Robert John Braidwood
Robert John Braidwood (born July 29, 1907 in Detroit , Michigan , † January 15, 2003 in Chicago , Illinois ) was an American archaeologist from the Near East . He was mainly active in Turkey , Syria and Iraq .
Braidwood, a descendant of Scottish immigrants, first studied architecture at the University of Michigan and worked for a few months in an architectural office in 1929. Given the collapse of the construction industry in the Great Depression , however, Braidwood decided to return University and studying anthropology and Oriental history. He graduated from these subjects with a BA in 1932 and an MA in 1933 and was recruited shortly afterwards from the University of Chicago Oriental Institute for a multi-year excavation campaign on the Amuq level. During these excavations under James Henry Breasted , Braidwood also met his wife Linda Schreiber Braidwood, with whom he was to be linked by a community of work and life that lasted over sixty years.
Braidwood obtained his PhD at the University of Chicago in 1943 and was a highly respected professor and later emeritus of this university from that point until his death.
Braidwood was very committed to the interdisciplinarity of archaeological research; among other things, he was one of the pioneers of radiocarbon dating (C14 dating) from 1947 . From 1947 Braidwood devoted himself to the Jarmo project in Northern Iraq. In 1963 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , 1964 to the National Academy of Sciences and 1966 to the American Philosophical Society .
Bob and Linda Braidwood died of pneumonia a few hours apart, very old. It is occasionally claimed that Braidwood or his teacher Breasted were the models for the film character of Indiana Jones , but it is unlikely.
literature
- Glyn Edmund Daniel , Christopher Chippindale : The Pastmasters. Eleven Modern Pioneers of Archeology: V. Gordon Childe, Stuart Piggott, Charles Phillips, Christopher Hawkes, Seton Lloyd, Robert J. Braidwood, Gordon R. Willey, CJ Becker, Sigfried J. De Laet, J. Desmond Clark, DJ Mulvaney . Thames and Hudson, New York 1989. ISBN 0-500-05051-1
- Patty Jo Watson : Robert John Braidwood, in: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 149, 2005, pp. 234-241 with picture (PDF; 193 kB)
Web link
Individual proof
- ^ Member History: Robert J. Braidwood. American Philosophical Society, accessed May 17, 2018 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Braidwood, Robert John |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Braidwood, Bob |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American Near Eastern archaeologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 29, 1907 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Detroit , Michigan |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 15, 2003 |
| Place of death | Chicago , Illinois |