WILLIAM BURTON ROOSA 1923-1994Author(s): Chris EllisSource: Canadian Journal of Archaeology / Journal Canadien d’Archéologie, Vol. 20 (1996), pp.135-137Published by: Canadian Archaeological AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41102604 .

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WILLIAM BURTON ROOSA 1923-1994 Chris Ellis

is with great sadness that I note the pass- ing of Dr. William Burton Roosa, former-

ly on the Anthropology faculty at the University of Waterloo, on November 1, 1994. He will always be well known for his pioneering studies of Paleo-Indian materials in the Great Lakes area and in the American southwest.

"Willie" Roosa received his undergrad- uate degree in Sociology with a minor in Latin American history from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth where his father was a Professor of Religious Studies. Perhaps stimulated by his taking of an archaeological field school car- ried out by the University of New Mexico (UNM) in 1951 (which resulted in his first pub- lication; Roosa 1952), he began graduate studies in Anthropol- ogical Archaeology at UNM, and specifical- ly, "to study Paleo-Indian." He completed his M.A. in Anthropology (with a Geography minor) by presenting a thesis dealing with the significance to New World archaeology of fluted points - a signifi- cance he would pursue for the rest of his career.

At UNM he had begun participating in surveys for early sites in New Mexico, often under the direction of Dr. Frank Hibben, and in the company of individuals such as

Russell Schorsch, John M. Campbell and later, W. James Judge. Among the sites he worked on was the Lucy site. Outside of Sandia Cave (Hibben 1941), this is the only site reported to have yielded Sandia points, the first example of which was found by Hibben while "outlining a large partially exposed chunk of long bone of a large mam- mal (probably proboscidean)" (Roosa 1968:28). At Hibben's urging the site

became the focus of Bill's proposed PhD dissertation research and the UNM and later, the University of Michigan, carried out excavations at the site under Bill's field direc- tion from 1954 to 1959 (e.g. Roosa 1956). The status of Sandia as a real entity is much debated and there have been accusations that Sandia points are fakes or "plants" foisted on the general archaeo- logical communi-

ty including Bill (see Preston 1995). Bill himself was unsure of Sandia' s status in this regard and his opinion fluctuated over the years I knew him. I am certain this accounts for his reluctance to report extensively on the work at the site outside of his PhD dis- sertation (Roosa 1968).

At a archaeological conference in the southwest in the mid-1950s where he was displaying artifacts from the Lucy and other Paleo-Indian sites, he met James B. Griffin. Even though he had started a PhD at New

Bill Roosa (right) with Lawrence Jackson at the Lucy Site, New Mexico, 1991.

Journal Canadien d'Archéologie 20, 1996 135

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OBITUARY Mexico, this meeting eventually led to his transferring to the University of Michigan. His dissertation, completed in 1968, not only reported on the Lucy site but also, sev- eral important, yet still little known in the archaeological community, Folsom and Agate Basin Paleo-Indian sites in New Mexico, several of which are now destroyed. As well, and building upon the earlier Paleo- Indian work in Michigan of Ronald Mason, his dissertation provided a synthetic overview of Great Lakes Paleo-Indian sites and their relationship to sites in other areas of North America.

Bill's transfer to Michigan led him to a focus on the archaeology of eastern North America, and eastern Paleo-Indian in partic- ular, for the rest of his career. He developed the basis for a typology of fluted points which is widely used today in the area and co-authored the first detailed technical report on a Great Lakes fluted point site (Barnes site, Michigan; Wright and Roosa 1966). In the early 1970s, he began the first large scale excavations of a fluted point site in Ontario at the Parkhill site (e.g. Roosa 1977).

Throughout his work on Paleo-Indian assemblages, Bill stressed certain themes for which he deserves considerable credit. He was not the first in North American archae- ology to realize the potential role of sequences of stone tool manufacture in developing stone tool typologies (as opposed to a focus solely on size and outline shape). He always credited John Witthoft with this insight (and even earlier, William Henry Holmes). Nonetheless, he was one of the first to consistently emphasize the utility of this approach long before the vogue it enjoys today.

As a result, the typology and knowledge of manufacturing processes of eastern Great Lakes fluted points built upon his initial efforts are much better developed and refined than in many other areas of the East. He also stressed the effect of resharpening on fluted point outlines and how this could bias typologies (e.g. Roosa 1963). While others subsequently claimed credit for this

insight, he clearly emphasized it long before these pretenders. Also, as part of the "Michigan school," he emphasized the important role that analyses of flaking debris could play in site interpretation, and was very much interested in variation in internal site layouts at Paleo-Indian sites as clues to organizational aspects of those societies. Not only did he carry out such analyses him- self but he clearly inculcated the value of these technological and spatial analyses in his students.

Although Bill is best known for his own Paleo-Indian work, he made major contribu- tions in other areas. Especially notable was work he directed at several important Archaic and Woodland sites in Michigan and Ontario such as Warner School (Roosa 1966).

His work at that site led him to question the widely held' belief of the time that the Satchell complex (sites with lanceolate stemmed points on the meta-sediment sub- greywacke) was Paleo-Indian in age and he argued that it was Late Archaic. The fact that bifurcate points at that site were deeper on average than all other point types also led him to argue they dated quite early in the Archaic sequence. Subsequent work has confirmed both these insights.

Bill Roosa trained a number of students in Paleo-Indian and Great Lakes archaeolo- gy who went on to do graduate work, and created an interest in many others, profes- sional and amateur alike, in Great Lakes Paleo-Indian studies.

Long will he be remembered for his favourite sayings such as "We shoot guys for less than that in Texas" (I was often on the receiving end of this barb) and his favourite stories (such as the one about how a moving field vehicle was killed on a New Mexico field project by an atlatl dart thrown through the radiator). He is missed by all who knew him.

REFERENCES CITED

Hibben, Frank C. 1941 Evidences of Early Occupation in

1 36 Canadian Journal of Archaeology 20, 1 996

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OBITUARY Sandia Cave New Mexico, and Other Sites in the Sandia Manzano Region. Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections 99(23).

Preston, D. 1995 A Reporter at Large: The Mystery of Sandia Cave. New Yorker Magazine (June 12, 1995): 66-83.

Roosa, W. B. 1952 Sandals of Feather Cave. Bulletin of the Texas Archaeological and Paleontological Society 23:136-156.

1956 Preliminary Report on the Lucy Site. El Palacio 63(2):36-49.

1963 Some Michigan Fluted Point Types and Sites. Michigan Archaeologist 9(3):44- 48

1966 The Warner School Site. Michigan Archaeologist 12(l):25-34.

1968 Data on Early Sites in Central New Mexico and Michigan. PhD Dissertation, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. University Microfilms Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan.

1977 Great Lakes Paleo-Indian: The Parkhill Site, Ontario. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 288:349-354.

Wright, H. T. and W. B. Roosa 1966 The Barnes Site: A Fluted Point Assemblage from the Great Lakes Region. American Antiquity 31:850-860.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I thank Dr. Anne Zeller, Chair, Department of Anthropology, University of Waterloo and Dr. Henry T. Wright, Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, for their help with this notice, and Dr. Laurie Jackson for providing the photograph.

Christopher Ellis Department of Anthropology Social Science Centre University of Western Ontario London, Ontario N6A 5C2

Journal Canadien d'Archéologie 20, 1996 137

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