J. Norman Emerson

J. Norman Emerson , actually John Norman Emerson , (born March 13, 1917 in Toronto ; † November 18, 1978 ibid) was a Canadian archaeologist who has rendered outstanding services to the prehistory and early history of Ontario .

life and work

Norman Emerson was the son of an electrician in Toronto. As a child he was called "Norm". He attended the Rose Avenue Public School from 1928 to 1932 , then from 1932 to 1936 the University of Toronto Schools . From 1936 to 1940 he studied at Trinity College , at the University of Toronto , where he completed his studies in sociology.

In the summers of 1938 and 1939 he received his first lessons from the archaeologist Philleo Nash , who excavated the pound site in southwestern Ontario for the University of Toronto. With his first publication on archeology, he already indicated his future direction: Digging Up the Past with Grapefruit Knives . In September 1939, he accompanied Kenneth E. Kidd on a campaign to Rock Lake in Algonquin Provincial Park .

In 1941 he finally switched to anthropology after he had already supervised two excavations of Mounds in Illinois in 1940 and 1941 , namely the Kincaid site for Fay Cooper Cole from the University of Chicago . He moved there in 1941 and wanted to do a doctorate at Cooper Cole, despite offers from Yale , Harvard and Pennsylvania . He completed this work in 1943. That same year, on January 16, he married Ann Elliot of Buda , Illinois, with whom he had three children, Neil, Linley and Bruce. As a staff sergeant , he fought in the Battle of Petawawa after being drafted into the Canadian Army.

After the war he continued to work on his dissertation and in 1946 he was hired by Thomas F. McIlwraith as a lecturer in the Toronto Department of Anthropology . As Supervisor of Archaeological Studies , he initiated numerous investigations and excavations, he developed the archaeological laboratory and he was a co-founder of the Ontario Archaeological Society in 1951 . In 1954 he received his doctorate in Chicago with The Archeology of the Ontario Iroquois . In addition, he led archaeological field schools on the Pic River (1960) and at Cahiagué (1961–67). In 1968 he took a break in the form of a sabbatical . In total, he led almost 50 excavations.

He had specialized in the Middle and Late Woodland Period, where he worked particularly intensively on the sites of Kant, Ault Park and Cahiagué. The Ontario Iroquois were his strength, although he never published a monograph on the Hurons . His PhD in 1954 was the start of a series of studies on the subject.

From 1973 he dealt with psychological and intuitive aspects of archeology, ghost stories and "psycho-ceramics" fascinated him.

Not everyone valued his mass or “lightning” digs, using heavy machinery, or he marked the course of stockades with brightly colored sticks, which could give a distorted impression that his colleagues tried to avoid. On the other hand, he was a talented didactician and many were enthusiastic about archeology or anthropology.

In 1970 he became president of the Ontario Archaeological Society, which he co-founded in 1951 . In 1968 he became the founder and 1975-76 President of the Canadian Archaeological Association , but he had to give up the post due to illness. In April 1978, he received the Smith-Wintemberg Medal from the Archaeological Association for exceptional contributions to Canadian archeology.

The archaeological holdings of the University of Toronto that are related to the Wyandot or Hurons are now known as the J. Norman Emerson Fund . These include finds from around 39 excavation sites that were visited between 1939 and 1975 by the archaeological department of the University of Toronto. The collection includes around a million artifacts .

Fonts (selection)

• Preliminary report on the excavations of the Kant site: Renfrew county, Ontario. In: Annual report of the National Museum for the fiscal year, 1947-1948 (= National Museums of Canada. Bulletin. No. 113, ZDB -ID 429576-6 ). National Museum of Canada, Ottawa 1949, pp. 17-22.
• Castellation development among the Iroquois (= The Ontario Archaeological Society. Research Guide. 1). Ontario Archaeological Society, Toronto 1955.
• as editor: New Pages of Prehistory. The Ontario Archaeological Society, Toronto 1956-1959, 1961.
• The Cahiague excavations, 1966. An interim report submitted to the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources, Canadian Historic Sites Division. sl, sa 1966.
• The Payne Site: an Iroquoian manifestation in Prince Edward County, Ontario. In: Contributions to Anthropology. Volume 5: Archeology and Physical Anthropology (= National Museums of Canada. Bulletin. No. 206 = National Museum of Canada. Anthropological Series Bulletin. 72). National Museum of Canada, Ottawa 1967, pp. 126-257.
• Understanding Iroquois pottery in Ontario. A rethinking. The Ontario Archaeological Society, Toronto 1968
• with Helen E. Devereux and Michael J. Ashworth: A Study of Fort St. Joseph (= History and Archeology. 14, ISSN  0225-0101 ). National Historic Parks and Sites Branch, Ottawa 1977, ISBN 0-660-01064-X .

literature

• William C. Noble: J. Norman Emerson: Contributions to Canadian Archeology. In: Pamela Jane Smith, Donald Mitchell (Eds.): Bringing back the Past. Historical Perspectives on Canadian Archeology (= Archaeological Survey of Canada. Paper. 158). Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull Quebec 1998, ISBN 0-660-15974-0 , pp. 39-51.
• William C. Noble: Obituary: John Norman Emerson (1917–1978). In: Canadian Journal of Archeology . 3, 1979, pp. 240-244, JSTOR 41102210 .

Web links

• Exhibition by the J. Norman Emerson Fund , Archaeological Sites