An alum of The University of California Berkeley, James A. Bennyhoff did much of his research on the prehistory of California and the Great Basin. In 1990, The Society for California Archaeology (SCA) presented him with The Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing his incredible career in California. Bennyhoff died in 1993 and, subsequently, a memorial fund was created in his honor. The James A. Bennyhoff Memorial Fund, along with The SCA, presents an award annually to an archaeologist in the general area of California prehistory. Bennyhoff's prestigious career spanned several decades and included numerous publications which required working with other archaeologists of similar prominence in his field.
In the September of 1953 Bennyhoff worked with students from UC-Berkeley in studying primary constructions of The Mission San Francisco Solano that could help them to understand the progression of architecture within the site. This was what is known as the Sonoma Mission because of its location in Sonoma County, CA. The Sonoma mission was one of California's first archaeological digs and James A. Bennyhoff has his name attached to it.
In 1958 he began to study olivella sea shells that were used as decorations by early civilizations. He developed this typology (attached) to compare and contrast the shells with those found in other areas, thus he had a legitimate basis to study the migration of cultures as well as cross-culture contact. This means he could look at shells found elsewhere and use his typology to decide if they matched. He would then know if a civilization had moved or come in contact with another culture. Formulating this typology was Bennyhoff's crowning achievement of his career. It has been referenced in many scientific journals and has raised Bennyhoff to a higher level of respect as an archaeologist.
James A. Bennyhoff is well known in the archaeological world, if for no reason other than he studied at UC-Berkeley, which is now an archaeological giant. When Bennyhoff began there, archaeology was generally new to the sciences, but as his career progressed, so did the program at UC-Berkeley. James A. Bennyhoff had a successful lifetime of research and a long-lived career as an archaeologist, but acting as a pioneer in a field without funding or precedence will be his legacy.
References
The James Bennyhoff Typology
Written By: Scott Doucette