Assistant Curator of Eurasian Anthropology

Contact Information:
Department of Anthropology
Field Museum of Natural History
Chicago, IL 60605
Tel: (312)665-7832
Fax:(312)665-7193
E-Mail: wparkinson@fieldmuseum.org

Education:
Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1999.
M.A. Anthropology, University of Michigan, 1995.
B.A. Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1992.
St. Petersburg State University, Russia, 1991.


Research and Faculty Appointments:
Assistant Curator, The Field Museum
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, Northwestern University.

Prospective Graduate Student Information:
The joint program between the Department of Anthropology at UIC and the Field Museum permits me to chair dissertation committees at UIC. Our relationship with the Department of Anthropology at Northwestern permits me to co-chair dissertation research there. I encourage prospective students to contact me directly via e-mail (wparkinson@fsu.edu).

Dr. Parkinson in Vésztő, Hungary.

Research Interests

- Dr. Parkinson is a specialist in European and Eastern Mediterranean Prehistory.

- He is the American Director of the Körös Regional Archaeological Project, an international, multi-disciplinary research project aimed at understanding the social changes that occurred on the Great Hungarian Plain throughout the Holocene.

- Parkinson's research team recently excavated two Copper Age villages in southeastern Hungary. These villages, which date to 4,500-4,000 BC, are the first of their kind to be systematically excavated in the region and have yielded important information about economic and political organization during this important time period when humans first began to use metals.

- Dr. Parkinson also studies how the earliest state societies in Europe – the Minoan and Mycenaean states – arose during the Bronze Age, and how they interacted with their neighbors in the Near East, Egypt, and Anatolia.

Recent Publications

Books/Edited Volumes:
Parkinson, William A., and Michael L. Galaty (editors)
Submitted Archaic State Interaction: The Eastern Mediterranean in the Bronze Age. The Proceedings of an SAR Advanced Seminar, March 11-13, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Submitted to the School for Advanced Research, June, 2008.

Galaty, Michael L., and William A. Parkinson (eds.)
2007 Rethinking Mycenaean Palaces II: Revised and Expanded Edition. Monograph Series, Number 60. Los Angeles: UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology Press.

Parkinson, William A.
2006 The Social Organization of Early Copper Age Tribes on the Great Hungarian Plain BAR International Series 1573. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Parkinson, William A., editor
2002 The Archaeology of Tribal Societies. Archaeological Series , Number 15. Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory.

Galaty, Michael, and William A. Parkinson, editors
1999 Rethinking Mycenaean Palaces: New Interpretations of an Old Idea. Monograph Series, Number 41. Los Angeles: UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.

Book Review: T. Palaima, The London Times Higher Education Supplement, June 9, 2000: 31.

Book Review: J. Rutter, American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 105(2):345, April, 2001.

Book Review: N. James, Antiquity, 74 (2000):224.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles:
Yerkes, Richard W., Attila Gyucha, and William A. Parkinson
Submitted A Multi-Scalar Approach to Modeling the End of the Neolithic on the Great Hungarian Plain Using Calibrated Radiocarbon Dates. Submitted to Radiocarbon, October, 2008. Under review.

Parkinson, William A., and Gyucha Attila
2007 A Kés″o Neolitikum-Kora Rézkor Átmeneti Id″oszakának Társadalomszerkezeti Változásai az Alföldön. Rekonstrukciós Kísérlet (Changes in Social Organization During the Transition from the Late Neolithic to the Early Copper Age Periods on the Great Hungarian Plain: An Attempt at a Reconstruction). Archaeológiai Értesít″o 132(1):37-81.

Yerkes, Richard, W., William A. Parkinson, Apostolos Sarris, Attila Gyucha, Meredith Hardy, and Luigi Catanoso
2007 Geophysical and Geochemical Investigations at Two Early Copper Age Settlements in the Körös River Valley, Southeastern Hungary. Geoarchaeology 22(8):845-871.

