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Scott Fitzpatrick

Professor
Curator for Indo-Pacific Archaeology, Museum of Natural and Cultural History
Anthropology, Asian Studies
smfitzpa@uoregon.edu
Phone: 541-346-9380
Office: 272 Condon Hall
Office Hours: W/F 9:00 - 10:00 AM
Research Interests: Pacific and Caribbean archaeology, historical ecology, exchange systems, seafaring
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Education

Ph.D. Anthropology, University of Oregon (2003); M.A. Historic Preservation, University of Oregon (2003), M.A. Anthropology, University of Montana (1996); B.A. Criminal Justice, B.A. Anthropology, Eastern Washington University (1994)

Research

Dr. Scott M. Fitzpatrick is an archaeologist who specializes in the archaeology of island and coastal regions, particularly the Pacific and Caribbean. Much of his research focuses on colonization events, seafaring strategies, adaptations to smaller islands, exchange systems, chronometric techniques, and human impacts on ancient environments. He has active field projects in Palau (western Micronesia); several islands in the Caribbean, including Carriacou, Mustique, Curaçao, Barbados, and Nevis; the Florida Keys; and the Oregon Coast.

Dr. Fitzpatrick is the founding Co-Editor of The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology (Routledge/Taylor & Francis), Associate Editor for Archaeology in Oceania, and serves on the editorial boards for the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports and Caribbean Journal of Science. Recent publications have appeared in Nature Scientific Reports, Science, Science Advances, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Archaeology in Oceania, Geoarchaeology, Environmental Archaeology, Economic Anthropology, International Journal of Paleopathology, Journal of Archaeological Science, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, Journal of Biogeography, Radiocarbon, The American Naturalist, and World Archaeology.

He also has edited several special issues of journals and volumes, including Voyages of Discovery: the Archaeology of Islands (Praeger, 2004), Island Shores, Distant Pasts: Archaeological and Biological Perspectives on the Pre-Columbian Settlement of the Caribbean (University Press of Florida, 2010), Ancient Psychoactive Substances (University Press of Florida, 2018), and Sustainability in Ancient Island Societies: An Archaeology of Human Resilience (University Press of Florida, 2024). His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, National Geographic, U.S. Department of the Interior, and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (Japan), among others. 

Recent Publications

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2025 (to date)

Jon M. Erlandson, Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Kristina M. Gill, Patrick V. Kirch, Victor D. Thompson, and Jason Younker. 2025. Rising Seas Endanger Earth’s Maritime Heritage. Science (in press).

2024

Scott M. Fitzpatrick. 2024. Ancient Numismatists and the Seasteading Movement. Economic Anthropology. https://doi.org/10.1002/sea2.12343

Michael Buckley, Ellie-May Oldfield, Cristina Oliveira, Clara Boulanger, Andrew C. Kitchener, Nicole R. Fuller, Traci Ardren, Victor D. Thompson, Scott M. Fitzpatrick, and Michelle J. LeFebvre. 2024. Species Identification of Modern and Archaeological Shark and Ray Skeletal Tissues using Collagen Peptide Mass Fingerprinting. Frontiers in Marine Science doi: 10.3389/fmars.2024.1500595.

Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Jon M. Erlandson, and Kristina Gill (Editors). 2024. Sustainability in Ancient Island Societies: An Archaeology of Human Resilience (Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Jon Erlandson, and Kristina Gill, eds). Gainesville: University of Florida Press.

Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Kristina Gill, and Jon M. Erlandson. 2024. Islands as Nodes of Human Resilience and Persistence. In Sustainability in Ancient Island Societies: An Archaeology of Human Resilience (Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Jon Erlandson, and Kristina Gill, eds): 1-22. Gainesville: University of Press of Florida.

Scott M. Fitzpatrick and Victor Thompson. 2024. Island Engineers, Engineering Islands: Ancient Artificial Landforms, Sunk-Cost Economics, and the Rise of the Seasteading Phenomenon. In Sustainability in Ancient Island Societies: An Archaeology of Human Resilience (Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Jon Erlandson, and Kristina Gill, eds). Gainesville: 276-299. University of Press of Florida.

