Fred B. Kniffen: As Archaeologist

Abstract

Although a doctoral student of Carl Sauer, Fred Kniffen was a trained archaeologist when he arrived in Louisiana in the late 1920s. He had course work with Alfred L. Kroeher and had served as his field assistant at the University of California, Berkeley. One of his first pieces of research after joining the faculty at Louisiana State University was concerned with the geomorphic history of Bayou Manchac which was at one time the most upstream distributary of the Mississippi River. There he recognized three different pottery assemblages that he could relate to different time periods. These could not only be revealing in the history of Bayou Manchac, but to other features of the Mississippi. Subsequently, this concept was applied in the Southeast in general. During the development of federal aid to archaeology programs during the Great Depression, Kniffen became an organizing force behind the creation of a multifaceted endeavor in Louisiana. Again profiting from his experience with Kroeber in California, Kniffen turned his attention to the historic American Indians of Louisiana, producing publications and students in that field.