Hugh O'Neill Hencken

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Hugh O'Neill Hencken (born January 8, 1902 in New York City , † August 31, 1981 on Cape Cod , Massachusetts ) was an American prehistoric scientist . His research focus was on the European Iron Age .

Life

Study and academic career

Hencken was born in New York City in 1902 to Albert Charles and Mary Creighton O'Neill Hencken. He spent his youth in Pennsylvania . From 1920 he studied at Princeton University , where he received a Bachelor of Arts in 1924 . He then continued his studies at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom , where he later also received his doctorate . In 1932 he became a curator of European archeology at the Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology at Harvard University . He held this position until 1972. He was also both director and chairman of the American School of Prehistoric Research at the Peabody Museum. In 1943 Hencken was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . Since 1972 he has been a corresponding member of the British Academy . From 1952 to 1955 he was President of the Archaeological Institute of America .

Even after his retirement he remained connected to the Peabody Museum. He became an honorary curator at the museum, did research and occasionally gave lectures at Harvard University.

He learned during the excavation of a mid-1930s Iron Age hill fort on Bredon Hill , Worcestershire Thalassa Cruso know. They married in 1935 and Cruso followed her husband to the United States, where they settled in Boston . From this marriage three daughters were born. Hencken had been married once before. However, his first marriage ended in divorce.

Hencken died on August 31, 1981 in a retirement home on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

Archaeological research

At the beginning of his archaeological career Hencken took part in various excavations in England and Ireland . In the course of this, he coined the expression Entrance Grave in 1932 . In the late 1940s, he directed excavations in Algeria and Morocco .

From 1950 he focused on the analysis and manufacture of prehistoric materials that he found in museums across Europe. Most recently, he spent 15 years researching the Duchess of Mecklenburg Collection , a collection of artefacts that Marie von Mecklenburg-Schwerin had compiled and found during excavations in Germany and Central Europe before the First World War .

In the course of his academic career he wrote a dozen books, three of them on the Duchess of Mecklenburg Collection .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Hencken, Hugh O'Neill, 1902-1981, Papers: A Finding Aid ( Memento April 3, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), June 1997, Peabody Museum Archives, Harvard University
  2. ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed June 9, 2020 .
  3. ^ A b c Thalassa Cruso, 88, Plant Lover Who Shared Her Passion on TV , June 18, 1997, The New York Times
  4. ^ Hugh O'Neill Hencken, The Archeology of Cornwall and Scilly. Methuen, London 1932
personal data
SURNAME Hencken, Hugh O'Neill
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American prehistoric
DATE OF BIRTH January 8, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH August 31, 1981
Place of death on Cape Cod , Massachusetts