John Desmond Clark

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John Desmond Clark (left) in Senegal in 1967

John Desmond Clark (born April 10, 1916 in London , † February 14, 2002 in Oakland ) was a British archaeologist who also researched in the field of anthropology and paleoanthropology . He was considered one of the most important experts of the 20th century on prehistoric cultures in Africa . In 1981 he was the initiator of the Middle Awash Research Project , to which numerous finds of early hominini can be thanked. He himself always shortened his name and referred to himself as J. Desmond Clark.

Career

J. Desmond Clark grew up 60 km west of London, in the small town of Northend in the Chiltern Hills , and took his grandfather and father's interest in antiquity as a child. He attended Monkton Combe School near Bath and then Christ's College at Cambridge University . There he studied history for two years and then with a pioneer in the study of Stone Age tools, Miles Burkitt (1890–1971), archeology and anthropology. In these subjects he also obtained a bachelor's degree in 1937. Since his applications for a position in England were unsuccessful, in the same year he accepted a three-year contract as curator at the David Livingstone Memorial Museum in Livingstone , Northern Rhodesia (today: Zambia ), and at the same time worked as secretary for the newly founded Rhodes -Livingstone Institute in Lusaka .

In 1940, Clark obtained his master's degree from Cambridge and then served as a paramedic during World War II from 1941 to 1946 . Places of work included Ethiopia, where he also had the opportunity to collect prehistoric stone tools , and Kenya , where he carried out excavations with Louis and Mary Leakey . In 1950/51 Clark returned to Cambridge to complete his doctorate ( Ph. D. ). He then moved back to Livingstone, expanded the museum and became its director (until 1961).

From 1961 to 1986, Clark was Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley . In 1970 he obtained a second doctorate (Sc. D.).

Research work

J. Desmond Clark was one of the first archaeologists to systematically research prehistoric African dwellings . His specialty was the dating of stone tools . In 1953 he discovered a place to live near the Kalambo Falls , which had been inhabited from the Acheuleans until the Iron Age and is considered one of the most important archaeological sites in Africa.

After his appointment as professor in Berkeley , he developed the palaeoanthropology there - together with Glynn Isaac and later Francis Clark Howell and Tim White - into the world's most important institute for research on the early African hominini . Nevertheless, in 1964 and 1965 he still found the opportunity to put in two short field seasons at the Syrian site of Latamne . From 1981 until his death he was director and co-director for the Middle Awash Research Project at the Middle Awash in Ethiopia . Today's knowledge of the use of tools by the early pre- humans discovered on the Awash River is mainly due to him. At the same time, he ensured that African students abroad received financial support in order to be trained as archaeologists and anthropologists. In this way, he made a significant contribution to the fact that today African scientists - such as Berhane Asfaw and Yohannes Haile-Selassie - are also active on African excavation sites.

In 1991, he convinced the government of the People's Republic of China to grant foreign archaeologists an excavation permit again after 40 years; he was the first foreigner to be granted such a permit.

Honors

In 1961 he became a member ( fellow ) of the British Academy . He has been a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1965, a member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1986, and a gold medalist from the Archaeological Institute of America since 1988 .

Fonts (selection)

  • as first author with various others: Stratigraphic, chronological and behavioral contexts of Pleistocene Homo sapiens from Middle Awash, Ethiopia. In: Nature . Volume 423, 2003, pp. 747-752, doi: 10.1038 / nature01670
  • as first author with various others: African Homo erectus: old radiometric ages and young Oldowan assemblages in the Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia. In: Science . Volume 264, No. 5167, 1994, pp. 1907–1910, doi: 10.1126 / science.8009220 , full text (PDF)
  • as editor: The Cambridge History of Africa. Volume 1: From the earliest times to c. 500 BC. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1982, ISBN 0-521-22215-X .
  • The Prehistory of Africa (= Ancient Peoples and Places 72). Thames & Hudson Ltd, London 1970, ISBN 0-500-02069-8 .
  • Kalambo Falls Prehistoric Site. 3 volumes, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1969–2001;
  • Atlas of African Prehistory. University of Chicago Press, Chicago IL et al. 1967.
  • The Prehistory of Southern Africa. The latest discoveries about the origins and cultural history of primitive man (= Penguin Books. A: Pelican Books. A 458, ZDB -ID 1199191-4 ). Penguin Books, Harmondsworth et al. 1959.
  • Prehistoric Cultures of the Horn of Africa. An Analysis of the Stone Age cultural and climatic Succession in the Somalilands and Eastern Parts of Abyssinia (= Occasional Publications of the Cambridge University Museum of Archeology and Ethnology. 2, ZDB -ID 1188900-7 ). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1954.

literature

  • Fred Wendorf: J. Desmond Clark. In: Tim Murray (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Archeology: The Great Archaeologists. Volume II. ABC-CLIO Inc., Santa Barbara, CA, 1999, pp. 743-757, full text
  • David W. Phillipson: John Desmond Clark, 1916-2002 . In: Proceedings of the British Academy . tape 120 , 2003, p. 65-79 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fred Wendorf: J. Desmond Clark , in: Biographical Memoirs , Vol. 83, National Academies Press, Washington 2003, pp. 3-16, here: p. 11.
  2. ↑ Ann Gibbons: Africans begin to make their mark in human-origin research. In: Science . Volume 301, No. 5637, 2003, pp. 1178-1179, doi: 10.1126 / science.301.5637.1178
  3. ^ Deceased Fellows. British Academy, accessed May 14, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Book of Members 1780 – present, Chapter C. (PDF; 1.3 MB) In: American Academy of Arts and Sciences (amacad.org). Retrieved February 24, 2018 .
  5. ^ John Desmond Clark: 1988 Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement.
personal data
SURNAME Clark, John Desmond
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Clark, J. Desmond
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British paleoanthropologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 10, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH February 14, 2002
Place of death Oakland (California)