Reverend Father Francis Hours, born 1921 in

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and died 1987, was a French

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

known for his work on

prehistory Prehistory, also called pre-literary history, is the period of human history between the first known use of stone tools by hominins million years ago and the beginning of recorded history with the invention of writing systems. The use ...

in the

Levant The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...

.Francis Hours Biography - Lebanese Museum of Prehistory, Saint Joseph University Website
/ref> He gave the Lebanese a real scientific framework for prehistoric research and worked excavating various sites including J'ita II. He was also an author of many publications, some in collaboration with international archaeologists such as

Jacques Cauvin Professor Jacques Cauvin (1930 – 26 December 2001) was a French archaeologist who specialised in the prehistory of the Levant and Near East. Biography Cauvin started his work in France at Oullins Caves and Chazelles Caves (near Saint-André-d ...

and

Lorraine Copeland Lorraine Copeland (born Elizabeth Lorraine Adie, 1921April 2013) was a British archaeologist specialising in the Palaeolithic period of the Near East. She was a secret agent with the Special Operations Executive during World War II. Early life ...

. One of his most notable works was the ''Atlas des sites du proche orient (14000-5700 BP)'' (Atlas of Near East sites) which he started in 1974. This work has been completed and added to by various scholars including Oliver Aurenche and is now an online application of the

Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée The Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée (or MOM) is a research body in Lyon, France, that specialises in the Mediterranean and the Middle East and the first steps of humanity. It is dedicated to its founder, historian Jean Pouilloux. Staf ...

Selected bibliography

* Francis Hours., Le paléolithique et l'épipaléolithique de la Syrie et du Liban, Dar El-Machreq, 154 pages, 1992. * Lorraine Copeland, Francis Hours., The Hammer on the rock: studies in the early palaeolithic of Azraq, Jordan, Volume 1, B.A.R., 482 pages, 1989. * Francis Hours, Olivier Aurenche, Marie-Claire Cauvin, Paul Sanlaville., Préhistoire du levant: processus des changements culturels : hommage à Francis Hours : colloque international CNRS (30 mai-4 juin 1988), Maison de l'Orient Méditerranéen (Lyon), Éditions du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 501 pages, 1990. * Francis Hours., Les civilisations du Paléolithique, Presses universitaires de France, 127 pages, 1982. * Francis Hours., Du néolithique à la bible: mémoire de l'humanité, Associations des Facultés catholiques de Lyon, 110 pages, 1986. * Francis Hours., Atlas des sites du proche orient: (14000-5700 BP), Maison de l'Orient, 522 pages, 1994.

References

External links

Atlas des sites Prochaine-Orient 14000 et 5700 BP - MOM's online application - Atlas of Near East Archaeological Sites 14000 to 5700 BP
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hours, Francis 20th-century French Jesuits French Roman Catholic missionaries 1921 births 1987 deaths Jesuit scientists Jesuit missionaries Roman Catholic missionaries in Lebanon French expatriates in Lebanon 20th-century French archaeologists