I read reports on various places, so I thought I would pass this on:

Lewis Roberts Binford (1930-2011)

April 12th, 2011 9:42 am ET

Source: World Archaeological Congress Newsletter

I am very sorry to inform you that Professor Lewis Binford, the  
scholar whose name evokes an entire intellectual movement within  
archaeology, has passed away.  His optimism and intellectual fervor  
have been a major influence on several generations of archaeologists.

Lewis Roberts Binford was born on 21 November, 1930.  He graduated  
from the University of North Carolina (Bachelors), and the University  
of Michigan (Masters and PhD). He produced over 150 publications in  
the last 50 years, many of which became seminal papers in  
archaeological theory and method. His most influential publications  
span more than four decades, and include:

1962 Archaeology as Anthropology, American Antiquity 28:217-225.
1968 New Perspectives in Archaeology. Co-edited with S.R. Binford,  
Aldine Publishing Company, Chicago.
1978 Nunamiut Ethnoarchaeology. Academic Press, New York.
1981 Bones: Ancient Men & Modern Myths. Academic Press, London.
1983 In Pursuit of the Past. Thames and Hudson, London.
1989 Debating Archaeology. Academic Press, New York.
2001 Constructing Frames of Reference: an analytical method for  
archaeological theory building using ethnographic and environmental  
data sets. University of California Press, Berkeley.
2004 Ethnographically Documented Hunter-Gatherer Peoples: A Baseline  
for the Study of the Past. Princeton UP, Princeton.

Lewis Binford was a pioneer in the 'New Archaeology' movement of the  
1960s.  His vision for a scientific approach to archaeology led the  
discipline away from the cataloguing of cultural histories to the use  
of scientific methods aimed at explaining cultural processes and site  
formation processes. Binford’s academic career was based at the  
University of New Mexico and subsequently at Southern Methodist  
University.  He was an inspiring, committed researcher and a kind and  
generous teacher.  Just as we were intellectually enriched by his  
existence, so we are intellectually poorer through his passing.  He  
was was one of archaeology’s great minds.

Lew is survived by his daughter, Martha, and his wife and co- 
researcher, Amber Johnson.

WAC will publish an obituary in the near future.

Sincerely,

Claire Smith

President of World Archaeological Congress






http://www.examiner.com/world-culture-in-national/lewis-roberts-binford-1930-2011