Jon M. Erlandson, Scott M. Fitzpatrick, and Kristina Gill. 2024. Islands of Resilience: Persistence, Adaptation, and Sustainability in Ancient Island Societies. In Sustainability in Ancient Island Societies: An Archaeology of Human Resilience (Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Jon Erlandson, and Kristina Gill, eds): 300-312. Gainesville: University of Press of Florida.

Scott M. Fitzpatrick and Matthew F. Napolitano. 2024. The Influence and Efflorescence of Ancient Micronesia. In the Oxford Handbook of Island & Coastal Archaeology (Scott M. Fitzpatrick and Jon M. Erlandson, eds). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2023

Alvaro Montenegro, Atholl Anderson, Alexandra Niclou, Scott M. Fitzpatrick, and Cara Ocobock. 2023. Energetic Demands of Thermal Regulation during Ancient Canoe Passages from Tahiti to Hawaii and New Zealand, A Simulation Analysis. PLoS One 18(7): e0287290. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287290

Steve Hackenberger, Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Jessica H. Stone, and Matthew F. Napolitan0. 2023. Rescue Recovery of the Earliest Known Burials from Barbuda, West Indies (ca. 3560-3220 BP). The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology. https://doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2021.1962438

Scott M. Fitzpatrick. 2023. ‘Detritus of a Coming World’: The Colonization of Islands as Microcosms for Human Impacts on an Interplanetary Scale. In Speciesism in Biology and Culture: How Human Exceptionalism is Pushing Planetary Boundaries (Brian Swartz and Brent D. Mishler, eds): 65-93. Springer International Publishing.

2022 

Virginia L. Harvey, Michelle J. LeFebvre, Ashley E. Sharpe, Casper Toftgaard, Susan D. deFrance, Christina M. Giovas, Scott M. Fitzpatrick, and Michael Buckley. 2022. Collagen Fingerprinting of Caribbean Archaeological Fish Bones: Methodological Implications for Historical Fisheries Baselines and Anthropogenic Change. Journal of Archaeological Science.

Michelle J. LeFebvre, Jon M. Erlandson, and Scott M. Fitzpatrick. 2022. Archaeology as Sustainability Science: Perspectives from Ancient Island Societies. Sustainability 14(9689). doi.org/10.3390/su14159689

Matthew F. Napolitano, Elliot H. Blair, Laure Dussubieux, and Scott M. Fitzpatrick. 2022. Chemical Analysis of Glass Beads in Palau, Western Micronesia Reveals 19th Century Inter-Island Exchange Systems in Transition. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 45:103542.

Ryan S. Mohammed, Grace Turner, Kelly Fowler, Michael Pateman, Maria A. Nieves-Colon, Lanya Fanovich, Siobhan B. Cooke, Liliana M. Davalos, Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Christina M. Giovas, Myles Stokowski, Ashley A. Wrean, Melissa Kemp, Michelle J. LeFebvre, and Alexis M. Mychajliw. 2022. Colonial Legacies Influence Biodiversity Lessons: How Past Trade Routes and Power Dynamics Shape Present Day Scientific Research and Professional Opportunities for Caribbean Scientists. The American Naturalist 200(1):140-155.

Michelle J. LeFebvre, Traci A. Ardren, Victor D. Thompson, Scott M. Fitzpatrick, and Sara Ayers-Rigsby. 2022. In Support of Sustainability: Zooarchaeological Insights into Indigenous Human-Animal Interactions and Vertebrate Biodiversity in the Florida Keys, USA. Sustainability 14(11):6552.

Scott M. Fitzpatrick. 2022. ‘Detritus of a Coming World’: The Colonization of Islands as Microcosms for Human Impacts on an Interplanetary Scale. In Speciesism in Biology and Culture: How Human Exceptionalism is Pushing Planetary Boundaries (Brian Swartz and Brent D. Mishler, eds). Springer International Publishing.

