James M. Adovasio

Most recently, Adovasio worked at Mercyhurst University where he was a Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology and of Geology, Director of the Anthropology and Archaeology and Geology Departments, Director of the Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute (MAI), Dean of the Zurn School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Senior Counselor to the President, and Provost. From 1995-2001, he served as Commissioner of the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. He currently serves as an expert witness for Archaeological Resource Protection Act (ARPA) cases, helping to protect archaeological sites from looters. Before taking a position at Mercyhurst, Adovasio taught at Youngstown State University and at the University of Pittsburgh. He taught anthropology at Youngstown State from 1966-1968 and 1970-1971. After taking a postdoctoral stint at the Smithsonian Institution, he assumed a position at Pitt, where he worked from 1972 to 1990. While there, he taught anthropology, Latin American studies, and geology and planetary sciences; he also served as Chairman of the Department of Anthropology and Director of the Cultural Resource Management Program (CRMP). In fact, Adovasio founded the Cultural Resource Management Program at Pitt. The fundamental purpose of CRMP was to conduct basic research and to provide a vehicle to teach students how to conduct archaeology utilizing precise data collection and documentation procedures often with highly sophisticated tools. He maintained this research/teaching orientation at the Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute.

Adovasio excavated the Meadowcroft Rockshelter site in Pennsylvania from 1973 to 1978 under the auspices of the University of Pittsburgh. The site contains 11 distinct stratigraphic units spanning at least 16,000, and potentially 19,000 radiocarbon years, of sporadic occupation, making it the oldest and longest occupational sequence in eastern North America and one of the oldest in the Western Hemisphere. The site was visited principally during the Fall of the year by broad spectrum foragers throughout its long history. Even after the appearance of horticulture in the area, the basic function of the site never changed.

Adovasio is the recipient of a number of honors and awards. In 1971, the Smithsonian Institution awarded him a Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, followed by a Certificate for Academic Achievement in 1972. Adovasio received an honorary D.Sc. from Washington and Jefferson College in 1983. He also won the Mercyhurst College Alumni Association Outstanding Achievement Award (1993), the Pennsylvania Historic Preservation Board Award for Archaeological Research at Meadowcroft Rockshelter (1996), and the J. Alden Mason Award for Career Contribution to Pennsylvania Prehistory (1996). In 1995, Adovasio became a Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. His peers elected him as a fellow for the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and he has served as a lecturer for the Archaeological Institute of America since 2008.

James M. Adovasio (born 1944) is an American archaeologist and one of the foremost experts in perishable artifacts (such as basketry and textiles). He was formerly the Provost, Dean of the Zurn School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics, and Director of the Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute at Mercyhurst University in Erie, Pennsylvania, Adovasio is best known for his work at Meadowcroft Rockshelter in Pennsylvania and for his subsequent role in the "Clovis First" debate. He has published nearly 400 books, monographs, articles, and papers in his field.

James M. Adovasio was born in Youngstown, Ohio in 1944. He received his B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Arizona in 1965. He spent a year in the University of Arizona's graduate program in anthropology before pursuing his Ph.D., which he received in 1970 from the University of Utah. During his graduate studies, Adovasio worked on multiple excavations and ecological and archaeological mapping projects in Utah; he also performed basketry and textile analyses for Danger Cave and Hogup Cave.