I am an archaeologist and professor emeritus at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. I have authored one non-fiction book: Boone before Boone, the Archaeological Record of Northwestern North Carolina through 1769 (McFarland Press 2020), edited three volumes, and published over fifty articles and book chapters. I am also an award-winning photographer, published illustrator, and a musician and singer in a rock band, The Conundrums. Here is a link to my vitae.
Native Americans have occupied the mountains of northwestern North Carolina for around 14,000 years. This book tells the story of their lives, adaptations, responses to climate change, and ultimately, the devastation brought on by encounters with Europeans. After a brief introduction to archaeology, the book covers each time period, chapter by chapter, beginning with the Paleoindian period in the Ice Age and ending with the arrival of Daniel Boone in 1769, with descriptions and interpretations of archaeological evidence for each time period. Each chapter begins with a fictional vignette to kindle the reader’s imaginings of ancient human life in the mountains and includes descriptions and numerous images of sites and artifacts discovered in Boone, North Carolina, and the surrounding region (McFarland 2020).
This book presents archaeology addressing all periods in the Native Southeast as a tribute to the career of Jefferson Chapman, longtime director of the Frank H. McClung Museum of Natural History and Culture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The essays cover a broad range of archaeological material studies and methods and in doing so carry forth Chapman’s legacy (The University of Tennessee Press 2023).
Fiction Works in the Making:
Some Bones about It
A human skull and jaw found in a dumpster near Boone, North Carolina in 1995 were discovered to have served as an initiation prop by a sorority of Appalachian State University since 1974. My fictional narrative, developed around this and other facts, relates the disappearance in 1975 of Daphne Collins, a pledge of the same sorority, and a forensic investigation by an archaeologist that results in the discovery of the origins of the bones and of Daphne’s fate. Chapters alternate between the forensic investigation in the 1990s, the experiences of two college students in the 1970s, and the antics of a brain-damaged Elliot Baxter, who had discovered the bones in the dumpster.
The Two Lives of Sherman Weybach
Dr. Sherman Weybach, archaeologist, becomes comatose when he is struck in the head by a heavy artifact that he had found in southern Russia. Instantly, in his mind, he is transported to the time and place of his primary research interest, the Yamnaya culture of southern Russia in approximately 3,200 BCE. Chapters alternate between his current state as a coma patient at Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina, and his experiences as a slave among the ancient pastoralists on the Pontic-Caspian Steppe. In the present, Sherman’s wife Irina struggles with the decision to authorize his termination or to keep him alive, always wondering what his wishes would be. In his dream world, in his struggle to survive as an alien and slave among the violent ancient Yamnaya, Sherman discovers true love, purpose, and his spirit.
Bringing the ancient human past into focus through science and fiction
Fifty years of practicing and teaching archaeology has enriched my imaginings of the ancient human past and fostered a desire to share my passion and discoveries with others through fiction writing.
When we know and understand that we are the products of a complicated history of fascinating biological and cultural processes, and that we have all descended from that one “Eve” who lived in Africa roughly 200,000 years ago, we are compelled to celebrate our diversity rather than to eliminate it.
