Sachiko Sakai
Sachiko Sakai, Ph.D., RPA is an archaeologist specializing in the American Southwest. Her research interests have centered on small-scale farmers’ adaptations in marginal environments and the application of evolutionary theory to explain the archaeological record and prehistoric human behaviors. She has been conducting research in the Mt. Trumbull area within the Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument as a research partner with this national monument and the Kaibab Band of Piute for more than 25 years.
She has a strong interest in archaeometry research, especially provenance studies of archaeological materials, using LA-ICP-MS, instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA), and pXRF. She also has been conducting luminescence dating of ceramics/soil at ’s IIRMES lab since 2004.
One of her teaching interests is training students for the CRM position, providing hands-on experience. Every summer, she has offered an archaeological field school in the Mt. Trumbull area. During her six-week summer field school, she provides full-scale field training including excavation, survey, lab work, teaching federal regulations, other CRM-related laws, and professional standards for collaborating with the descendant community, which are all necessary to apply for the CRM position. During the fall/spring semester, she has also taken students on short fieldwork trips as optional work for classes.
Archaeology of the Southwestern US; Archaeological Field School; Cultural resource management; Virgin Ancestral pueblo prehistory; Luminescence dating; Archaeometry; Chemical compositional analysis of artifacts; Ceramic analysis; Evolutional archaeology; Gabrielino/Tongva archaeology; Small-scale farmer adaptations in marginal environments; Prehistoric trading; Settlement pattern analysis.
ANTH 140: Introduction to Archaeology
ANTH 313: World Prehistory
ANTH 405: Principles of Archaeology
ANTH 449: Prehistoric Culture of North America
ANTH 450: Archaeological Field Research (Field School)
ANTH 473: Archaeology of California
ANTH 487: Cultural Resource Management
ANTH 490: Selected Topics in Anthropology (Archaeological Artifact Analysis)
Edited Issue
Harry, Karen, G., and Sachiko Sakai 2019 Special issue “New Findings from the Far Western Puebloan Region: Papers in Honor of Margaret Lyneis”. The Kiva Vol 85, NO.4. December.
Journal Articles, Books, and Reports
Neff, Hector, Marx Navarro and Sachiko Sakai 2024 Chapter 6: Early Classic Abandonment, the Evolution of a Mesoamerican Tradeware, and the Enigmatic Early Postclassic Period in Fire and Salt: Human Niche Construction and Holocene Landscape Evolution on the Pacific Coast of Southern Mesoamerica, edited by Hector Neff, pp 133-186. University of New Mexico Press.
Neff, Hector, Marx Navarro and Sachiko Sakai 2023 A Mesoamerican Tradeware Revisited: Mexican Influences in the Origins and Evolution of Plumbate Pottery in When East Meets West. Chichen Itza, Tula, and the Postclassic Mesoamerican World, BAR International Series 3134 edited by Travis W. Stanton, Karl A. Taube, Jeremy D. Coltman, and Nelda I. Marengo Camacho, pp693-723. BAR publishing.
Harry, Karen, G., and Sachiko Sakai 2022 Patterns of Ceramic Production and Distribution in Western Basketmaker Beginnings: The Jackson Flat Reservoir Project, edited by Heidi Roberts, Richard V. N. Ahlstrom, Pp.170-176. University of Utah Press.
Harry, Karen G., and Sachiko Sakai 2022 Using Luminescence Dating to Address the Chronology and Cultural Affiliation of Brownware Ceramics in the Virgin Branch Puebloan Region. In Western Ceramic Traditions Prehistoric and Historic Native American Ceramics of the Western U.S., edited by Suzanne Griset. The University of Utah Anthropological Papers Number 135. Pp57-66. University of Utah Press.
Sakai, Sachiko 2021 Changes in the Sources of Olivine-Tempered Ceramics and Social Interaction Patterns in the Virgin Branch Region of the American Southwest. Sundai Shigaku Vol.173, Meiji University, Tokyo Japan: 103-134 (Japanese).
Sakai, Sachiko 2019 Changes in the Sources of Olivine-Tempered Ceramics and Social Interaction Patterns in the Virgin Branch Region. In special issue “New Findings from the Far Western Puebloan Region: Papers in Honor of Margaret Lyneis” edited by Karen Harry and Sachiko Sakai. The Kiva Vol 85, No.4 December: 313-330.
Harry, Karen, James Allison, and Sachiko Sakai 2019 New Findings from the Far Western Puebloan Region: Papers in Honor of Margaret Lyneis. In special issue “New Findings from the Far Western Puebloan Region: Papers in Honor of Margaret Lyneis” edited by Karen Harry and Sachiko Sakai. The Kiva Vol 85, No.4 December: 281-288.
Roberts, Heidi, Janet Hagopian, Richard V.N. Ahlstrom, and Sachiko Sakai (2019) 2019 Margaret Lyneis and the Pottery Traditions Of Corn Creek And AshMeadows, Southern Nevada. In special issue “New Findings from the Far Western Puebloan Region: Papers in Honor of Margaret Lyneis” edited by Karen Harry and Sachiko Sakai. The Kiva Vol 85, No.4 December: 370-389.
