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Fishel, Richard

Associate Research Scientist, Archaeology
Senior Research Archaeologist
Illinois State Archaeological Survey

Address and Contact Information

Anthropology/isas
209 Nuclear Phys Lab
M/C 571
 
(217) 244-4244

Education

B.A. Anthropology, Cum Laude, Western Illinois University 1985
M.A. Anthropology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale 1990

Research Biography

Academic Interests

The primary research interests of Richard Fishel are the late prehistoric cultures of the Upper Midwest region. His research has generally centered on late prehistoric ceramics and the information they convey, as well as the trade relations among and between these cultures. He has more than 40 years of fieldwork experience, mainly in Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri, and has authored more than 250 technical reports, publications, and professional papers on Midwestern archaeology.

Rich has instructed or co-instructed four field schools in Midwestern archaeology, one of which won the 2000 University of Iowa’s International Programs Mariko Mizuhara Award for Cross-Cultural Understanding, and has also co-organized three Midwest Archaeological Conference symposia: “Hidden in Plain Site: Early Nineteenth Century Native American Sites and Material Culture in the Midwest” (2003); “The Cultural Landscape of the Western Frontier, 1800–1825” (2011); and "Hidden in Plain Sight II: Early Nineteenth Century Native American Sites and Material Culture in the Midwest" (2014).

Professional Affiliations

Illinois Archaeological Survey (Board of Directors 2005–2008)
Illinois Association for Advancement of Archaeology
Iowa Archeological Society

Selected Publications

2018 Cohabitants, Captives, or Trade: The Early Late Woodland Non-Weaver Ceramic Assemblage at the Marseton #2 Weaver Village in Mercer County, Illinois. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 43:257–280.

2017 The Historic Indian Artifact Assemblage at Buckman Flats, Knox County, Illinois. Illinois Archaeology 29:381–398. 

2012 War of 1812 Buttons from Fort Johnson and Cantonment Davis, Hancock County, Illinois. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 37:299–334.

2012 Establishing the Populations and Occupation Spans of Fort Johnson and Cantonment Davis, Hancock County, Illinois. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 37:243–256.

2008 The Booker Site and the Mississippian Occupation of the Sny Bottom in West Central Illinois. Illinois Archaeology 20:108–128.

2005 Recent Spanish Coin Discoveries in Illinois. Illinois Antiquity 40(4):3–8.

2005 The Gill Site (23RY102): An Early Woodland Encampment in Northwest Missouri. Journal of the Iowa Archeological Society 52:1–19.

2005 Ceramic Analysis. In The Cowan Site: A Great Oasis Community in Northwest Iowa, edited by Stephen C. Lensink and Joseph A. Tiffany, pp. 33–54. Report 22. Office of the State Archaeologist, The University of Iowa, Iowa City.

1999 Bison Hunters of the Western Prairies: Archaeological Investigations at the Dixon Site (13WD8), Woodbury County, Iowa. Editor and contributor. Report 21. Office of the State Archaeologist, The University of Iowa, Iowa City.

1997 Medicine Birds and Mill Creek-Middle Mississippian Interaction: The Contents of Feature 8 at the Phipps Site (13CK21). American Antiquity 62:538–553.

Richard L. Fishel, Rolfe D. Mandel, James M. Collins, and Michael T. Dunne
2003 The Archaic Occupations of the Allen Fan Site (13HA385) in the Iowa Valley of Central Iowa. The Plains Anthropologist Memoir 34.

Richard L. Fishel and David J. Nolan
2010 Middle and Late Archaic Occupations at the White Bend Site, Hancock County, Illinois. Illinois Archeology 22(2):798–818.

Richard L. Fishel, Sarah U. Wisseman, Randall E. Hughes, and Thomas E. Emerson
2010  Sourcing Red Pipestone Artifacts from Oneota Villages in the Little Sioux Valley of Northwest Iowa. Midcontinental Journal of Archaeology 35:167–198.

Nolan, David J., and Richard L. Fishel
2009  Archaic Cultural Variation and Life Ways in West-Central Illinois. In Archaic Societies: Diversity and Complexity Across the Midcontinent, edited by Thomas E. Emerson, Dale L. McElrath, and Andrew C. Fortier, pp. 401–490. State University of New York Press, Albany.

 

Selected Papers Presented

2012 Analysis of War of 1812 Buttons from Fort Johnson and Cantonment Davis, Hancock County, Illinois. Presented at the 32nd Annual Illinois History Symposium “Contested Lands: 1763–1840,” Illinois State Historical Society, East Peoria, Illinois.

2012 Analysis of War of 1812 Buttons from Fort Johnson and Cantonment Davis, Hancock County, Illinois. Presented at the 45th Annual Conference on Historical and Underwater Archaeology, Baltimore, Maryland, in the symposium “Two Centuries On: Historical Archaeology and the War of 1812.”

2004 Recent Investigations at 11MC71, a Buried Weaver-Age Village in Northwest Illinois. Presented at the Joint 61st Annual Southeastern Archaeological Conference and the 50th Annual Midwest Archaeological Conference, St. Louis, Missouri.

2001 Phase III Archaeological Investigations at Sites 13HA181 and 13HA385, Hardin County, Iowa. Presented at the 2001 Iowa Department of Transportation Design Conference, Ames, Iowa.

1999 The Dixon Site Lithic Assemblage. Presented at the 57th Annual Plains Anthropological Conference, Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in the symposium “Western Oneota Movement and Relations.”

Richard L. Fishel, Sarah U. Wisseman, Randall E. Hughes, and Thomas E. Emerson
2009 PIMA Analysis of Red Pipestone Artifacts from Oneota Villages in the Little Sioux Valley of Northwest Iowa. Presented at the 55th Annual Midwest Archaeological Conference, Iowa City, Iowa.

Conrad, Lawrence A., David J. Nolan, and Richard L. Fishel
2004 The Archaic in West Central Illinois. Presented at the Urbana Conference on the Archaic Societies of the Midcontinent, Urbana, Illinois.

Additional Resources

LDAP Details for Fishel, Richard