Linda S. Cordell

Linda Sue Cordell (October 11, 1943 - March 29, 2013) was an American archaeologist and anthropologist. She was a leading researcher of the archaeology of the Southwest United States and Ancestral Pueblo communities. She authored a number of notable books familiar to both the general public and scholars, including the Prehistory of the Southwest. Cordell was well recognized for her mentorship and leadership in the field; she received many awards and honors throughout her career, including being elected to the National Academies of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an endowed Peabody Award was named in honor of her in 2014.

Early life and education Cordell was born in New York City, NY October 11, 1943. She was exposed to the sciences early on, her father Harry Seinfeld was a pharmacist and her mother Evelyn S. Kessler, earned her Ph.D. in anthropology from Columbia University and was a professor of anthropology at the University of South Florida. In 1965 Cordell graduated with distinction and Phi Beta Kappa from George Washington University. It was during time that she was introduced to Southwest Archaeology, when she was invited to join an exclusive school trip to Florence Hawley Ellis’s University of New Mexico field school at the pueblo of Sapawe. After completing her bachelor's degree Cordell moved to the University of Oregon and earned a master's. She then complete her PhD in 1972 at the University of California, Santa Barbara, working on one of the first archeological projects that implemented statistical methods.

Cordell's research focused on the pre-Columbian history of the Southwestern United States. She was also extremely active in teaching, mentorship and the representation of women in the field of archaeology.

Awards and honors

2009 – Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for American Archaeology 2008 – Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2005 – Elected to the National Academies of Sciences 2001 – A.V. Kidder Award from the American Anthropological Association