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Bennie Carlton Keel

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Dr. Bennie Carlton Keel is an American archaeologist who has contributed significantly to the field for over seven decades beginning in the late 1950s. Most notable are his contributions to the foundational understanding of Cherokee archaeology and culture, North Carolina archaeology, and to the development of Americanist cultural resource management (CRM).

Personal Life

Dr. Keel was born in 1934 and grew up in Panama City, Florida. He married Alice Ruth Coutant in June 1955 who died in 2006. He and Alice had two sons. In 2007 He married Ida Sue Etheridge Smith who died in 2009. In 2018 he divorced Elaine Howell who he had married in 2011.

Education

He graduated from Bay High School in 1952 and completed one year of college at Florida State University (FSU) prior to serving in the U.S. Army for three years (1954-1957) as a Military Policeman with the 11th Airborne Division. He was introduced to anthropology in a introductory social science course taught by Charles H. Fairbanks and attended the 1959 FSU archaeological field school in the Weiss Reservoir in northern Alabama.

He completed his B.S. at FSU in 1960, and in 1965 earned his M.S. from FSU. His thesis was published in Southern Indian Studies as The Preservation of Archaeological and Ethnological Specimens[1]. Bennie earned his PhD in 1972 at Washington State University in Pullman, WA. His dissertation, Woodland Phases of the Appalachian Summit Area[2] was revised and published by the University of Tennessee Press as Cherokee Archaeology: A Study of the Appalachian Summit [3]. Richard Daugherty was his major professor and committee chairman.

Career

Over the summer of 1960 he directed the final Weiss Reservoir data recovery program [4]. From 1961-1963 he worked under Dr. Joffre Coe as an archaeologist at the Town Creek Indian Mound in North Carolina.  In the summer of 1963, he became the senior staff archaeologist at Research Laboratories of Anthropology (RLA), now called Research Laboratories of Archaeology at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Bennie served in this position for ten years. From 1973-1976 he was an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio directing the university’s archaeological field school in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Normandy Reservoir project[5]. After receiving tenure and promotion in early 1976 he resigned and in June 1976 he joined National Parks Service (NPS) as Chief of Interagency Archaeological Services Atlanta and in February 1980 he moved to Washington DC where he served as the Departmental Consulting Archaeologist and NPS Assistant Director – Archaeology until June 1990 when he transferred to the NPS Southeast Archaeology Center (SEAC) in Tallahassee, Florida as Regional Archaeologist and Center Director until his retirement in March of 2008 [6].

Major Archaeological Contributions

During his tenure at the RLA he conducted surveys and excavations from Manteo, NC to Murphy, NC. The more significant of these efforts include the excavations at the Forbush, Hardins, Belk Farms, Upper Saratown sites and the Red Springs Mound [7], His six field seasons (1964-67; 1970-71) in western North Carolina resulted in his Cherokee Archaeology [3], which serves as a foundation for modern Cherokee research.

During his time at the Southeast Archaeological Center he carried out multi-year excavations at Charles Pinckney National Historic Site [8], Fort Raleigh National Historic Site and Cane River Creole National Historic Site[9][10]. Before retiring, Dr. Keel worked with the National Park Service, Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation to develop a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for the land exchange between the Band and Great Smoky Mountain National Park. This involved creating the data recovery plan, which was a multimillion-dollar project paid for by the Band[11]. In his retirement he continues to contribute to Cherokee archaeology [12].

Contributions to Cultural Resource Management

Salvage archaeology is a starting point in the establishment of Americanist CRM as a profession in the discipline of archaeology. Dr. Keel played a fundamental role in several significant salvage archaeology projects which set the stage for his career developed as CRM as a professional discipline expanded in the United States. Salvage archaeology projects that Dr. Keel has been a part of include his first experience in the field at the Hog Town Bayou site in 1959. Other prominent salvage projects Bennie has been a part of include the Marmes Rockshelter conducted by Washington State University from 1968-1969[13].

Bennie played a major role in the authorship and passing of critical legislation and regulations directed at preservation of cultural heritage. This includes the passage of the Abandoned Shipwrecks Act [14] and the guidelines for its implementation. Keel’s writing of key sections of the Archaeological Resource Protection Act (ARPA) and its regulations. Additionally, Bennie developed the regulations (36 CFR 79) for the amendment to ARPA to establish much needed procedures for the curation of federally owned and administered archaeological collections. The National Archaeological Database (NADB) and the NPS Cultural Sites Inventory was developed under his direction. He developed a peer review program for federal archaeological projects [15] and cultural conservation [16] and reported to Congress on Federal Archaeology. He promoted the publication of popular summaries of major projects for the general public [17][6].

