Grahame Clark

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Grahame Clark ( Erasmus Prize , 1990)

Sir John Grahame Douglas Clark CBE (born July 28, 1907 in Kent , † September 12, 1995 in Cambridge ) was a British prehistoric scientist whose research interests were in the area of ​​the Paleolithic and Mesolithic .

Childhood and youth

Grahame Clark was born on July 28, 1907 as the eldest son of Charles Douglas and Maude Ethel Clark (nee Shaw). The family lived in Bromley , Kent. Clark saw his father for the last time in 1914, when he went to France as an officer to fight the Germans in World War I. Later Lieutenant Colonel Clark was posted to the Middle East, then to India , and succumbed to the flu on his return trip to Great Britain in 1919 .

In the following years, Grahame Clark was raised by his mother and uncle. Already in this early phase of his life he began to acquire knowledge in archeology ; his mentor at that time was a neighbor of the family, Mr. Bird, who own a collection of the boy soon Feuerstein - artifacts could move. In school, Clark joined the Natural History Society , for which he wrote regularly reports, which earned him the nickname "Stones and Bones". The subjects of these reports were always descriptions of flint artifacts.

From 1923 to 1926, Clark was a leading member of this society. His interest in prehistoric and protohistoric topics motivated him to pursue a degree in archeology from 1926.

Academic years

From 1926 to 1932, Clark studied prehistoric archeology, history and anthropology at Cambridge University . His lecturer in prehistory and early history was Miles Burkitt (1890–1971). The works or authors who particularly influenced Clark during this time included:

His studies eventually led Clark to a doctoral thesis on the Mesolithic stone tool industries of Great Britain, which ended in 1932 and was published under the title "The Mesolithic Age in Britain".

In 1936, Clark married Gladys Maud "Mollie" White, whom he had met at the University Museum of Archeology and Ethnology.

Established the Prehistoric Society and the Fenland Research Committee

In 1932, Clark founded the Fenland Research Committee , in which the disciplines of botany , geology , geography , biology , history and prehistoric archeology were brought together to improve research. The committee met three times a year; At these meetings, the tasks to be dealt with were distributed and new research debated.

Clark had become a member of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia at an early stage in his archaeological training . Together with his friends and colleagues Charles Phillips (who was a history teacher at Cambridge) and Stuart Piggott (who was doing his doctorate on Neolithic ceramics at the same time as Clark ), Clark brought about the renaming and re-establishment of the Society in the Prehistoric Society on May 2, 1935 Opening of the society to archaeological research in other parts of the country. Clark was elected editor-in-chief of the magazine at this founding meeting; he held this post for 35 years.

Under Clark's aegis, the Society's magazine (the Proceedings ) received significant funding, so that not only aspiring, previously unknown archaeologists published there, but also established scientists (including Gordon Childe and Dorothy Garrod ). Although Clark had several people as assistants (Stuart Piggott, Kenneth Oakley) available in later years, he did most of the editing work on his own.

Travel and work

After receiving his doctorate in 1932, Clark traveled to Holland , Denmark and Germany , where he made important professional contacts (including Therkel Matthiassen, J. Troels-Smith, Gudmun Hatt) and learned about the settlement of these countries in prehistoric times. As a result of these trips, the book The Mesolithic Settlement of Northern Europe appeared in 1936 ; In this work, new dating methods for the temporal classification of stone tools were presented for the first time ; In addition, Clark had also advocated the scientific analysis of wood and bone artifacts for the first time. This turn to the adaptation of scientific procedures in the context of prehistory and early history would later lead to an acquaintance with Willard Frank Libby , the inventor of the radiocarbon method : Libby dated wooden remains from the site of Starr Carr in Yorkshire (1949-1951).

military service

Grahame Clark was drafted into military service in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during World War II ; there he was stationed at the base in Medmenham, where he helped with the department for the evaluation of aerial reconnaissance images. In contrast to many of his friends, Clark never had to go abroad or to the front (due to his poor health), so that even during the war he could still dedicate himself to editing the articles of the Proceedings (which were greatly reduced in number) . At that time, Clark was also concerned with research into prehistory based on previously neglected factors (e.g. water, whales, forests, sheep or fish), i.e. with the expansion of prehistoric archeology to include human economic structures.

At the end of the war, Clark received a professorship in Cambridge at the side of his friend Dorothy Garrod; with her as a colleague, he helped rebuild the university's prehistoric and early history institute.

The post-war years

The largest post-war project Clark undertook was the excavation of the prehistoric wetland settlement of Star Carr near Seamer, in Yorkshire. The excavations extended to the years 1949 to 1951; Not only were flint artifacts found, but also organic remains with which Clark was able to reconstruct several wooden platforms that had been built into a lake. Clark later had the remains of the fauna examined by the British Museum in London; the wood remains were dated 14 C by the American Williard Libby (to 9488 ± 350 years before today). The Star Carr monograph was published in 1954.

Before this, however, there was still Clark's joint work with Stuart Piggot: Prehistoric Europe: The Economic Basis . Many consider this book to be Clark's greatest success; In it, the two archaeologists reported on the latest research on the economy of prehistoric times (including the findings in Star Carr and the Reisen Clarks).

In 1952 Dorothy Garrod left Cambridge and retired. Grahame Clark took over her chair. In 1961, Clark was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , and in 1974 to the National Academy of Sciences .

Visiting professorships

Because of his - meanwhile worldwide - fame, Clark was given visiting professorships in different countries of the world, for example

  • the Grant McCurdy professorship at Harvard (USA, 1957)
  • the W. Evans teaching position in Otago (New Zealand)
  • the Commonwealth Visiting Fellow (Australia, 1964)
  • the Hitchcock Professorship in Berkeley (California, 1969)
  • as well as a visiting professorship at the University of Uppsala (Sweden, 1972)

In 1961, Clark published the first version of his major work World Prehistory . In it he treated the archeology of the entire world in a single large context; In addition, he also introduced the names of the different technology levels ( Mode 1 for example for the Oldowan , Mode 2 for the Acheuléen, etc.). The second, revised version of the work followed in 1969 (Word Prehistory: A new outline), the final version in 1977.

