Alfred V. Kidder

Alfred Vincent Kidder ( born October 29, 1885 in Marquette, Michigan, † June 11, 1963 in Cambridge, Massachusetts ) was an American archaeologist and anthropologist. He was one of the leading scientists behind the exploration of the American Southwest in the early 20th century. He authored the first comprehensive reports on the prehistoric history of North America and gave the archeology of North America an essentially governs valid today systematics.

Life

Kidder was born the son of a miner. In his youth he traveled to Europe before he settled in Boston. Early on, he read a lot about the history of North American Indians and archeology. In 1904 he enrolled at Harvard University to study medicine. However, the medical internships said no to him. In 1907 he applied for a summer job for the University of Utah and then traveled several summer long through the southwestern United States. In 1908 he completed his studies at Harvard - in archeology notabene. In 1910 he married his wife, Madeleine, with whom he had five children.

1914 Kidder doctorate was awarded for his work " Cliff Dwellers and Basket Maker". Then Kidder returned to the Southwest, often in the footsteps of Adolph Francis Alphonse Bandelier, another man who was central to American archeology.

Between 1915 and 1929, Kidder was instrumental in several excavations in the southwest, including the Pecos Pueblo near Santa Fe, New Mexico. In the pueblos of the southwest, the ditch was in accordance with the rules of stratigraphy, the oldest systematic excavation method is particularly simple and insightful. The teaching of the stratigraphy indicates that the oldest remains are located in a hill excavation at the bottom and the newest on top. In the pueblos of the waste was simply stacked in the rooms on the ground and then covered with sand and further stacked. When the room was full, you have probably just get a new built above or next to it. Even the dead were so, some very unkind, hid in rooms.

From the pueblos barg Kidder a very large number of artefacts, including fragments of pottery, wickerwork and human bones. Created on the basis of fragments of pottery and of the mesh Kidder, the first chronology of the cultures of the Southwest. The potsherds could be assigned on the basis of ornaments and other properties quite clearly different eras, due to the location in the layers also possible to determine their relative age. The absolute dating, so the exact indication of when a particular ceramic style " fashion " was able, later, first be later determined by dendrochronology, by the C- 14 method. Kidder presented in 1927 at the first meeting convened by him Pecos Conference (which should then take place on a regular basis ) this chronology of the early periods of civilization in North America before:

The Basket Maker got their name because all their implements were wattle, especially the baskets. At the end of the Basketmaker III period, the ceramic has been developed and the construction of the great pueblos began before that she lived in Erdgrubenhäusern. The scheme is applied, with slight modifications, to this day.

In 1924, Kidder before be the standard work become Introduction to the Study of Southwestern Archaeology. In it, he describes in detail the origin and development of the Anasazi culture.

Later, Kidder also dealt with the basics of archeology in Mexico and Central America. In 1952 he was involved in the founding of the New World Archaeological Foundation, as the research progress despite significant discoveries in the thirties and forties of the 20th century was generally quite modest, especially because too few people would deal with the matter of the founder 's view.

Aftereffect

In addition to his works, which are regarded as standard works of American Archaeology, the memory of Kidder is kept alive by the still taking place Pecos conferences. Every three years, is awarded " in American Archaeology Kidder Award for Achievement " the. For this purpose, the Peabody Museum 100 bronze medals were deposited. The price is so can be awarded for three hundred years.

Subsequent work-up

Kidder grub, especially in the years 1915-1929 in the Pecos Pueblo, without regard to potential claims of the indigenous population, even though he knew it was probably connections to surviving Indian tribes. At the time of excavation, the country was still private property, but this was later changed by the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990. The law requires that human remains and cultural treasures must be returned by state-funded institutions to the Indians. Peco is therefore now managed by the Jemez. In 1999, the human remains from Kidder's excavations were again returned to the Jemez and buried there in Pecos National Historic Park again. Not far away, near the Pecos Pueblo also Kidder himself is buried.

Works

Kidder's works include "Introduction to the Study of Southwestern Archaeology (1924 ) ," is considered the first comprehensive work on the archeology of the New World; " The Pottery of Pecos (. 2 vols, 1931-36 )"; "The Artifacts of Pecos (1932 )" and " Pecos, New Mexico: Archaeological Notes (1958 ) ".

• Kidder, Alfred V. " Prehistoric cultures of the San Juan drainage - 1914. " Reproduced in Alfred V. Kidder, by Richard B. Woodbury, Columbia University Press, New York, 1973, pp. 99-107.
• Kidder, Alfred V. Kidder and Mary A. " Notes on the pottery of Pecos - 1917. " American Anthropologist 19 ( 3) :325 - 360th
• Kidder, Alfred V., Jennings, Jesse D., Shook, Edwin M. Shook, with technological notes by Anna O. Shepard. " Excavations at Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala. " Carnegie Institution of Washington. Publication 561 Washington, D.C., 1946.

Swell

• C. W. Ceram: The first Americans. the discovery of Native American cultures in North America. Hannelore Marek and Artemis & Winkler Verlag, Munich and Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-7608-1928-1.
• Flint, Richard and Shirley Cushing Flint: Alfred V. Kidder. In: New Mexico Digital History Project. New Mexico Office of the State Historian. n.d.. Retrieved on 21 November 2007.
• Patterson, Thomas Carl: A Social History of Anthropology in the United States. Berg, Oxford; New York 2001, ISBN 1-85973-489-8.
• Woodbury, Richard B.: Alfred V. Kidder. Columbia University Press, New York 1973, ISBN 0-231-03485-7.