Greg Nelson, Taylor Dodrill, and Scott M. Fitzpatrick. 2022. A Probable Case of Leprosy from Colonial Period St. Vincent and The Grenadines, Southeastern Caribbean. International Journal of Paleopathology 36:7-13. 

Richard Callaghan, Alvaro Montenegro, and Scott M. Fitzpatrick. 2022 . The Effects of Intra and Inter Annual Wind and Current Variation on Sailing Raft Travel along the Pacific Coast of the Americas. In Waves of Influence: Pacific Maritime Networks Connecting Mexico, Central America, and Northwestern South America (Charles Beekman and Colin McEwan, eds.). Dumbarton Oaks Washington D.C. (to be published Spring 2022).

2021 

Scott M. Fitzpatrick and Christina M. Giovas. 2021. Tropical Islands of the Anthropocene: Deep Histories of Anthropogenic Terrestrial-Marine Entanglement in the Pacific and Caribbean. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2022209118
 
Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Maaike S. De Waal, Matthew F. Napolitano, and Philippa Jorissen. 2021. Results of Preliminary Archaeological Investigation at Walkers Reserve, St. Andrew, Barbados. Journal of the Barbados Museum and Historical Society 67:208-228.
 
Steve Hackenberger, Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Jessica H. Stone, and Matthew F. Napolitano. 2021. Rescue Recovery of the Earliest Known Burials from Barbuda, West Indies (ca. 3560-3220 BP). The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology. doi.org/10.1080/15564894.2021.1962438

Christina Giovas, Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Thomas Leppard, Mark Hubbe, William J. Pestle, Peter E. Siegel, Antonio Curet, Jose R. Oliver, Arie Boomert, and Richard Callaghan. 2021. Craniofacial Morphology does not Support a Pre-Contact Carib “Invasion” of the Northern Caribbean. Nature Scientific Reports 11, 16955. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-95558-7

Julien Louys, Todd J. Braje, Chun-Hsiang Chang, Richard Cosgrove, Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Masaki Fujita, Stuart Hawkins, Thomas Ingicco, Ai Kawamura, Ross D.E. MacPhee, Matthew McDowell, Hanneke J.M. Meijer, Philip Piper, Patrick Roberts, Alan H. Simmons, Gerrit van den Bergh, Alexandra van der Geer, Shimona Kealy, Sue O’Connor. 2021. No Evidence for Widespread Island Extinctions after Pleistocene Hominin Arrival. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118 (20) e2023005118. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2023005118

Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Matthew F. Napolitano, and Jessica H. Stone. 2021. What is the Most Parsimonious Explanation for Where Pre-Columbian Caribbean Peoples Originated? In The Archaeology of Island Colonization: Global Approaches to Initial Human Settlement (Matthew Napolitano, Jessica Stone, and Robert DiNapoli, eds.):231-264. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.

 
John Lawrence, Scott M. Fitzpatrick, and Christina M. Giovas. 2021. Petrographic Analysis of Pre-Columbian Pottery from Nevis, Eastern Caribbean. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports 35:102741.
 
Robert DiNapoli, Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Matthew F. Napolitano, Nicholas Jew, Torben C. Rick, and Jessica H. Stone. 2021. Marine Reservoir Corrections for the Caribbean Demonstrate High Intra- and Inter-Island Variability in Local Reservoir Offsets. Quaternary Geochronology 61:101126.
 
2020
 
Edana J. Lord, Catherine Collins, Susan deFrance, Michelle J. LeFebvre, Fabienne Pigiere, Peter Eeckhout, Céline Erauw, Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Paul Healy, Jorge L. Garcia, Elizabeth Ramos Roca, Miguel Delgado, Ancizar Sánchez Urriago, German Alberto Peña Léon, Maria Fernanda Martínez-Polanco, Marla Toyne, Allisen Dahlstedt, Katherine Moore, Martha Zierden, Carmen Laguer Diaz, Colleen Zori, Elizabeth J. Reitz, and Elizabeth Matisoo-Smith. 2020. Ancient DNA of Guinea Pigs Identifies Multiple Domestication and Dispersal Events through Time. Nature Scientific Reports. doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-65784-6
 
Scott M. Fitzpatrick. 2020. Commentary: Ancient Aquaculture and the Rise of Social Complexity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2004254117.
 
