Biographical Sketch: Vincas P. Steponaitis

Vincas Steponaitis (A.B., Harvard University 1974; Ph.D., University of Michigan 1980) is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Research Laboratories of Archaeology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has served as chairman of the board for the Archaeological Conservancy (2003-2007), a national nonprofit organization, and has served as president of the Society for American Archaeology (1997-1999), president of the Southeastern Archaeological Conference (1990-1992), editor of the scholarly journal Southeastern Archaeology (1984-1987), and on numerous other professional boards and committees. His archaeological research interests focus on the precolonial Indian cultures of the American South, the development of chiefdoms, and the analysis of ancient ceramics. In addition to numerous articles, his books include Ceramics, Chronology, and Community Patterns: An Archaeological Study at Moundville (Academic Press, 1993), and Archaeology of the Moundville Chiefdom (co-edited with Vernon J. Knight, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1998). He has been a principal investigator on research grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.