Vance T Holliday

Biographic Data

ID123663
NAMEVance T Holliday
GIVEN NAMESVance T
FAMILY NAMEHolliday
SIGNATUREHOLLIDAY V T
AFFILIATIONSUniversity of Arizona
ORCID0000-0002-7361-3911
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS106
TOTAL CITATIONS758
AUTHOR COUNT104
EDITOR COUNT2
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1980
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX15

  • Evaluation of the Geoarchaeological Study that Proposes a Middle Holocene Age for Monte Verde II, Chile

    Open AccessM R Waters, Jessi J Halligan et al.ARTICLEPaleoAmerica2026

    The late Pleistocene age of Monte Verde II (MV-II), Chile, has been challenged based on a regional geoarchaeological study of Chinchihuapi Creek [Surovell, T., C. Méndez, J.-L. García, C. Lüthens, J. M. Thompson, and C. Latorre. 2026a. “A Mid-Holocene Age for Monte Verde Challenges the Timeline of Human Colonization of South America.” Science 391: 1283–1288]. The authors of that study propose that the early archaeological component at MV-II dates…

  • Gypsum Overlook: An Early Holocene Occupation in the Northern Tularosa Basin, New Mexico

    Matthew Cuba, Brian Andrews et al.ARTICLEJournal of Field Archaeology2026References: 39

    The remains of several 8800 year old structures and associated hearths/roasting features were recently discovered along the trailing edge of the White Sands gypsum dune field in southern New Mexico on the White Sands Missile Range. Formed of anhydrite (burned gypsum), these had been exposed by erosion and in some instances form pedestals above the surrounding ground surface. Found with the features were chipped and groundstone tools, some of the …

  • Introduction to Papers in Honor of Bruce Huckell

    Vance T Holliday, Lisa W Huckell et al.ARTICLEPaleoAmerica2025

    This paper is written as an introduction to this special issue edition of PaleoAmerica – a collection of papers in honor of Bruce B. Huckell (1950–2024). The purpose is to provide a brief overview of the life and career of Bruce, with special attention given to his contributions to Paleoindian archaeology. Along the way, this paper attempts to connect this history with each of the papers included in this collection, which provide some examples of…

  • Bruce Huckell and the Folsom Record of the West Mesa, New Mexico

    J David Kilby, Christopher Merriman et al.ARTICLEPaleoAmerica2025

    The West Mesa is an expansive Eolian plain atop a basalt-capped terrace of the Rio Grande in central New Mexico. Seminal work carried out in the 1960s–1970s led to the identification of an abundant Paleoindian record across the surface; Bruce Huckell initiated a program of renewed investigation in the region in the late 1990s. He, along with students and volunteers, conducted archaeological surveys and excavations at Rio Rancho, Boca Negra Wash, …

  • Buckner Ranch, Bee County, Texas (41BE2): E.H. Sellards’ Forgotten Site

    Vance T Holliday, Kenneth Brown et al.ARTICLEPaleoAmerica2025

    The Buckner Ranch site (41BE2) excavated 1938–1940 produced Paleoindian and Archaic artifacts from terrace fill. It was largely forgotten in the archaeological literature due to questions of artifact provenience and geologic context. Paleoindian material was recovered from alluvial sands and gravels ~35 cm thick in reverse stratigraphic order. Early Archaic artifacts were higher in the section in palustrine fines. Investigations at the site 2016–…

  • Onset of dune construction based on archaeological evidence, White Sands, New Mexico

    Open AccessVance T Holliday, Matthew Cuba et al.ARTICLEQuaternary Research2023

    The White Sands dune field is the largest gypsum dune system in the world, derived from deflation of paleo-Lake Otero deposits. Understanding the timing of initial dune construction, and therefore lake deflation, is critical for understanding regional landscape evolution, including the history of lake desiccation. The onset of dune construction is currently estimated at ~8000 to 6500 cal yr BP, but numerical age control is limited. Archaeological…

  • Glacial kettles as archives of early human settlement along the Northern Rocky Mountain Front

    Open AccessFrançois Lanoë, M Nieves Zedeño et al.ARTICLEQuaternary Research2022

    The Northern Rocky Mountain Front (hereafter Northern Front) is a prominent geographic feature in archaeological models of human dispersal in the terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene of North America. Testing those models has been arduous because of local geomorphological factors that tend to obliterate or otherwise limit access to archaeological finds of relevant age. In this paper, we present well-stratified archaeological and environmental …

