About the SAA Awards
The Society for American Archaeology Awards recognize and honor knowledge and professional achievements at all career levels--from student and early career archaeologists to those who have made lasting contributions to the Society and the profession. The Call for Nominations opens in the fall of each year.
The 2025 Call for Award Nominations is open.
Deadlines and nomination information vary by award
Prior to any award recommendation being finalized and publicly announced, anyone recommended for an award, scholarship, or grant will be required to certify the following:
(a) I am not and have not ever been the subject of a discrimination or harassment lawsuit or related administrative complaint that resulted in an adverse finding; and(b) I do not have and have not had a current or pending disciplinary action such as suspension or termination of registration, resulting from a Register of Professional Archaeologists’ grievance investigation.
Professional Awards
Lifetime Achievement
Nomination/Submission Deadline: 04 Jan 2025
Award Description
The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to an archaeologist for specific accomplishments that are truly extraordinary, widely recognized as such, and of positive and lasting quality. Recognition can be granted to an archaeologist of any nationality for activities within any theoretical framework, for work in any part of the world, and for a wide range of areas relating to archaeology, including but not limited to research or service. Given as the Distinguished Service Award between 1975 and 2000, it became the Lifetime Achievement Award and was awarded as such for the first time in 2001.
Who Is Eligible to Submit Nominations or Apply for the Award
Any professional archaeologist may submit nominations for this award. Nominees must be SAA members by the time of their nomination, and the strongest nominees will have made significant contributions to both the organization and to the range of archaeological practice in which SAA members participate.
Nomination/Submission Materials Required
Nomination letters should include a letter of nomination, outlining the nominee’s lifetime accomplishments, as well as a curriculum vitae of the nominee. Additional letters of support are not required, but the strongest nominations, historically, have included a minimum of five (5) letters of support; some have had more than fifteen (15) letters of support. Nominators are required to collate all nomination materials into one single Adobe Acrobat pdf document to be emailed to the committee chair, Larry Zimmerman. We strongly recommend that the nominee be advised that she/he is being recommended for this award.
Other Special Requirements
Prior to any award recommendation being finalized and publicly announced, anyone recommended for an award, scholarship, or grant will be required to certify the following:
(a) I am not and have not ever been the subject of a discrimination or harassment lawsuit or related administrative complaint that resulted in an adverse finding; and(b) I do not have and have not had a current or pending disciplinary action such as suspension or termination of registration, resulting from a Register of Professional Archaeologists’ grievance investigation.
Nature of Award (e.g. monetary, medal, symposium)
The awardee is recognized by the SAA through a plaque presented during the business meeting held at the Annual Meeting, a citation in The SAA Archaeological Record, and acknowledgment on the awards page of the SAA Website.
Current Committee Charge
The committee solicits nominations and selects recipients for the Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is presented in recognition of a member who has performed truly extraordinary service (scholarly, pedagogical, and/or institutional) of positive and lasting quality to the Society for American Archaeology or to the profession as a whole. The Distinguished Service Award, first presented in 1975 (and annually beginning in 1980), was succeeded by the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.
Committee Composition
Committee composition is one chair and at least four members.
Term Length
Term length is three years. Individuals ending their terms cycle off the committee at the close of the Business Meeting held during the annual SAA Meeting, and new appointees begin their terms at this time.
Award Cycle
N/A
Committee Chair and End of Term
Larry Zimmerman [2025]
Committee Chair Contact Information
larzimme@iupui.edu
Committee Members and Ends of Terms
Selection or Evaluation Criteria
The criteria used to evaluate submissions for the Lifetime Achievement Award includes evidence of extraordinary lifetime accomplishments that have made great scholarly, pedagogical and/or institutional achievements.
Committee Deliberation Process (e.g. dates, venue)
The committee chair leads the deliberation process by chairing electronic meetings to reiterate criteria and discuss particular nominees. Committee members then send their rankings to the chair who tallies them. In cases of split decisions, the committee meets electronically again to discuss the relative weighting of particular criteria vis-à-vis the tied nominees and the committee votes again. If all nominations are received by the deadline, the committee makes a decision by the end of January and forwards its decision to the SAA Board.
