Deborah M. Pearsall is an American archaeologist

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

, specializing in paleoethnobotany

Paleoethnobotany

Paleoethnobotany, also known as archaeobotany in European academic circles, is the archaeological sub-field that studies plant remains from archaeological sites...

. She maintains an online Phytolith

Phytolith

Some plants can take up silica in the soil, whereupon it is deposited within different intracellular and extracellular structures of the plant. After these plants decay, silica is redeposited in the soil in the form of phytoliths , which are rigid, microscopic structures of varying sizes and shapes...

 database

Database

A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...

. She is a full professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 in the Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri

University of Missouri

The University of Missouri System is a state university system providing centralized administration for four universities, a health care system, an extension program, five research and technology parks, and a publishing press. More than 64,000 students are currently enrolled at its four campuses...

 in Columbia, Missouri

Columbia, Missouri

Columbia is the fifth-largest city in Missouri, and the largest city in Mid-Missouri. With a population of 108,500 as of the 2010 Census, it is the principal municipality of the Columbia Metropolitan Area, a region of 164,283 residents. The city serves as the county seat of Boone County and as the...

, where she where first began working in 1978. She received her Ph.D.

Doctor of Philosophy

Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 in anthropology

Anthropology

Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...

 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign is a large public research-intensive university in the state of Illinois, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Illinois system...

 in 1979, her dissertation being The Application of Ethnobotanical Techniques to the Problem of Subsistence in the Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

ian Formative

Formative stage

The Formative Stage or "Neo-Indian period" is an archaeological term describing a particular developmental level. This stage from 1000 BCE to 500 CE is the third of five stages defined by Gordon Willey and Philip Phillips' 1958 book Method and Theory in American Archaeology.Cultures of the...

.

Pearsall was awarded the 2002 Fryxell Award for Exceptional Interdisciplinary Research, by the Society for American Archaeology

Society for American Archaeology

The Society for American Archaeology is the largest organization of professional archaeologists of the Americas in the world. The Society was founded in 1934 and today has over 7000 members. The Society holds an annual conference and publishes the flagship journal of American archaeology,...

.

Selected publications

• Pearsall, Deborah M. 1993 "Contributions of Phytolith Analysis for Reconstructing Subsistence: Examples from Research in Ecuador." Pearsall, Deborah M. and Piperno, Dolores R. MASCA: Current Research in Phytolith Analysis: Applications in Archaeology and Paleoecology 10, 109-122.

• Pearsall, Deborah M. 2000 Paleoethnobotany: A Handbook of Procedures.

• Pearsall, Deborah M. 2002 "Maize is Still Ancient in Prehistoric Ecuador: The View from Real Alto, with Comments on Staller and Thompson." Journal of Archaeological Science 29:51-55.

• Pearsall, D. M., K. Chandler-Ezell, and J. A. Zeidler. 2004 "Maize in Ancient Ecuador: Results of Residue Analysis of Stone Tools from the Real Alto Site." Journal of Archaeological Science 31:423-442.

• Pearsall, Deborah M. and Dolores R. Piperno 1990 "Antiquity of Maize Cultivation in Ecuador: Summary and Reevaluation of the Evidence." American Antiquity 55(2):324-337.

• Pearsall, D. M. 2003 "Integrating biological Data: Phytoliths and Starch grains, Health and Diet, at Real Alto, Ecuador." In Phytolith and Starch Research in the Australian-Pacific-Asian Regions: The State of the Art. Edited by D. M. Hart and L. A. Wallis. Terra Australis 19, Pandanus Books.

• Newsom, L. A. and D. M. Pearsall. 2003 "Trends in Caribbean Archaeobotany." Pp. 347-412 in People and Plants in Ancient Eastern North America, edited by P. Minnis. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

• Pearsall, D. M. 2006 "Modeling Agriculture through the Paleoenvironmental Record: Theoretical and Methodological Issues. In Rethinking Agriculture: Archaeological and Ethnoarchaeological Perspectives. Edited by T. P. Denham, J. Iriarte, and L. Vrydaghs. In press, University College London Press.

• Pearsall, Deborah M. (ed.) 2008 Encyclopedia or Archaeology. Academic Press, San Diego and Oxford, UK.

External links

• Deborah Pearsall's CV