Betty Meggers

Who is Betty Meggers?

Betty Jane Meggers was an American archaeologist best known for her work conducted in association with her husband, Cliff Evans, in South America. Meggers was born in Washington, D.C., to Dr. William Frederick Meggers and Edith R. Meggers. Dr. William F. Meggers was an internationally recognized spectroscopist as well as an archaeology enthusiast, and he would often take the family to visit Native American sites. Dr. Betty Meggers's first experience with anthropology was when she was 16. She volunteered for the Smithsonian Institution and helped to reconstruct pots excavated from Pueblo Bonito, an Anasazi village in New Mexico. She died on July 2, 2012.