2024 Kent G. Lightfoot
2023 Timothy Earle
2022 George Smith
2021 Lynne Sebastian
2020 Larry J. Zimmerman
2019 Lynne G. Goldstein
2018 Martin McAllister
2017 David Hurst Thomas
2016 Margaret W. Conkey
2015 Bruce D. Smith
2014 Jeremy Sabloff
2013 Henry Wright
2012 Bennie Carlton Keel
2011 W. Raymond Wood
2010 Patty Jo Watson
2009 Linda Cordell
2008 Lewis Binford
2007 Frank Hole
2006 Bruce Trigger
2005 George Carr Frison
2004 Ian Graham
2003 Don D. Fowler
2002 Jaime Litvak King
2001 Jeffrey S. Dean
The Distinguished Service Award, first presented in 1975 (and annually beginning in 1980), was succeeded by the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. Awardees of the Distinguished Service Award are as follows:
2000 William D. Lipe
1999 James A. Brown
1998 Raymond H. Thompson
1997 Dena Dincauze
1996 Robert McCormick Adams
1995 Stuart Struever
1994 Hester A. Davis
1993 George J. Gumerman
1992 John E. Yellen
1991 Douglas Schwartz
1990 Fred Wendorf
1989 George Irving Quimby
1988 Richard B. Woodbury and Nathalie F. S. Woodbury
1987 William A. Ritchie
1986 Waldo R. Wedel
1985 Emil Walter Haury
1984 James Bennett Griffin
1983 Hannah Marie Wormington
1982 Jesse David Jennings
1981 Albert Clanton Spaulding
1980 Gordon Randolph Willey
1975 Carl Haley Chapman and Charles Robert McGimsey III
Travel Awards
Lifetime Achievement
Nomination/Submission Deadline: 04 Jan 2025
Award Description
The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to an archaeologist for specific accomplishments that are truly extraordinary, widely recognized as such, and of positive and lasting quality. Recognition can be granted to an archaeologist of any nationality for activities within any theoretical framework, for work in any part of the world, and for a wide range of areas relating to archaeology, including but not limited to research or service. Given as the Distinguished Service Award between 1975 and 2000, it became the Lifetime Achievement Award and was awarded as such for the first time in 2001.
Who Is Eligible to Submit Nominations or Apply for the Award
Any professional archaeologist may submit nominations for this award. Nominees must be SAA members by the time of their nomination, and the strongest nominees will have made significant contributions to both the organization and to the range of archaeological practice in which SAA members participate.
Nomination/Submission Materials Required
Nomination letters should include a letter of nomination, outlining the nominee’s lifetime accomplishments, as well as a curriculum vitae of the nominee. Additional letters of support are not required, but the strongest nominations, historically, have included a minimum of five (5) letters of support; some have had more than fifteen (15) letters of support. Nominators are required to collate all nomination materials into one single Adobe Acrobat pdf document to be emailed to the committee chair, Larry Zimmerman. We strongly recommend that the nominee be advised that she/he is being recommended for this award.
Other Special Requirements
Prior to any award recommendation being finalized and publicly announced, anyone recommended for an award, scholarship, or grant will be required to certify the following:
(a) I am not and have not ever been the subject of a discrimination or harassment lawsuit or related administrative complaint that resulted in an adverse finding; and(b) I do not have and have not had a current or pending disciplinary action such as suspension or termination of registration, resulting from a Register of Professional Archaeologists’ grievance investigation.
Nature of Award (e.g. monetary, medal, symposium)
The awardee is recognized by the SAA through a plaque presented during the business meeting held at the Annual Meeting, a citation in The SAA Archaeological Record, and acknowledgment on the awards page of the SAA Website.
Current Committee Charge
The committee solicits nominations and selects recipients for the Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is presented in recognition of a member who has performed truly extraordinary service (scholarly, pedagogical, and/or institutional) of positive and lasting quality to the Society for American Archaeology or to the profession as a whole. The Distinguished Service Award, first presented in 1975 (and annually beginning in 1980), was succeeded by the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.
Committee Composition
Committee composition is one chair and at least four members.
Term Length
Term length is three years. Individuals ending their terms cycle off the committee at the close of the Business Meeting held during the annual SAA Meeting, and new appointees begin their terms at this time.
