Tag: people

Google her name to learn more about her.

Here is a really great article from Smithsonian Magazine.

Now, click here to rate her on Perseverance, Courage, Compassion, Intelligence, Influence, and Imagination. I’m crowd-sourcing the ranking process so we can get even better results! I can’t wait to see how it goes!

Here is a TED talk that her granddaughter, Louise gave in 2008. It’s interesting to see the impact that three generations of the Leakey family has had on Paleoanthropological research and to see how far the field has advanced in the past fifty years – be sure to check out the 1966 video on the Louis Leakey page. Louise, by the way is the youngest person to have ever officially found a hominoid fossil. She found one when she was six.

Louis Leakey

Louis Leakey was a anthropologist and archaeologist in Africa. He, along with his wife Mary, excavated early hominine remains and artifacts in Kenya, particularly in an area called the Olduvai Gorge. They showed that human ancestors had evolved in Africa much earlier than previously thought and helped establish a chain of evolution tracing our heritage back to common ancestors we share with other contemporary great apes.

Leakey was also instrumental in encouraging and supporting other researchers, particularly Jane Goodall, who did groundbreaking work with chimpanzees and Dian Fossey who researched gorillas.

Here is the Wikipedia article about him.

Here is a really great article from Smithsonian Magazine.

Here is a 1966 National Geographic documentary about some of the work Louis Leakey did. It’s really interesting to see how far our understanding has come – largely due to his and his family’s work.

T.E. Lawrence

Thomas Edward Lawrence, known as Lawrence of Arabia, was an archaeologist and military officer, diplomat, and writer, active in the Middle East (also called West Asia or Arabia at the time) – particularly the area that is today, Israel, Jordan and Syria during WWI. He is the author of an autobiographical recount of his experiences called The Seven Pillars of Wisdom.

Here is the Wikipedia article about him.

Here is a really great article from Smithsonian Magazine.

Here are the Top Ten Facts about Lawrence of Arabia according to PBS.

Here is the first in a series of BBC videos about Lawrence. Click here to see the rest.

Thor Heyerdahl

Thor Heyerdahl was a Norwegian adventurer and amateur anthropologist and archaeologist. He is best known for sailing a handmade raft, called the Kon-Tiki, across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian Islands. He did this to show that prehistoric people could have made long sea voyages, across huge oceanic distances in an attempt to prove his theories about how the New World was settled, and how cultures interacted and developed. His theories are not generally accepted by most anthropologists, but his adventurous spirit and his ability to write about his adventures captured the popular imagination and interested many people in anthropology and archaeology.

Here is an interesting little article about him leading the first archaeological expedition to Easter Island in 1955-56.

Here is an excerpt from the original Kon Tiki movie.

Here is a documentary about the Kon Tiki expedition

Arthur Evans

Arthur Evans was an English archaeologist, who discovered and excavated the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete. This led to our awareness of the Minoan civilization which was a precursor of the Greek civilization, which of course had a seminal impact on our own.

Here is a bio of Arthur Evans from the Arthur Evans Archive: The Sir Arthur Evans Archive at the Ashmolean Museum. The Ashmolean is a museum at Oxford University in England, that Evans was in charge of from 1884-1908. Evans period of leadership at the Ashmolean made it a world class institution. The bio will tell you about him, but be sure to follow the links along the top, which will connect you to much more extra info about his discoveries and excavations.

Here is a video about the Minoan Civilization. It’s kind of long, but pretty interesting. Take the Atlantis stuff with a grain of salt – could be true, but there’s a lot of conjecture to it.

Here are some samples of Minoan art. Notice how joyful it is.

Howard Carter

Howard Carter is the Archaeologist responsible for, among other accomplishments, the discovery of King Tutankhamen’s tomb. This discovery had a tremendous impact by bringing ancient Egypt into cultural awareness during the 1920’s and 30’s. Western fascination with Ancient Egypt has remained strong ever since. Other tombs had been discovered by Carter and others prior to the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, but they had all been robbed or destroyed long before their archaeological discovery. King Tut’s tomb, on the other hand was pretty much intact. Despite the fact that King Tut was a relatively minor and insignificant ruler, his tomb was filled with amazing riches. It makes you wonder what the tombs of the really important Egyptian rulers must have been like.

Here is a brief bio of Howard Carter at bio.com: Howard Carter Biography.

Here’s an interesting article about opening King Tut’s tomb.

Here is a video about Carter’s discovery of King Tut’s tomb. It’s pretty good, lot’s of archival photos and recordings. It seems like there would be better videos out there, but the others I’ve found are really not that great. If you come across something better, let me know and I’ll replace this one.

Hiram Bingham

Hiram Bingham was an amateur archaeologist, college professor and explorer, who, in 1911, was responsible for drawing attention to the all but forgotten existence of the ancient Inca city of Machu Picchu in Peru. Local people and a few others had been aware of it, but Bingham wrote about it and his writings captured the public interest. Bingham went on to continue lecturing, and eventually served briefly as Governor of Connecticut and then Senator from that state. It has been suggested that the fictional character, Indiana Jones is based at least partially on him.

Here is an interesting article to read: Who Discovered Machu Picchu?