
Dale F. Simpson Jr.University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | UIUC · Prairie Research Institute
Dale F. Simpson Jr.
Doctor of Philosophy
Dale is an anthropological archaeologist who specializes in Pacific anthropology, Illinois archaeology, and education.
About
49
Publications
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Introduction
Dale F. Simpson Jr. (Ph.D., M.A., Postgrad Diploma, B.A.) is an American anthropological archaeologist who specializes in Pacific anthropology but is well–versed in North and South American archaeology. Dale has conducted anthropological investigations in the U.S., Canada, Russia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Hawaii, and Australia. He has researched Rapa Nui since 2001, and has extensively presented and published about Easter Island anthropology, archaeology, geochemistry, material culture studies, and monumental architecture. Dale has conducted and participated in multiple educational outreach programs throughout the world, including on Rapa Nui and in Australia and the U.S.
Additional affiliations
August 2009 - present
Position
- Senior Scientific Specialist
Description
- Since fall semester 2009, I have taught multiple classes including sections in Anthropology 1000 (Introduction to Anthropology), Anthropology 1100 (Cultural Anthropology), Anthropology 1120 (Discovering Archaeology),Anthropology 1130 (People and Cultures of the World – The Pacific), and Anthropology 1840 (Independent Study). Class types included 16–week, 12–week, 8–week, Adult Fast Track, Hybrid, Virtual Class Meetings, and Internet Delivery
Education
April 2013 - November 2019
Publications
Publications (49)
Many publications document Easter Island's famous ahu (platform), moai (statue), pukao (topknot), and almost millennium-long culture. Yet, little investigation has been dedicated to basalt resources, artifacts, and their geochemistry. As part of the Rapa Nui Geochemical Project (2014-2017), we conducted comprehensive fieldwork , material culture an...
Pacific and Rapa Nui (Easter Island) volcanologists, geologists, and geochemists have set the stage for archaeological lithic sourcing studies by providing practical data regarding the island's geodynamic activity, geomorphological formation and dating, and the macroscopic, microscopic, and elemental proprieties of Easter Island stone. Drawing upon...
Rapa Nui es tierra de gigantes, no sólo por sus estatuas megalíticas, si no por los hombres y mujeres que un milenio atrás comenzaron el poblamiento del territorio del territorio isleño.
En las siguientes páginas, te invitamos a realizar un recorrido por Rapa Nui desde una perspectiva arqueológica. Comenzando por su geografía, el proceso de poblam...
Rapa Nui es una de las islas polinesias con mayor diversidad geológica. Los antiguos rapanui aprovecharon esta diversidad y utilizaron una variedad de rocas volcánicas para construir elementos megalíticos como moai (estatua), ahu (plataforma) y pukao (gorro/pelo). Sin embargo, uno de los tipos de roca más importantes para el uso diario y ceremonial...
Simpson (ed.) 2024 Illinois Antiquity Cover Page 59(3)
Simpson (ed.) 2024 Illinois Antiquity Cover Page 59(3)
Simpson (ed.) 2023 Illinois Antiquity Cover Page 58(2)
Simpson (ed.) 2023 Illinois Antiquity Cover Page 58(1)
Simpson and Lobos-Haoa 2022 Rapa Nui Quarries: A trilingual book dedicated to the islands future - its youth
While Rapa Nui is famous for its moai (statues) and ahu (platforms), the island geodynamic, volcanic, and geologic evolution is what ultimately provided the stone necessary to materialize the ancient Rapanui’s economic, ideological, and sociopolitical realities. The island’s 100 volcanic events produced a variety of stone types such as basalt, obsi...
https://www.investigacion.patrimoniocultural.gob.cl/publicaciones/la-economia-politica-de-piedras-arqueologicas-en-rapa-nui-identificacion-de-las
Después de nueve años de investigación, estoy feliz de ver este artículo, apoyado por un "grant" de LUPA del Servicio Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural de Chile, finalmente publicado. Los resultados de est...
I highly recommend this 50th edition of Terra Australis. This edited volume provides a long-term, multidisciplinary scientific approach, to investigate and analyse materials found in the 40,000-year archaeological record of the NM. This volume provides significant information about the migration routes of both ancient and modern humans, the movemen...
A Moe Varua article about economic, ideological, and sociopolitical organization during Rapa Nui's pre-contact period.
A Moe Varua article that discusses the moaigraphy of a statue and hat that was originally from Rapa Nui, traveled and stayed on Tahiti for 50 years, before ultimately coming to the Otago Museum in Dunedin, New Zealand, where it has been for 90 years.
