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Alfred V. Kidder
Alfred V. Kidder at Pecos, 1916
Born	(1885-10-29)October 29, 1885 Marquette, Michigan
Died	June 11, 1963(1963-06-11) (aged 77) Cambridge, Massachusetts[1]
Alma mater	Harvard University (Ph.D.)(1914)[1]
Awards	Viking Fund Medal (1946)
Scientific career
Fields	archaeology

Alfred Vincent Kidder (October 29, 1885 – June 11, 1963) was an Americanarchaeologist considered the foremost of thesouthwestern United States andMesoamerica during the first half of the 20th century.^{[citation needed]} He saw a disciplined system of archaeological techniques as a means to extend the principles ofanthropology into the prehistoric past and so was the originator of the first comprehensive, systematic approach to North American archaeology.

Born inMarquette, Michigan, Kidder was the son of a mining engineer. He enteredHarvard College with the intention of qualifying for medical school, but found himself uninspired by premedical courses. He applied for a summer job in archaeology with theUniversity of Utah in 1907. Kidder spent two successive summers in the mesa and canyon country of southwesternColorado, southeasternUtah and areas ofNew Mexico. Kidder andJesse L. Nusbaum (later Superintendent ofMesa Verde National Park), came to the Mesa Verde area with ethnologistJesse Walter Fewkes to conduct an archaeological survey and to photograph ruins. He obtained his bachelor's degree at Harvard in 1908 and a doctorate in anthropology in 1914.

Kidder then embarked on a series of expeditions to the Southwest, many in northeasternArizona. These expeditions were sponsored by Harvard'sPeabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and the associatedRobert S. Peabody Museum of Archaeology atPhillips Academy inAndover, Massachusetts.

From 1915 to 1929, Kidder conducted site excavations at an abandoned pueblo nearPecos, New Mexico, now thePecos National Historical Park. He excavated levels of human occupation at the pueblo going back more than 2000 years, and gathered a detailed record of cultural artifacts, including a large collection ofpottery fragments and human remains. From these items, he was able to establish a continuous record of pottery styles from 2000 years ago to the mid-to-late 19th century. Kidder then analyzed trends and changes in pottery styles in association with changes in the Pecos people's culture and established a basic chronology for the Southwest. WithSamuel J. Guernsey, he established the validity of a chronological approach to cultural periods.^[a] Kidder asserted that deductions about the development of human culture could be obtained through a systematic examination of stratigraphy and chronology in archaeological sites. This research laid the foundation for modern archaeological field methods, shifting the emphasis from a "gentlemanly adventure" adding items such as whole pots and cliff dwellings to museum coffers to the study of potsherds and other artifacts in relation to the cultural history. Pioneering archaeologists in other regions of the United States completed the transformation of professional methodology initiated by Kidder.

HisIntroduction to the Study of Southwestern Archaeology, published in 1924, was the first synthesis of North American prehistory based on professionally recovered empirical data. In spite of his efforts at documentation, Kidder's conclusions have sometimes been criticized for a lack of integration between his field reports and his later synthesis and interpretation of that data. However, Kidder clearly emphasized archaeology's need for a scientific "eye" in the development of fact collecting techniques and clear definitions.

In the late 1920s, Kidder started thePecos Conferences for archaeologists and ethnologists working in the American southwest. In 1927, a temporal system ofnomenclature, known as thePecos Classification System, was established for use in southwestern sites. Archaeologists have since used the sequence, with later variations, to assign approximate dates to dozens of sites throughout the Southwest and to determine cultural ties and differences among them. The same year he was elected a Fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[3] He was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1934.^[4] In 1936, Kidder was elected to the United StatesNational Academy of Sciences in 1936.^[5] That same year, he formally used the Navajo term "Anasazi" to define a specific cultural group of people living in the southwest between approximately 200 BC and 1300 AD. This term had been casually used by excavators for many of the "ancient people" since the early explorations ofRichard Wetherill, and had been informally used in the work of the Pecos Conferences.

As an associate in charge of archaeological investigations (1927–1929) and as chairman of the division of historical research (1929–1950) at theCarnegie Institution, Kidder conducted a broad-scale multidisciplinary research program inKaminaljuyu in theGuatemalan highlands which established the framework ofMayastratigraphy. In 1939 he became honorary curator of Southwestern American archaeology at the Peabody Museum, Harvard.