Award Cycle
N/A
Committee Chair and End of Term
Larry Zimmerman [2025]
Committee Chair Contact Information
larzimme@iupui.edu
Committee Members and Ends of Terms
Selection or Evaluation Criteria
The criteria used to evaluate submissions for the Lifetime Achievement Award includes evidence of extraordinary lifetime accomplishments that have made great scholarly, pedagogical and/or institutional achievements.
Committee Deliberation Process (e.g. dates, venue)
The committee chair leads the deliberation process by chairing electronic meetings to reiterate criteria and discuss particular nominees. Committee members then send their rankings to the chair who tallies them. In cases of split decisions, the committee meets electronically again to discuss the relative weighting of particular criteria vis-à-vis the tied nominees and the committee votes again. If all nominations are received by the deadline, the committee makes a decision by the end of January and forwards its decision to the SAA Board.
2024 Kent G. Lightfoot
2023 Timothy Earle
2022 George Smith
2021 Lynne Sebastian
2020 Larry J. Zimmerman
2019 Lynne G. Goldstein
2018 Martin McAllister
2017 David Hurst Thomas
2016 Margaret W. Conkey
2015 Bruce D. Smith
2014 Jeremy Sabloff
2013 Henry Wright
2012 Bennie Carlton Keel
2011 W. Raymond Wood
2010 Patty Jo Watson
2009 Linda Cordell
2008 Lewis Binford
2007 Frank Hole
2006 Bruce Trigger
2005 George Carr Frison
2004 Ian Graham
2003 Don D. Fowler
2002 Jaime Litvak King
2001 Jeffrey S. Dean
The Distinguished Service Award, first presented in 1975 (and annually beginning in 1980), was succeeded by the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. Awardees of the Distinguished Service Award are as follows:
2000 William D. Lipe
1999 James A. Brown
1998 Raymond H. Thompson
1997 Dena Dincauze
1996 Robert McCormick Adams
1995 Stuart Struever
1994 Hester A. Davis
1993 George J. Gumerman
1992 John E. Yellen
1991 Douglas Schwartz
1990 Fred Wendorf
1989 George Irving Quimby
1988 Richard B. Woodbury and Nathalie F. S. Woodbury
1987 William A. Ritchie
1986 Waldo R. Wedel
1985 Emil Walter Haury
1984 James Bennett Griffin
1983 Hannah Marie Wormington
1982 Jesse David Jennings
1981 Albert Clanton Spaulding
1980 Gordon Randolph Willey
1975 Carl Haley Chapman and Charles Robert McGimsey III
Student Awards
Lifetime Achievement
Nomination/Submission Deadline: 04 Jan 2025
Award Description
The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to an archaeologist for specific accomplishments that are truly extraordinary, widely recognized as such, and of positive and lasting quality. Recognition can be granted to an archaeologist of any nationality for activities within any theoretical framework, for work in any part of the world, and for a wide range of areas relating to archaeology, including but not limited to research or service. Given as the Distinguished Service Award between 1975 and 2000, it became the Lifetime Achievement Award and was awarded as such for the first time in 2001.
Who Is Eligible to Submit Nominations or Apply for the Award
Any professional archaeologist may submit nominations for this award. Nominees must be SAA members by the time of their nomination, and the strongest nominees will have made significant contributions to both the organization and to the range of archaeological practice in which SAA members participate.
Nomination/Submission Materials Required
Nomination letters should include a letter of nomination, outlining the nominee’s lifetime accomplishments, as well as a curriculum vitae of the nominee. Additional letters of support are not required, but the strongest nominations, historically, have included a minimum of five (5) letters of support; some have had more than fifteen (15) letters of support. Nominators are required to collate all nomination materials into one single Adobe Acrobat pdf document to be emailed to the committee chair, Larry Zimmerman. We strongly recommend that the nominee be advised that she/he is being recommended for this award.
Other Special Requirements
Prior to any award recommendation being finalized and publicly announced, anyone recommended for an award, scholarship, or grant will be required to certify the following:
(a) I am not and have not ever been the subject of a discrimination or harassment lawsuit or related administrative complaint that resulted in an adverse finding; and(b) I do not have and have not had a current or pending disciplinary action such as suspension or termination of registration, resulting from a Register of Professional Archaeologists’ grievance investigation.
Nature of Award (e.g. monetary, medal, symposium)
The awardee is recognized by the SAA through a plaque presented during the business meeting held at the Annual Meeting, a citation in The SAA Archaeological Record, and acknowledgment on the awards page of the SAA Website.
