Arleyn Simon

Biography

Arleyn Simon has interests in the study of prehistoric social organization and craft production through technological and compositional analysis of ceramics and other artifacts; materials science; and quantitative methods. She currently directs the activities of the Archaeological Research Institute, including collection management and research projects. Previously, she was the laboratory director for the Roosevelt Platform Mound Study (1989-1998). She has directed field projects in the U.S. Southwest (Arizona) and Northern Plains (North Dakota, Montana, South Dakota and Wyoming). Simon is a faculty associate of the ASU Center for Solid State Science (CSSS) and the Partnership for Research in Spatial Modeling (PRISM). She is a board member (and past president) of the Society for Archaeological Sciences.

Simon's research actively uses compositional and physical analysis of material artifacts, such as ceramics, stone tools and fine goods (turquoise and obsidian) for the purpose of identifying prehistoric exchange networks and production loci on both inter-regional and intra-regional scales using quantitative analysis. She is involved in interdisciplinary research using geology, chemistry and materials science.