Anthropological archaeologists have been investigating ancient human interaction for decades as interaction studies highlight how humans have communicated for 200,000 years at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. With the development of provenance studies and improved geochemical sourcing techniques, researchers can better document the movemen...
Since 2003, Terevaka Archaeological Outreach (TAO, Founded by Dr. Britton Shepardson) has offered unique experiential learning activities to raise awareness regarding cultural and natural resources on Rapa Nui, to promote conservation initiatives, and to conduct original research regarding the island's prehistoric human–environment interactions. TA...
This report provides synthesis and commentary about two international scientific conferences held on Rapa Nui during November 2018. The first conference, the Early Pacific Migration Conference, brought academics in the Oceanic research community together to consider Pacific Ocean and island palaeoecology, the migration of humans, fauna, and flora,...
Pacific and Rapa Nui (Easter Island) volcanologists and geologists have set the stage for the island’s archaeologists working in lithic sourcing studies by providing practical data regarding the island geodynamic activity, geomorphological formation and dating, and the macroscopic, microscopic, and elemental proprieties of Easter Island stone. Draw...
Son muchas las publicaciones que han documentado los famosos ahu (plataformas), moai (estatuas), pukao (tocados) y una cultura casi milenaria. Aun así, se ha dedicado poca investigación a los recursos y artefactos de basalto y su geoquímica. Como parte del Proyecto Geoquímico Rapa Nui (2014 – 2017) hemos realizado un trabajo de campo exhaustivo y a...
Rapa Nui is famous for its moai (statues) and ahu (platforms), yet research into the island's many basalt quarries, sources and workshops is limited. These geological and archaeological sites provided the raw materials for tools such as toki (adzes and picks), which facilitated the manufacture of Easter Island's iconic stonework. Other basaltic too...
Resumen: Entre Mayo – Septiembre de 2014, y durante los meses de Enero, Febrero y Abril de 2015, llevé a cabo un trabajo de campo arqueológico y geológico sobre Rapa Nui, para mi doctorado en la Universidad de Queensland (UQ). Esos ocho meses han sido los meses más desafiantes y gratificantes de toda mi carrera, ya que debí navegar por todas las po...
http://www.terevaka.net/toki/index.html
Toki Database V.1 (November 9th, 2016)
The toki database was created by Dale F. Simpson Jr. through 11 months of archaeological and
geological fieldwork on Easter Island, museum research at the Padre Sebastián Englert
Anthropological Museum (MAPSE), and geochemical analyses conducted at The Field Museum
o...
From May – September 2014 and from January – February 2015, I conducted archaeological and geological fieldwork on Rapa Nui for my doctorate at the University of Queensland (UQ). These six months were the most challenging and rewarding of my career, as I had to navigate the social politics on the island to be granted authorization to conduct scient...
A commentary on Challenging Easter Island's collapse: the need for interdisciplinary synergies by Rull, V., The road to deforestation and its social feedback on Rapa Nui is a fascinating and a possibly important parable; one with symbolic implications for how the rest of the world views environmental change and human impact. Rull et al. (2013) pres...
Abstract:
In this article, I review the island’s geodynamic, volcanic, and geological evolution. I focus on three topics: 1) the island’s geomorphological formation and dating; 2) Easter Island’s main volcanoes and their associated geological material; and 3) the rock types on Rapa Nui, their locations in the landscape, and their prehistoric use to...
The Terevaka.net Archaeological Outreach (TAO)
program began with the ‘A Pó project on Rapa Nui in 2003
with big ideas as well. Initially, each year was expected
to include more Rapa Nui high school students than the
previous year. Each class was expected to generate more
archaeological data than the last. And over the course of
several years, the...
THIS ARTICLE CONCERNS THE CONTRIBUTION by Captain
Alfred Walter Francis (A.W.F.) Fuller to The Field Museum’s
Easter Island collection. Captain Fuller was an honorary
curator at the British Museum, became a Royal Anthropological
Institute Fellow in 1910, and had the honor of being
named a Patron of The Field Museum in 1958 — a distinction
shared at...
Rapa Nui has a rich tradition of cultural evolution,
adaptation, and megalithic elaboration. While
famous for its monolithic moai, a most intriguing
development was the construction, rebuilding, and eventual
destruction of the island’s approximately 300 ahu. As fixed
sacred and secular features in the landscape, ahu acted as
cultural stages in whic...