Jon Calf

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Jon Kalb with an Afar Tribal Leader (1973)

Jon Ervin Kalb (born August 17, 1941 in Houston , Texas - † October 27, 2017 in Austin , Texas) was an American geologist and scientist at the Texas Memorial Museum of the University of Texas at Austin . In the early 1970s Kalb explored and dated large areas in the Afar Triangle in Ethiopia , studies that enabled paleoanthropologists to search for hominine fossils and, among other things. a. in November 1974 led to the discovery of Lucy , then the most complete specimen of Australopithecus afarensis , and a year later to the recovery of the so-called First Family .

career

Jon Kalb grew up with two siblings in Houston, Texas, where he graduated from high school in 1959 . A year earlier he had already assisted with mapping during an internship at the Gulf Interstate Gas Company in New Mexico during the summer . In the following ten years he worked in geological and archaeological research projects that change almost every year. Among other things, he explored a Spanish shipwreck off the coast of Yucatán - his eardrums were destroyed in an underwater accident , which ultimately saved him from military service in Vietnam . At times he was also a research fellow in the Department of Paleobiology of the National Museum of Natural History . He also took undergraduate courses in geology, archeology and paleontology , first in Texas and then at the American University in Washington, DC , where he obtained a bachelor 's degree. Due to his diverse practical experience - despite the very slow basic studies - he was awarded a scholarship for the master’s degree in geology at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore from 1969 .

After several years in Ethiopia, Jon Kalb worked from 1978 to 2010 as a research fellow at the Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory at the Texas Memorial Museum of the University of Texas at Austin and between 2003 and 2008 he was researching the Rio Grande Rift in Presidio County ( Texas) deals.

Jon Kalb had been married to his wife Judy since 1968; the couple had two daughters.

Research in Ethiopia

The Bodo skull

At the beginning of his studies he got to know Ernst Cloos and through him the methods of field geology, in particular the precise determination of the contents, sizes and boundaries of geological layers and their documentation in the form of geological maps. With this academic background in mind, an article by Haroun Tazieff in Scientific American in February 1970 piqued his interest in the Afar triangle. The French volcanologist , an early believer in plate tectonics, described a “nightmarish desert landscape” in which “a new ocean was emerging”. This was followed by literature research with the result that there were no reliable geological maps of the Afar region , but a paleoanthropological research project in the area of ​​the neighboring Omo River , called Omo Research Expedition , led by US and French researchers . He then contacted the head of the Ethiopian Geological Survey (the highest geoscientific authority in Ethiopia) in the summer of 1970 and received a license from him that allowed him to map in the Afar Triangle, in the area of ​​the Middle Awash . Kalb raised funds for his expedition and also arranged a joint exploration of the site with the head of the French contribution to the Omo Research Expedition , the paleontologist Yves Coppens . At the beginning of March 1971, he set out for Ethiopia, rented an apartment in Addis Ababa and brought his wife and first daughter to join him in the same month - the family then lived in Ethiopia until 1978. He undertook his first excursions in the country together with researchers from the Geological Survey .

With the support of the French geologist of the Omo Research Expedition , Maurice Taieb , who had been analyzing the geological layers along the Awash River for his doctoral thesis since 1966 , he procured vehicles, equipment and local helpers from Addis Ababa for his future multi-week expeditions. During the first expedition, in spring 1972, he was u. a. attention to the Dikika site, which later became world-famous . In the same year Kalb first met Donald Johanson , who had belonged to the US group of the Omo Research Expedition since 1970 . A first scientific publication on the geological peculiarities of the Afar lowlands appeared in 1972, together with Maurice Taieb, Yves Coppens and Donald Johanson.

In 1974 Kalb received permission from the Ethiopian authorities to develop a further research area above the Awash lowlands, called Middle Awash . The Rift Valley Research Mission in Ethiopia (RVRME), which he led from the beginning of 1975, was also the first cooperation between mostly foreign scientists with the Department of Biology at the University of Addis Ababa in the field of vertebrate paleontology and team member Tsrha Adefris later acquired as the first Ethiopian a PhD in paleoanthropology. the most famous find was discovered in 1976, the 600,000 year old, so-called Bodo skull from the site of Bodo D'Ar. In the following years Jon Kalb published - mostly as the sole author until 1978 - detailed annual reports on his geological research, initially addressed to his licensor, the Ethiopian Geological Survey , and later addressed to the Ethiopian Antiquities Authority and the Ethiopian Ministry of Culture. As a result of the Ethiopian civil war , Kalb - like numerous other foreigners - had to leave the country in August 1978 by order of the authorities. At the same time, allegations were made that Kalb had spied for the CIA , which was later officially denied, so that he was allowed to work again in Ethiopia from 1994 and, among other things. a. was involved in several extensive technical papers on fossil elephants .

