Vance Holliday is both an archaeologist and geologist who has spent much of his career reconstructing and interpreting the landscapes and environments in which past societies lived, and how these conditions evolved. Most of his geoarchaeological research has focused on Paleoindian archaeology on the Great Plains, in the Southwest, and in northwest Mexico, but also included Paleolithic sites in Russia. This research and interest culminated in his joining the UA faculty to direct the Argonaut Archaeological Research Fund (AARF), which is devoted to research on the geoarchaeology of the Paleoindian people of the Southwest. Since 2002 a professor in both the School of Anthropology and Department of Geosciences at the University of Arizona, and Adjunct Professor in Geography & Regional Development. Honors include the "Rip" Rapp Archaeological Geology Award of the Geological Society of America, and the Kirk Bryan Award of the G.S.A.

B.A. with Honors in Anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin (1972) M.A. in Museum Science from Texas Tech University (1977) Ph.D. in Geology from the University of Colorado-Boulder (1982)

Geoarchaeology, Paleoindian archaeology, soil-geomorphology, and Quaternary landscape evolution and paleoenvironments. Prior to moving to UA, most research was on the Great Plains, but has since focused on the Southwest U.S. and Northwest Mexico. Other research has included Paleolithic sites in southwestern Russia. In addition to AARF, research was funded by the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, the Geological Society of America, and the Leakey Foundation.

PUBLICATIONS -- BOOKS   V.T. Holliday, Ed., 1992. Soils in Archaeology: Landscape Evolution and Human Occupation. Smithsonian Institution Press, 254 p. V.T. Holliday, 1995. "Stratigraphy and Paleoenvironments of Late Quaternary Valley Fills on the Southern High Plains.” Geological Society of America Memoir 186, 136 p. V.T. Holliday, 1997. Paleoindian Geoarchaeology of the Southern High Plains, University of Texas Press, 297 p. A.K.L. Freeman and V.T. Holliday, Eds., 2000. “North American Geoarchaeology: Dedicated to C. Vance Haynes, Jr.” Geoarchaeology v. 15 no. 6 P. Goldberg, V. T. Holliday, and C. R. Ferring (Editors), 2001. Earth Science in Archaeology, Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers, 513 p. V. T. Holliday, 2004. Soils and Archaeological Research. Oxford University Press, 448 p.          PUBLICATIONS -- ARTICLES and CHAPTERS                                          (*peer reviewed)   1980    *Eileen Johnson and Vance T. Holliday, A Plainview Kill/Butchering Locale on the Llano Estacado: The Lubbock Lake Site. Plains Anthropologist, 25:89-111.   1981    *Eileen Johnson and Vance T. Holliday, Late Paleoindian Activity at the Lubbock Lake Site. Plains Anthropologist, 26:173-193.   1983    *Vance T. Holliday, Eileen Johnson, Herbert Haas, and Robert Stuckenrath, Radiocarbon Ages from the Lubbock Lake Site, 1950-1980: Framework for Cultural and Ecological Change on the Southern High Plains. Plains Anthropologist, 28:165-182.   1985    *Vance T. Holliday, Holocene Soil-Geomorphological Relationships in a Semi-arid Environment: The Southern High Plains of Texas. In: John Boardman (ed.), Soils and Quaternary Landscape Evolution, pp. 325-357. John Wiley and Sons, England.   *Vance T. Holliday, New Data on the Stratigraphy and Pedology of the Clovis and Plainview Sites, Southern High Plains. Quaternary Research, 23:388-402.   *Vance T. Holliday, Early Holocene Soils at the Lubbock Lake Archaeological Site, Texas. Catena, 12:61-78.   *Vance T. Holliday, Morphology of Late Holocene Soils at the Lubbock Lake Archaeological Site, Texas Soil Science Society of America Journal, 49:938-946.   *Vance T. Holliday, Eileen Johnson, Herbert Haas, and Robert Stuckenrath, Radiocarbon Ages from the Lubbock Lake Site: 1981-1984. Plains Anthropologist, 30:277-292.   *Vance T. Holliday, Archaeological Geology of the Lubbock Lake Site, Southern High Plains of Texas. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 96:1483-1492.   1986    *Herbert Haas, Vance T. Holliday and Robert Stuckenrath, Dating of Holocene Stratigraphy with Soluble and Insoluble Organic Fractions at the Lubbock Lake Archaeological Site, Texas: An Ideal Case Study. Radiocarbon, 28(2A): 473-485.   *Vance T. Holliday and Eileen Johnson, Re-evaluation of the First Radiocarbon Age for the Folsom Culture. American Antiquity, 51:332-338.   *Eileen Johnson and Vance T. Holliday, The Archaic Record at Lubbock Lake. Plains Anthropologist Memoir, 21:7-54.   1987    *Vance T. Holliday, Eolian Processes and Sediments on the Great Plains. In: W. Graff (ed.), Geomorphic Systems of North America. Geological Society of America, Centennial Special Volume 2, p. 195-202.   *Vance T. Holliday, A reexamination of late-Pleistocene boreal forest reconstructions for the Southern High Plains. Quaternary Research, 28:238-244.   *Vance T. Holliday, Geoarchaeology and late Quaternary geomorphology of the Middle South Platte River, Northeastern Colorado. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, 2:317-329.   Vance T. Holliday and B. L. Allen, Geology and Soils. In: Eileen Johnson (ed.), Lubbock Lake: Late Quaternary Studies on the Southern High Plains. Texas A&M University Press, p. 14-21.   Vance T. Holliday, Cultural Chronology of Lubbock Lake. In: Eileen Johnson (ed.), Lubbock Lake: Late Quaternary Studies on the Southern High Plains. Texas A&M University Press, p. 22-25.   1988    *Vance T. Holliday, Mt. Blanco revisited: soil-geomorphic implications for the ages of the upper Cenozoic Blanco and Blackwater Draw formations. Geology, 16:505-508.                 *Vance T. Holliday, Genesis of a late-Holocene soil chronosequence at the Lubbock Lake archaeological site, Texas. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 78:594-610.   1989    *Vance T. Holliday, Middle Holocene drought on the Southern High Plains. Quaternary Research, 31:74-82.                *Eileen Johnson and Vance T. Holliday, Lubbock Lake: Late Quaternary cultural and environmental change on the Southern High Plains, USA. Journal of Quaternary Science, 4:145-165.                *Vance T. Holliday and Julie K. Stein, Variability of laboratory procedures and results in geoarchaeology. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal, 4:347-358.                Vance T. Holliday, Paleopedology in archeology. In: A. Bronger and J. Catt (eds.), Paleopedology: Nature and Applications of Paleosols, Catena Supplement 16:187-206.                *Vance T. Holliday, The Blackwater Draw Formation (Quaternary): A 1.4+ m.y. record of eolian sedimentation and soil formation on the Southern High Plains. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 101:1598-1607.   1990    *Vance T. Holliday, Pedology in Archaeology. In: N.P. Lasca and J. Donahue (eds.), Archaeological Geology of North America. Geological Society of America, Centennial Special Volume 4:525-540.                *Vance T. Holliday, Soils and landscape evolution of eolian plains: the Southern High Plains of Texas and New Mexico. In: P.L.K. Knuepfer and L.D. McFadden (eds.), "Soils and Landscape Evolution", Geomorphology, 3:489-515.   1991    Vance T. Holliday, The Geologic Record of Wind Erosion, Eolian Deposition, and Aridity on the Southern High Plains. Great Plains Research, 1: 6-25.                *Vance T. Holliday and Thomas C. Gustavson, Quaternary Stratigraphy and Soils of the Southern High Plains. In: Roger B. Morrison (ed.), Quaternary Nonglacial Geology: Conterminous United States, p. 479-484. Geological Society of America, Centennial Special Volume.   1992    Vance T. Holliday, Soil Formation, Time, and Archaeology. In: V. T. Holliday (ed.), Soils in Archaeology: Landscape Evolution and Human Occupation. Smithsonian Institution Press, p. 101-117.   1993    *Vance T. Holliday, C. Reid Ferring, and Paul Goldberg, The scale of soil investigations in archaeology. In: Julie K. Stein and Angela R. Linse (eds.) Effects of Scale on Archaeological and Geoscientific Perspectives, Geological Society of America Special Paper 283, p. 29-37.                Eileen Johnson and Vance T. Holliday, Les cultures préhistoriques des Southern High Plains (USA) dans leurs contextes stratigraphique et paléoclimatique. L'Anthropologie, 97: 651-673.   