Current Committee Charge
The committee solicits nominations and selects recipients for the Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is presented in recognition of a member who has performed truly extraordinary service (scholarly, pedagogical, and/or institutional) of positive and lasting quality to the Society for American Archaeology or to the profession as a whole. The Distinguished Service Award, first presented in 1975 (and annually beginning in 1980), was succeeded by the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.
Committee Composition
Committee composition is one chair and at least four members.
Term Length
Term length is three years. Individuals ending their terms cycle off the committee at the close of the Business Meeting held during the annual SAA Meeting, and new appointees begin their terms at this time.
Award Cycle
N/A
Committee Chair and End of Term
Larry Zimmerman [2025]
Committee Chair Contact Information
larzimme@iupui.edu
Committee Members and Ends of Terms
Selection or Evaluation Criteria
The criteria used to evaluate submissions for the Lifetime Achievement Award includes evidence of extraordinary lifetime accomplishments that have made great scholarly, pedagogical and/or institutional achievements.
Committee Deliberation Process (e.g. dates, venue)
The committee chair leads the deliberation process by chairing electronic meetings to reiterate criteria and discuss particular nominees. Committee members then send their rankings to the chair who tallies them. In cases of split decisions, the committee meets electronically again to discuss the relative weighting of particular criteria vis-à-vis the tied nominees and the committee votes again. If all nominations are received by the deadline, the committee makes a decision by the end of January and forwards its decision to the SAA Board.
2024 Kent G. Lightfoot
2023 Timothy Earle
2022 George Smith
2021 Lynne Sebastian
2020 Larry J. Zimmerman
2019 Lynne G. Goldstein
2018 Martin McAllister
2017 David Hurst Thomas
2016 Margaret W. Conkey
2015 Bruce D. Smith
2014 Jeremy Sabloff
2013 Henry Wright
2012 Bennie Carlton Keel
2011 W. Raymond Wood
2010 Patty Jo Watson
2009 Linda Cordell
2008 Lewis Binford
2007 Frank Hole
2006 Bruce Trigger
2005 George Carr Frison
2004 Ian Graham
2003 Don D. Fowler
2002 Jaime Litvak King
2001 Jeffrey S. Dean
The Distinguished Service Award, first presented in 1975 (and annually beginning in 1980), was succeeded by the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. Awardees of the Distinguished Service Award are as follows:
2000 William D. Lipe
1999 James A. Brown
1998 Raymond H. Thompson
1997 Dena Dincauze
1996 Robert McCormick Adams
1995 Stuart Struever
1994 Hester A. Davis
1993 George J. Gumerman
1992 John E. Yellen
1991 Douglas Schwartz
1990 Fred Wendorf
1989 George Irving Quimby
1988 Richard B. Woodbury and Nathalie F. S. Woodbury
1987 William A. Ritchie
1986 Waldo R. Wedel
1985 Emil Walter Haury
1984 James Bennett Griffin
1983 Hannah Marie Wormington
1982 Jesse David Jennings
1981 Albert Clanton Spaulding
1980 Gordon Randolph Willey
1975 Carl Haley Chapman and Charles Robert McGimsey III
Student Fellowship Awards
Lifetime Achievement
Nomination/Submission Deadline: 04 Jan 2025
Award Description
The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to an archaeologist for specific accomplishments that are truly extraordinary, widely recognized as such, and of positive and lasting quality. Recognition can be granted to an archaeologist of any nationality for activities within any theoretical framework, for work in any part of the world, and for a wide range of areas relating to archaeology, including but not limited to research or service. Given as the Distinguished Service Award between 1975 and 2000, it became the Lifetime Achievement Award and was awarded as such for the first time in 2001.
Who Is Eligible to Submit Nominations or Apply for the Award
Any professional archaeologist may submit nominations for this award. Nominees must be SAA members by the time of their nomination, and the strongest nominees will have made significant contributions to both the organization and to the range of archaeological practice in which SAA members participate.
Nomination/Submission Materials Required
Nomination letters should include a letter of nomination, outlining the nominee’s lifetime accomplishments, as well as a curriculum vitae of the nominee. Additional letters of support are not required, but the strongest nominations, historically, have included a minimum of five (5) letters of support; some have had more than fifteen (15) letters of support. Nominators are required to collate all nomination materials into one single Adobe Acrobat pdf document to be emailed to the committee chair, Larry Zimmerman. We strongly recommend that the nominee be advised that she/he is being recommended for this award.
