He Perished Ere He Published: Records of the Work of Gary Stockton Vescelius in the American Museum of Natural History

Abstract

Gary Stockton Vescelius (1930–1982) was an extremely active archaeologist who conducted extensive surveys and numerous excavations in North America, the Caribbean, and Peru. Although he was influential while alive, his almost complete failure to publish the results of his work has caused him to fade into obscurity. The interventions that he made at many important sites have been largely forgotten. However, collections that he amassed have been preserved at Yale University, at the American Museum of Natural History, and in Peru. This paper presents a short biography of Vescelius and evaluates his work.