1994    Vance T. Holliday, The "State Factor" approach in geoarchaeology. In: Ronald Amundson (ed.), Factors of Soil Formation - A Fiftieth Anniversary Perspective. Soil Science Society of America, Special Publication 33:65-86.                *Vance T. Holliday, C. Vance Haynes, Jr., Jack L. Hofman, and David J. Meltzer, Geoarchaeology and geochronology of the Miami (Clovis) site, Southern High Plains of Texas. Quaternary Research, 41:234-244.   1995    *Daniel R. Muhs and Vance T. Holliday, Active dune sand on the Great Plains in the 19th century: Evidence from accounts of early explorers. Quaternary Research, 43:198-208.                *Ty J. Sabin and Vance T. Holliday, Morphometric and spatial relationships of playas and lunettes on the Southern High Plains. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 85:286-305.                *Matthew G. Hill, Vance T. Holliday, and Dennis J. Stanford. A further evaluation of the San Jon site, New Mexico. Plains Anthropologist 40:369-390                Thomas C. Gustavson, Vance T. Holliday, and Susan D. Hovorka, Origin and development of playa basins, sources of recharge to the Ogallala aquifer, Southern High Plains, Texas and New Mexico. The University of Texas at Austin, Bureau of Economic Geology Report of Investigation 229.                Vance T. Holliday, Late Quaternary stratigraphy of the Southern High Plains. In: Eileen Johnson (ed.), Ancient Peoples and Landscapes, Museum of Texas Tech University, p. 289-313.                Eileen Johnson and Vance T. Holliday, Archaeology and Late Quaternary Environments of the Southern High Plains. Bulletin of the Texas Archeological Society, 66:519-540.   1996    *Vance T. Holliday, Gustavson, Thomas C., and Susan D. Hovorka, Stratigraphy and Geochronology of Playa Fills on the Southern High Plains. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 108: 953-965.                *Vance T. Holliday and David J. Meltzer, Geoarchaeology of the Midland (Paleoindian) site, Texas. American Antiquity, 61:755-771.   1997    *Vance T. Holliday, Origin and evolution of lunettes on the High Plains of Texas and New Mexico. Quaternary Research 47:54-69.                *Eileen Johnson and Vance T. Holliday, Analysis of Paleoindian bone beds at the Clovis site: New data from old excavations. Plains Anthropologist, 42:329-352.   1998    *Ruthann Knudson, Eileen Johnson, and Vance T. Holliday. The 10,000-year-old Lubbock artifact assemblage. Plains Anthropologist, 43:239-256.   1999    *Vance T. Holliday, Eileen Johnson, and Thomas W. Stafford, Jr. AMS Radiocarbon dating of the type Plainview and Firstview (Paleoindian) assemblages. American Antiquity, 64:444-454.                *Thomas C. Gustavson and Vance T. Holliday, Eolian sedimentation and soil development on a semiarid to subhumid grassland, Tertiary Ogallala and Quaternary Blackwater Draw Formations, Texas and New Mexico High Plains. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 69:622-634.   2000    *Vance T. Holliday, Folsom drought and episodic drying on the Southern High Plains from 10,900-10,200 14C yr B.P. Quaternary Research, 53:1-12.                *Vance T. Holliday, The Evolution of Paleoindian Geochronology and Typology on the Great Plains. Geoarchaeology, 15:227-290.                *Vance T. Holliday, Vance Haynes and Paleoindian geoarchaeology and geochronology of the Great Plains. Geoarchaeology, 15:511-522.                Vance T. Holliday. History of Geoarchaeology on the Southern High Plains. In: R. Mandel (Editor), Geoarchaeological Research in the Great Plains. University of Oklahoma Press, p. 10-43.   2001    *Vance T. Holliday, Quaternary geoscience in archaeology. IN P. Goldberg, V. T. Holliday, and C. R. Ferring (Eds.), Earth Science in Archaeology, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, p. 3-35.                *Vance T. Holliday, Stratigraphy and geochronology of upper Quaternary eolian sand on the Southern High Plains of Texas and New Mexico, U.S.A. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 113:88-108.                *Daniel R. Muhs and Vance T. Holliday, Origin of late Quaternary dune fields on the Southern High Plains of Texas and New Mexico. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 113:75-87.   