Carol Kramer


Carol Kramer was an American archaeologist known for conducting ethnoarchaeology research in the Middle East and South Asia. Kramer also advocated for women in anthropology and archaeology, receiving the Squeaky Wheel Award from the Committee on the Status of Women in Anthropology in 1999. Kramer co-wrote Ethnoarchaeology in Action with Nicolas David, the first comprehensive text on ethnoarchaeology, and received the Award for Excellence in Archaeological Analysis posthumously in 2003.

Early life

Carol Kramer was born in New York City on May 3, 1943, to Aaron Kramer and Katherine Kolodny Kramer. Aaron Kramer was a professor of English at Dowling College and a poet, and her mother, Katherine Kramer, was a social worker. Kramer attended the High School of Music and Art before completing a B.A. at City University of New York in 1964. Kramer started her graduate studies in archaeology at the University of Chicago, but after a year, transferred to the University of Pennsylvania.
As a graduate student, Kramer developed interests in spatial organization and participated in excavations of archaeological sites in Godin Tepe and She Gabi, Iran. Kramer received her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971. Her doctoral dissertation was titled, “The Habur Ware Ceramic Assemblage of Northern Mesopotamia: An Analysis of its Distribution.”
In the 1960s-1970s, Kramer was briefly married to Christopher Hamlin who was also a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. And so some sources related to her life, including some ofher own publications, refer to her as Carol Hamlin if they were published during the 1960s and 1970s.

Fieldwork

In 1968, Kramer served as a site supervisor for archaeological excavations in Dinka Tepe and Seh Girdan, Iran as part of the Hasanlu Project directed by Robert H. Dyson, Jr. for the University of Pennsylvania and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Kramer also worked as a site supervisor and as the Assistant Director on an archaeological excavation at Godin Tepe, Iran for the Royal Ontario Museum. The Godin Project, as it was called, was directed by Louis D. Levine and T. Cyler Young, Jr.
Kramer was a leading researcher in the field of ethnoarchaeology. She participated in her first ethnoarchaeological fieldwork under Ruben Reina, who worked with an urban potter in Antigua, Guatemala. In 1875, Kramer conducted ethnoarchaeological fieldwork in a Kurdish village in the Hamadān Province in Iran. Her ethnoarchaeology research in Iran was published in Ethnoarchaeology: Implications of Ethnography for Archaeology as “An Archaeological View of a Contemporary Kurdish Village: Domestic Architecture; Household Size, and Wealth. Kramer expanded on this research in her book, Village Ethnoarchaeology: Rural Iran in Archaeological Perspective. Village Ethnoarchaeology utilized data from her ethnographic fieldwork in Aliabad in 1975, census and map documents published by the Iranian government, and other published ethnographic data.
Kramer hoped to return to Iran to research pottery communities, but she was forced to switch her fieldwork location to India because of the outbreak of the Iranian Revolution in January 1978. Kramer discussed her plans for research in India in an article, “Ceramic Ethnoarchaeology,” in the Annual Review of Archaeology. This article explored the benefits of archaeological studies of ceramics, given their ubiquitous use, good preservation, and role in economic trades and ritual ceremonies. Kramer researched ceramic distribution in Rajasthan in 1980 and from 1982 to 1984. Her research led to many publications related to ceramics and ceramic ethnoarchaeology published between 1991 and 1995, and later her book, Pottery in Rajasthan: Ethnoarchaeology in Two Indian Cities.
Pottery in Rajasthan includes detailed records of potters’ shops, vessel drawings, and photographs. Kramer’s book also provides data on the separation of labor, labor specialization, and gender roles involved in pottery production, which she later discussed in her final paper delivered at a meeting of the Society of American Archaeologists. Her book was reviewed by Charles Kolb from the National Endowment for the Humanities who noted that “the data and conclusions reported in it were valuable contributions to ethnoarchaeology and economic anthropology and served to fill in a void in our comprehension of the intricacies of ceramic production and, particularly, its distribution.
Kramer returned to fieldwork in 1995 as a site supervisor for excavations in Gordion, Turkey, and returned in 1996 to explore the opportunity of conducting ethnoarchaeology research in Yassihöyük and other villages near the area of Gordion, Turkey.

Ethnoarchaeology research

Kramer pioneered the technique of using data from living populations to answer archaeological questions called ethnoarchaeology. Kramer defined ethnoarchaeology as “archaeologically oriented ethnographic research designed to improve the understanding of relationships between patterned human behavior and elements of material culture." Kramer’s technique involved conducting ethnographic research to approach questions that archaeological data alone could not answer. Kramer conducted fieldwork during the rise of Processual Archaeology, and her research focused on processual questions and testing hypotheses related to spatial studies, socioeconomic classes, and activity patterns. This method was influenced by scientists utilizing cultural geography approaches at the College University of New York, including Gregory Johnson and Stephen Kowalewski.
Kramer co-wrote Ethnoarchaeology in Action with Nicolas David, the first comprehensive text on ethnoarchaeology. In this text, David and Kramer detail the history, theory and practice surrounding ethnoarchaeology as an approach instead of a discipline, discussing theoretical implications of the archaeological field, providing examples of ethnoarchaeological practice, and discussing the ethics of ethnographic fieldwork. Ethnoarchaeology in Action was recognized as an important text in R. Alexander Bentley’s Handbook of Archaeological Theories and in Ian Hodder’s The Present Past: An Introduction to Anthropology for Archaeologists. Alok Shrotriya notes in an article, “Ceramic Ethno-archaeology and its Applications,” that Kramer carried out ethnoarchaeological research specifically for studying ancient artifacts.

