Martyn Jope

Edward Martyn Jope (born December 28, 1915 - November 14, 1996 in Oxford ) was an English archaeologist and chemist . He worked temporarily as a biochemist during the Second World War . After that he became an archaeologist again, first as a medievalist and later as a prehistorian .

Live and act

Martyn Jope studied chemistry at Oriel College , Oxford. While studying for his undergraduate degree in chemistry, he studied archeology in the city of Oxford. He soon joined the university's archaeological society and became its secretary and president.

He got his first job in 1938 with the Royal Commission on Antiquities in Wales. Up until the outbreak of World War II, he and Richard Ian Threlfall excavated a medieval settlement in Bere , near the town of North Tawton on the River Taw in Devon, and drew up one of the first plans for an English medieval farmhouse.

The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel

During the Second World War he had to give up archeology temporarily and in 1940 received a grant from the Nuffield Foundation for the study of hemoglobins in human blood at London Hospital in Whitechapel . The Medical Research Council later supported his research on the application of spectroscopic methods and chemical-biological spectromicroscopy for biological questions. Then he went back to archeology. In 1946, Jope was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London .

In 1949, at the suggestion of geography professor Estyn Evans , Jope was appointed to a new teaching post in archeology at Queen's University in Belfast. This lectureship developed into a department under Jope's direction, first as a lecturer from 1954 to 1963 and then as a professor from 1963 to retirement in 1981.

Jope maintained a house in Oxford for vacation and later retirement and as a base for his English field work, especially on the subject of medieval ceramics in the south-west of England. From there he excavated Ascot d'Oilly Castle , Deddington Castle , the medieval pottery kilns at Brill and some medieval sites in Oxford.

He also published on the Neolithic ax trade, metalwork from the Iron Age , the earthworks called Rath from early Christian times in Ireland, such as Dunglady , medieval castles or the houses of the plantations of the 18th century. The 1966 publication of the County Down Archeology was the first systematic study of the history of an Irish county.

In 1963 he became a Fellow of the British Academy . Until the early 1960s, he was one of the key players in the development of medieval archeology, whether as a surveyor of buildings, as a pioneer in the study of ceramics, or as one of the first to excavate a medieval city. His attention then turned more to the study of the Iron Age, in particular the completion of a book on Late Iron Age art in the British Isles. He published his preliminary studies on this topic, but could no longer witness the publication of the entire work.

Snettisham hoard

The two-volume work Early Celtic Art in the British Isles was published posthumously and offers a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of the Iron Age patterns from the 4th century B.C. BC to the beginning of Romanization in the 1st century AD Jope illustrates the emergence of art, which is unique due to the island location of Great Britain, with a variety of objects, in particular swords, scabbards and brooches, and examines the further development based on the decoration of armor and Shields. The use of gold in the 3rd century BC Chr. And human, animal and vegetable images are also discussed and compared to Celtic artifacts. Weapons, armor, vessels, mirrors, jewelry and equestrian equipment illustrate the sophistication of late Iron Age design. A large part of the study is taken by individual Celtic design elements, such as: B. the use of S-shapes and spirals, the principles of design and metalworking techniques and tools.

Hollow drill for dendrochronology, two drill cores on the left

Jope used his archaeological and scientific knowledge to inspire the founding of the Institute of Archaeological Sciences at Bradford University and, as co-director of the Paleoecological Center at Queen's University in Belfast , to assist his staff in their work on dendrochronology and studies of the To guide radiocarbon dating .

He led the British Academy's campaign for separate government funding for archaeological science and served on its first science-based archeology committee from 1976. He was inspired to found the Department of Archaeological Sciences at Bradford University. He was visiting professor there from 1974 to 1981 and was an honorary visiting professor from 1982 to 1996. Jope's tremendous contribution to medieval and modern Irish archeology earned him membership of the Royal Irish Academy in 1973. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Antiquities in Wales from 1963 to 1986 and the Royal Commission on Antiquities in England from 1980 to 1984.

Working method

Jope's work always began with careful observation of the individual sites or artifacts . He said that any statement should be based on fact, whether it was a publication, student work, or widespread belief. He believed that the social and economic reasons why people made or used an artifact or building are an important part of the study.

family

Burlington House of the London Society for Antiquities

Martyn Jope married Margaret Halliday in 1941. His wife was a biochemist and archaeologist and also a fellow of the London Society for Antiquities . They had similar interests from biology to music. They were regular visitors together at Burlington House on Piccadilly in London , both during Queen's University break and in retirement.

Publications

• EM Jope, G. Huse: Blue Pigment of Roman date from Woodeaton , Oxoniensia, Volume V, page 167, 1940.
• RLS Bruce Mitford and EM Jope: Eleventh- and Twelfth-Century Pottery from the Oxford Region. Oxoniensia, Volume V, page 42, 1940 (pdf; 751 kB).
• Further publications in Oxoniensia.
• EM Jope and RI Threlfall, Excavation of a medieval settlement at Beere, North Tawton, Devon, Med. Archaeol., 11 (1958), pp. 121-122.
• EM Jope: Ancient monuments of Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland Ministry, No. 2, 1969.
• JZ Young, Royal Society (Great Britain), British Academy, EM Jope and Kenneth Page Oakley: The Emergence of Man: A Joint Symposium of the Royal Society and the British Academy. January 1981, ISBN 0-85403-152-9 .
• EM Jope, D. Ellis Evans, John G. Griffith: Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Celtic Studies Held at Oxford. From 10th to 15th July 1983, January 1986, ISBN 0-9511269-0-3 .

Antlers of a giant deer, Megaloceros giganteus antecedens , wingspan approx. 2.60 meters

• EM Jope and HM Jope : Note on collagen molecular preservation in an 11 ka old Megaceros (Giant Deer) antler: solubilization in a non-aqueous medium (anhydrous formic acid). In: Applied Geochemistry. 4, 1989, p. 301, doi: 10.1016 / 0883-2927 (89) 90033-4 . ( Communication about a molecular collagen preservation in an 11,000 year old megaceros antler (giant deer): solubilization in a non-aqueous medium (anhydrous formic acid) )
• EM Jope: Bersu's Goldberg IV: A Petty Chief's Establishment of the 6th – 5th Centuries , BCOxford Journal of Archeology, (1997), 16: 227-241. doi: 10.1111 / 1468-0092.00037 .
• EM Jope: Early Celtic Art in the British Isles. , Oxford University Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-19-817318-2 .

swell

• Tom McNeill: Obituary: Professor Martyn Jope. The Independent, Saturday November 23, 1996.
• Emeritus Professor Edward Martyn Jope, MA, B.Sc., FBA, MRIA, (December 21, 2013 memento on the Internet Archive ) Society of Antiquaries of London.
• Peter Addyman: Edward Martyn Jope, 1915-1996 . In: Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the British Academy . tape XIII , 2014, p. 295-311 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Society of Antiquaries of London: Richard Ian Trelfall, MA, QC ( Memento of December 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Tom McNeill: Obituary: Professor Martyn Jope , The Independent , Saturday November 23, 1996.
3. ^ Early Celtic Art in the British Isles. ( Memento of the original from December 24, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Blurb at Oxbow Books.