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Far Western

Far Western

Far Western Anthropological Research Group, Inc., is a leader in cultural resources management services. Since 1979, Far Western has consulted in archaeological projects for private industry, government agencies, tribal organizations, and non-profit groups, to achieve the broader goals of the environmental review and compliance process.

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You are here: Home / Staff Directory / Far Western Principals / Adrian (Adie) Whitaker, PhD

Adrian (Adie) Whitaker, PhD


Adrian Whitaker Email Adie

Adie Whitaker is a Principal Investigator, Project Manager, and Faunal Analyst and currently serves as the Vice President for California Operations. He has worked at Far Western since 2008 and has over 20 years archaeological experience throughout California in both academic and CRM contexts. While he has worked in just about every corner of the state, he prefers to be on the Coast and has conducted fieldwork in every California County that touches the Pacific Ocean. 

At Far Western he has worked extensively on transportation-related projects. He is an expert on the 2014 First Amended Caltrans Section 106 Programmatic Agreement as it relates to Local Assistance, with experience in the Sierra Nevada foothills, Central Coast, Central Valley, and San Francisco Bay Area. 

Dr. Whitaker currently manages cultural resources on-call contracts with Caltrans District 5 (Central Coast), Caltrans District 6 (San Joaquin Valley), Naval Facilities Command Southwest (California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah), University of California at Davis, and the San Mateo Joint Powers Board. 

Dr. Whitaker has authored numerous excavation reports on the archaeology of the central Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, and San Francisco Bay Area in northern California and on the Santa Barbara Channel Islands and coast of southern California. Data from these reports have led to the publication of numerous scholarly articles in regional, national, and international journals, including American Antiquity, the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, the Journal of Archaeological Science, the Journal of Coastal and Island Archaeology, Quaternary International, California Archaeology, and the Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology. 

He was the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology from 2017-2020, Book Review Editor for JCGBA from 2015-2017, and is on the Editorial Board of California Archaeology. He has served on the Executive Board of the Society for California Archaeology as Northern Vice President (2010-2012) and Secretary (2009-2010) and has been the chair of the California Advanced Annual Meeting Planning Committee since 2013. 

 

Inventory
Evaluation and Testing
Effects Mitigation
Geoarchaeology
Sensivity and Constraints
Environmental Planning Support
GIS and Cartography
Monitoring
Public Outreach and Interpretation

Adie’s Featured Projects

  • San Clemente Island
  • Jackson Valley Rehab
  • Wahtoke Creek

Adie’s Featured Publications

Whitaker, Adrian R., Brian Byrd, Jelmer Eerkens, and Howard Spero

2021

Resource Depression, Intensification, and Shifting Patterns of Seasonal Abalone Harvest on San Nicolas Island, California during the Middle and Late Holocene. Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology 41:2 165-185.

Whitaker, Adrian R., and Christopher Parker

2021

Bedrock Milling Features in California: Archaeological Context and Research Design. Caltrans Publications as part of statewide research context series.

Whitaker, Adrian R. and Jeffrey S. Rosenthal

2020

Divergent Human Adaptive Strategies in Late Holocene Central California. In Cowboy Ecologist: Essays in Honor of Robert L. Bettinger (edited by Roshanne S. Bakhtiary, Terry L. Jones, and Michael G. Delacorte. Center for Archaeological Research at Davis Publication 19.

Ruby, Allika, and Adrian R. Whitaker

2019

Remote Places as Post-Contact Refugia. California Archaeology, 11(2), 205-233.

Whitaker, Adrian R., Jeffrey S. Rosenthal, and Paul Brandy

2019

Social Boundaries, territoriality, and the cultural ecology of artiodactyl hunting in prehistoric California. Quaternary International 518: 83-98.

Stevens, Nathan E., Whitaker, Adrian R., and Rosenthal, Jeffrey S.

2019

Bedrock mortars as indicators of territorial behavior in the Sierra Nevada. Quaternary International. Quaternary International 518: 57-68.

Byrd, Brian F., Adrian Whitaker, Patricia Mikkelsen, and Jeffrey Rosenthal

2017

San Francisco Bay-Delta Regional Context and Research Design for Native American Archaeological Resources, Caltrans District 4. Report submitted to Caltrans District 4, Oakland.

Colligan, Kaely, Adrian R. Whitaker, and William Hildebrandt

2015

Where The Pavement Ends: An Assessment of the Paucity of Haliotis rufescens in the Archaeological Record on California’s North Coast. California Archaeology 7(1): 33-58.

Whitaker, Adrian R., and Brian F. Byrd

2014

Social Circumscription, Territoriality, and the Late Holocene Intensification of Small-Bodied Shellfish along the California Coast. Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology 9(2):150-168.

Whelan, Carly, Adrian R. Whitaker, and Jeffrey S. Rosenthal

2013

Hunter-Gatherer Storage, Settlement, and the Opportunity Costs of Women’s Foraging. American Antiquity 78(4):662-678.

Whitaker, Adrian R., and Brian Byrd

2012

Boat-Based Foraging and Discontinuous Prehistoric Red Abalone Exploitation along the California Coast. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 31(2): 196-214.

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Main Office - Davis, CA
(530) 756-3941
Bay Area Branch - Sausalito, CA
(415) 413-1450
Desert Branch - Henderson, NV
(702) 982-3691
Great Basin Branch - Carson City, NV
(775) 847-0223

FEATURED

Visualizing Indigenous Persistence during Spanish Colonization of the San Francisco Bay Area

FAR WESTERN NEWS

McGuire Publishes in Terrain

February 15, 2024

Vickie Clay awarded the NAA Silver Trowel Lifetime Achievement

May 17, 2023

Archaeology Reveals Past Lives of Bay Area Native Tribe: Phil Gross and Far Western Produce National PBS Documentary

November 8, 2022

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SPECIAL SERVICES AND EVENTS

XRF Laboratory
Archaeobotanical Analysis
Underwater Archaeology
Public Outreach and Interpretation
Tribal Liaison
Occasional Speaker Series

CONTACT US

Main Office – Davis, CA (530) 756-3941
Bay Area Branch – Sausalito, CA (415) 413-1450
Desert Branch – Henderson, NV (702) 982-3691
Great Basin Branch – Carson City, NV (775) 847-0223

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