Richard A. Diehl (born 1940) is an American

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

, academic, and scholar of

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

n cultures. He has made extensive contributions to the study of the

Olmecs The Olmecs () or Olmec were an early known major Mesoamerican civilization, flourishing in the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco from roughly 1200 to 400 Before the Common Era, BCE during Mesoamerica's Mesoamerican chronolog ...

' civilization, which flourished in the

Gulf Coast of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

region during the pre-classic period in

Early life and education

Diehl was born in

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bethlehem is a city in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton and Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Bethle ...

, in 1940. He attended

Penn State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsyl ...

,Hirst (n.d.) where he graduated with a BA in history. He then pursued graduate studies in anthropology at Penn State, earning his MA under the supervision of archaeologist William T. Sanders in 1965. His thesis was ''The Use of Ethnographic Data for Archaeological Interpretation of the Teotihuacan Valley, Mexico''. In 1969, he received his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

; his doctoral thesis was ''An Evaluation of Cultural Evolution in the Formative Period in Mesoamerican Prehistory'', again with Sanders as his supervisor. Diehl's experiences in archaeological fieldwork began as an undergraduate at Penn State. From 1961 to 1964, he participated in field trips to the

Valley of Mexico The Valley of Mexico (; ), sometimes also called Basin of Mexico, is a highlands plateau in central Mexico. Surrounded by mountains and volcanoes, the Valley of Mexico was a centre for several pre-Columbian civilizations including Teotihuacan, ...

, the archaeological locality in the central Mexican altiplano, where the major city and

polity A polity is a group of people with a collective identity, who are organized by some form of political Institutionalisation, institutionalized social relations, and have a capacity to mobilize resources. A polity can be any group of people org ...

Teotihuacan Teotihuacan (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Teotihuacán'', ; ) is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Teotihuacan is ...

reached its apogee during the Classic era. Working under the tutelage of Sanders, Diehl conducted research at Teotihuacan and other nearby sites, gaining experience in excavation techniques,

archaeological field survey In archaeology, survey or field survey is a type of field research by which archaeologists (often landscape archaeologists) search for archaeological sites and collect information about the location, distribution and organization of past human ...

s and

ethnography Ethnography is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. It explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study. Ethnography is also a type of social research that involves examining ...

. As a graduate working towards his doctorate, Diehl worked with

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

professor

Michael D. Coe Michael Douglas Coe (May 14, 1929 – September 25, 2019) was an American archaeologist, anthropologist, epigraphy, epigrapher, and author. He is known for his research on pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, particularly the Maya civilization, Maya, an ...

in the 1966-1967 field season at

San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán or San Lorenzo is the collective name for three related archaeological sites—San Lorenzo, Tenochtitlán and Potrero Nuevo—located in the southeast portion of the Mexican state of Veracruz. Along with La Venta and Tre ...

, a major

Olmec The Olmecs () or Olmec were an early known major Mesoamerican civilization, flourishing in the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco from roughly 1200 to 400 Before the Common Era, BCE during Mesoamerica's Mesoamerican chronolog ...

site in the Mexican state of

Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...

Career

In 1969, Diehl began his academic career in the Department of Anthropology at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

Columbia, Missouri Columbia is a city in Missouri, United States. It was founded in 1821 as the county seat of Boone County, Missouri, Boone County and had a population of 126,254 as recorded in the 2020 United States census, making it the List of cities in Misso ...

, which had been established two years earlier. Diehl remained at the University of Missouri for the next 18 years, lecturing and conducting archaeological research in

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. In 1986, Diehl left the University of Missouri to join the anthropology department at the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, the Capstone, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of ...

Tuscaloosa Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal Plain, Gulf Coastal and Piedmont (United States), Piedm ...

as its departmental chair, a position he held until 1993. During a one-year sabbatical in 1993–94, Diehl served as acting director and curator of pre-Columbian Studies at the

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection Dumbarton Oaks, formally the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, is a historic estate in the Georgetown, Washington, D.C., Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. It was the residence and gardens of wealthy U.S. diplomat Rober ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

From 1998 to 2005, Diehl served as executive director of the University of Alabama's museum systems, and was director of the

Alabama Museum of Natural History Alabama ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South, Deep Southern regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gu ...

. Diehl retired from formal academia at the end of the 2007 academic year,UA Dept. of Anthropology (2007) after a career spanning over four decades. He retained the title of Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Diehl continues to be engaged in Mesoamerican and archaeological research, teaching classes and authoring publications on the Olmec and other archaeological subjects.

Notes

References

* * *

External links

Richard A. Diehl
faculty profile at Department of Anthropology,

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Diehl, Richard A. 1940 births Living people 20th-century Mesoamericanists 21st-century Mesoamericanists 21st-century American archaeologists American Mesoamericanists Mesoamerican archaeologists Olmec scholars Pennsylvania State University alumni People from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Teotihuacan scholars University of Alabama faculty University of Missouri faculty