Anthropologist and Archaeologist. Gordon R. Willey was an American archaeologist famous for his settlement-pattern approach to archaeology. It was Willey's Virú Valley research in Peru that led to the rise of a settlement-pattern approach in archaeology. His Virú work, and the 1953 publication that followed, convinced colleagues around the world that this particular methodology could provide new data that would in turn lead to clearer insight into the functioning of ancient cultures. Willey's now classic definition of settlement patterns appeared on the first page of his Virú monograph, Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Virú Valley, Peru. It is, he wrote, the study of "the way in which man disposed himself over the landscape on which he lived. It refers to dwellings, to their arrangement, and to the nature and disposition of other buildings pertaining to community life. These settlements reflect the natural environment, the level of technology on which the builders operated, and the various institutions of social interaction and control which the culture maintained. Because settlement patterns are, to a large extent, directly shaped by widely held cultural needs, they offer a strategic starting point for the functional interpretation of archaeological cultures."
Anthropologist and Archaeologist. Gordon R. Willey was an American archaeologist famous for his settlement-pattern approach to archaeology. It was Willey's Virú Valley research in Peru that led to the rise of a settlement-pattern approach in archaeology. His Virú work, and the 1953 publication that followed, convinced colleagues around the world that this particular methodology could provide new data that would in turn lead to clearer insight into the functioning of ancient cultures. Willey's now classic definition of settlement patterns appeared on the first page of his Virú monograph, Prehistoric Settlement Patterns in the Virú Valley, Peru. It is, he wrote, the study of "the way in which man disposed himself over the landscape on which he lived. It refers to dwellings, to their arrangement, and to the nature and disposition of other buildings pertaining to community life. These settlements reflect the natural environment, the level of technology on which the builders operated, and the various institutions of social interaction and control which the culture maintained. Because settlement patterns are, to a large extent, directly shaped by widely held cultural needs, they offer a strategic starting point for the functional interpretation of archaeological cultures."
Bio by: Elisa Rolle
Family Members
Advertisement
See more Willey memorials in:
Advertisement