Gyucha, Attila, Gábor Bácsmegi, Ottó Fogas, and William A. Parkinson
2007 Építéstechnikai és Településtörténeti Megfigyelések egy Alföldi Kora Rézkori Lelőhelyen (Observations on Construction Technology and Settlement History at an Early Copper Age Settlement on the Great Hungarian Plain). Békés Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 30 (2007):67-110

Parkinson, William A., and Paul R. Duffy
2007 Fortifications and Enclosures in European Prehistory: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. Journal of Archaeological Research 15:97-141.


Parkinson, William A., and Michael Galaty
2007 Secondary States in Perspective: An Integrated Approach to State Formation in the Prehistoric Aegean. American Anthropologist 109(1)113-129.

Parkinson, William A.
2006 Tribal Boundaries: Stylistic Variability and Social Boundary Maintenance During the Transition to the Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 25(2006):33-58.

Gyucha, Attila, Gábor Bácsmegi, Ottó Fogas, and William A. Parkinson
2006 House Construction and Settlement Patterns on an Early Copper Age Site in the Great Hungarian Plain. Communicationes Archaeologicae Hungariae 2006:5-28.

Attila, Gyucha, William A. Parkinson, and Richard Yerkes
2004 El″ozetes Jelentés A Körös Regionális Régészeti Program 1998-2002 Között Végzett Munkájáról (Preleminary Results of The Körös Regional Archaeological Project, 1998-2002). Studia Archaeologica X(2004):25-52.

Parkinson, William A., Attila Gyucha, Richard W. Yerkes, Meredith Hardy, and Margaret Morris
2004 Settlement Reorganization at the End of the Neolithic in Central Europe: Recent Research in the Körös River Valley, Southeastern Hungary. Journal of Eurasian Prehistory 2(2):57-73.

Sarris, Apostolos, Michael Galaty, Richard Yerkes, William Parkinson, Attila Gyucha, Doc Billingsley, and Robert Tate
2004 Geophysical Prospection and Soil Chemistry at the Early Copper Age Settlement of Vészt″o-Bikeri, Southeastern Hungary. Journal of Archaeological Science 31(7):927-939.

Parkinson, William A., Richard Yerkes, and Attila Gyucha
2004 The Transition to the Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain: The Körös Regional Archaeological Project Excavations at Vészt″o-Bikeri and Körösladány-Bikeri, Hungary, 2000-2002. Journal of Field Archaeology, Volume 29, Nos. 1 and 2, Spring and Summer, 2002-2004: 101-121.

Parkinson, William, Attila Gyucha, and Richard Yerkes
2002 The Neolithic-Copper Age Transition on the Great Hungarian Plain: Recent Excavations at Vészt″o-Bikeri, a Tiszapolgár Culture Settlement Site. Antiquity 76(2002):619-620.

Kotila, Peter, John O’Shea, and William Parkinson
1998 Archaeological Review in Ann Arbor, Michigan: 14 Years of Cooperation. Michigan Archaeologist 43(4): 187-208.

O’Shea, John, and William Parkinson
1998 Archaeological Review in Ann Arbor, MI. CRM, 21/10: 12-14.

Parkinson, William, and John Cherry
1997 Pleistocene Sites and Lithic Studies. In The Pylos Regional Archaeological Project, Part I: Overview and the Archaeological Survey, edited by J.L. Davis, S.E. Alcock, J. Bennet, Y.G. Lolos, and C.W. Shelmerdine. Hesperia 66: 391–494.

Chapters in Edited Volumes:
Parkinson, William A.
Submitted Beyond the Peer: Social Interaction and Political Evolution in the Bronze Age Aegean. In Proceedings of The 2007 Langford Conference: Political Economies of the Aegean Bronze Age, organized and chaired by Daniel Pullen, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, February 22-24, 2007, edited by Daniel Pullen. Article submitted to editor July, 2007. Under review.

Parkinson, William A.
2007 Chipping Away at A Mycenaean Economy: Obsidian Exchange, Linear B, and “Palatial Control” in Late Bronze Age Messenia. In Rethinking Mycenaean Palaces II, Revised and Expanded Edition, Monograph Series, Number 60, edited by M. L. Galaty and W. A. Parkinson, pp. 87-101, Los Angeles: UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.

