ASU archaeologist recognized for authentic writing on Hohokam practices

Arizona State University archaeologist Glen Rice has won the 2014 Don D. and Catherine S. Fowler Prize for his forthcoming book, "Sending the Spirits Home: The Archaeology of Hohokam Mortuary Practices."

The prize recognizes “substantive research and quality writing” that “focus on the human experience in the American West.” The award was bestowed by the University of Utah Press in an October ceremony.

Rice specializes in the Hohokam and Mogollon cultures. He has overseen numerous excavations, including many associated with Arizona Department of Transportation freeway construction near Hohokam sites.

He was part of a team that received a grant to digitize the reports from one such project in Phoenix. This information is now accessible via the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR).

For his book, Rice used data from several of these sites, as well as Akimel and Tohono O’Odham ethnographic data. Many believe that the Hohokam – who flourished in central Arizona for over 1,000 years before mysteriously vanishing in the fifteenth century – transitioned into the O’Odham.

Rice is a professor emeritus in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and formerly headed ASU’s Office of Cultural Resource Management.