SFI President Jerry Sabloff has been selected to receive the Society for American Archaeology's Lifetime Achievement Award for 2014.
The award has been presented annually since 1975 to an archaeologist for extraordinary, widely recognized lifetime accomplishments that have had lasting scholarly, pedagogical, and/or institutional impacts. Candidates for the award are nominated by their peers. A number of former and current SFI researchers are among its past recipients.
"I am deeply honored that my colleagues have selected me for this prestigious award," Sabloff says.
The award will be presented on April 25 during the SAA's annual meeting in Austin, Texas.
During his 40-year career, Sabloff has undertaken archaeological field research in both Mexico and Guatemala. His work in Maya archaeology has advanced many of the key scientific themes in Maya studies, and archaeology generally, since the 1960s.
He has taught at Harvard University, the University of Utah, the University of New Mexico, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Pennsylvania. He was director of the Penn Museum from 1994–2004.
He is a past president of the Society for American Archaeology, a past chair of the anthropology section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and past editor of American Antiquity. He served as chair of the Smithsonian Science Commission and is a member of the Visiting Committee for the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, the National Advisory Board of the National Museum of Natural History, and the Board of Trustees of the SRI Foundation.
He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Society of Antiquaries, London, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has received numerous other fellowships and awards.
He is the author of Archaeology Matters (2008), Excavations at Seibal: Ceramics (1975), The Cities of Ancient Mexico (1989; 2nd ed., 1997), and The New Archaeology and the Ancient Maya (1990). He co-authored A History of American Archaeology (1974; 2nd ed., 1980; 3rd ed., 1993), A Reconnaissance of Cancuen, Peten, Guatemala (1978), Ancient Civilizations: The Near East and Mesoamerica (1979; 2nd ed. 1995), Cozumel: Late Maya Settlement Patterns (1984), and The Ancient Maya City of Sayil (1991). He has edited or co-edited 12 books.
More about Sabloff
More about the SAA's Lifetime Achievement Award