2002    *Vance T. Holliday, James C. Knox, Garry L. Running IV, Rolfe D. Mandel, and C. Reid Ferring. The Central Lowlands and Great Plains. IN Anthony Orme, ed., The Physical Geography of North America. Oxford University Press, p. 335-362.                *David J. Meltzer, Lawrence C. Todd, and Vance T. Holliday, The Folsom (Paleoindian) Type Site: Past Investigations, Current Studies, American Antiquity, 67:5-36.                Vance T. Holliday, Leslie D. McFadden, E. Arthur Bettis, and Peter W. Birkeland, Soil survey and soil- geomorphology. IN Douglas Helms, Anne B.W. Effland, and Patricia J. Durana, eds, Profiles in the History of the U.S. Soil Survey, Iowa State Press, p. 233-274.                *C. Britt Bousman, Michael B. Collins, Paul Goldberg, Thomas Stafford, Jan Guy, Barry W. Baker, D. Gentry Steele, Marvin Kay, Anne Kerr, Glen Fredlund, Phil Dering, Vance Holliday, Diane Wilson, Wulf Gose, Susan Dial, Paul Takac, Robin Balinsky, Marilyn Masson & Joseph F. Powell, 2002. The Palaeoindian- Archaic transition in North America: New evidence from Texas. Antiquity, 76:980-990.   2003    *Jason LaBelle, Vance T. Holliday, and David J. Meltzer, Early Holocene Paleoindian Deposits at Nall Playa, Oklahoma Panhandle. Geoarchaeology, 18:5-34.                Luc Litwinionek, Eileen Johnson, and Vance T. Holliday, The playas of the Southern High Plains: An archipelago of human occupation for 12,000 years on th North American grasslands. IN M. Kornfeld and A. J. Osborn (Eds.) Islands on the Plains: Ecological, Social, and Ritual Use of Landscapes, University of Utah Press, p. 21-43.   2004    Eileen Johnson and Vance T. Holliday, Archaeology and late Quaternary environments of the Southern High Plains in Prehistory of Texas, edited by T.K. Pertulla, p. 283-295. Texas A&M University Press, College Station.   2005    *Vance T. Holliday, David A. Kring, James H. Mayer, and Ronald J. Goble, Age and effects of the Odessa meteorite impact, western Texas, USA. Geology 33:945-947                Vance T. Holliday, Ice Age Peopling of New Mexico in New Mexico’s Ice Ages edited by S. G. Lucas, G. S. Morgan, and K. E. Zeigler. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Bulletin 28, p. 263-276.   2006    *Vance T. Holliday and J. Elmo Rawling, Soil-geomorphic Relations of Lamellae in Eolian Sand on the High Plains of Texas and New Mexico, U.S.A. Geoderma 131:154-180.                *Vance T. Holliday, A History of Soil-Geomorphology in the United States. in Footprints in the Soil: People and Ideas in Soil History edited by B.P. Warkenton, Elsevier Press, p. 187-254.                *James K. Feathers, Vance T. Holliday, and David J. Meltzer, OSL Dating of Sediments at Paleoindian and Archaic Sites on the Southern High Plains. Journal of Archaeological Science 33:1651-1665                David J. Meltzer with Vance T. Holliday, Geology, Paleotopography, Stratigraphy, and Geochronology. In Folsom: New Archaeological Investigations of a Classic Paleoindian Bison Kill, by D. J. Meltzer, University of California Press, p. 112-153.                *Vance T. Holliday, B.B. Huckell, James M. Mayer, and S.L. Forman, Geoarchaeology of the Boca Negra Wash Area, Albuquerque Basin, New Mexico. Geoarchaeology, 21:765-802.                Vance T. Holliday and R. Mandel “Paleoindian Geoarchaeology of the Great Plains, Central Lowlands, and Southwestern U.S.” In: Environment, Origins, and Populations, Volume 3 of the Handbook of North American Indians, edited by D.H. Ubelaker, p. 23-46. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.   2007    *Vance T. Holliday and W. G. Gartner, Soil Phosphorus and Archaeology: A Review and Comparison of Methods. Journal of Archaeological Science, 34:301-333.                *M. V. Anikovich, A. A. Sinitsyn, J. F. Hoffecker, Vance T. Holliday, V. V. Popov, S. N. Lisitsyn, S. L. Forman, G. M. Levkovskaya, G. A. Pospelova, I. E. Kuz’mina, N. D. Burova, P. Goldberg, R. I. Macphail, B. Giaccio & N. D. Praslov, “Early Upper Palaeolithic in eastern Europe and implications for the dispersal of modern humans” Science, 315: 223-226.                *Vance T. Holliday, J. F. Hoffecker, P. Goldberg, R. I. Macphail, S. L. Forman, M. Anikovich, and A. Sinitsyn Geoarchaeology of the Kostenki-Borshchevo Sites, Don River, Russia. Geoarchaeology, 22: 181-228.                