In 1951, Kidder, in discussions withThomas Stuart Ferguson andGordon Willey of Harvard University, was instrumental in establishing a foundation dealing with the status of archaeology inMexico andCentral America. In regard to those discussions, Ferguson wrote that the three scholars agreed“...it was unfortunate that so little work was being carried on in so important an area and that something should be done to increase explorations and excavations....Despite the amazing discoveries made between 1930 and 1950, work on the Pre-Classic was virtually at a standstill in 1951. The result of the discussion was that we agreed to set up a new organization to be devoted to the Pre-Classic civilizations of Mexico and Central America—the earliest known high cultures of the New World.” The following year, theNew World Archaeological Foundation (NWAF) was incorporated in California, as a nonprofit, scientific, fact-finding body.

During Kidder's studies and excavations at Pecos Pueblo, particularly between 1915 and 1929, pottery and other artifacts were sent to the Robert S. Peabody Museum, Andover, Massachusetts, while excavated human remains were sent to the Peabody Museum at Harvard. In the early 20th century, no archaeologist consulted with Native American descendants concerning the excavation of their ancestors' homes and graves. Although Kidder was aware of the long-standing relationship between the abandoned Pecos Pueblo and the modernPueblo of Jemez, he did not consider that any local population had a claim on artifacts and remains.

By a 1936 Act of Congress, the Pueblo of Jemez became the legal and administrative representative of the Pueblo of Pecos, which had been privately owned during Kidder's excavation. As a consequence of TheNative American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), which requires federal and other museum facilities to inventory, establish cultural affiliations, and publish in theFederal Register any and all Native American human remains and certain objects in their possession, the Pueblo of Jemez made a formal claim on behalf of the Pecos people. This repatriation was primarily due to the efforts ofWilliam J. Whatley, the Jemez Pueblo tribal archaeologist, who searched through museum records for these remains and artifacts for eight years. The human remains from Kidder's excavations were returned to the Jemez people in 1999 and ritually reburied at Pecos National Historic Park. Kidder is buried on a hillside not far away, close to Pecos Pueblo.

Although her name rarely occurred on publications, Kidder's wife Madeleine worked as an archaeologist alongside her husband.^[6] Kidder's grandson,T.R. Kidder is a noted archaeologist of the southeastern United States.

• Kidder, A. V. (2000) [1924].Introduction to the Study of Southwestern Archaeology(Online book). Yale University Press.ISBN 978-0-300-08345-3. – regarded as the first comprehensive archaeological study of a New World area
• Kidder, A. V. & Amsden, Charles Avery (1931).5 The Pottery of Pecos. Papers of the Southwestern expedition. Vol. I The dull-paint wares. Yale University Press / Oxford University Press.
• Kidder, A. V. (1936).7 The Pottery of Pecos. Papers of the Southwestern expedition. Vol. II The glaze-paint, culinary, and other wares.Anna Osler ShepardThe technology of Pecos pottery. Yale University Press / Oxford University Press.
• Kidder, A. V. (1932).6 The Artifacts of Pecos. Papers of the Southwestern expedition. Yale University Press / Oxford University Press.
• Kidder, A. V. (1958).6 Pecos, New Mexico: archaeological notes. Papers of the Robert S. Peabody Foundation for Archaeology. Phillips Academy.
• Kidder, Alfred V. (1918).Reprints from the Journal of the Archaeological Institute of America and other papers. Vol. i Explorations in southwestern Utah in 1908ii Notes on the pottery of Pecosiii Pottery of the Pajarito plateau and of some adjacent regions of New Mexicoiv Prehistoric cultures of the San Juan drainage.Archaeological Institute of America.
• Kidder, Alfred V.;Jennings, Jesse D. & Shook, Edwin M. (1946).Excavations at Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala. with technological notes byAnna Osler Shepard. Carnegie Institution of Washington.

• Flint, Richard; Shirley Cushing Flint (n.d.)."Alfred V. Kidder".New Mexico Digital History Project. New Mexico Office of the State Historian. Archived fromthe original on 2011-07-18. Retrieved2007-11-21.
• Patterson, Thomas Carl (2001).A Social History of Anthropology in the United States. Oxford; New York: Berg.ISBN 978-1-85973-489-6.OCLC 48551832.
• Woodbury, Richard B. (1973).Alfred V. Kidder. New York:Columbia University Press.ISBN 978-0-231-03485-2.OCLC 447403.

• Biography -Minnesota State University, Mankato
• National Academy of Sciences Biographical Memoir

• 1885 births
• 1963 deaths
• Harvard College alumni
• University of Utah staff
• American ethnologists
• Mayanists
• Mesoamerican archaeologists
• American Mesoamericanists
• 20th-century Mesoamericanists
• Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 20th-century American archaeologists
• 20th-century American Episcopalians
• Members of the American Philosophical Society

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