Fred Wendorf

Dr. Fred Wendorf , born in 1925, professor emeritus of the SMU (Southern Methodist University), Department of Anthropology, Dallas, Texas, is an author and North-American archeologist.

He passed his life to study the desert climates both in the USA and in Egypt (Nabta Playa) or in Syria (Wadi Kubbaniya, the Middle East). He is known for his study of the Neolithic period including/understanding the domestication of the cattle and the origins of agriculture.

Biography

Received Doctor in 1953 at the University of Harvard, the USA,
Joined the SMU in 1964,
Founding member of the " Strong Burgwin Research Center" with Taos, New Mexico,
President of the " Society off Professional Archeologists" (SOPA),
Member, in 1987, from the National Academy of American Sciences (it is the first representative of SMU to receive this honor),
In 1996, receives University of Pennsylvania, prestigious the " Lucy Wharton Drexel Medal " for archeology, one of the highest distinctions which can be decreed in the field of anthropological archeology,
Créateur of the " Committee for the safeguarding of the archaeological collections for the future generations of scientists and the humanité" ,
With the autumn 2001, it liberally offered its whole collection of objects resulting from its forty years of excavations to the British Museum. The collection is currently in two rooms of the department of ancient Egypt and Sudan, only devoted to the " Wendorf" collection; ,
2003: Doctor be Science, honoris causa. SMU.

Subjects of research

paleolithic archeology.
origins of agriculture.

Work

The first research

After having made its weapons in the desert part of New Mexico, in the Sixties, Wendorf with the head of a team of American archeologists, updated in the Western desert of Egypt (makes the Eastern wing of the Sahara of it), the remainders of a site of 9000 years old human dwelling, which could be one of oldest known, to date, in the world.

The site counts eighteen villages from eighteen to fifty dwellings each one. These stone dwellings, of oval form, are distributed around a seasonal lake formed by the rains. This zone, known as of the playas, 38 km ², is located from 100 to 180 km at the west of Abou Simbel, in High-Egypt, in the extreme south of the country.

The archeologists have evidence:

of the breeding domesticates cows and other animals, as well as egg remainders of ostrich, flints and a workshop of pottery;
of pratiqques nuns: they also found whole skeletons of cows buried with share as well as other signs of a worship of the cattle;
of astronomical and astrological practices.

It is the first time that absolutely intact prehistoric sites were found in Egypt.

Research projects

Though old, today, of more than 80 years, Wendorf intends to continue its investigations - initiated in 1994 - over the recent Neolithic era in the Egyptian Sahara (approx. -6500/-5500).

Publications

Archeology Pipeline: Carryforward off Salvage Operations in the Southwest one El Paso Natural Gas Company Projects , 1956, Santa Fe, Laboratory of Anthropology and " Museum off Northern Arizona" (Editor & Contributor);
Contributions to the Prehistory off Nubia , 1965, Dallas, Strong Burgwin Research Center and SMU Close (Editor and Contributor);
The Prehistory off the Nile Valley , 1976, New York, Academic Close (with Romuald Schild);
Prehistory off the Eastern the Sahara with Romuald Schild, New York/London, 1980
Cattle Keepers off the Eastern the Sahara: The Neolithic off Bir Kiseiba , 1984, New Delhi, Paulist Close (with A. Close & R. Schild);
The Prehistory off Wadi Kubbaniya vol. 1,2 & 3 , 1986-1989, Dallas, (with R. Schild). SMU Close (Assembler and Contributor);
Egypt During the Last Interglacial: The Middle Paleolithic off Bir Tarfawi and Bir the Sahara East , 1993, New York, Plenum Close (with R. Schild & alii).

Source

Official site of the SMU, with the pleasant authorization of Mr. Gary Shultz, Chairman

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