  • The Naco Clovis Site: Old Excavations and New Dates

    B B Huckell, C Vance Haynes et al.ARTICLEPaleoAmerica2022

    Archival research demonstrates that a previously unpublished second season of excavations took place at the Naco Clovis site in 1953, more than doubling the extent of the excavated area and revealing additional bones pertaining to a second mammoth. In 2020 small pieces of charcoal were found in sediment adhering to the distal fragment of a mammoth ulna from the Naco site. The bone was part of a 2011 donation to the Arizona State Museum by David N…

  • Reply to “Evidence for Humans at White Sands National Park during the Last Glacial Maximum Could Actually be for Clovis People ∼13,000 Years Ago” by C. Vance Haynes, Jr

    Jeffrey S Pigati, Kathleen B Springer et al.ARTICLEPaleoAmerica2022

    Bennett et al. (2021, Science 373, 1528–1531) reported that ancient human footprints discovered in White Sands National Park, New Mexico date to between ∼23,000 and 21,000 years ago. Haynes (2022, PaleoAmerica, this issue) proposes two alternate hypotheses to explain the antiquity of the footprints. One is that they were made by humans crossing over older sediments sometime during the Holocene. This is incorrect as there are Pleistocene megafauna…

  • A North American Plains Perspective on the Early Upper Paleolithic of the East European Plain

    J F Hoffecker, Sergey Lisitsyn et al.ARTICLEStratum plus Archaeology and…2022

    The East European Plain (EEP), which is the dominant landform on the continent of Europe, exhibits many parallels to the High Plains of North America with respect to landscape and biota. These parallels are reflected in the early prehistoric archaeological record of both regions and a “North American Plains (NAP) perspective” is applied here to the early Upper Paleolithic (EUP) between ~45 000 and ~30 000 cal BP of the EEP. As among First Peoples…

  • Clovis Stone Tools from El Fin del Mundo, Sonora, Mexico: Site Use and Associations between Localities

    Open AccessIsmael Sánchez-Morales, G Sanchez et al.ARTICLEAmerican Antiquity2022References: 21

    El Fin del Mundo is an archaeological site in Sonora, northwest Mexico, that contains a buried Clovis megafauna kill in a lowland area and concentrations of Clovis and later lithic materials scattered on the deflated surface of the surrounding uplands. The Clovis lithic assemblage from the site, identified by its technological and typological features, has been classified into three modes: bifaces, unifaces, and blades. The kill locality only con…

  • Evidence of humans in North America during the Last Glacial Maximum

    Open AccessMichael James Bennett, David Bustos et al.ARTICLEScience2021

    Early footsteps in the Americas Despite a plethora of archaeological research over the past century, the timing of human migration into the Americas is still far from resolved. In a study of exposed outcrops of Lake Otero in White Sands National Park in New Mexico, Bennett et al . reveal numerous human footprints dating to about 23,000 to 21,000 years ago. These finds indicate the presence of humans in North America for approximately two millenni…

  • Bayesian Revision of the Folsom Age Range Using IntCal20

    Briggs Buchanan, J David Kilby et al.ARTICLEPaleoAmerica2021

    Briggs Buchanana*, J. David Kilbyb , Marcus J. Hamiltonc, Jason M. LaBelled, Kelton A. Meyerd , Jacob Holland-Lulewicze, Brian Andrewsf , Brooke M. Morgang, Brendon Asherh, Vance T. Hollidayi , Gregory W. L. Hodginsj & Todd A. Surovellk* a Department of Anthropology, University of Tulsa, Tulsa, OK, USAb Department of Anthropology, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USAc Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at San Antonio, San Anto…

  • South American geoarchaeology: Contributions after the 21st National Chilean Archaeology Conference

    Open AccessLuca Sitzia, Paula C Ugalde et al.ARTICLEGeoarchaeology2021References: 22

    In this special issue, articles include research from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Uruguay, plus a special paper from the United States of America. Several of the articles are from Chilean scientists and/or focus on Chilean geoarchaeology and are intended to reflect the spirit of the symposium carried out during the Congreso Nacional de Arqueología Chilena 2018 (National Chilean Archaeology Conference). The topics, techniques, and rese…

  • Processes of Paleoindian site and desert pavement formation in the Atacama Desert, Chile

