Miles Crawford Burkitt (27 December 1890 – 22 August 1971) was a British archaeologist and prehistorian, who is known for his work, mainly on the

Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistory, prehistoric period during which Rock (geology), stone was widely used to make stone tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years and ended b ...

, in Europe, Asia and especially Africa, where he was one of the first pioneers of

African archaeology Africa has the longest record of human habitation in the world. The first hominins emerged 6–7 million years ago, and among the earliest anatomically modern human skulls found so far were discovered at Omo remains, Omo Kibish,Jebel Irhoud, and F ...

. He was the first

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

lecturer in Prehistoric Archaeology. He was educated at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

, reading Natural Sciences and having Thomas McKenny Hughes as a professor. He excavated in France and Spain with

Abbé Breuil Henri Édouard Prosper Breuil (28 February 1877 – 14 August 1961), often referred to as Abbé Breuil (), was a French Catholic priest, archaeologist, anthropologist, ethnologist and geologist. He studied cave art in the Somme and Dordogne valle ...

and

Hugo Obermaier Hugo Obermaier (29 January 1877, in Regensburg – 12 November 1946, in Fribourg) was a distinguished Spanish-German prehistorian and anthropologist who taught at various European centres of learning. Although he was born in Germany, he was later ...

, and served with the YMCA in France during World War I. He lectured in Cambridge in prehistoric archaeology, at first on a voluntarily basis, and finally as a University Lecturer in the Faculty of Archaeology and Anthropology. During World War II he was a Lieutenant in the 4th Cambridgeshire Home Guard (1941–1945). He was made a J.P. in 1942, and was a County Councillor in

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

between 1939 and 1964, ending his term of office as vice-chairman, 1958–1961, and chairman, 1961–1964. He was

Sheriff of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire This is an ''incomplete'' list of sheriffs of Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire in England from 1154 until the abolition of the office in 1965. Exceptionally, the two counties shared a single sheriff. Sheriffs had a one-year term of office, bei ...

in 1960. He was also an Alderman, 1964–1965. His wife was called Margaret Isobel Burkitt (née Fry).

Books

His ''Prehistory: A Study of Early Cultures in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin'' originally of 1921, was reissued by Cambridge University Press in 2012., 9781107696846
google books
/ref> Other books include: *''Our Forerunners'' (1923), a popularizing work for the

Home University Library of Modern Knowledge The ''Home University Library of Modern Knowledge'' was a series of popular non-fiction books from the first half of the twentieth century that ran to over 200 volumes. The authors were eminent scholars in their fields and included Isaiah Berlin, ...

series. *''Our Early Ancestors: An Introductory Study of Mesolithic, Neolithic and Copper Age Cultures in Europe and Adjacent Regions'' (1926) *''South Africa's Past in Stone and Paint'' (1928) *

Henri Breuil Henri Édouard Prosper Breuil (28 February 1877 – 14 August 1961), often referred to as Abbé Breuil (), was a French Catholic Church, Catholic priest, archaeologist, anthropologist, ethnologist and geologist. He studied cave art in the Somme ( ...

, Miles Crawford Burkitt, with the collaboration of Montagu Pollock
''Rock paintings of southern Andalusia : a description of a neolithic and copper age art group''
(PDF) (1929), Oxford, The Clarendon Press. *''The Old Stone Age - A Study of Palaeolithic Times'' (1933)

References

External links

Some photos by Burkitt, excavating in Italy in 1929
* 1890 births 1971 deaths People educated at Eton College British Home Guard officers Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Academics of the University of Cambridge Councillors in Cambridgeshire 20th-century British archaeologists {{archaeologist-stub