Noted Yale University Archaeologist Named to Endowed Chair
Archaeologist Frank Hole, a specialist in early agriculture, has been named the C.J. MacCurdy Professor of Anthropology by vote of the Yale Corporation. Hole, who joined the Yale faculty in 1980, has served since 1981 as curator of archaeology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History and also is chair of the UniversityUs Council on Archaeological Studies, head of the Peabody MuseumUs division of anthropology and director of graduate studies in archaeological studies. He chaired the anthropology department 1980-83.
A graduate of Cornell College in Iowa, Hole received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago. The archaeologist has conducted much of his work in the Near East, particularly Iran and Syria. His early work in Iran included the excavation of the prehistoric nomad site of Tepe TulaUi. He also studied the early villages of sedentary farmers, and his excavations helped introduce the technique of flotation, a method for recovering charred plant remains. The method helped him pinpoint the origins of agriculture to an area surrounding the Dead Sea, where he believes wheat and barley were first cultivated about 10,000 years ago.
His other work in Iran has included research on ceramics unearthed in a 6,000-year-old cemetery. Since the revolution in Iran, Hole has concentrated his fieldwork in northeastern Syria, where he has studied the relationship between nomads and sedentary peoples. Since 1997, he has codirected a project funded by the National Aeronautic and Space Administration to explore the interaction of climate, agriculture and land use in the Near East.
Hole is the author of more than 80 articles and scholarly papers, monographs and two books, RPrehistoric Archeology: A Brief IntroductionS and RAn Introduction to Prehistoric ArcheologyS (both with Robert Heizer). He edited and was a contributor to RThe Archaeology of Western Iran.S He formerly was editor of American Antiquity. HoleUs honors include election to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Sciences and the Connecticut Academy of Sciences and Engineering.
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