John Wymer
John Wymer | |
|---|---|
| Born | 5 March 1928 |
| Died | 10 February 2006(aged 77) |
| Awards | Grahame Clark Medal(2002) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Archaeologist |
| Institutions | University of East Anglia |
John James Wymer,(5 March 1928 – 10 February 2006) was a Britisharchaeologistand one of the leading experts on thePalaeolithicperiod.
Biography
[edit]Born nearKew Gardensin Surrey, Wymer was introduced to archaeology by his parents who would take him togravelpits to search for ancient sites. He trained as a teacher but spent his spare time pursuing his passion for archaeology and never took a formal qualification in the discipline.[1]In 1948 he married is first wife, Paula May, with whom he had five children.[2]
He made his name in the field in July 1955 when at the age of 27 and still working as an amateur, he found the third piece of the oldesthuman skullin the British Isles while investigating the quarries atSwanscombein Kent.[3]This 400,000-year-old piece fitted with two previously found fragments and is part of the skull ofSwanscombe Man,who is now considered to be a specimen ofhomo heidelbergensis.
In 1956 he took a job atReading Museumwhich permitted him to devote more time to his enthusiastic lifelong interest in the study ofhandaxesand their makers. He helped redesign the galleries, wrote a description of theMoulsfordgoldtorcand undertook an excavation at the classicMesolithicsite atThatcham.In 1968 he published his first major work,Lower Palaeolithic Archaeology in Britain as represented by the Upper Thames Valley.
To gain wider experience Wymer, at the suggestion of the palaeontologistLouis Leakey,approached Ronald Singer, an anatomist, about working in South Africa.[4]They worked together at Elandsfontein andKlasies River.At Elandsfontein Wymer's excavation of Cutting 10 located a localised grouping dominated by 49 large sharpAcheulianbifaces after Singer had previously found the 'Saldanha Man' skull.[5]With Ronald Singer, a South African then at theUniversity of Chicago,they exposed a remarkablestratigraphicsequence of more than 20m thick atKlasies Riverby digging a trench through the site. This spanned the entireMiddleandLate Stone Age.[1][6][7]He left South Africa suddenly in 1968.
On his return to England he worked atHoxne,Sproughton,[8]andClacton.In 1976 he married his second wife, Mollie Spurling, after the dissolution of his first marriage in 1972.[2]He lectured at theUniversity of East AngliainNorwich,writingThe Palaeolithic Age(1982) andPalaeolithic Sites in East Anglia(1985). Later he worked for the Norfolk Archaeological Unit excavating sites from all periods.
In the 1990s, together withWessex Archaeologyhe was commissioned byEnglish Heritageto map and assess the known Palaeolithic sites across Britain. The published two volumeThe Lower Palaeolithic Occupation of Britain(1999) has become the key reference work for the period. Clive Gamble described it as archaeology's equivalent ofPevsener'sThe Buildings of Englandin providing the foundation stone for future study in the field.
Just before his death, he was closely involved in discoveries atPakefieldthat put human occupation north of theAlpsback by 200,000 years to c. 700,000 BP.
He was elected a Fellow of theSociety of Antiquariesin 1963 and was also a Fellow of theBritish Academyas well as Secretary of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History from 1977 to 1984, a Vice-President from 1985 and its President from 2001. In 1998 a festschrift was published in his honour.[6]In 2002 the British Academy awarded him itsClark Medal for Prehistoric Archaeology.His honorary doctorate was awarded by theUniversity of Readingin recognition of his decades of scholarship.
He is remembered by the archaeological community for his approachability, concision and enthusiasm as well as his exquisite technical drawings. Outside the field, he enjoyedreal aleand playing the piano, with an especial fondness for theboogie-woogiestyle ofJimmy Yancey.
References
[edit]- ^ab"John Wymer (obituary).",The Daily Telegraph,3 March 2006
- ^abGamble, Clive (17 March 2006),"John Wymer: Archaeologist unrivalled in his knowledge of the simple stone tools of the Lower Palaeolithic (obituary).",The Independent,archived fromthe originalon 12 February 2011
- ^"The Skull at Swanscombe: New Find Identified",The Times,no. 53292, London, p. 8, 6 August 1955
- ^Pitts, Mike (10 March 2006),"John Wymer: Enthusiastic hunter of skulls, stone tools and the roots of history.",The Guardian
- ^Deacon, H.J.(1998), "Elandsfontein and Klasies River revisited", in Wymer, John; Ashton, Nick; Pettitt, Paul; Healy, Frances (eds.),Stone Age Archaeology: Essays in honour of John Wymer,Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 23–28,ISBN190018866X
- ^abWymer, John; Ashton, Nick; Pettitt, Paul; Healy, Frances (1998),Stone Age Archaeology: Essays in honour of John Wymer,Oxford: Oxbow Books,ISBN190018866X
- ^Singer, R.; Wymer, JJ. (1982),The Middle Stone Age at Klasies River Mouth in South Africa.,Chicago: University of Chicago Press,ISBN0-226-76103-7
- ^Wymer, J.J.(1976), "A long blade industry from Sproughton",East Anglian Archaeology 3,pp. 1–15
Sources
[edit]- Eastern Daily Press obituary
- Gamble, C,John WymerIndependentobituary p 38, 17 March 2006
- Daily Telegraph obituary
- Pitts, M,John WymerGuardian obituary
See also
[edit]- The J.J.Wymer Archive
- List of fossil sites(with link directory)
- List of hominina (hominid) fossils(with images)
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