Chester F. Gorman (March 11, 1938 – June 7, 1981) was an American anthropologist and archaeologist. Born in

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, he grew up on his parents' dairy farm in Elk Grove. He studied at the

Sacramento State University California State University, Sacramento (CSUS, Sacramento State, or informally Sac State) is a public university in Sacramento, California, United States. Founded in 1947 as Sacramento State College, it is part of the California State Universit ...

and the

University of Hawaiʻi The University of Hawaiʻi System is a public college and university system in Hawaii. The system confers associate, bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees through three universities, seven community colleges, an employment training center, ...

, where he also got his MA and his PhD. Chester Gorman worked mostly in Southeast Asia. Among the most significant sites he worked are

Ban Chiang Ban Chiang (, ; , ) is an archaeological site in Nong Han district, Udon Thani province, Thailand. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1992. Discovered in 1966, the site first attracted interest due to its ancient red-painted potte ...

in northeast Thailand and Spirit Cave in northwest Thailand, one of the major

Hoabinhian The Hoabinhian is a lithic techno-complex of archaeological sites associated with assemblages in Southeast Asia from the late Pleistocene to the Holocene, dated to –2000 BCE. It is attributed to hunter-gatherer societies of the region whose te ...

sites. While surveying for sites in northeast Thailand with

Wilhelm Solheim Wilhelm G. Solheim II (1924–2014) was an American anthropologist recognized as the most senior practitioner of archaeology in Southeast Asia and as a pioneer in the study of Philippine and Southeast Asian prehistoric archaeology. He is perha ...

between 1963-1964, Gorman also discovered the site of Non Nok Tha. Gorman excavated Spirit Cave (Tham Phii Man) once in 1966 for his dissertation research, and again in 1971. He also excavated Banyan Valley Cave (Tham Sai) in 1972 and Steep Cliff Cave (Tham Phaa Can) in 1973. He died of cancer at age 43 in

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

Publication record

*Solheim II, Wilhelm G. and Gorman, Chester F. 1966. Archaeological Salvage Program; Northeastern Thailand-First Season. Journal of the Siam Society 54(2): pages 111-210. *Gorman, Chester F. 1969. Hoabinhian: a pebble-tool complex with early plant associations in Southeast Asia. Science 163: pages 671-673. *Gorman, Chester F. 1970. Excavations at Spirit Cave, North Thailand: some interim interpretations. Asian Perspectives 13: pages 79-107. *Gorman, Chester. 1970. Hoabinhian: a pebble-tool complex with early plant associations in South-East Asia. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 35: pages 355-358. *Gorman, Chester. 1971. The Hoabinhian and after: subsistence patterns in Southeast Asia during the late Pleistocene and early Recent periods. World Archaeology 2(3): pages 300-320. *Gorman, Chester F. 1971. Prehistoric research in northern Thailand: a cultural-chronographic sequence from the late Pleistocene through to the early recent period. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of Hawaiʻi. *Gorman, Chester and Charoenwongsa, Pisit. 1972. Inundation of archaeological sites. In Ecological reconnaissance of the Quae Yai Hydroelectric Scheme, pages 131–145. Institute of Technology, Bangkok. *Gorman, Chester F. and Handman-Xifaras, M.E. 1974. Modeles a priori et préhistoire de la Thailande: a-propos des débuts de l'agriculture en Asie du Sud-Est. Études rurales 53-56: 41-71. *Gorman, Chester and Charoenwongsa, Pisit. 1976. Ban Chiang: a mosaic of impressions from the first two years. Expedition 18(4): pages 14-26. *Gorman, Chester. 1977. A priori models and Thai prehistory: a reconsideration of the beginnings of agriculture in Southeastern Asia. In Origins of Agriculture, edited by C. A. Reed, pages 321–355. Mouton: The Hague. *Gorman, C.F. and Charoenwongsa, P. 1978. From Domestication to Urbanization: A Southeast Asian View of Chronology, Configuration and Change. Paper Presented at the Symposium on the Origin of Agriculture and Technology: West or East? Aarhus, Denmark: pages 1-64. *Gorman, Chester. 1979. Converging views on S. E. Asian prehistory: from Son-Vi to Dong-son. (Summary in Vietnamese.) Khao Ko Hoc 4: 81-82. *White, Joyce C. and Gorman, Chester F. 2004. Patterns in "Amorphous" Industries: The Hoabinhian Viewed through a Lithic Reduction Sequence. In Southeast Asian Archaeology: Wilhelm G. Solheim II Festschrift, edited by V. Paz, pages 411–441. The University of the Philippines Press: Diliman, Quezon City.

Published obituaries

*Chester Gorman Dies at 43. 1981. Journal of the Siam Society 69: page 268. *Rainey, Froelich. 1981. Chester Gorman. Expedition 23(4): page 2. *Solheim II, Wilhelm G. 1982. Obituary: Chester F. Gorman, 1938-1981. American Antiquity 47(4): pages 795-797. *Bayard, Donn and Charoenwongsa, Pisit. 1982-1983. Chet Gorman: An Appreciation 11 March 1938 – 7 June 1981. Asian Perspectives 15(1): pages 1-12.

References

Sources

MSU eMuseum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gorman, Chester 1938 births 1981 deaths 20th-century American archaeologists 20th-century American anthropologists Historians of Southeast Asia California State University, Sacramento alumni University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa alumni People from Elk Grove, California Historians from California Archaeologists of Southeast Asia