Junius Bouton Bird (1907–1982), born in
Rye, New York, was an American
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
who was appointed
curator of South American Archaeology at the
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...
in 1934. His contributions to the study of ecology, climate, and
pre-Columbian archaeology earned him several awards including: ''The Viking Fund Medal for Archaeology'' (1956) and The ''Order of "El sol de Peru"'' (1974). With his excavations e.g. at
Fell Cave in the late 1930s Bird was one of the pioneers of
Patagonian archaeology and contributed to the investigation of the
earliest settlement of the Americas. In 1961 he was elected as the president of the
Society for American Archaeology. He studied at
Columbia College Columbia College may refer to one of several institutions of higher education in North America:
Canada
* Columbia College (Alberta), in Calgary
* Columbia College (British Columbia), a two-year liberal arts institution in Vancouver
* Columbia In ...
and was in the class of 1930.
Bird has been cited as a possible real-life inspiration for the fictional movie character
Indiana Jones
''Indiana Jones'' is an American media franchise based on the adventures of Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., a fictional professor of archaeology, that began in 1981 with the film '' Raiders of the Lost Ark''. In 1984, a prequel, '' Th ...
.
Indy Spirit Awards, Archaeology Magazine, May/June 2008
See also
* List of fossil sites ''(with link directory)''
* List of hominina (hominid) fossils ''(with images)''
References
External links
Junius Bouton Bird Web Page
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Junius Bird Biography
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People associated with the American Museum of Natural History
American curators
1907 births
1982 deaths
Columbia College (New York) alumni
20th-century American archaeologists
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