Jim Peterson, Past ESAF President, Killed in Brazil

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Jim Peterson, Past ESAF President and University of Vermont anthropology professor, was killed on a research trip to Brazil during a robbery in a rainforest town near the Amazon River.

James Petersen, 51, of Salisbury, Vt., died in the confrontation in a restaurant in the town of Iranduba, said the spokesman, John Wilcock. Iranduba, home to about 35,000 residents, is about 1,650 miles northwest of Sao Paulo.

Three suspects were taken into custody, according to CBN radio. Wilcock said he could not confirm that information.

UVM Provost John Bramley said Petersen, who was with colleagues when the robbery happened, was shot and died a short time later.

"I am very saddened to inform the UVM and archaeological communities of a tragic incident in Brazil resulting in the death of our colleague Dr. Jim Petersen," Bramley said. "Dr. Petersen, associate professor and chair of the department of anthropology, was on a research field trip with colleagues in Manaus, Brazil. Sometime on Saturday night, 13th August, he and his colleagues were attacked and robbed. Dr. Petersen was shot during the robbery and died shortly afterwards.

"We have no further information on the circumstances at this time and our attention is focused on ensuring that Jim's wife and family have the help and support they need at this terrible time," said Bramley.

Federal police in the jungle city of Manaus, about 12 miles from Iranduba, could not be reached to comment.

Petersen was in Brazil for a couple of weeks to check in with colleagues concerning ongoing research on the Amazon's distant past, said Luis Vivanco, associate professor of anthropology at UVM and director of the school's Latin American Studies Program.

Petersen and other researchers had changed assumptions about life in the Amazon hundred and thousands of years ago, Vivanco said. Scientists had assumed that indigenous people were essentially nomadic and did little farming in any one spot because of poor soils. But Petersen was able to demonstrate that the Amazon inhabitants engaged in intensive mulching, fertilization and cultivation, Vivanco said.

Beyond his research, Petersen was a highly popular professor at UVM, Vivanco said. "He was deeply loved by students. He was a guy who could fill a lecture hall with hundreds of seats and students would be rapt with attention. He was very passionate with what he did," Vivanco said.

Petersen frequently guided students toward careers in anthropology and was always quick to help people find jobs, Vivanco said.

Before joining UVM, Petersen founded the Archaeology Research Center at the University of Maine at Farmington, where he was also a professor from 1983 to 1997. He was also a graduate school professor at the University of Maine in Orono.
He was involved with amateur archaeology and was president of the Eastern States Archaeological Federation from 1998 to 2000.

Petersen graduated from UVM in 1979 and started doctoral studies at the University of Pittsburgh, where he developed an interest in the tropics. He then returned to the University of Vermont as a visiting professor where one of his students was Michael Heckenberger, now an assistant professor at the University of Florida.

Heckenberger, who would become one of Petersen's colleagues in the Amazon work, recalled in an article in a UVM magazine meeting Petersen in that first life-changing field course.

"Jim is an infectious person and teacher," he was quoted in the Vermont Quarterly. "He attracts so many people to anthropology. He is without a doubt one of the most powerful and influential teachers I had."

Petersen and Heckenberger worked together in partnership with the University of Sao Paulo in the Central Amazon Project.

"We formally began in 1995, not fully understanding what we were into," said Petersen in an interview with Vermont Quarterly. "It's some of the richest, most exciting archaeology anywhere on the planet."

Vivanco said Petersen's death made no sense. "He's not the type of guy to fight over a wallet," he said.

NYSAA THE BULLETIN CD-ROM

The New York State Archaeological Association announces the availability of its publication, The Bulletin on one CD-ROM. The CD-ROM contains Numbers 1 – 118, which span the years 1954 – 2003. Created in Adobe Acrobat, the issues are full-word searchable and can be navigated through links and bookmarks.

This will be an invaluable tool for anyone interested in the archaeology of the Northeast. One can now quickly find references to sites, artifact types, individuals, or places that appear in back issues of The Bulletin. CRM report writers, scholars and students will no longer have to spend valuable time paging through back issues or miss important references in early, hard-to-find issues.

