Richard Diehl

Richard Diehl

Richard A. Diehl (born 1940) is an American archaeologist, anthropologist and academic, noted as a scholar of pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures. He is particularly renowned for his extensive contributions in the study of the Olmec civilization, which flourished in the Gulf Coast of Mexico region during the Formative (or Preclassic) period in Mesoamerican chronology and widely influenced subsequent Mesoamerican cultures. Diehl retired from formal academia at the end of the 2007 academic year, after a career spanning over four decades. He retained title as Professor Emeritus in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alabama (UA), Tuscaloosa. Post-retirement Diehl continues to be active in Mesoamerican and archaeological research, teaching classes and authoring publications on the Olmec and other archaeological subjects.