Other Special Requirements
Prior to any award recommendation being finalized and publicly announced, anyone recommended for an award, scholarship, or grant will be required to certify the following:
(a) I am not and have not ever been the subject of a discrimination or harassment lawsuit or related administrative complaint that resulted in an adverse finding; and(b) I do not have and have not had a current or pending disciplinary action such as suspension or termination of registration, resulting from a Register of Professional Archaeologists’ grievance investigation.
Nature of Award (e.g. monetary, medal, symposium)
The awardee is recognized by the SAA through a plaque presented during the business meeting held at the Annual Meeting, a citation in The SAA Archaeological Record, and acknowledgment on the awards page of the SAA Website.
Current Committee Charge
The committee solicits nominations and selects recipients for the Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is presented in recognition of a member who has performed truly extraordinary service (scholarly, pedagogical, and/or institutional) of positive and lasting quality to the Society for American Archaeology or to the profession as a whole. The Distinguished Service Award, first presented in 1975 (and annually beginning in 1980), was succeeded by the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.
Committee Composition
Committee composition is one chair and at least four members.
Term Length
Term length is three years. Individuals ending their terms cycle off the committee at the close of the Business Meeting held during the annual SAA Meeting, and new appointees begin their terms at this time.
Award Cycle
N/A
Committee Chair and End of Term
Larry Zimmerman [2025]
Committee Chair Contact Information
larzimme@iupui.edu
Committee Members and Ends of Terms
Selection or Evaluation Criteria
The criteria used to evaluate submissions for the Lifetime Achievement Award includes evidence of extraordinary lifetime accomplishments that have made great scholarly, pedagogical and/or institutional achievements.
Committee Deliberation Process (e.g. dates, venue)
The committee chair leads the deliberation process by chairing electronic meetings to reiterate criteria and discuss particular nominees. Committee members then send their rankings to the chair who tallies them. In cases of split decisions, the committee meets electronically again to discuss the relative weighting of particular criteria vis-à-vis the tied nominees and the committee votes again. If all nominations are received by the deadline, the committee makes a decision by the end of January and forwards its decision to the SAA Board.
2024 Kent G. Lightfoot
2023 Timothy Earle
2022 George Smith
2021 Lynne Sebastian
2020 Larry J. Zimmerman
2019 Lynne G. Goldstein
2018 Martin McAllister
2017 David Hurst Thomas
2016 Margaret W. Conkey
2015 Bruce D. Smith
2014 Jeremy Sabloff
2013 Henry Wright
2012 Bennie Carlton Keel
2011 W. Raymond Wood
2010 Patty Jo Watson
2009 Linda Cordell
2008 Lewis Binford
2007 Frank Hole
2006 Bruce Trigger
2005 George Carr Frison
2004 Ian Graham
2003 Don D. Fowler
2002 Jaime Litvak King
2001 Jeffrey S. Dean
The Distinguished Service Award, first presented in 1975 (and annually beginning in 1980), was succeeded by the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001. Awardees of the Distinguished Service Award are as follows:
2000 William D. Lipe
1999 James A. Brown
1998 Raymond H. Thompson
1997 Dena Dincauze
1996 Robert McCormick Adams
1995 Stuart Struever
1994 Hester A. Davis
1993 George J. Gumerman
1992 John E. Yellen
1991 Douglas Schwartz
1990 Fred Wendorf
1989 George Irving Quimby
1988 Richard B. Woodbury and Nathalie F. S. Woodbury
1987 William A. Ritchie
1986 Waldo R. Wedel
1985 Emil Walter Haury
1984 James Bennett Griffin
1983 Hannah Marie Wormington
1982 Jesse David Jennings
1981 Albert Clanton Spaulding
1980 Gordon Randolph Willey
1975 Carl Haley Chapman and Charles Robert McGimsey III
Scholarships: for undergraduate and graduate student scholarships, see the Cheryl L. Wase Memorial Scholarship, Matthew Tobin Cappetta Archaeological Scholarship, Student Excellence in Archaeology Scholarships, and Native American Scholarships.