Peter R. Mills
Anthropology Department Chair and Associate Professor
Background:
Peter Mills has been teaching at UH Hilo since 1997, and was the recipient of the Frances Davis Award for Excellence in undergraduate teaching in 2001. He received his B.A. from the University of Vermont (1984), developing a strong interest in archaeology, particularly in stone tool technology, and wrote an honor's thesis on stone tools found in the Champlain Valley of Vermont. He completed his M.A. at Washington State University (1987), studying use-wear on stone axes from Sand Canyon Pueblo Ruin in southwestern Colorado, under the guidance of William D. Lipe, Fekri Hassan, and J. Jeff Flenniken. From there, he went to Alaska, conducting field surveys and interviews as part of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, where he developed a keen interest in the archaeology of culture-contact and the Russian-American Company. He then spent two years working for the Massachusetts Historical Commission (State Historic Preservation Office), and returned to Alaska in the summer of 1990. He conducted his first fieldwork in Hawai`i during the winter of 1990/91, before returning to graduate school. He has worked extensively in Hawai`i since that time, and has also worked on projects at Russian Fort Ross in California (1812-1841), and on Rapa Nui (Easter Island). He earned his Ph.D. at U.C. Berkeley in 1996. His dissertation focused upon the archaeology and ethnohistory of a fort built by Hawaiians on Kaua`i (Pa `ula`ula o Hipo/Fort Elisabeth), in association with fur-traders from the Russian-American Company. The dissertation formed the foundation for Mills’s 2002 book Hawai`i's Russian Adventure: a new look at old history (UH Press).
Current Research: In the Spring of 2004 Dr. Mills began a long-term research project in association with Dr. Ken Hon (Dept. of Geology) using non-destructive Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) to analyze basalt and volcanic glass artifacts. This information can be used to help study stone tool exchange patterns, and was facilitated through a Major Research Instrumentation Grant from the National Science Foundation (BCS-0317528) for $143,977.00 which was awarded to Mills (PI) and Hon (Co-PI). The NSF project allowed for the formation of a Geoarchaeology Laboratory at UHH with regular collaboration between Dr. Steven Lundblad (also in the Geology Department), Mills, and Hon. One of the major projects of the lab has been the characterization of the geochemistry within the Mauna Kea Adze Quarry Complex on Hawaii Island (click here for the most recent data, or download a .pdf copy of the 2006 preliminary report). Mills also continues to develop an historical archaeology program at UH Hilo to better understand the multi-ethnic communities that formed in Hawai`i in the late eighteenth century and nineteenth century. Field project sites have included the following:
2001-2007 Survey of nineteenth century ranching and homestead sites at Keanakolu, North Hilo
Stone Corral Complex at Keanakolu (50-10-15-24250)
2001-02 Survey of prehistoric and early historical sites on the coastal terrace of Laupāhoehoe Nui, Hāmākua District
1999 Excavations at the John Young Homestead (c. 1798), Kawaihae
1998 Survey of the "Old Government Beach Road" in North Kona
1998 Excavations at the Lyman Mission House (1839-early 1900s), Hilo
Selected Publications:
Mills, Peter R., Steven P. Lundblad, Jacob G. Smith,
Patrick C. McCoy, and Sean P. Naleimaile
* (in press) Science and Sensitivity: A Geochemical
Characterization of the Mauna Kea Adze Quarry Complex, Hawai`i Island,
Hawaii. American Antiquity.
Mills, Peter R.
*(in press) Folk Housing in the Middle of the Pacific:
Lime Architecture, Cultural Power and Ideology in 19th century
Hawaii, in Materiality of Individuality, edited by Carolyn White. Springer Press.
Lundblad, Steven P., Peter R. Mills and Ken Hon
* (2008) Analyzing Archaeological Basalt Using
Non-destructive Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF): Effects of Post-depositional Chemical Weathering
and Sample Size on Analytical Precision.
Archaeometry 50 (1)1-11.
Mills, Peter R.
(in press) European Exploration and Colonization of the
Hawaiian Islands, in Archaeology in America, edited by Frank McManamon,
Greenwood Publishing.
