Elizabeth Reitz
Elizabeth Jean "Betsy" Reitz is a zooarchaeologist and Professor Emerita in the Georgia Museum of Natural History and the Department of Anthropology at the University of Georgia.[1] She was born in 1946 in Lake Alfred, Florida. She attended Florida Presbyterian College (now Eckerd College) from 1966-1967. She received her BA (1969), MA (1975), and her PhD (1979) in Anthropology from the University of Florida. Her dissertation was directed by Elizabeth Wing. In 2012, she was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,[2] and in 2014, she was named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[3][4] She was the recipient of the 2016 Fryxell Award for Interdisciplinary Research in Archaeology, given by the Society for American Archaeology [5]. The Fryxell Award is given to scholars who have made significant contributions in the application of the zoological sciences in archaeology.[6] She is a member of the Committee of Honor of the International Council for Zooarchaeology (ICAZ).[7] In 2019, Reitz was awarded the Southeastern Archaeological Conference's Lifetime Achievement Award.[8]
"Reitz has worked throughout Latin America, the Caribbean, and the southeastern United States, studying vertebrate remains from coastal archaeological sites dating from the late Pleistocene era into the 20th century."[1] Her work includes collaborations with local residents of areas in which she is working as well as overseeing a large (over 4200 specimen) zooarchaeological collection in the Georgia Museum of Natural History.[1]
A reviewer for the Canadian Journal of Archaeology praised Reitz and Wing's book, Zooarchaeology as "the best available introductory text on the subject for undergraduate students".[9]
She has been credited for having "done more than any other individual to advance the subfield of historical zooarchaeology".[10]
Lyman notes that she is a "vocal advocate for using bone weight allometry as a measure of taxonomic abundance".[11]
Selected publications
- Reitz, Elizabeth J. (1993). "Zooarchaeology". In Jay K. Johnson (ed.). The Development of Southeastern Archaeology. University of Alabama Press. pp. 109–131.
- Elizabeth Reitz; C. Margaret Scarry; Sylvia J. Scudder, eds. (2007). Case Studies in Environmental Archaeology. Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology (2 ed.). Springer. ISBN 978-0387713021.
- Reitz, Elizabeth J.; Wing, Elizabeth S. (2008). Zooarchaeology. Cambridge Manuals in Archaeology (2 ed.). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521857260.
- Reitz, Elizabeth J.; Pavao-Zuckerman, Barnet; Weinand, Daniel; Duncan, Gwyneth A. C. (2010). Mission and Pueblo of Santa Catalina de Guale, St. Catherines Island, Georgia: A Comparative Zooarchaeological Analysis. American Museum of Natural History Anthropological Papers. North American Archaeology Fund, AMNH. hdl:2246/6036. ISBN 978-1939302175.
- Elizabeth J. Reitz; Irvy R. Quitmyer; David Hurst Thomas, eds. (2012). Seasonality and Human Mobility Along the Georgia Bight. American Museum of Natural History Anthropological Papers. North American Archaeology Fund, AMNH. hdl:2246/6164. ISBN 978-1939302212.
- Zierden, Martha A.; Reitz, Elizabeth J. (2016). Charleston: An Archaeology of Life in a Coastal Community. University Press of Florida. ISBN 978-0813062907.
References
- Walton, Marsha Walton (February 20, 2014). "Elizabeth Reitz is unearthing ancient cultures". American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved September 25, 2016.
- AAAS
- Flurry, Alan (May 1, 2014). "UGA's Reitz named to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences". UGA Today. University of Georgia. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
- AmAcad
- "Fryxell Award for Interdisciplinary Research for 2021". Society for American Archaeology. Retrieved 2020-01-17.
- "2016 Fryxell Award Symposium: Papers in Honor of Elizabeth J. Reitz". Society for American Archaeology. 2016. Retrieved 25 September 2016.
- "ICAZ Committee of Honor Members" (PDF). International Council for Zooarchaeology. Retrieved September 25, 2016.
- "Southeastern Archaeological Conference » Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients". Retrieved 2020-01-17.
- Orchard, Trevor J. (2009). "Review Reviewed Work: Zooarchaeology (2nd Edition) by Elizabeth J. Reitz, Elizabeth S. Wing". Canadian Journal of Archaeology. Canadian Archaeological Association. 33 (1): 158–161. JSTOR 41103655.
- Landon, David B. (2009). "An Update on Zooarchaeology and Historical Archaeology: Progress and Prospects". In Teresita Majewski and David Gaimster (ed.). International Handbook of Historical Archaeology. Springer. p. 79.
- Lyman, R. Lee (2008). Quantitative Paleozoology. Cambridge University Press. p. 103. ISBN 9781139471121.