Professional career

Kramer began her teaching career in 1971 at Queens College. From 1974 to 1990, Kramer switched to teaching at Lehman College and then the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. In 1985, Kramer served as a visiting professor at Yale University. From 1986-1988, Kramer also taught courses at the University of Arizona supported by a National Science Foundation Visiting Professorship for Women. Kramer was invited by archaeological graduate students at the University of Arizona as part of a National Science Foundation program to fund academic leadership roles for women in departments with few female faculty members.
Kramer became a Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arizona in 1990, teaching there until her death in 2002. Both Kramer and William Longacre, another faculty member at the University of Arizona, conducted ethnoarchaeology field work in the 1990s. Together, Kramer and Longacre helped to guide Louise Senior’s ceramic research published as “The Estimation of Prehistoric Values Cracked Pot Ideas in Archaeology,” in James Skibo, William Walker, and Axel Nielsen’s Expanding Archaeology.
Kramer presented her research widely at professional organizations. Kramer gave a 1994 Distinguished Lecture to the Archaeology Section of the American Anthropological Association titled “The Quick and the Dead: Ethnography in and for Archaeology." Nan Rothschild remarked that “her reputation was international; she was a frequent participant in French conferences and lectured in Europe and South Asia." Her last paper, titled “Boys and Girls Together” explored gendered roles involved in pottery creation in Rajasthan, which she presented at the Society of American Archaeology meeting in 2001. Kramer also served as an issue editor for the journal Expedition.

Advocacy for women in anthropology and archaeology

Kramer advocated for the professional development of women in anthropology and archaeology. In 1980, Kramer and her anthropological colleagues, including Roger Sanjek, Rayna Rapp, Carole Vance, and Glenn Peterson, drafted the “Resolution to Implement the 1972 American Anthropological Association Resolution on Fair Practices in the Employment of Women." The group obtained financial support for the resolution calling for the American Anthropological Association to censure university departments that hired or promoted few women faculty members. This resolution was passed in 1981, and in that same year, the AAA censured five university departments.
Along with her graduate student Miriam Stark, Kramer published “The Status of Women in Archaeology,” in the American Anthropological Association’s newsletter. Stark and Kramer’s commentary discussed the state of gender equality in anthropology by looking at gender disparities in the number of graduate students, Ph.D. recipients, funding receipts, and faculty members. This research related to gender inequality in the field of archaeology was published in a special issue of the Archaeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association, focused on “Equity Issues for Women in Anthropology."
From 1973 to 1975, Kramer served as a member of the Committee on the Status of Women in Anthropology and the host and discussion leader at the COSWA's roundtable discussing professional development. Kramer also served as the female archaeologist for the 1998 meeting for the Society for American Archaeology, and in 1999, was awarded the Squeaky Wheel Award by COSWA for her work towards equality for women anthropologists.

Later life

Kramer died on December 3, 2002, in Tucson, Arizona at the age of 59. Kramer received the Award for Excellence in Archaeological Analysis by the Society for American Archaeology a year after her death. She was survived by her sister Laura Kramer. A memorial service with Kramer’s colleagues and former students was held on March 9, 2003, and another memorial service was held in New York City on February 16, 2003.
Nan Rothschild wrote an obituary for Carol Kramer that was published in the American Anthropologist in March 2004. After Kramer’s death, the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arizona created an endowed scholarship honoring the life and contributions of Carol Kramer. This scholarship is awarded to graduate students interested in studying the archaeology of the ancient Near East or ethnoarchaeology.
In April and May 2015, artist Marjolijn de Wit created an exhibition displayed in the Asya Geisberg Gallery in New York City, New York titled “Pots Are Not People." The exhibition title refers to Kramer’s article “Pots and People” published in Mountains and Lowlands: Essays in the Archaeology of Greater Mesopotamia in 1977. De Wit builds on Kramer’s argument that “archaeological discoveries signify diverse and complex notions of economy and locale, as opposed to assuming a more static idea of culture." The exhibit was also published into an exhibition catalogue by the same title.
The Carol Kramer Papers are currently housed at the National Anthropological Archives. These papers include Kramer’s field notes, correspondence, teaching files, photographs, sound recordings, maps, and botanical specimens representing her ethnoarchaeological fieldwork in Shahabad, Iran and Rajasthan, India. Her papers also include photographs and field notes from her research on the Hasanlu Project at Dalma Tepe, Iran.

Selected bibliography