Barbara J. Mills

Barbara J. Mills is the Regents Professor Emerita in the School of Anthropology, professor emerita in American Indian Studies, and curator emerita of Archaeology at the Arizona State Museum at the University of Arizona. She was Director of the University of Arizona Archaeological Field School at Pinedale, Arizona, from 1993 to 2004 and the Principal Investigator for the Silver Creek Archaeological Research Project. Following the Field School, Barbara founded the Southwest Social Networks Project, which is now part of cyberSW, funded by a series of collaborative National Science Foundation grants, including with Archaeology Southwest.

Her work has often focused on ceramic analysis as a tool for understanding production, distribution, and consumption, but she is broadly interested in material culture to understand social relations in the past. Her research on ceramic technology, craft specialization, and accumulations research led to a series of papers and edited volumes on social inequality, identity, feasting, and migration

In addition to the Mogollon Rim area, she has field and research experience in the Zuni, Chaco, Mimbres, and Four Corners areas in the U.S. Southwest, as well as Guatemala, Turkey, and Kazakhstan. Among her many publications is her co-editorship of The Oxford Handbook of Southwest Archaeology (2017) and The Oxford Handbook of Archaeological Network Research (2024).