(in press) Kaua`i Island Ancient and Historical Sites, in Archaeology in America, edited by Frank McManamon, Greenwood Publishing.
Mills,
Peter R.
2005 Connecting with Kaua`i’s Canyonlands. In Na Mea Kahiko o Kaua`i: Archaeological
Studies of Kaua`i, edited by Mike T. Carson and Michael W. Graves. Special Publication No. 2. Society for Hawaiian Archaeology, Honolulu.
2004 Book Review: Inventing
Politics by Juri Mykkanen (UH Press 2003).
Hawaiian Journal of History 38:191-195.
2004 Response to
Lydia Black. Hawaiian Journal of
History 38:182-186.
2003 Laupāhoehoe Nui: Archaeology of a High-risk
Landscape on Windward Hawai`i Island. Rapa
Nui Journal 17(2):106-114.
2003 Neo in Oceania: foreign vessels owned by Hawaiian chiefs before 1830. Journal of Pacific History 38(1):53-67.
2002 Social Integration and the Ala Loa: reconsidering the significance of trails in Hawaiian exchange. Asian Perspectives 41(1):148-166.
2002 Hawai`i's Russian Adventure: A New Look at Old History. University of Hawai`i Press, Honolulu. ISBN 0-8248-2404-0
2002 Speaking up for Small Fish in the Big Pond: Establishing a Mission for UH Hilo in Pacific Archaeology. Proceedings of the Pacific 2000 Conference, Easter Island Foundation, Los Osos, California.
2000 Bridging the Gap between Ship and Shore:
Exploring the Relationships between Western Maritime Culture and the People of
Hawai`i. Conference Proceedings from
the 12th Annual Symposium on Maritime Archaeology and History of Hawai`i and
the Pacific, pp. 23-37. Maritime
Option Program, University of Hawai`i, Manoa.
Mills, Peter R. and Manije
Irani
2000 A Walk Through History: Pedestrian Survey of the Old Government Beach Road, Honalo to Honua`ino, North Kona, Hawai`i Island. 2 vols (174 pp). Division of Forestry and Wildlife, Trails and Access Program (Na Ala Hele), Honolulu.
Mills, Peter R.
1997 Slate and Ethnicity at Fort Ross (Chapter 10). In Volume II of The Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Fort Ross, California, pp. 238-247, edited by Kent. G. Lightfoot. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, Berkeley, California.
Mills, Peter R., and
Antoinette Martinez (editors)
1997 The Archaeology of Russian Colonialism in the North and Tropical Pacific. Kroeber Anthropological Society Papers, No, 81 (194 pp.).
Lightfoot, Kent G., Ann M.
Schiff, Antoinette Martinez, Thomas A. Wake, Stephen Silliman, Peter R. Mills,
and Lisa Holm
1997 Culture Change and Persistence in the Daily Lifeways of Interethnic Households. In Volume II of The Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Fort Ross, California, edited by Kent. G. Lightfoot. Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, pp. 355-419, Berkeley, California.
Stevenson, Christopher M.,
Sonia Haoa, Peter Mills, Jose R. Ramirez, and Claudio Gomez
1996 The La Perouse Archaeological Project: Report of the 1995 Field Season, Easter Island. Archaeological Services Consultants, Columbus, Ohio.
Mills, Peter R.
1996 A New View of Kaua`i
as "The Separate Kingdom" after 1810. The Hawaiian
Journal of History 30:91-104.
*1993 An Axe to Grind: Functional Analysis of Anasazi Stone Axes from Sand Canyon Pueblo Ruin (5-MT-765), Southwestern, Colorado. Kiva 58(3)393-413.
Courses Taught (click to link to view a recent syllabus for each course):
Anth 100- Cultural Anthropology
Anth 385- Hawai`i and Pacific Prehistory
Anth 388- Historical Archaeology
Anth 389- Cultural Resource Management
Anth 482- Archaeological Field Methods
Anth 490- Internships in Archaeology
Anth 495b- Proseminars in Archaeology (topics vary)
MARE 100-Marine Options Seminar