The CD-ROM can be purchased for $50. There is a $3.50 shipping and handling charge in the U.S. and $5.00 to Canada.

To order The Bulletin CD-ROM make out check or money order to NYSAA-CD-ROM and mail to: William Engelbrecht, 16 Atlantic Ave., Buffalo, N.Y. 14222.
Please fill out the following.

Name: ____________________________________________
Address: ____________________________________________
Town, State, Zip: _______________________________________

Please indicate whether you use a PC ____ or MAC ____

AENA CD Correction:

AENA CD has missing pages for Volume 9. Click here to obtain the missing pages.

Obsidian Research -- Call for Help.

Charles A. Bello, M.A., RPA

19 Ledge Lane
Pipersville, Pennsylvania 18947

A colleague and I are embarking on a project to source some of the obsidian artifacts found in New Jersey and adjacent states. My co-author, Carolyn Dillian, was employed by the University of California, Berkeley x-ray fluorescence lab for three years as a researcher and is currently president of the International Association for Obsidian Studies.

Carolyn’s PhD dissertation centered on a unique source of obsidian in northern California used as a sacred site.

Our aim is to not only categorize as many of the published specimens from our area as possible but to also try to obtain obsidian samples for study from archaeological sites in the Middle Atlantic and Northeast that have not yet been reported.

For a summary of research to date in New Jersey see:
 

 Bello, Charles A. and Jack Cresson

1995  A Fluted Point from Island Beach State Park.
Bulletin of the Archaeological Society  of New Jersey 50:53-56.

 1998  An Obsidian Biface from the Lower Delaware Valley.
Bulletin of the Archaeological  Society of New Jersey 53:127-128.

Our project is open-ended and will grow as data comes our way.  So far we plan on submitting at least a half dozen specimens.

We feel that there are probably other samples of this unique lithic material in collections, and their study is important.

Anyone having information on obsidian genuinely collected from prehistoric archaeological contexts in the Middle Atlantic or the Northeast is invited to contact us and participate.  We will cover the costs of the analysis (see below).

The process is 100% non-destructive -- we guarantee the safety of all specimens entrusted to us, and promise a quick turn-around time for research and analysis.

 Archaeological obsidian samples will be analyzed in the x-ray fluorescence lab at the University of California, Berkeley.

X-ray fluorescence (XRF) is a non-destructive technique that is used to determine the trace element composition of the obsidian.  

It is one of the most commonly employed chemical characterization methods utilized for obsidian artifacts, and is largely effective because of the unique nature of obsidian’s composition, in that trace element proportions tend to vary between sources yet remain relatively homogenous within single flow events.  Trace elements are those elements present in concentrations of less than 1%.

 X-ray fluorescence provides the added benefit of accurate chemical characterization assessments without requiring extensive

sample preparation.   Objects can be placed whole inside the sample chamber, and do not need to be cut, ground, powdered, or otherwise damaged.  Also, unlike Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) artifacts do not become radioactive. 

X-ray fluorescence is a completely non-destructive technique, which is obviously ideal for archaeological specimens.

The XRF lab at Berkeley has successfully analyzed thousands of artifacts, including pieces from museums, CRM projects,

NAGPRA collections, and private collections.

In X-ray fluorescence, samples are placed inside a sealed vacuum chamber and irradiated with a beam of X-rays, similar to the kind used in dentist's and doctor's offices.  This irradiation displaces electrons from the inner orbitals, creating vacant holes, which are filled by electrons from the outer orbitals.  When electrons from the outer orbitals move into the inner levels, energy is emitted in the form of a secondary x-ray photon.  The fluorescence caused by the emitted photon is distinctive for each element, creating an energy spectrum that reveals the elemental composition of the obsidian sample. 

For more information, please check out: http://obsidian.pahma.berkeley.edu/anlysis.htm

To learn more about obsidian and obsidian analyses, check out: http://www.peak.org/obsidian/

 Our first sample (from the Lower Delaware Valley) is being submitted to the Berkeley lab next week.  We will issue a brief synopsis of the results via these list serves. Please spread the word and start looking for shiny black /gray lithics with translucent edges in your collections!