Andean Past Volume 8 Article 4 2007 Gordon Randolph Willey (March 17, 1913 - April 28, 2002) Michael E. Moseley University of Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/andean_past Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Moseley, Michael E. (2007) "Gordon Randolph Willey (March 17, 1913 - April 28, 2002)," Andean Past: Vol. 8 , Article 4. Available at: https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/andean_past/vol8/iss1/4 This Obituaries is brought to you for free and open access by DigitalCommons@UMaine. It has been accepted for inclusion in Andean Past by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UMaine. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GORDON RANDOLPH WILLEY (MARCH 17, 1913 - APRIL 28, 2002) MICHAEL E. MOSELEY University of Florida Gordon Willey, Virú Valley, 1946 (photograph © 2006 Harvard University, Peabody Museum, 2004.24.27839). The passing of Gordon R. Willey marks the colleague, I review Willey’s contributions to waning of a pioneering era in American archaeol- Andean studies and recount some of his rich ogy dominated by the discipline’s 20th century remembrances about doing research in Peru. He founding figures. Many are warmly remembered in greatly enjoyed his formative years in the Andes Willey’s (1988) retrospective, Portraits in American and they helped structure a marvelous career that Archaeology, and many were graciously entertained came to embrace all of New World archaeology. by Katharine Winston Whaley, Gordon’s devoted wife of 63 years. She departed life less than 12 Willey was born in Chariton, Iowa. His family months before her husband expired at home while moved to California in 1925 and he attended high convalescing after heart surgery. American ar- school in Long Beach. Willey enrolled at the chaeology has lost a very genial couple, a far University of Arizona where he studied anthropol- ranging field investigator, a masterful synthesizer, ogy and also received a medal in track. This small and a splendid professorial mentor. In paying bronze award sat proudly atop Gordon’s office homage to my former teacher and senior Harvard desk and he long maintained an enviable level of ANDEAN PAST 8 (2007): 1-7. ANDEAN PAST 8 (2007) - 2 fitness through regular exercise. After receiving his depositional units, whereas Tello was a far less B.A. in 1935, Willey continued at Arizona under meticulous field recorder, but a masterful observer Byron Cummings, the early dean of southwestern of stratigraphy. Strong, in turn, sought to system- archaeology, and received his M.A. in 1936. He atize data recovery and recording by excavating in then worked in the Southeast under the Works measured horizontal levels or artificial strati- Progress Administration and frequently collabo- graphic units. Willey adopted his mentor’s proce- rated with James Ford, an enduring friend and dures and pursued them throughout his career. colleague. Together they demonstrated an early penchant for regional synthesis (Ford and Willey At Tello’s invitation, Strong initiated his IAR 1941) that later became a characteristic of Wil- project at Pachacamac, where John M. Corbett, a ley’s career. University of Southern California archaeology student, joined the team. Pachacamac is an ex- As a fledgling archaeologist Willey had no pansive monumental regional religious center with intention of pursuing Latin American studies. numerous platform mound complexes. Prior However, the year Gordon received his M.A., the excavation of mortuary remains by Max Uhle energetic Peruvian scholar, Julio C. Tello, con- (1903) had revealed a four-fold sequence of Inca vened a scholarly meeting at the American Mu- and pre-Inca burials. Seeking to tap the site’s seum of Natural History in New York to promote chronological potential, Strong excavated the Andean research. The gathering included Tello’s steeply inclined sides of the dominant mound, the old comrade, Samuel K. Lothrop, as well as Julio’s Temple of the Sun. Although his horizontal 1926 field collaborator, Alfred L. Kroeber. With a excavation levels did not align with the sloping young Wendell C. Bennett serving as secretary, natural levels, a generalized succession of pottery the convocation created the Institute of Andean types was detectable (Strong and Corbett 1943). Research (IAR) to further Latin American field At the time there was no interest in studying food studies. remains that were both abundant and well pre- served due to the hyper-arid environment. En- In 1941, the Institute received federal subsi- countering plentiful plant debris and copious dies to expand its activities. Several new members peanut shells for the first time in his career, the were recruited to conduct far-flung