Profile of Melinda A. Zeder

Of the accolades awarded to archaeologist Melinda Zeder, only one hangs on her home office wall. The 1964 Wendy Emeny Award, given by the Greenwich Academy to 12-year-old Zeder, recognizes her “outstanding character and enthusiasm.” It is the only award she received during her elementary and secondary education, she says, but it occupies a place of honor on her wall and on her curriculum vitae. “Enthusiasm,” she says, “is a character trait that, perhaps more than anything else, has stayed with me and, indeed, propelled me through my entire career. It remains with me to this day.” Melinda A. Zeder. Image courtesy of Chip Clark (Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC). Zeder measuring bones from the 11,700-year-old Hallan Çemi site in southeastern Turkey as part of a study. Image courtesy of Reuven Yeshurun (University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Israel). Her enthusiasm has taken her from sheepherder’s tents in Iran to the attics of the Smithsonian Institution, searching for clues to the development of human civilization. Zeder, a recently elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and senior scientist at the National Museum of Natural History, studies the animal bones recovered from archaeological sites to uncover key historical transitions as humans made the shift from foraging to urban dwelling. Melinda Zeder was the fourth of five children. Her father’s eclectic career included stints as a fighter pilot, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, tour boat operator, and hula instructor. He also served in the administrations of three United States presidents. Her mother’s interests, however, lay in history. While raising her children, Zeder’s mother wrote a novel set in Ancient Egypt at the time of the pharaoh Akhenaten. Zeder recalls peeking at stacks of archaeological reports from Tell el-Amarna, Ahkenaten’s capital, collected by her mother to aid her research. Although the completed …