Galaty, Michael L., and William A. Parkinson
2007 2007 Introduction: Mycenaean Palaces Rethought. In Rethinking Mycenaean Palaces II, Revised and Expanded Edition, Monograph Series, Number 60, edited by M. L. Galaty and W. A. Parkinson, pp. 1-20, Los Angeles: UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.

Parkinson, William A.
2003a The Late Neolithic and Copper Age in Southeastern Europe. In Ancient Europe, 8,000 B.C. to A.D. 1,000: An Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World, edited by P. Bogucki and P. Crabtree, pp. 334-340. Farmington, MI: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

2003b The Copper Mines at Rudna Glava and Aibunar. In Ancient Europe, 8,000 B.C. to A.D. 1,000: An Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World, edited by P. Bogucki and P. Crabtree, p. 322. Farmington, MI: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

2003c Early Metallurgy in Southeastern Europe. In Ancient Europe, 8,000 B.C. to A.D. 1,000: An Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World, edited by P. Bogucki and P. Crabtree, pp. 317-321. Farmington, MI: Charles Scribner’s Sons.

Cherry, John, and William A. Parkinson
2003 Lithic Artifacts from Surveys: A Comparative Evaluation of Recent Evidence from the Southern Aegean. In Written in Stone: The Multiple Dimensions of Lithic Analysis, edited by N. Kardulias and R. Yerkes, pp. 35-58. New York: Lexington Books.

Parkinson, William A.
2002a Integration, Interaction, and Tribal ‘Cycling’: The Transition to the Copper Age on the Great Hungarian Plain. In The Archaeology of Tribal Societies, edited by W. Parkinson, pp. 391-438. Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory.

2002b Introduction: Archaeology and Tribal Societies. In The Archaeology of Tribal Societies, edited by W. Parkinson, pp. 1-12. Ann Arbor: International Monographs in Prehistory.

Galaty, Michael, and William A. Parkinson
1999 Introduction: Putting Mycenaean Palaces in their Place. In Rethinking Mycenaean Palaces: New Interpretations of an Old Idea, Monograph Series, Number 41, edited by M. Galaty and W. Parkinson, pp. 1-8. Los Angeles: UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.

Parkinson, William A.
1999 Chipping Away at A Mycenaean Economy: Obsidian Exchange, Linear B, and ‘Palatial Control’ in Late Bronze Age Messenia. In Rethinking Mycenaean Palaces: New Interpretations of an Old Idea, Monograph Series, Number 41, edited by M. Galaty and W. Parkinson, pp. 73-86. Los Angeles: UCLA Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.

Other Academic Publications:
Parkinson, William A.
2001 Modeling Social Interaction from Stylistic Attributes in the Early Copper Age of the Great Hungarian Plain. La Tinaja: A Newsletter of Archaeological Ceramics 13(1):1-4.

Parkinson, William A.
1997 Graduate Student Paper of the Year – Chipping Away at a Mycenaean Economy: Obsidian Exchange, Linear B, and “Palatial Control” in Late Bronze Age Greece. The Central States Anthropological Society Bulletin 33(1): 12-26.

Books and Articles in Progress:
Parkinson, William A., Attila Gyucha, and Richard Yerkes (editors)
Edited Volume Bikeri: Two Copper Age Villages on the Great Hungarian Plain. To be submitted to the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA Monumenta Archaeologica Series, Spring, 2008.

Parkinson, William A.
Journal Article The Extended Household and the Origins of Social Inequality: A European Perspective. To be submitted to Journal of World Prehistory, Spring, 2008.

Parkinson, William A., and John F. Cherry
Journal Article The Chipped Stone Assemblage from the Pylos Regional Archaeological Project, Messenia, Greece. To be submitted to Hesperia, Spring, 2008.

Parkinson, William A.
Journal Article The Towers of the Paximadhi Peninsula, southern Euboea. To be submitted to Hesperia, Spring, 2008.