Hallam Leonard Movius (November 28, 1907 – May 30, 1987) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

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, ...

most famous for his work on the

Palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...

period.

Career

He was born in

Newton, Massachusetts Newton is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located roughly west of Downtown Boston, and comprises a patchwork of thirteen villages. The city borders Boston to the northeast and southeast (via the neighborhoods of ...

and attended Harvard College, graduating in 1930. After receiving his PhD from Harvard and serving in the 12th Air Force in North Africa and Italy during World War II, he returned to Harvard and became a professor of archaeology there. Eventually he also became curator of Paleolithic Archaeology at Harvard's

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology is a museum affiliated with Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1866, the Peabody Museum is one of the oldest and largest museums focusing on anthropologica ...

In 1948 he proposed the existence of a Movius Line dividing the

Acheulean Acheulean (; also Acheulian and Mode II), from the French after the type site of Saint-Acheul, is an archaeological industry of stone tool manufacture characterized by the distinctive oval and pear-shaped "hand axes" associated with ''Homo ...

tool users of Europe, Africa and western Asia from the

chopping tool Chopping may refer to: * Chopping (astronomy), an instrumental technique to remove the background * Chopping (sampling technique), a hip-hop sampling method. * Chopping (violin) Playing the violin entails holding the instrument between the jaw a ...

industries of East Asia. He also studied the Perigordian and

Aurignacian The Aurignacian () is an archaeological industry of the Upper Paleolithic associated with Cro-Magnon, Early European modern humans (EEMH) lasting from 43,000 to 26,000 years ago. The Upper Paleolithic developed in Europe some time after the L ...

cultures of Palaeolithic

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 ...

, excavating at the rock shelter of Abri Pataud in Les Eyzies (Dordogne) from 1958 to 1973. He married Nancy Champion de Crespigny (1910–2003), daughter of the Australian physician Sir Trent Champion de Crespigny on 25 September 1936. The American poet Geoffrey Movius (born 21 January 1940) was a son.

External links

Bibliography

*Scarre, C (ed), ''The Human Past'', Thames and Hudson, London, 2005

References

1907 births 1987 deaths Harvard University faculty United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II Harvard University alumni 20th-century American archaeologists {{US-archaeologist-stub

Career

See also

External links

Bibliography

References