Bio

Dr. Michael Waters is the Director of the Center and Executive Director of the North Star Archaeological Research Program.  He is known for his expertise in First American studies and geoarchaeology.  Waters has worked on  archaeological field projects in the United States, Mexico, Russia, Jamaica, and Yemen.  His current research projects include the investigation of the Debra L. Friedkin Site, Texas, Hall’s Cave, Texas, the Page-Ladsen site, Florida, and other sites.  He has authored or co-authored numerous journal articles and book chapters and is the author of Principles of Geoarchaeology: A North American Perspective.  Waters received the 2003 Kirk Bryan Award and the 2004 Rip Rapp Archaeological Geology Award given by the Geological Society of America. In 2017, he was named Texas A&M University Distinguished Professor.

Selected Publications

Waters, M. R., Keene, J. L., Forman, S. L., Prewitt, E. R., Carlson, D. L., and Wiederhold, J. E., 2018, Pre-Clovis Projectile Points at the Debra L. Friedkin site, Texas–Implications for the Late Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas. Science Advances, v. 4, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aat4505.

Becerra-Valdivia, L., Waters, M. R., Stafford, T. W., Anzick, S. L., Comeskey, D., Devièse, T., and Higham, T., 2018, Reassessing the Chronology of the Archaeological Site of Anzick. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, v. 115, p. 7000-7003.

Halligan, J., Waters, M. R.*, Perrotti, A., Owens, I. J., Feinberg, J. M., Bourne, M. D., Fenerty, B., Winsborough, B., Carlson, D., Fisher, D. C., Stafford, T. W., and Dunbar, J. S., 2016, Pre-Clovis occupation 14,550 years ago at the Page-Ladson site, Florida, and the peopling of the Americas. Science Advances, v. 2, no. 5, DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1600375. (*Note: As noted in the article, both Halligan and Waters contributed equally to the research and paper.)

Waters, M. R., and Jennings, T. A., 2015, The Hogeye Clovis Cache, Texas.  College, Station, Texas A&M University Press.

Waters, M. R., Stafford, T. W., Kooyman, B., and Hills, L. V. (2015) Late Pleistocene horse and camel hunting at the southern margin of the Ice-Free corridor: Reassessing the age of Wally’s Beach, Canada. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, v. 112, p. 4263-4267.

Rasmussen, M., Anzick, S. L., Waters, M. R., Skoglund, P., DeGiorgio, M., Stafford, T. W., Rasmussen, S., Moltke, I., Albrechtsen, A., Doyle, S. M., Poznik, G. D., Gudmundsdottir, V., Yadav, R., Malaspinas, A., White, S. S., Allentoft, M. E., Cornejo, O. E., Tambets, K., Eriksson, A., Heintzman, P. D., Karmin, M., Korneliussen, T. S., Meltzer, D. J., Pierre, T. L., Stenderup, J., Saag, L., Warmuth, V., Lopes, M. C., Malhi, R. S., Brunak, S., Sicheritz-Ponten, S., Barnes, I., Collins, M., Orlando, L., Balloux, F., Manica, A., Gupta, R., Metspalu, M., Bustamante, C. D., Jakobsson, M., Nielsen, R., and Willerslev, E. (2014) The geonome of a late Pleistocene human from a Clovis burial site in western Montana. Nature, v. 506, p. 225-229.

Waters, M. R., and Stafford, T. W., Jr., 2014, The First Americans: a review of the evidence for the Late-Pleistocene peopling of the Americas, in Graf, K. E., Ketron, C. V., and Waters, M. R., eds., Paleoamerican Odyssey: College Station, Texas A&M University Press, p. 541-560.

Waters, M. R., Stafford, T. W., McDonald, H. G., Gustafson, C., Rasmussen, M., Cappellini, E., Olsen, J. V., Szklarczyk, D., Jensen, L. J., Gilbert, M. T. P., and Willerslev, E., 2011, Pre-Clovis mastodon hunting 13,800 years ago at the Manis site, Washington. Science, v. 334, p. 351-353.

Waters, M. R., Pevny, C. D., and Carlson, D. L., 2011, Clovis Lithic Technology: Investigation of a Stratified Workshop at the Gault Site, Texas. College Station, Texas A&M University Press, 226 p.

Waters, M. R., Forman, S. L., Jennings, T. A., Nordt, L. C., Driese, S. G., Feinberg, J. M., Keene, J. L., Halligan, J., Lindquist, A., Pierson, J., Hallmark, C. T., Collins, M. B., and Wiederhold, J. B., 2011, The Buttermilk Creek Complex and the Origins of Clovis at the Debra L. Friedkin Site, Texas. Science, v. 331, p. 1599-1603.

Waters, M. R., and Stafford, T. W., 2007, Redefining the age of Clovis: Implications for the
peopling of the Americas: Science, v. 315, p. 1122-1126.

Waters, M. R., 1992, Principles of Geoarchaeology: A North American Perspective. Tucson, University of Arizona Press, 398 p.