Jay K. Johnson   
Professor of Anthropology
Director of the Center for Archaeological Reserch
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
P.O. Box 1848
University, MS 38677-1848

Phone: 662-915-7339
Office: Leavell 211
E-mail:

Biography
As the result of a childhood spent reading National Geographic Magazines, I have been interested in archaeology for most of my life.  When I signed up for an introductory anthropology course as a freshman at Florida State in the mid 1960s, I was amazed and pleased to find that you could actually take courses in archaeology.  My plans to be a math major were quickly abandoned.  F.S.U. was a great place to be as an undergraduate anthro major at that time.  Fieldwork opportunities were plentiful and I got a good deal of experience in Southeastern archaeology.  By the time I arrived at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale for graduate study, I had decided to specialize in Mayan archaeology.  Three seasons of work in Mesoamerica and a dissertation on the stone tools from the Classic Maya site of Palenque which was finished in 1976 prepared me for a job market that was less than encouraging.  I came to Ole Miss to direct the analysis of a large collection of stone tools recovered during the excavation of several prehistoric sites in northeastern Mississippi and, obviously, I was able to stay.  While maintaining my research interest in stone tools, I have taken advantage of some very fruitful collaboration with research scientists working at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in southwestern Mississippi to develop a specialty in remote sensing and geographic information systems analysis.  More recently, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with archaeologists, a physical anthropologist, and an ethnohistorian from Ole Miss and three other universities in the region to study the Chickasaws during the early colonial period in Mississippi.

Research Interests
Lithic analysis relies on the mechanics of the way that stone fractures which is, of course, constant, allowing me to study stone tools from different cultures with a minimum of background research.  The majority of my analyses has, however, focused on prehistoric and early historic artifacts from Mississippi.  Likewise, my remote sensing research has dealt with data recovered from Mississippi and surrounding states.  Because the large, late prehistoric mound centers of northwestern Mississippi respond so well to remote sensing survey, I have used external funding and field school students to explore these sites.  This has led to an interest in understanding the internal organization of the societies that built these mounds.  The relatively recent (since about 1990) interest in the archaeology of the Chickasaw was much enhanced when Robbie Ethridge came to Ole Miss, bringing with her an expertise in the study of early documents relating to the colonial period in the Southeast.  Finally, as the Director of the Center for Archaeological Research, I find myself working on the broad range of projects that is dictated by Federal and State funding for archaeology done in preparation for major construction projects.  This external funding provides research opportunities for graduate and undergraduate students as well as thesis topics for graduate students.

Publications
My primary emphasis has been on journal articles but three edited books represent my research interests pretty well.  What is missing is a volume on Chickasaw archaeology and that is in the works.

	The Organization of Core Technology (Co-edited with Carol  A. Morrow).  Westview Press, Boulder, (out of print). 1987
	The Development of Southeastern Archaeology (edited volume).  University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa. 1993    <Development.jpg>
	Remote Sensing in Archaeology: An Explicitly North American Perspective (edited volume). University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa. 2006

Teaching
Because my appointment is half research and half teaching, I am able to offer only a reduced range of classes.  I regularly offer Anth 572/Soc 501, a basic statistic course designed for preparing both sociology and anthropology graduate students to use quantitative methods.  I also teach Anth 409/Anth 601 in which the major theories of anthropology from the mid 19th century until the present are reviewed with senior level undergraduate and first year graduate students.  I have recently inherited the graduate seminar in archaeological theory, Anth 608.  I also teach the summer field school in archaeology, Anth 335/Anth 605 for both graduates and undergraduates.  In recent years, Bryan Haley, a research associate with the Center for Archaeological Research, and I have taught a course of geophysical remote sensing techniques in archaeology when there are enough students who are interested in this topic.