Haynes, Gary, D.G. Anderson, C.R. Ferring, S.J. Fiedel, D.K. Grayson, C.V. Haynes, Jr., Vance T. Holliday, B.B. Huckell, M. Kornfeld, D.J. Meltzer, J. Morrow, T. Surovell, N.M. Waguespack, P. Wigand, and R.M. Yohe, II, Comment on "Redefining the Age of Clovis: Implications for the Peopling of the Americas" Science 317: 320.   2008    *Vance T. Holliday, James H. Mayer, and Glen Fredlund, “Geochronology and Stratigraphy of Playa Fills on the Southern High Plains” Quaternary Research, 70: 11-25.                *James H. Mayer, George S. Burr, and Vance T. Holliday, “Comparisons and interpretations of charcoal and organic matter radiocarbon ages from buried soils in north-central Colorado.” Radiocarbon, v. 50, p. 331-346.                *Hoffecker, John F.,Vance T. Holliday, M.V. Anikovich, A.A. Sinitsyn, V.V. Popov,S.N., Lisitsyn,G.M. Levkovskaya, G.A. Pospelova, Steven L. Forman and Biagio Giaccio, From the Bay of Naples to the River Don: the Campanian Ignimbrite eruption and the Middle to Upper Paleolithic transition in Eastern Europe. Journal of Human Evolution v. 55, p. 858-870   2009    *Edmund P. Gaines, Guadalupe Sanchez-Miranda, and Vance T. Holliday, “Paleoindian Archaeology in Northern and Central Sonora, Mexico: A Review and Update. KIVA v. 74, p. 305-335.                *Vance T. Holliday, Bruce B. Huckell, Marcus Hamilton, Robert H. Weber, William R. Reitze, and James H. Mayer, “Geoarchaeology of the Mockingbird Gap (Clovis) Site, Jornada del Muerto, New Mexico” Geoarchaeology. v. 24, p. 438-370.                *Vance T. Holliday, “Geoarchaeology and the Search for the First Americans” Catena v. 78, p. 310-322.                *Todd Surovell, Vance Holliday, Joseph Gingerich, Caroline Ketron, C Vance Haynes, Ilene Hilman, Daniel Wagner, Eileen Johnson, Phillippe Claeys, "An Independent Evaluation of the Younger Dryas Extraterrestrial Impact Hypothesis"   Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences v. 106, p. 18155-18158.                *François S. Paquay, Steven Goderis, Greg Ravizza, Frank Vanhaecke, Matthew Boyd, Todd Surovell, Vance T. Holliday, C. Vance Haynes, Philippe Claeys, “Absence of geochemical evidence for an impact event at the Brlling–Allerrd/Younger Dryas transition" Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, v. 106, p. 21505-21510.   2010    *John F. Hoffecker, I.E. Kuz'mina, E.V. Syromyatnikova, M.V. Anikovich, A.A. Sinitsyn, V.V. Popov, Vance T. Holliday. Evidence for kill-butchery events of early Upper Paleolithic age at Kostenki, Russia. Journal of Archaeological Science, v 37, pp 1073-1089                *Christine Hatté, Gregory Hodgins, Vance T Holliday, A J Timothy Jull, Dating human occupation on diatom-phytolith-rich sediment: Case studies of Mustang Spring and Lubbock Lake, Texas, USA. Radiocarbon, v 52, p 13-24.                *David J. Meltzer and Vance T. Holliday, “Would North American Paleoindians have noticed   Younger Dryas age climate changes?” Journal of World Prehistory, v. 23, p 1-41.                *Vance T. Holliday and David J. Meltzer “The 12.9ka Impact Hypothesis and North American Paleoindians” Current Anthropology. v. 51, p. 575-585                *David J. Meltzer and Vance T. Holliday, “Response to comments on ‘The 12.9ka Impact Hypothesis and North American Paleoindians’” Current Anthropology. v. 51, p. 599-602.                *Vance T. Holliday, Denise Lawrence-Zuniga and Victor Buchli, “Prologue to uses of chemical residues to make statements about human activities.” v. 17, pp. 175-182.                *Stance Hurst, Eileen Johnson, Vance T. Holliday and Sophie Butler, “Playa archaeology on the Southern High Plains of Texas: A spatial analysis of hunter-gatherer occupations at Tahoka-Walker (41LY53). Plains Anthropologist, 55, pp. 195-214.   2011    *Ben A. Potter, Joel D. Irish, Joshua D. Reuther, Carol Gelvin-Reymiller, Vance T. Holliday,              A Terminal Pleistocene Child Cremation and Residential Structure from Eastern Beringia, Science 331, 1058-1062.

See web site:   http://www.argonaut.arizona.edu/

See web site:   http://www.argonaut.arizona.edu/