Fonts (selection)

  • Maurice Taieb, Yves Coppens, Donald Johanson, Raymonde Bonnefille and Jon E. Kalb: Découverte d'hominidés dans les series plio-pléistocénes d'Hadar (Bassin de l'Awash; Afar, Ethiopie). In: Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des sciences. Series D, Volume 279, 1974, pp. 735-738.
  • Recent geologic research in Ethiopia. In: Geology. Volume 2, No. 6, p. 266, doi : 10.1130 / 0091-7613 (1974) 2 <266: RGRIE> 2.0.CO; 2 .
  • Glenn C. Conroy, Clifford J. Jolly, Douglas Cramer, and Jon E. Kalb: Newly discovered fossil hominid skull from the Afar depression, Ethiopia. In: Nature . Volume 276, 1978, pp. 67-70, doi: 10.1038 / 276067a0 .
  • Jon E. Kalb, Craig B. Wood, Charles Smart, Elizabeth B. Oswald, Assefa Mabrete, Sleshi Tebedge and Paul Whitehead: Preliminary geology and paleontology of the Bodo D'ar hominid site, Afar, Ethiopia. In: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. Volume 30, 1980. pp. 107-120, doi: 10.1016 / 0031-0182 (80) 90052-8 .
  • Jon E. Kalb, Margaret Jaegar, Clifford J. Jolly and Berhane Kana: Preliminary geology, paleontology and palaeoecology of a Sangoan site in the Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia. In: Journal of Archaeological Science. Volume 9, No. 2, 1982, pp. 349-363, doi: 10.1016 / 0305-4403 (82) 90040-1 .
  • Jon E. Kalb, Elizabeth B. Oswald, Sleshi Tebedge, Assefa Mebrate, Emmanuel Tola and Dennis Peak: Geology and stratigraphy of Neogene deposits Middle Awash Valley, Afar, Ethiopia. In: Nature. Volume 298, 1982, pp. 17-25, doi: 10.1038 / 298017a0 .
  • Jon E. Kalb, Clifford J. Jolly, Assefa Mebrate, Sleshi Tebedge, Charles Smart, Elizabeth B. Oswald, Douglas Cramer, Paul Whitehead, Craig B. Wood, Glen C. Conroy, Tsrha Adefris, Louise Sperling, and Berhane Kana: Fossil mammals and artefacts from the Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia. In: Nature. Volume 298, 1982, pp. 25-29, doi: 10.1038 / 298025a0 .
  • Jon E. Kalb and Assefa Mebrate: Fossil elephantoids from the hominid-bearing Awash Group, Middle Awash Valley, Afar Depression, Ethiopia. In: Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. Volume 83, No. 1, 1993, pp. 1-120.
  • The Gift. Discovery, Treachery & Revenge. Word Wright International, 2007, ISBN 978-1934335062 .
  • Hunting Tapir During the Great Flood - And Other Tales of Exploration and High Adventure. Word Wright International, 2011, ISBN 978-1934335567 .

literature

  • John Kappelman: Jon Ervin Kalb (1941-2017) - a geologist, explorer, and Ethiopian at heart. In: Journal of Human Evolution. Volume 143, June 2020, 102772, doi: 10.1016 / j.jhevol.2020.102772 .

Web links

supporting documents

Publications

  • Jon Kalb: Adventures in the Bone Trade. The Race to Discover Human Ancestors in Ethiopia's Afar Depression. Copernicus Books, New York 2001, ISBN 0-387-98742-8 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jon KALB, 1941-2017: obituary. In: Austin American-Statesman from 12./13. November 2017
  2. ^ Kalbs website at the University of Texas at Austin
  3. ↑ Haroun Tazieff: The Afar Triangle. In: Scientific American . February 1970
  4. ^ Jon Kalb: Adventures in the Bone Trade , p. 57
  5. ^ Maurice Taieb , Yves Coppens , Donald Johanson and Jon Kalb: Dépôts sédimentares et faunes du Plio-pléistocéne de la basse vallée de l'Awash (Afar central, Ethiopie). In: Comptes rendus des séances de l'Académie des sciences. Series D, Volume 275, 1972, pp. 819-822
  6. ^ Entry Rift Valley Research Mission in Ethiopia in: Bernard Wood : Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Human Evolution . Wiley-Blackwell, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4051-5510-6 .
  7. ^ Glenn C. Conroy, Clifford J. Jolly, Douglas Cramer, and Jon E. Kalb: Newly discovered fossil hominid skull from the Afar depression, Ethiopia. In: Nature. Volume 276, 1978, pp. 67-70, doi: 10.1038 / 276067a0
  8. ^ John Desmond Clark et al .: 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)
  9. ↑ Cold war, commerce, and the Lucy trail. In: New Scientist, December 2, 1982
  10. ↑ Consumer group calls for fair play over funding. On: newscientist.com of July 22, 1989
  11. ↑ NSF admits spreading spy rumor. On: washingtonpost.com of December 4, 1987
  12. ^ Suit on Rumor of Tie to CIA Brings Apology. On: nytimes.com of December 5, 1987


personal data
SURNAME Calf, Jon
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kalf, Jon Ervin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American geologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 17, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Houston , Texas
DATE OF DEATH October 27, 2017
Place of death Austin , Texas