Adams, Robert McCormick, Jr., 1926–, American anthropologist, b. Chicago, Ill., grad. Univ. of Chicago (Ph.B., 1947; M.A., 1952; Ph.D., 1956). He served on the faculty of the Univ. of Chicago (1955–84) and was director of the Oriental Institute there (1962–68). From 1984–1994 he was secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and served on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University. He has done regionally oriented archaeological studies in Iraq, emphasizing the analysis of settlement patterns, and written extensively on the role played by irrigation, warfare, and ecological diversity in the evolution of the earliest states. His writings include Land Behind Baghdad (1965), The Evolution of Urban Society (1966), The Uruk Countryside (1972; with H. J. Nissen), Heartland of Cities (1981), and Paths of Fire (1996).
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