Bosiljka Glumac and Scott M. Fitzpatrick. 2020. Yapese Stone Money: Local Marble as a Potential Inspiration for Producing Limestone Exchange Valuables in Palau, Micronesia. In Cultures of Stone: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Materiality of Stone (Gabriel Cooney, Bernard Gilhooly, Niamh Kelly, and Sol Mallía-Guest, eds.):65-77. Leiden: Sidestone Press. 
 
Thomas Leppard and Scott M. Fitzpatrick. 2020. Theory Beyond the ‘Calm Sea’? The Pacific Contribution to Global Island Archaeology. In Theory in the Pacific, the Pacific in Theory: Archaeological Perspectives (Tim Thomas, Ed.):37-57. London: Routledge.
 
Jessica H. Stone, Greg C. Nelson, and Scott M. Fitzpatrick. 2020. Temporomandibular Joint Osteoarthritis at Chelechol ra Orrak, Palau. International Journal of Paleopathology 28:20-31.
 
Scott M. Fitzpatrick and Stephen McKeon. 2020. Banking on Stone Money: Ancient Antecedents to Bitcoin. Economic Anthropology 7(1):7-21.
 
2019
 
Matthew F. Napolitano, Robert DiNapoli, Jessica Stone, Nicholas P. Jew, Maureece Levin, Brian Lane, John T. O’Connor, and Scott M. Fitzpatrick. 2019. Reevaluating Human Colonization of the Caribbean using Chronometric Hygiene and Bayesian Modeling. Science Advances 5: eaar7806. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aar7806
 
Lucas Stephens, Dorian Fuller, Nicole Boivin, Torben Rick, Nicolas Gauthier, Andrea Kay....Scott M. Fitzpatrick, et al. 2019. Archaeological Assessment Reveals Earth’s Early Transformation through Land Use. Science 365(6456):897-902.
 
Jessica H. Stone, Scott M. Fitzpatrick, and John Krigbaum. 2019. Stable Isotope Analysis of Human Diet at Chelechol ra Orrak, Palau. Bioarchaeology International 3(2):142–156.
 
Matthew F. Napolitano, Scott M. Fitzpatrick, Geoffrey Clark, G. and Jessica H. Stone. 2019. New Investigations of Early Prehistoric Settlement on Yap, Western Caroline Islands. The Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 14(1):101-107.
 
Traci Ardren, Scott M. Fitzpatrick, and Victor Thompson. 2019. Island Chain Coastlines: A History of Human Adaptation in the Florida Keys. In Human-Environmental Dynamics on the Atlantic Coast of North America (J. A. Turck, L. Reeder-Meyers and T. Rick, Eds):232-259. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
 
Scott M. Fitzpatrick and Maaike de Waal. 2019. Archaic Age Barbados and the Works of Peter Drewett. In The Pre-Colonial and Post-Contact Archaeology in Barbados: Past, Present, and Future Research Directions (Maaike de Waal, Kevin Niall Finnerann and Matthew Reilly, with Douglas Armstrong and Kevin Farmer, eds):61-76. Leiden: Sidestone Press.
 
Nicholas Jew, Taylor Dodrill, and Scott M. Fitzpatrick. 2019. δ18O Analysis of Boring Clam (Tridacna crocea): Evaluating the Efficacy for Reconstructing Sea-Surface Temperature at Metuker ra Bisech (B:IR-2:24), Palau, Micronesia. Archaeology in Oceania 54:107-119.
 
Scott M. Fitzpatrick and Jon M. Erlandson. 2019. Archaeology, Historical Ecology, and Marginality: Global Implications of the California Islands for Island Settlement and Sustainability. In An Archaeology of Abundance: Reevaluating the Marginality of California’s Islands (Kristina Gill, Mikael Fauvelle, and Jon Erlandson, eds):273-293. Gainesville: University Press of Florida.
 

Coastal Lab Phone: (541) 346-5106