Roald H. Fryxell

Roald H. Fryxell (1934–May 18, 1974) was an American geologist and archaeologist.

Roald Fryxell was the son of Fritiof Fryxell, a geologist and college professor, and Regina Holmén Fryxell, an organist and music teacher.

He studied geology at Augustana College in Illinois, graduating in 1956. Dr. Fryxell, or "Fryx" as he was known by his friends, was noted for his interdisciplinary work in geoarchaeology, and he would became a professor of Geochronology at Washington State University.

During the 1960s he worked with two members of the U.S. Geological Survey under a National Science Foundation grant to study a site named Hueyátlaco, at the north shore of the Valsequillo Reservoir, in the state of Puebla, Mexico. They discovered stone tools that they dated from 250,000 years ago. Naturally this finding was received with great skepticism by the archaeological community.

In 1968 he was a co-principal investigator with Richard Daugherty (WSU) during the unearthing of the Marmes Rockshelter from the floodplain of the Palouse River near the confluence of the Palouse and Snake Rivers in southeastern Washington. The site was found to contain some of the oldest human remains in the western hemisphere at 12,000 years of age.

In 1971 he was selected to be part of the team of geologists in Houston who examined rocks brought back from the Moon during the Apollo program. As a result of his work, the Fryxell crater was named after him.

He died due to a car accident, and his family chose to honor his memory by endowing the Fryxell Award for Interdisciplinary Research, given annually by the Society for American Archeology in recognition of interdisciplinary excellence by a scientist. The SAA also holds a Fryxell Symposium during their meetings. An overlook shelter at the Palouse Falls is also named after him, as is the Roald H. Fryxell Memorial Scholarship at Augustana.

Bibliography

* Fryxell, Roald and Daugherty, R.D., "Interim Report: Archaeological Salvage in the Lower Monumental Reservoir, Washington", 1962, Washington State University, Pullman.
* Roald Fryxell, "Mazama and Glacier Peak Volcanic Ash Layers: Relative Ages," "Science", 147, 1965.
* Fryxell, Roald, and Bennie C. Keel, "Emergency Salvage Excavations for the Recovery of Early Human Remains and Related Scientific Materials from the Marmes Rockshelter Archaeological Site, Southeastern Washington, May 3--December 15, 1968", Report to U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, Washington State University.
* Fryxell, Roald "et al", "A Human Skeleton from Sediments of Mid-Pinedale Age in Southeastern Washington", "American Antiquity", 33, 1968.
* V. Steen-McIntyre, R. Fryxell, and H.E. Maude, "Geological Evidence for Age of Deposits of Huetatlaco Archeological Site, Valsequillo, Mexico", "Quaternary Research", 16, 1981.
* Fryxell, Roald, and Richard D. Daugherty, "Demonstration of Techniques for Preserving Archaeological Stratigraphy", n.p., 1984.