Awards and Honors

Bennie was named the 1960 Fellow in the Social Sciences at FSU and in 1967 awarded a National Defense Education Act fellowship at WSU. The Society of Professional Archaeologists (later named the Register of Professional Archaeologists) awarded him its Distinguished Achievement Award In 1993[18]. In 2008 he was awarded the Southeastern Archaeological Conference’s Lifetime Award[19] and four years later he was awarded the Society for American Archaeology’s Lifetime Achievement Award [6].

  1. ^ Keel, Bennie C. (1963). "The Preservation and Conservation of Archaeological and Ethnological Specimens". Southern Indian Studies.
  2. ^ Keel, Bennie C. Woodland Phases of the Appalachian Summit Area. Pullman, Washington: Department of Anthropology, Washington State University.
  3. ^ a b Keel, Bennie C (1976). Cherokee Archaeology: a Study of the Appalachian Summit. Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press.
  4. ^ DeJarnette, D. L., Kurjack, E. B., & Keel, B. C. (1973). "Archaeological Investigations in the Weiss Reservior of the Coosa River in Alabama". Journal of Alabama Archaeology.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ^ Davis, Stephen R. P. (1978). "1975 Excavation at the Wiser-Stephens I Site (40CF81)". Tennessee Valley Authority Publications. 19.
  6. ^ a b c Aubry, Michele C. (2014), Smith, Claire (ed.), "Keel, Bennie C.", Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, New York, NY: Springer, pp. 4261–4263, doi:10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2_1229, ISBN 978-1-4419-0465-2, retrieved 2021-07-27
  7. ^ Davis, Stephen R.P. (2010). "The Contributions of Bennie Carlton Keel to the Development of North Carolina Archaeology". Southeastern Archaeology. 29: 1–7.
  8. ^ Keel, Bennie C., Kowal, Amy C. (2014). The Archeology of Charles Pinckney's Snee Farm: A Summary of Fieldwork 1987- 1999. Tallahassee, Florida: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, Southeast Archeological Center.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  9. ^ Keel, Bennie (1999). A comprehensive subsurface investigation at Magnolia Plantation : 16NA295, Cane River Creole National Historical Park, Natchitoches, Louisiana. https://www.si.edu/object/siris_sil_1095853. {{cite book}}: External link in |location= (help)CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ^ Miller, Christina, and Susan E. Wood (2000). Oakland Plantation: A Comprehensive Subsurface Investigation. http://npshistory.com/publications/cari/index.htm. {{cite book}}: External link in |location= (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  11. ^ Keel, Bennie C. (2007). The Ravensford Tract Archaeological Project. Southeast Archaeological Center, National Park Service.
  12. ^ Keel, Bennie C. (2019). "The Genesis of Cherokee Archaeology in Western North Carolina, North Carolina Archaeology". North Carolina Archaeology. 68.
  13. ^ Fryxell, Roland, Keel, Bennie C. (1969). Emergency Salvage Excavations for the Recovery of Early Human Remains and Related Scientific Materials from the Marmes Rockshelter Archaeological Site, Southeastern Washington May 3-December 15 1968. U.S. Army Corps of Engineer District Walla Walla.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  14. ^ "NPS Archeology Program: Abandoned Shipwreck Act (ASA)". www.nps.gov. Retrieved 2021-07-27.
  15. ^ Keel, B.C., Little, B.J., Graham, M., Carroll, M., McManamon, F.P. (2007). Peer Review of Federal Archaeological Projects and Programs. Washington Department of the Interior Departmental Consulting Archaeologist, National Park Service Archaeology Program.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  16. ^ Loomis, Ormond H. (1983). Cultural Conservation: the Protection of Cultural Heritage in the United States: a Study. National Parks Service.
  17. ^ Keel, B.C., McManamon, F.P., Smith, G.S. (1989). "Federal archaeology: the current program. Annual report to congress on the Federal Archaeology Program FY1985 and FY1986". United States Government Printing Office.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ Register of Professional Archaeologists. "Awards History".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  19. ^ "Lifetime Achievement Awards Recipients".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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