    Open AccessPaula C Ugalde, Jay Quade et al.ARTICLEQuaternary Research2020

    A distinct feature of many of the earliest archaeological sites (13,000-11,200 cal yr BP) at the core of the Atacama Desert is that they lie at or just below the surface, often encased in desert pavements. In this study, we compare these sites and undisturbed desert pavements to understand archaeological site formation and pavement development and recovery. Our results indicate these pavements and their soils are poorly developed regardless of th…

  • Haynes, Jr., C. Vance

    Open AccessVance T HollidayCHAPTEREncyclopedia of Global Archaeology2020

  • Geoarchaeology and the search for the first North Americans

    Open AccessVance T HollidayARTICLEGeoarchaeology2020References: 40

    The Earth sciences have played a key role in understanding the origins and subsequent development of the first American cultures (“Paleoindians”), a broad and often contentious topic in archaeology. Geoarchaeological approaches used to understand the peopling of North America are equally broad at a range of spatial scales. At subcontinental scales, geoarchaeological research revolves around lowered seas levels and fluctuating glacier margins. Mod…

  • Geoarchaeology of the Water Canyon Paleoindian site, west‐central New Mexico

    Open AccessVance T Holliday, Robert Dello‐russo et al.ARTICLEGeoarchaeology2019References: 9

    Water Canyon is a rare buried, multicomponent, stratified Paleoindian site in west‐central New Mexico. This paper presents a geoarchaeological assessment of the site as part of a broader interdisciplinary investigation of its paleoenvironmental history and archaeology. The archaeology is associated with ancient wetland deposits (Stratum 6) within an alluvial fan. The fan formed initially through the late Pleistocene. Formation of the fan stopped …

  • The Dating of a Middle Paleolithic Blade Industry in Southern Russia and Its Relationship to the Initial Upper Paleolithic

    Open AccessJ F Hoffecker, Vance T Holliday et al.ARTICLEJournal of Paleolithic Archaeology2019Cited by: 5References: 31

  • Paleoecology of a ciénega at the Mockingbird Gap Site, Chupadera Draw, New Mexico

    Open AccessManuel R Palacios-Fest, Manuel R Palacios‐Fest et al.ARTICLEQuaternary Research2018

    The Mockingbird Gap Clovis site is a surface archaeological site located along Chupadera Draw in central New Mexico. Coring of the draw during archaeological investigation of the Clovis assemblage on the adjacent uplands revealed evidence for a regionally rare continuous, stratified depositional record beginning immediately before the Younger Dryas chronozone (YDC). Thirty sediment samples from the draw adjacent to the archaeological site were an…

  • Additional Dating at Williamson-Plainview and Type Milnesand Sites in Eastern New Mexico

    J K Feathers, Vance T HollidayARTICLEPaleoAmerica2018

    Luminescence dates are provided for the Williamson-Plainview and Milnesand sites in the Southern High Plains, eastern New Mexico. These supplement radiocarbon dates reported earlier. The luminescence dates are consistent with the late Pleistocene radiocarbon dates

  • Eileen Johnson's legacy of research

    Open AccessVance T HollidayARTICLEQuaternary International2018

  • The hunting of horse and the problem of the Aurignacian on the central plain of Eastern Europe

    Open AccessJ F Hoffecker, Vance T Holliday et al.ARTICLEQuaternary International2018Cited by: 4References: 15

  • Soils in Archaeological Research

    Open AccessVance T HollidayCHAPTERInternational Encyclopedia of…2017

    Soils are a potential source of much information in archaeological studies at all scales, from specific archaeological sites to broad regions. Applications of soils in the study of the human past include soil geomorphology, the geoarchaeological principles of site formation processes, and the identification of human impacts. Soil surveys are a useful tool for interpreting landscapes but with the caveat that they were designed for modern planning …

  • The Earliest People in the Southwest

    Jesse A M Ballenger, Jesse Ballenger et al.BOOKThe Oxford Handbook of Southwest…2017

    Paleoindian occupations across the Southwest are known largely from surface artifact collections because relatively few in situ sites are known. Clovis is the exception, with one of the world’s highest concentrations of Clovis mammoth kills occurring in southeast Arizona (Murray Springs, Naco, and Lehner). Otherwise Clovis is thinly scattered across New Mexico, Chihuahua, and Sonora. Folsom is the most common Paleoindian projectile point type in …