Quilter, Jeffrey 1949-

PERSONAL:

Born June 21, 1949, in New York, NY; son of Thomas (a waiter) and Dorothy Joan (a legal secretary) Quilter; married Sarah McAnulty (in business), April 23, 1977; children: Susanna, Elizabeth. Ethnicity: "Anglo-American." Education: Attended New York University, 1968-69; University of Chicago, A.B., 1972; University of California, Santa Barbara, M.A., 1975, Ph.D., 1981. Politics: "Occasionally." Religion: Episcopalian. Hobbies and other interests: Folk music (guitar, mandolin, fiddle), photography.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Somerville, MA. Office—Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 11 Divinity Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138. E-mail—quilter@fas.harvard.edu.

CAREER:

Ripon College, Ripon, WI, began as assistant professor, became professor of anthropology, 1980-95; Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, director of pre-Columbian studies program and curator of pre-Columbian collection, 1995-2005; Harvard University, Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Cambridge, MA, deputy director for curatorial affairs and curator for intermediate area archaeology, 2005—.

MEMBER:

Society for American Archaeology, American Anthropological Association, Cosmos Club.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Fulbright fellow; grants from National Geographic Society, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, National Science Foundation, and National Endowment for the Humanities.

WRITINGS:

Life and Death at Paloma: Society and Mortuary Practices at a Preceramic Peruvian Village, University of Iowa Press (Iowa City, IA), 1989.

Cobble Circles and Standing Stones: Archaeology at the Rivas Site, Costa Rica, University of Iowa Press (Iowa City IA), 2004.

Treasures of the Andes, Duncan Baird (London, England), 2005.

Editor, "Case Studies in Archaeology," Thomson Learning.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jeffrey Quilter told CA: "As an archaeologist I must report the results of my research, partly to satisfy the granting agencies that fund my work, partly as an ethical obligation to make my discoveries known to professional and lay audiences. Ever since I realized that writing has its own pleasures (and frustrations), however, I have enjoyed it and tried to find my own voice and hone my craft.

"I find much archaeological writing dull, and so I have been trying to find ways to be true to the scholarly community as well as to appeal to undergraduates and the lay person interested in archaeology. When I began to write Cobble Circles and Standing Stones: Archaeology at the Rivas Site, Costa Rica, I told a colleague that my goal was to write an archaeological site report that wasn't boring. He replied, ‘Impossible!’ only half in jest, I think. I believe I came close to achieving my goal in that volume. I happily accepted the invitation to write Treasures of the Andes because it offered me the opportunity to address a broad audience again, and the challenge of being economical in manuscript length was invigorating—no scholarly equivocation allowed!

"My writing process is fairly straightforward. I sit down and tell a story through my fingers on the keyboard. Subsequent editing helps me to pull back into slightly more formal prose when the nature of the publication requires it. Archaeologists should know as well as anyone that it is stories that have sustained humankind's imagination and imparted wisdom (or what passes for it) from one generation to the next.

"My current archaeological research is the investigation of an early (c. 1580-1630) colonial-period town and church compound on the coast of Peru. The mix of native and European people and the clash of cultures in that setting are of great relevance today. I am sure that this project will give me many opportunities to write for both scholars and the general public."