Harold L. Dibble

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Harold Lewis Dibble (born July 26, 1951 in California , USA - † June 10, 2018 ) was an American paleoanthropologist and archaeologist . In addition to his professorship at the University of Pennsylvania , he was Senior Curator of the Europe Department at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology . One of his main areas of research was the reconstruction of the manufacture of stone tools by the Neanderthals .

Life

Harold Dibble grew up in the US state of California, where his father worked as a scientist on rocket design. At the end of the 1950s, the families moved to Florida because the father was now employed in Cape Canaveral . After attending high school , Dibble studied at the University of Arizona , where he earned his bachelor's degree in 1974 and his master's degree in anthropology in 1976 . In 1981 he received his PhD in anthropology at the same place in Arthur J. Jelinek's group , with a dissertation on Technological Strategies of Stone Tool Production at Tabun Cave (Israel) .

1982 Dibble was appointed Lecturer , 1985. Assistant professor , 1991 associate professor finally appointed in 1996 to full professor, both in the Department of Anthropology of the University of Pennsylvania, where he most recently the Francis E. Johnston term - Chair held and when Director of the Laboratory for the Study of Ancient Technology he founded.

Harold Dibble died at the age of 66 from complications from a late-diagnosed neuroendocrine tumor . He left behind his wife, Lee, who had been married to him since 1975, and two sons.

Research topics

While working on his dissertation, he already had access to the large stone equipment collection of his doctoral supervisor Jelinek, and from 1984 he took part in excavations in French Neanderthals, for example in La Quina , Combe Capelle , Pech de l'Azé IV La Ferrassie , Fontéchevade , he was also repeatedly involved in excavations in Egypt and Morocco . He wrote one of his most important publications as early as 1984: In it he criticized the then widespread view that the various variants of the Paleolithic stone tools were each deliberately - systematically - manufactured in their respective form. In contrast, he argued that numerous finds could be interpreted more correctly as the result of several consecutive processing during the period of use, each of which resulted in a change in their intended use. George Carr Frison had previously put forward a similar hypothesis in relation to stone arrowheads from Wyoming ("Frison Effect"). Dibble underpinned his assumptions through experiments in the Laboratory for the Study of Ancient Technology, which he initiated, and derived, among other things, reflections on the symbolic actions of the Neanderthals.

Dibble also researched in particular those Neanderthals' camps in France where fire pits had existed. He came to the - controversial - conclusion that Neanderthals were fundamentally able to control fire ; however, the verifiable fireplaces came primarily from relatively warm eras, which led him to assume that the Neanderthals set up their fireplaces primarily after lightning strikes and the associated local fires, for example.

Dibble made the stone tools for the feature film Ayla and the Bear Clan .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Deborah I. Olszewski: Harold L. Dibble, preeminent paleoanthropologist / paleolithic archaeologist. In: PaleoAnthropology. 2018, pp. 30–46, doi: 10.4207 / PA.2018.ART110 , full text
  2. ↑ Curriculum vitae on: upenn.academia.edu of October 24, 2012
  3. ↑ Dennis Sandgathe, Shannon McPherron, Paul Goldberg and Vera Aldeias: Harold L. Dibble (1951-2018). In: Nature Ecology & Evolution. Volume 2, 2018, pp. 1521–1522, doi: 10.1038 / s41559-018-0665-5 , full text
  4. ^ The Department regrets to announce the recent passing of Harold Dibble… Obituary of the Department of Anthropology of the University of Pennsylvania on sas.upenn.edu
    Notable archaeologist and Penn professor Harold L. Dibble dies of cancer. In: The Daily Pennsylvanian, June 24, 2018
  5. ↑ Harold L. Dibble: Interpreting typological variation of Middle Paleolithic scrapers: Function, style, or sequence of reduction? In: Journal of Field Archeology. Volume 11, 1984, pp. 431-436, full text
  6. ↑ Harold L. Dibble: The interpretation of Middle Paleolithic scraper morphology. In: American Antiquity. Volume 52, No. 1, 1987, pp. 109-117, doi: 10.2307 / 281062 , full text
  7. ↑ Harold L. Dibble: Middle paleolithic scraper reduction: Background, clarification, and review of the evidence to date. In: Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. Volume 2, No. 4, 1995, pp. 299-368, doi: 10.1007 / BF02229003
  8. ^ Expression 'Frison Effect' Developed by George Frison. On: americanprofile.com of September 18, 2005
  9. ↑ Philip G. Chase and Harold L. Dibble: Middle paleolithic symbolism: A review of current evidence and interpretations. In: Journal of Anthropological Archeology. Volume 6, No. 3, 1987, pp. 263-296, doi: 10.1016 / 0278-4165 (87) 90003-1
  10. ↑ Harold L. Dibble et al .: How Did Hominins Adapt to Ice Age Europe without Fire? In: Current Anthropology. Volume 58, No. S16, 2017, pp. S278 – S287, doi: 10.1086 / 692628
  11. ↑ Harold L. Dibble, 66, Penn archaeologist who led discovery of 'world's oldest child'. Philadelphia Inquirer's obituary dated June 22, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Dibble, Harold L.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dibble, Harold Lewis (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American paleoanthropologist and archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 26, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH California
DATE OF DEATH June 10, 2018