Warren King Moorehead

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Warren King Moorehead

1866–1939

An energetic early American archaeologist, he helped bring major Indigenous mound and earthwork sites such as Fort Ancient to wider public attention. He was also a prolific writer and a central figure in building archaeology collections and teaching at Phillips Academy’s Peabody Institute.

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About the author

Born in Siena, Italy, on March 10, 1866, and raised in a missionary family, Warren King Moorehead became one of the best-known American archaeologists of his era. He worked on excavations and surveys at a range of Native American sites and was often described in his time as the "Dean of American archaeology."

Moorehead played an important role in the early study and preservation of Fort Ancient in Ohio, where he carried out some of the first major excavations and later published his findings. He also served as the first curator of the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society, helping shape public interest in archaeology at a time when the field was still taking form.

In 1901 he became the first curator, and later the second director, of the Peabody Institute at Phillips Academy in Andover, where his influence lasted for decades. He died in Xenia, Ohio, on January 5, 1939, leaving behind a body of fieldwork and writing that still appears in the history of North American archaeology.