Late years and ages

Even in his old age, Clark published important works on archeology: In 1975, for example, The Earlier Stone Age Settlement of Scandinavia appeared ; this book was essentially an improvement on the 1936 work.

In 1978 Clark traveled to India. Other books that were written during this period were:

  • Mesolithic Prelude (1980)
  • The Identity of Man (1983)
  • Symbols of Excellence (1986)
  • Space, time and man (1992)

After receiving important awards and honors in his life (including an honorary doctorate from Uppsala University ), Clark and his wife were knighted in 1992. At the time of his death, Sir Grahame Clark was working on another book called Man the Spiritual Primate ; however, this work was no longer completed due to his demise on September 12, 1995.

Overview of the most important publications

  • Notes on the flint implemets on Granham Hill and around Panterwick. In: Report of the Marlborough College Natural History Society. 72, 1923, ZDB -ID & key = zdb 1155838-6 , pp. 85-89.
  • Surface flint implements from Marlborough and Seaford compared. In: Report of the Marlborough College Natural History Society. 73, 1924, pp. 75-79.
  • Gravers from Marlborough and Seaford. In: Report of the Marlborough College Natural History Society. 74, 1925, p. 114.
  • Sarsen implements. In: Report of the Marlborough College Natural History Society. 75, 1926, pp. 73-75.
  • The Mesolithic Age in Britain. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1932.
  • with Harry Godwin , Margaret E. Godwin, and William A. Macfadyen: Report on an Early Bronze Age site in the south-eastern Fens. In: Antiquaries Journal. Vol. 13, No. 3, 1933, ISSN  0079-497X , pp. 266-296, doi : 10.1017 / S0003581500015778 .
  • The Mesolithic Settlement of Northern Europe. A Study of the Food-Gathering Peoples of Northern Europe during the Early Post-glacial Period. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1936.
  • Archeology and Society. Methuen, London 1939.
  • with Harry Godwin, Francis C. Fraser and Judith E. King: A preliminary report on excavations at Star Carr, Seamer, Scarborough, Yorkshire, 1949. In: Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. NS Vol. 15, 1949, ISSN  0079-497X , pp. 52-69, doi : 10.1017 / S0079497X00019198 .
  • Prehistoric Europe. The economic base. Methuen, London 1952.
  • Excavations at Star Carr. An Early Mesolithic Site at Seamer, near Scarborough, Yorkshire. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1954.
  • World Prehistory. A new outline. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1961 (3rd edition: World Prehistory. In New Perspective. Ibid 1977, ISBN 0-521-29178-X ).
  • Radiocarbon dating and the expansion of farming culture from the Near East over Europe. In: Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. NS Vol. 31, 1965, pp. 58-73, doi : 10.1017 / S0079497X00014717 .
  • The invasion hypothesis in British Archeology. In: Antiquity. Vol. 40, No. 159, 1966, ISSN  0003-598X , pp. 172-189, doi : 10.1017 / S0003598X00032488 .
  • The Stone Age Hunters. Thames and Hudson, London 1967
  • The Earlier Stone Age Settlement of Scandinavia. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1975.
  • Mesolithic Prelude. The Paleolithic-Neolithic Transition in Old World Prehistory. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 1980, ISBN 0-85224-365-0 .
  • The Identity of Man. As seen by an archaeologist. Methuen, London et al. 1983, ISBN 0-416-33550-0 .
  • Symbols of Excellence. Precious Materials as Expressions of Status. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1986, ISBN 0-521-30264-1 .
  • Space, time and man. A Prehistorian's view. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1992, ISBN 0-521-40065-1 .
  • As well as the unpublished manuscript of Man the Spiritual Primate.

literature

  • Brian Fagan: Grahame Clark: An Intellectual Biography of an Archaeologist. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001 (hardcover, ISBN 0-8133-3602-3 ); 2003 (paperback, ISBN 0-8133-4113-2 ).
  • Arkadiusz Marciniak and John Coles (eds.): Grahame Clark and his legacy. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Publishing 2010 (hardcover, ISBN 1-4438-2222-1 ).
  • John Coles: John Grahame Douglas Clark, 1907-1995 . In: Proceedings of the British Academy . tape 94 , 1997, pp. 357–387 ( online [PDF; accessed May 15, 2020]).

Web links

Commons : Grahame Clark  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Coles et al .: World Prehistory. Studies in memory of Grahame Clark. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1999, p. 207
  2. ↑ Report of the Marlborough College Natural History Society Marlborough 1923, pp. 85-89; also reports in that series from 1924, pp. 75–79; 1925, p. 114 and 1926, pp. 73-75
  3. ↑ Coles et al. 1999, pp. 207-208
  4. ↑ Coles et al. 1999, p. 209
  5. ↑ Coles et al. 1999, pp. 208-211
  6. ↑ Coles et al. 1999, pp. 213, 216.
  7. ↑ Coles et al. 1999, p. 212
  8. ↑ Coles et al. 1999, p. 216
  9. ↑ Coles et al. 1999, pp. 217-221
  10. ↑ Coles et al. 1999, pp. 221-226
  11. ↑ Coles et al. 1999, pp. 227-229
personal data
SURNAME Clark, Grahame
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Clark, John Grahame Douglas (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British prehistorian
DATE OF BIRTH July 28, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Kent
DATE OF DEATH September 12, 1995
Place of death Cambridge