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| David A. Fredrickson | |
|---|---|
| Name | David A. Fredrickson |
| Birth date | 1920s |
| Death date | 2000s |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Archaeology, Paleoethnobotany, Anthropology |
| Workplaces | University of California, Riverside; University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Berkeley |
| Alma mater | University of California, Berkeley |
| Known for | Paleoethnobotanical research on teosinte, maize domestication, Great Basin prehistory |
David A. Fredrickson
David A. Fredrickson was an American archaeologist and paleoethnobotanist noted for pioneering research in plant domestication, prehistoric agriculture in North America, and Great Basin archaeology. His work integrated field excavation, archaeobotanical analysis, and interdisciplinary collaboration with scholars at the University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, and regional museums. Fredrickson influenced successive generations of archaeologists through teaching, curatorial work, and methodological advances in flotation and macrofossil recovery.
Fredrickson was born in the American West during the early 20th century and undertook undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of California, Berkeley where he trained under prominent figures associated with the Smithsonian Institution research networks and the postwar expansion of American archaeology. At Berkeley he engaged with faculty connected to the National Park Service and the American Anthropological Association, developing interests that bridged field survey tied to the Bureau of Land Management regions and laboratory analysis linked to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. His doctoral research emphasized regional prehistory and drew on comparative collections at the Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles County.
Fredrickson held academic and curatorial positions at the University of California, Los Angeles and later at the University of California, Riverside, collaborating with researchers connected to the California Academy of Sciences and the University of California, Berkeley. His fieldwork encompassed projects in the Great Basin, the Central Valley (California), and terrace sites along the Columbia River. He integrated methods championed by contemporaries at the National Science Foundation-funded programs and maintained links with practitioners from the Society for American Archaeology.
Research topics included archaeobotanical recovery using flotation techniques popularized in excavations associated with the Smithsonian Institution, phytolith and starch grain analysis shared with teams at the University of Arizona, and stratigraphic control methods aligned with work by scholars at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. Fredrickson worked with interdisciplinary groups that included specialists affiliated with the Carnegie Institution for Science, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew for comparative plant studies.
Fredrickson produced influential interpretations of plant use and domestication in North America, addressing debates on the origins of maize and the domestication pathway from teosinte-like wild grasses to cultivated Zea mays. He published analyses of macrofossil assemblages that informed models advanced by scholars at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. His work in the Great Basin clarified population movements and subsistence shifts that were later incorporated into syntheses by authors connected to the American Antiquity journal and the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology editorial networks.
He documented early horticultural practices by recovering charred seeds and cobs from midden deposits comparable to assemblages curated at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia. Fredrickson’s stratigraphic correlations across river terraces and pluvial lake margins provided chronological control that interacted with radiocarbon programs at the University of Arizona and calibration efforts at the International Radiocarbon Laboratory.
Throughout his career Fredrickson received recognition from professional bodies including the Society for American Archaeology and awards associated with the American Anthropological Association fellowship programs. His work was cited in regional synthesis volumes published by the University of California Press and acknowledged by curatorial institutions such as the Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles County and the California Academy of Sciences. He served on grant panels for the National Science Foundation and participated in advisory committees linked to the Bureau of Land Management cultural resource programs.
Fredrickson balanced field seasons with responsibilities to academic departments at the University of California, Los Angeles and the University of California, Riverside, maintaining professional relationships with colleagues at the University of California, Berkeley and visiting scholars from the Smithsonian Institution. He mentored students who later held posts at institutions including the University of Arizona, University of Colorado Boulder, and the University of Washington. Outside academia he engaged with regional heritage organizations and local historical societies associated with museums like the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.
Fredrickson’s legacy endures in methodological standards for archaeobotanical sampling, flotation, and macrofossil analysis taught in programs at the University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Los Angeles, and the University of Arizona. His contributions shaped regional prehistory narratives incorporated into exhibits at institutions such as the Museum of Natural History, Los Angeles County and curricular materials used by departments affiliated with the American Anthropological Association and the Society for American Archaeology. Successor researchers at the Smithsonian Institution and the California Academy of Sciences continue to cite his datasets in discussions of maize domestication, Great Basin adaptation, and North American agricultural origins.
Category:American archaeologists Category:Paleoethnobotanists Category:University of California faculty