Award Details

Award Description

The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to an archaeologist for specific accomplishments that are truly extraordinary, widely recognized as such, and of positive and lasting quality. Recognition can be granted to an archaeologist of any nationality for activities within any theoretical framework, for work in any part of the world, and for a wide range of areas relating to archaeology, including but not limited to research or service. Given as the Distinguished Service Award between 1975 and 2000, it became the Lifetime Achievement Award and was awarded as such for the first time in 2001. 

Who Is Eligible to Submit Nominations or Apply for the Award

Any professional archaeologist may submit nominations for this award. Nominees must be SAA members by the time of their nomination, and the strongest nominees will have made significant contributions to both the organization and to the range of archaeological practice in which SAA members participate.

Nomination/Submission Materials Required

Nomination letters should include a letter of nomination, outlining the nominee’s lifetime accomplishments, as well as a curriculum vitae of the nominee. Additional letters of support are not required, but the strongest nominations, historically, have included a minimum of five (5) letters of support; some have had more than fifteen (15) letters of support. Nominators are required to collate all nomination materials into one single Adobe Acrobat pdf document to be emailed to the committee chair, Larry Zimmerman. We strongly recommend that the nominee be advised that she/he is being recommended for this award.

Other Special Requirements

Prior to any award recommendation being finalized and publicly announced, anyone recommended for an award, scholarship, or grant will be required to certify the following:

Nature of Award (e.g. monetary, medal, symposium)

The awardee is recognized by the SAA through a plaque presented during the business meeting held at the Annual Meeting, a citation in The SAA Archaeological Record, and acknowledgment on the awards page of the SAA Website. 

Current Committee Charge

The committee solicits nominations and selects recipients for the Lifetime Achievement Award. The award is presented in recognition of a member who has performed truly extraordinary service (scholarly, pedagogical, and/or institutional) of positive and lasting quality to the Society for American Archaeology or to the profession as a whole. The Distinguished Service Award, first presented in 1975 (and annually beginning in 1980), was succeeded by the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.

Committee Composition

Committee composition is one chair and at least four members.

Term Length

Term length is three years. Individuals ending their terms cycle off the committee at the close of the Business Meeting held during the annual SAA Meeting, and new appointees begin their terms at this time.

Award Cycle

N/A

Committee Chair and End of Term

Larry Zimmerman [2025]

Committee Chair Contact Information

larzimme@iupui.edu

Committee Members and Ends of Terms

Names and term end dates for the chair and all members can be found on the committee page in the SAA Directory. 

Selection or Evaluation Criteria

The criteria used to evaluate submissions for the Lifetime Achievement Award includes evidence of extraordinary lifetime accomplishments that have made great scholarly, pedagogical and/or institutional achievements.

Committee Deliberation Process (e.g. dates, venue)

The committee chair leads the deliberation process by chairing electronic meetings to reiterate criteria and discuss particular nominees. Committee members then send their rankings to the chair who tallies them. In cases of split decisions, the committee meets electronically again to discuss the relative weighting of particular criteria vis-à-vis the tied nominees and the committee votes again. If all nominations are received by the deadline, the committee makes a decision by the end of January and forwards its decision to the SAA Board.