john hawks weblog

paleoanthropology, genetics and evolution

obituaries

  • Lewis Binford dies at 80

    Mon, 2011-04-18 23:17 -- John Hawks

    Lewis Binford died last Monday. I have been waiting for a good obituary to be published. The Wall Street Journal's effort ("Archaeologist Binford Dug Beyond Artifacts") isn't that great, but with a week passed, it may be the best we'll see for awhile. The following quote appears in the SMU obituary.

    "Lewis Binford led the charge that pushed, pulled and otherwise cajoled archaeology into becoming a more scientific enterprise," said David Meltzer, professor of prehistory at Southern Methodist University. "Much of how we conceptualize and carry out archaeology in the 21st century is owed to Lew's substantial legacy."

    No living scientist has had as great an effect on the study of Paleolithic archaeology.

    UPDATE (2011-04-19): Lawrence Straus has penned a PDF obituary of Binford that comes close to the full scope.

    Tags: 
    Lewis Binford
    history of archaeology
    obituaries

  • Paul Martin

    Tue, 2010-10-26 08:30 -- John Hawks

    Sadly, Paul Martin died last month. A reader sent along a remembrance from the University of Arizona. Martin is best known as an advocate for the "overkill" hypothesis for the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna. I had not heard at the time, and I'm sure many others missed the news also.

    A very accessible account of some of Martin's work is featured in Connie Barlow's book, The Ghosts of Evolution: Nonsensical Fruit, Missing Partners, and Other Ecological Anachronisms. I recommend this book often to students.

    Tags: 
    history of paleontology
    obituaries

  • Leigh Van Valen

    Sun, 2010-10-17 19:59 -- John Hawks

    I have word that Leigh Van Valen died yesterday. Widely known in evolutionary biology for the "Red Queen hypothesis", he also contributed to the study of human evolution and was a frequent contributor to newsgroups on paleoanthropology.

    Tags: 
    obituaries

  • Paleoanthropologist Teuku Jacob dies at 76

    Mon, 2007-11-19 20:52 -- John Hawks

    I missed this in Science last week:

    As Indonesia's "king of paleoanthropology," Teuku Jacob ruled over a vital collection of hominid fossils....On 17 October, at the age of 76, the professor emeritus and former rector of Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta died of liver problems.

    Jacob studied fossil hominids under famed paleontologist G. H. R. von Koenigswald, then found and was curator of many important specimens, particularly of Homo erectus. He was a key figure in the Indonesian independence movement, making nationalist radio broadcasts after World War II during the country's 4-year fight for independence from the Dutch.

    (via Palanthsci)

    Tags: 
    obituaries
    Homo erectus
Subscribe to obituaries

Neandertals

For years, I've worked on their bones. Now I'm working on their genes. Read more about the science studying these ancient people.

Denisova

From a finger bone of an ancient human came the record of a completely unexpected population. My lab is working on the science of the Denisova genome.

Acceleration

The advent of agriculture caused natural selection to speed up greatly in humans. We're uncovering some of the ways that populations have rapidly changed during the last 10,000 years.

Malapa

Just outside Johannesburg, the Malapa site is producing some of the most exciting finds in human evolution. This site is the headquarters of the Malapa Soft Tissue Project.