ASU remembers

   

George Lewis Cowgill

Professor Emeritus in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change

   

  

George Cowgill

  

July 31, 2018

George Lewis Cowgill, 88, died on July 31, 2018. He enrolled in the University of Idaho then later transferred to Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. George graduated in 1952 with a bachelor's degree in physics and in 1963 obtained a doctorate in anthropology from Harvard University. He was a professor of anthropology at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., between 1962 and 1990. He devoted most of his research effort to mapping the city of Teotihuacan and analyzing archaeological artifacts, such as pot sherds, found there. He also made important contributions to the application of statistics to archaeological research, and to the comparative study of ancient cities. In 1990 ASU recruited him to its faculty. He flourished at ASU and continued to work with graduate students and do research in Teotihuacan well after his retirement in 2005 as Professor Emeritus in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change. The American Anthropological Association awarded him the Alfred Vincent Kidder Award for Eminence in the Field of American Archaeology in 2004. In 2015, he published Ancient Teotihuacan: Early Urbanism in Central Mexico. George is survived by a niece. A memorial service in Arizona will be planned for later this year. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the ASU Teotihuaca