Phyllis Morse


Phyllis Morse is an American archaeologist.

Biography

Anderson was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1934, and attended Crystal Lake Community High, Crystal Lake, Illinois, graduating in June 1952. She became interested in archaeology while studying anthropology at the University of Michigan. In the 1950s there were fewer women at University, let alone any who chose that discipline. She received a BA in anthropology in June 1956 and an MA in anthropology in June 1958 both from Michigan.
Anderson was to meet her future husband, Dan F. Morse, because she was not allowed to be the sole woman in the field. She was, however, permitted to be the lab assistant for the Etowah site excavations in 1958 with Dan. They were recruited by Dr. James B. Griffin, their mentor at Michigan and the excavation was led by Lewis Larsen. As a married couple both doing archaeology throughout their careers, the Morses were nearly unique in the field of archaeology. Together, often with their three sons on the digs, they worked in many parts of the southeastern US. They spent thirty years in northeast Arkansas at the Arkansas Archeological Survey’s Arkansas State University Survey Station in Jonesboro. The culmination of this work was their joint overview Archaeology of the Central Mississippi Valley. Through the 1970s and 1980s Phyllis Morse worked on research projects for the Arkansas Archaeological Survey, including at the Zebree site, taught at Arkansas State University and undertook museum consultancy work. In 1978 Phyllis Morse was awarded a research grant for work at the Parkin site, work that resulted in a 1981 monograph. She began Possum Antiques in 1979 and remains active in antique and book selling and was a member of the Arkansas Antique Dealers Association. She also served on the national board of the Midwest Tool Collectors Association, the Arkansas State board of the League of Women Voters, and was an exhibit consultant for the Memphis Pink Palace Museum and the Memphis Mud Island Museum.

Key sites

The esteem in which Dan and his wife Phyllis are held, is represented best by the collection of essays published for their retirement. The contributors wanted to honor their contribution to Arkansas archaeology. Mary Kwas, in the first chapter, chronicles their careers and includes statements of personal and professional testament that leaves no doubt of the breadth and depth of their work. Phyllis and Dan Morse received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Southeastern Archaeological Conference in 2005.
Additionally, on retirement, the Quapaw tribe presented them with colorful tribal blankets in honor of the sensitive work that had been undertaken on their ancestors’ burial mounds.

Selected publications