projects. These profuse remains amazed Gordon. Indeed, he later archaeologists included Junius B. Bird, Alfred remarked that the Pachacamac debris “. looked Kidder II, and Kroeber’s former student, William like the sweepings from Yankee Stadium after a Duncan Strong, who taught at Colombia Univer- double header!” In subsequent years Willey was sity, where Willey had enrolled for Ph.D. studies. always attentive to studies of biological remains, Willey, accompanied by his wife Katherine, sailed although they were never a primary focus of his for Peru in June 1941 on the same ship as Junius own research. and Peggy Bird, who were bound for Chile. Willey completed his doctorate in 1942, writing his After Strong’s departure, Gordon and John dissertation on the Chancay Valley (Willey 1943). stayed into 1942 and dug at a series of sites north of Lima. For his dissertation, Excavations in the In Lima the Willeys and Birds met up with Chancay Valley, Willey (1943) published his Strong, who had arrived earlier. Tello frequently results from two Early Intermediate Period settle- accompanied the men as they visited a number of ments. The two young archaeologists were also central coast sites, including settlements previously eager to investigate earlier occupations. Their located by Max Uhle. All parties were interested quest was stimulated by Tello’s (1929) stunning in finding archaeological deposits that would yield discoveries at Chavín de Huantar, the Paracas stratified cultural successions, but their excavation Peninsula, and also by Uhle’s (1906) identification procedures differed markedly. Precocious for the of ancient coastal shell middens. Willey and times, Bird dug by tightly controlled natural Corbett dug at Ancón Bay, an area previously 3 - Moseley: Gordon Randolph Willey explored by Uhle and renowned for its vast ne- had found Inca remains immediately preceded by cropolis. They also worked at sites around Puerto variable local cultures that were, in turn, preceded Supe. The latter included investigations of the by remains he attributed to Tiwanaku. Using preceramic maritime mound complex of Aspero. Cusco as an ethnohistoric analogy, Uhle proposed Gordon and John mistook this site for an anoma- that Inca and Tiwanaku remains constituted lous ceramic stage settlement, as Uhle had earlier. sweeping archaeological horizons that originated This was the working assumption at the time at their respective capitals and then spread over because there was simply no awareness that non- vast areas of locally evolved societies. During the agricultural people could pursue a sedentary process of analyzing and publishing Uhle’s collec- existence, or erect sizable architectural works. The tions at Berkeley, Kroeber and his students, in- preceramic was better understood three decades cluding Strong, codified the interpretative frame- later when Willey revisited Aspero. He immedi- work. Consequently, Willey used it both to ana- ately recognized what the complex was and insti- lyze the Ancón and Supe collections and to gated its published reappraisal (Moseley and propose that Chavín constituted a horizon style. Willey 1973). As Aspero illustrates, Gordon’s He argued that the style should be strictly defined willingness to change his mind in light of new by the carved stone art and iconography at the information was an enduring scholarly virtue. type-site and origin center of Chavín de Huantar (Willey 1945, 1948, 1951). Thereafter, he strongly In 1942 the two investigators readily identified advocated the use of horizon styles for organizing early ceramic remains in their additional explora- and interpreting archaeological successions else- tions around Supe and at Ancón. Tello had long where in the Americas (Willey and Phillips 1958). championed the hypothesis that Peruvian civiliza- tions arose out of a far-flung archaic cultural Whereas Inca authority was spread by force of matrix expressed at Chavín (Burger in press), and arms, Chavín influence diffused by ideological the excavations by Willey and Corbett (1954) means. Recognizing that the horizon concept confirmed the relative antiquity and broad coastal subsumed great variation, Gordon convened and distribution of Chavín-like materials. Yet, in their chaired a 1955 seminar to develop “An Archaeo- discussions of these materials and early Andean logical Classification of Culture Contact Situa- civilization in general, Willey and Tello arrived at tions” (Willey et al. 1956). The six-member panel very different conclusions. In their conversations of distinguished archaeologists included John H. Gordon reported that Julio always viewed the Rowe and Donald Lathrap, who served as re- development of Chavín and subsequent societies corder and editor.