Marie-Henriette Alimen

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Marie-Henriette Alimen (born June 22, 1900 in Saint-Loubès , † March 31, 1996 ) was a French prehistoric and geologist .

After completing school, she was accepted at an École normal supérieure and completed her training as a teacher there in 1922. Initial experience in research and teaching followed, until Alimen received the License en Sciences Naturelles and began to investigate the geology of the Tertiary in the 1930s . In 1936 she received her doctorate from Léonce Joleaud with a thesis entitled Étude sur le Stampien du Bassin de Paris ( "Investigation of the Stampium in the Paris Basin " ), for which she received several prizes.

In the following years, Marie-Henriette Alimen, who until then had mainly dealt with geology, also turned to prehistory. From 1946 to 1956 she gave courses on the history of the Quaternary at the Institute of Ethnology at the University of Paris , and she was also a long-time lecturer in geology and prehistory at the École normal supérieure in Fontenay-aux-Roses . In 1948 she became Directeur de Recherches at the Center national de la recherche scientifique , where she headed the Laboratoire de Géologie du Quaternaire ( "Laboratory for the Geology of the Quaternary" ) founded by her . In addition to the exploration of the Pyrenees , Corsica and Romania, his focus was particularly in close cooperation with the Center de Recherche Sahariennes ( “Center for Research into the Sahara ” ) , headed by Nicolas Menchikoff . It had an interdisciplinary approach and combined research on human prehistory with studies on geology. The latter included in particular soil science , sedimentology , the exploration of fluvial formations and photogrammetry , while the first area particularly emerged in the exploration of the earliest stone tools ( hand axes ) and other evidence ( rock drawings ) of humans, especially from the Acheuleans .

Théodore Monod in conversation with other scientists, in the background, a camera in front of her face, Marie-Henriette Alimen

Alimen was also interested in malacology , petrography , paleoecology and stratigraphy , although she had to limit her activities to the Paris area because of her university obligations. She contributed to the creation of an extensive geological map of France , was President of the French Prehistoric Society in 1949 and 1960 and President of the French Geological Society in 1970 . In 1981 she received the Gaudry Prize for her research in the field of geology .

Alimen was a Knight of the Legion of Honor , Commander of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques and Knight of the French Order of Arts and Literature . Her book Préhistoire de l'Afrique became a standard work and was translated into English and Russian.

Fonts (selection)

  • Etude sur le Stampien du Bassin de Paris. ( Dissertation , published 1937)
  • with Léonce Joleaud: Les temps préhistoriques. Flammarion, Paris 1945.
  • Atlas de préhistoire. Volume 1-2. Boubée, Paris 1950–1955;
    • Volume 1: Stations préhistoriques - méthodes en préhistoire - chronologie - matières premières et techniques - archeologie préhistorique de l'Europe. 1950, (Nouvelle édition, revue et augmentée. Ibid 1965);
    • Volume 2: Préhistoire de l'Afrique. 1955, (Réimpression. Ibid 1966).
  • with Andrée Vignal: Etude statistique de bifaces acheuléens. Essai d'Archéométrie. In: Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française. Vol. 49, No. 1/2, 1952, ISSN  0037-9514 , pp. 56-72, doi : 10.3406 / ex . 1952.8022 .
  • Regards sur les origines et le passé de l'humanité. In: L'Évolution humaine (= Lumière et vie. No. 34, d'Octobre 1957, ISSN  0024-7359 ). Lumière et vie, Saint-Alban-Leysse 1957, pp. 47-74.
  • with Michel Goustard: Le développement de l'intelligence et les structures paleo-biopsychologiques. In: Bulletin de la Société Préhistorique Française. Vol. 59, No. 5/6, 1962, pp. 389-406, doi : 10.3406 / ex . 1962.3836 .
  • Les origines de l'Homme (= Le bilan de la science. 1). Fayard, Paris 1962.
  • as editor with Marie-Joseph Steve and co-author: Prehistory (= Fischer Weltgeschichte . Vol. 1). Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1966.
  • with José Zuate y Zuber: L'évolution de l'Acheuléen au Sahara north-occidental. 2 volumes. Center National de la Recherche Scientifique, Meudon 1978.

Web links

literature

  • Jean Chavaillon: Henriette Alimen (1900-1996). In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique française. Vol. 93, No. 4, 1996, pp. 450–453, ( online , with an extensive list of literature, which is limited to publications on prehistory).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marie-Henriette Alimen, Marie-Joseph Steve (ed.): Prehistory (= Fischer Weltgeschichte. Vol. 1). Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1966, p. 2.
  2. ^ Note in the CV of Raymonde Bonnefille
  3. ↑ Henriette Alimen: Le Quaternaire des Pyrénées de la Bigorre (= Mémoire carte géologique détaillée de la France. ). Imprimerie nationale, Paris 1964, pp. 312-337.
personal data
SURNAME Alimen, Marie-Henriette
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French prehistorian and geologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 22, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Loubès
DATE OF DEATH March 31, 1996