Glynn Isaac

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Glynn Isaac in Tortoise Cave near Elands Bay in South Africa.

Glynn Llywelyn Isaac (born November 19, 1937 in Cape Town , † October 5, 1985 in Tokyo ) was a South African archaeologist , anthropologist and paleoanthropologist . Most recently, he was Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University .

Life

Glynn Isaac was born in Cape Town in 1937 to the botanists William Edwyn Isaac and Frances Margaret Leighton and grew up with a sister and twin brother. After attending school in South Africa and England, Isaac obtained a Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree from the University of Cape Town in 1958 in zoology with a focus on archeology and ethnology and three years later a further Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Cambridge . Also in Cambridge , he obtained a master’s degree in 1966 and a doctorate (PhD) in 1969 . In 1966 Isaac moved to the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley . In 1983 he became a professor at Harvard.

Besides Richard Leakey Glynn Isaac initiator and co-director of the Koobi Fora Research Project in was Kenya that significant contributions to the study of the early ancestors of the people yielded.

An obituary for Isaac said that on the one hand he was considered a particularly talented expert in field research in East Africa , on the other hand he also enriched the theoretical discussion about the causes of the incarnation . For example, he pointed out the connection between long-term locations, the search for food and the sharing of the food among the members of a group. He was also one of the first paleoanthropologists to point out that one must also search specifically for finds between the known fossil deposits. Isaac initiated experiments to understand the effects of the transport of bones and stone tools by floods on the nature of the paleontological and archaeological finds and on their deposition. He also had investigations into the form in which today's hyenas and other predators influence the composition of bone finds, also with the aim of understanding how fossil deposits are to be interpreted. Finally, he had experiments carried out in which cut marks made by stone tools were reproduced in bones.

His identical twin brother , Rhys L. Isaac , was a professor of American history at La Trobe University in Melbourne , Australia .

Fonts (selection)

  • Koobi Fora Research Project, Volume 5: Plio-Pleistocene Archeology. Clarendon Press, 1997, ISBN 978-0198575016
  • The archeology of human origins. Papers by Glynn Isaac. Cambridge University Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0521023153 (first published in 1989)
  • Human Ancestors: Readings from Scientific American. WH Freeman & Co. Ltd., 1979, ISBN 978-0716711018
  • The Food-sharing Behavior of Protohuman Hominids. In: Scientific American. Volume 238, No. 4, April 1978, pp. 90-109
  • Olorgesailie : Archeological Studies of a Middle Pleistocene Lake Basin in Kenya. University of Chicago Press, 1977, ISBN 978-0226384849
  • Human Origins: Louis Leakey and the East African Evidence. WA Benjamin Advanced Book Program, 1976, ISBN 978-0805399424
  • Middle Pleistocene stratigraphy and cultural patterns in East Africa. Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, 1973
  • with Richard Leakey and Anna K. Behrensmeyer: Archeological Traces of Early Hominid Activities, East of Lake Rudolf, Kenya. In: Science . Volume 173, No. 4002, 1971, pp. 1129-1134, doi: 10.1126 / science.173.4002.1129

literature

  • Jeanne Sept and David Pilbeam (Eds.): Casting the Net Wide: Papers in Honor of Glynn Isaac and His Approach to Human Origins Research. Oxbow Books, 2012 (= American School of Prehistoric Research Monograph), ISBN 978-1842-17454-8

Web links

Commons : Glynn Isaac  - Collection of Images, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Rhys Isaac: Glynn Isaac and the Search for Human Origins in Africa: Inaugural Glynn Isaac Memorial Lecture, April 21, 1993 (1995)
  2. ^ Historian made his own history , November 9, 2010, The Sydney Morning Herald
  3. ^ John D. Speth in: Geoarchaeology: An International Journal. Volume 13, 1998, p. 746 ff.
personal data
SURNAME Isaac, Glynn
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Isaac, Glynn Llywelyn
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African paleoanthropologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 19, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Cape Town
DATE OF DEATH 5th October 1985
Place of death Tokyo