I would like to nominate Brian J. Lenius for the Pendergast Award of outstanding contributions as an avocational archaeologist. He was an outstanding self-taught avocational archaeologist who produced professional quality work and who evolved into a self taught professional archaeologist employed in archaeology. He has had no university training nor any courses in archaeology. He is entirely self-taught. He developed professional standards and produced the highest level of professional quality work throughout his avocational period, 1972-1985, after which I am categorizing him as a professional because he then became employed fulltime as a professional archaeologist, hired for his outstanding knowledge and high calibre of work. During his avocational period he committed a phenomenal amount of time to archaeological research which resulted in a major work that revised the typology and taxonomy of Late Woodland ceramics. Other accomplishments during his avocational phase included:

l. organizational restructuring of the Manitoba Archaeological Society,
2. documentation of the first Borden sites in a couple of areas in Manitoba,
3. the first use of proton magnetometers for sub-surface survey in Manitoba,
4. the first use of copper compositional analysis in Manitoba, using Atomic Energy of Canada resources,
5. the development of first mathematical formula for calculating ceramic vessel volumetric analysis in Manitoba,
6. the first rigorous classification of lithic resources in Manitoba, particularly the identification of a series of lithic types such as West Patricia Recrystallized Chert and the identification of several variations of rhyolite,
7. frequent efforts at raising probing questions to push the envelope on interpretive results.

Dr. E. Leigh Syms
Associate Curator of Archaeology
The Manitoba Museum
Winnipeg