Chapter: After Pecos: Linda S. Cordell’s Legacy at the Robert S. Peabody Institute of Archaeology

Linda S. Cordell: Innovating Southwest Archaeology

Linda S. Cordell (1943–2013) was a leading archaeologist and anthropologist who began her career at a time when few women rose to prominence in the field. A professor, lifelong researcher, author, field school director, department chair, and museum specialist—the study of the American Southwest, rnparticularly the northern Rio Grande, was at the center of her life’s work. Among Dr. Cordell’s many honors and awards in recognition of her contributions to the field of archaeology are election to the National Academy of Sciences, election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and earning the Society for American Archaeology’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The American Anthropological Association awarded Cordell the A. V. Kidder medal for eminence in American Archaeology, making her the second woman to have won the Kidder medal in its sixty years of existence. Contributors to this volume in memory of Dr. Cordell are established scholars and influential Southwest archaeologists. In chapters covering diverse topics from Pueblo ceramics and tree-ring dating to Southwest migrations and NAGPRA, they offer a broad view of the Southwest as seen through the influence of one extraordinary individual. Cordell’s research and work contributed to a greater understanding of Ancestral Pueblo life in the Southwest.