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Biography
ROBERT E
FUNK, 70, Archaeologist Emeritus of New York
State, died unexpectedly on September 25, 2002, in
Albany, NY. He was born in Rome, NY, received BA
(1953), MA (1955), and PhD (1966) degrees in
Anthropology from Columbia University. Funk had
technical training at the Indiana University field
school at Angel Mounds, under Glenn Black, and was a
field assistant at Dzibilchaltun for two seasons. In
1960 he began 33 years of employment at the New York
State Museum when he joined William A. Ritchie’s
settlement pattern project. Upon the latter’s
retirement in 1971 Funk was appointed New York State
Archaeologist, a position he held until stepping
down early. This move enabled Funk to maintain
highly active involvement in fieldwork and
scholarship. He eventually rejoined the State Museum
as a research associate.
Funk led extensive archaeological field
investigations in the Susquehanna, Hudson, and
Mohawk, river valleys and on Fishers Island, NY,
off the coast of Connecticut. He left nearly
completed books about sites in the last three of
these areas. Through field schools he trained a
generation of archaeologists. Some he mentored
through graduate studies at the University at
Albany. Bob Funk earned the respect of
professional and avocational colleagues with his
vast contribution to the prehistory of the
Northeast, his enthusiasm, inclusiveness, and
generosity with his time and knowledge. He
contributed a humorous autobiography to a
two-volume 1996 Festschrift honoring his
retirement.
Funk’s research is notable for the use of
rigorous stratigraphic control in deep deposits to
clarify the succession of archaeological cultures.
During doctoral research his excavations at the
Sylvan Lake rockshelter reversed Ritchie’s
sequence of the Narrow-point (Lamoka) tradition
preceding the Laurentian tradition in the Hudson
Valley. He greatly advanced paleoenvironmental and
geological research in reconstruction of the
adaptive contexts of New York’s prehistoric
inhabitants. His work at the Paleo-Indian
quarry-workshop-campsite on West Athens Hill in
the Hudson Valley epitomizes an early-culture
concentration that brought forth Archaeological
and Paleoenvironmental Investigations in the
Dutchess Quarry Caves, Orange County, New York
(1994, with David W. Steadman) and many related
articles and reviews. Funk’s books include three
classics: Aboriginal Settlement Patterns in the
Northeast (1973, with William A. Ritchie),
Recent Contributions to Hudson Valley Prehistory
(1976), and Archaeological Investigations in
the Upper Susquehanna Valley, New York State
(2 volumes, 1993 and 1999, with several contributing
authors).
Funk was instrumental in the development of the
life-group exhibitions in the State Museum’s
Native Peoples of New York Hall, which were based
to a large degree on the results of his and
Ritchie’s archaeological research. With John E.
Pfeiffer he designed a coastal prehistory exhibit
at the H. L. Ferguson Museum on Fishers Island.
Bob is survived by his wife Nadine Fowers Funk,
son Alfred, daughter-in-law Latisha Azweem, his
sister Nancy Savage, and her daughter, Marlene.
The family requests that contributions in Bob’s
honor be sent to the Robert E. Funk Memorial
Archaeology Foundation, administered by the New
York State Museum Institute, and the two statewide
organizations, the New York Archaeological Council
and the New York State Archaeological Association,
to support research in New York through a grants
program. (Christopher Lindner, John P Hart,
Beth Wellman)
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