. In Residential Burial: A Multi-Regional Exploration, edited by Ron Adams & Stacie King. AP3A Series, American Anthropological Association. Washington D.C.

Mississippian Mortuary Practices: The Quest for Interpretations. (L.P. Sullivan & Robert C. Mainfort, Jr.) 2009. In Mississippian Mortuary Practices: Beyond Hierarchy and the Representationist Perspective, L.P. Sullivan & Robert C. Mainfort, Jr., eds. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

Mortuary Practices and Cultural Identity at the Turn of the Sixteenth Century in Eastern Tennessee. (L.P. Sullivan & Michaelyn S. Harle) 2009. In Mississippian Mortuary Practices: Beyond Hierarchy and the Representationist Perspective, L.P. Sullivan & Robert C. Mainfort, Jr., eds. 2009. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

Archaeological Time Constructs and the Construction of the Hiwassee Island Mound. In 75 Years of TVA Archaeology, pp. 181-209, Erin Pritchard, ed.. 2009. University of Tennessee Press.

Differential Diagnosis of Cartilaginous Dysplasia and Probable Osgood-Schlatter's Disease in a Mississippian Individual from East Tennessee. (Elizabeth DiGangi, Jon Bethard, & L. P. Sullivan). 2009. International Journal of Osteoarchaeology Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/oa.1062.

Hiwassee Island. 2009. In Archaeology in America: An Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Northeast and Southeast, pp.283-286, Francis P. McManamon, Linda S. Cordell, Kent G. Lightfoot, and George R. Milner, eds. Greenwood Press, Westport, CT.

A Dendroarchaeological Approach to Mississippian Culture Occupational History in Eastern Tennessee, U.S.A. (Shannon D. Koerner, Henri D. Grissino-Mayer, L. P. Sullivan, and Georgina G. Deweese). 2009. Tree-Ring Research, Vol. 65(1):81–90.

A WPA Déjà Vu on Mississippian Architecture. 2007. In Architectural Variability in the Southeast: Comprehensive Case Studies of Mississippian Structures, pp. 117-135, Cameron H. Lacquement, ed. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa.

Cahokia’s Mound 31: A Short-Term Occupation at a Long-Term Site. 2007. Southeastern Archaeology 26(1):12-31. (L.P. Sullivan & Timothy R. Pauketat). L’archéologie de sauvetage à la Tennessee Valley Authority: une politique à long-terme. (Bailey Young & L. P. Sullivan) 2007. In L’archéologie préventive dans la monde: Apports d’archéologie préventive à la connaissance du passé, pp. 271-286. INRAP, Paris, France.

Dating the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex in Eastern Tennessee. 2007. In Southeastern Ceremonial Complex: Chronology, Iconography, and Style, Adam King, ed. pp. 88-106. University of Alabama Press.

Case Study: Mouse Creek Phase Households and Communities: Mississippian Period Towns in Southeastern Tennessee. 2006. In Seeking Our Past: An Introduction to American Archaeology, Sarah W. Neusius & G. Timothy Gross, eds. Oxford University Press, New York.

Invisible Hands: Women in Bioarchaeology. (Mary Lucas Powell, Della Collins Cook, Georgieann Bogdan, Jane E. Buikstra, Mario M. Castro, Patrick D. Horne, David R. Hunt, Richard T. Koritzer, Sheila Ferraz Mendonça de Souza, Mary Kay Sandford, Laurie Saunders, Glaucia Aparecida Malerba Sene, L. P. Sullivan, John J. Swetnam) 2006. In A History of American Bioarchaeology: Peopling the Past, pp.131-194, Jane E. Buikstra, ed. Elsevier Press, Burlington, MA.

Gendered Contexts of Mississippian Leadership in Southern Appalachia. 2006 In Leadership and Polity in Mississippian Society, pp. 264-285, Paul Welch & Brian Butler, eds. Southern Illinois University Press, Carbondale.

Gender, Tradition, and Social Negotiation in Southern Appalachian Chiefdoms. (L.P. Sullivan and Christopher B. Rodning) 2001. In The Archaeology of Historical Processes: Agency and Tradition Before and After Columbus, edited by Timothy R. Pauketat, pp. 107-120. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.

Those Men in the Mounds: Gender, Politics, and Mortuary Practices in Late Prehistoric Eastern Tennessee. 2001. In Gender in the Archaeology of the Mid-South, edited by Jane Eastman and Christopher Rodning, pp. 101-126. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.