Cook, Robert A., Sachiko Sakai and Robert A. Genheimer 2017 Evaluating the utility of archaeological index fossils: Optically-stimulated luminescence dating of Fort Ancient Pottery at the Hahn Site. Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports Volume 15, October 2017: 132-137.
Neff, Hector, Scott J. Bigney, Sachiko Sakai, Paul R. Burger, Timothy Garfin, Richard G. George, Brendan J. Culleton, and Douglas Kennett 2016 Characterization of Archaeological Sediments Using Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) and Portable X-ray Fluorescence (pXRF): An Application to Formative Period Pyro-Industrial Site in Pacific Coastal Southern Chiapas, Mexico. Journal of Applied Spectroscopy 70(1): 110-127.
Vaughn, Kevin J., Jelmer W. Eerkens, Carl Lipo, Sachiko Sakai, and Katherine Schreiber 2014 It's About Time? Testing the Dawson Ceramic Seriation Using Luminescence Dating, Southern Nazca Region, Peru. Latin American Antiquity Volume 25, Number 4, December 2014, pp. 449-461(13)
Sakai, Sachiko 2014 Explaining Change in Production and Distribution of Olivine-Tempered Ceramics in the Arizona Strip and Adjacent Areas in the American Southwest. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California Santa Barbara.
Wittke, James H., James C. Weaver, Ted E. Bunch, James P. Kennett, Douglas J. Kennett, Andrew M. T. Moore, Gordon C. Hillman, Kenneth B. Tankersley, Albert C. Goodyear, Christopher R. Moore, I. Randolph Daniel, Jr., Jack H. Ray, Neal H. Lopinot, David Ferrado, Isabel Israde-Alcántara, James L., Bischoff, Paul S. DeCarli, Robert E. Hermes, Johan B. Kloosterman, Zsolt Revay, George A. Howard, David R. Kimbel, Gunther Kletetschka, Ladislav Nabelek, Carl P. Lipo, Sachiko Sakai, Allen West, and Richard B. Firestone 2013 Evidence for deposition of 10 million tonnes of impact spherules across four continents 12,800 years ago. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) June 4, 2013, vol. 110 no. 23 E2088-E2097
Bunch, Ted E., Robert E. Hermes, Andrew M. T. Moore, Douglas J. Kennett, James C. Weaver, James H. Wittke, Paul S. DeCarli, James. L. Bischoff, Gorgon. C. Hillman, George A. Howard, David R. Kimbel, Gunter Kletetschka, Carl P. Lipo, Sachiko Sakai, Zsolt Revay, Allen West, Richard B. Firestone, and James P. Kennett 2012 Very high-temperature impact melt products as evidence for cosmic airbursts and impacts 12,900 years ago. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) July 10, 2012 vol. 109 no. 28 E1903-E1912.
Sakai, Sakai 2011 Investigation of Clay Sources for Production of Olivine-tempered ceramics in the Arizona Strip and Adjacent Areas in the American Southwest. In Proceedings of the 2009 Three Corners Conference, edited by M. Slaughter, S. E. Daron, and Patricia A. Hicks. Nevada Archaeological Association Meetings, Las Vegas, NV, pp. 141-158.
2009 Explaining Change in Production and Distribution Pattern of Olivine Ceramics in the Arizona Strip and Adjacent Areas in the American Southwest. In Proceedings of the 2007 Three Corners Conference, edited by M. Slaughter, S. Daron, E Jansen, and K. Sprowl. Nevada Archaeological Association Meetings, Las Vegas, NV, pp 227-248.
Larson, Daniel. O., Sachiko Sakai, and Hector Neff 2005 LA-ICP-MS as a Bulk Chemical Characterization Technique: Comparison of LA-ICP-MS, MD-ICP-MS, and INAA Data on Virgin Branch Anasazi Ceramics. In Laser Ablation ICP-MS in Archaeological Research, edited by R. J. Speakman and H. Neff, pp. 94–103. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Kennett, Douglas J., Sachiko Sakai, Hector Neff, Richard Gossett, and Daniel O. Larson 2002 Compositional Characterization of Prehistoric Ceramics: A New Approach Journal of Archaeological Science 29, pp. 443–455.
Sakai, Sachiko 2001 Explaining Changes in Subsistence Strategies and Settlement Patterns among the Virgin Branch Anasazi though Ceramic Provenance Study Using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry. M. A. thesis, Department of Anthropology, California State University, Long Beach.
Under Review
Sakai, Sachiko Settlement Patterns during an Early Occupation Reconstructed by the First Excavation of the Pithouse site in Mt. Trumbull area, in Puebloan Settlement and Subsistence within the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument: Views from the Shivwits and Uinkaret Plateaus, edited by Daniel M. Perez, William Willis, and Karen Harry. University of Utah Press. Internal review completed and submitted to the University of Utah Press Aug 2025.
