Archaeologists Born Before 1800

Caleb Atwater [1778-1867]
Adventurer and traveler Caleb Atwater spent a great deal of the mid-nineteenth century wandering around the American continent and recording archaeological sites.

John Aubrey [1626-1697]
The seventeenth century British adventurer and scientist, John Aubrey, had his own ideas about Stonehenge.

Thomas Robert Malthus [1766-1834]
18th century Englishman Thomas Malthus, while not by any stretch of the imagination an archaeologist, nevertheless affected and still affects archaeological theory

Father John MacEnery [1796-1841]
Father John MacEnery was a Roman Catholic priest in the early 19th century, who excavated in the ancient cave site called Kent's Cavern.

Charles Lyell [1797-1875]
Charles Lyell was a British geologist, whose "Principles of Geology" (1830-1833) gave wide public support to the principle of uniformitarianism

Diego de Landa [1524-1579]
Bishop de Landa is known as both the zealot Franciscan friar who came to the New World in 1549 and burned as many Maya codices as he could get his hands on.

Ferdinand Keller [1800-1881]
Swiss archaeologist who during the 1850s conducted the first excavations of an Alpine lake dwelling at Obermeilen.

Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]
The third president of the United States was an avid--well, actually Jefferson was avid about a lot of things, but one of the things he experimented with was archaeology.

Fray Diego Duran [ca. 1537-1588]
Spanish clergyman Diego DUran was a terrific ethnographer, particularly considering his time and purpose, and his books and records are considered an irreplaceable record of pre-Conquest and early Colonial Mexico.

Bernabé Cobo [1582-1687]
17th century Spanish priest Bernabe Cobo lived 61 years in Mexico and South America, and did his level best to convert the Inca to Christianity.

Jean-Francois Champollion [1790-1832]
French linguist Champollion is known for his translation of the ancient scripts of Egypt.

Frederick Catherwood [1799-1854]
English explorer and artist Frederick Catherwood is perhaps best known for his travels with John Lloyd Stephens through central America, and the books they wrote on what they found there.

William Camden [1551-1623]
British antiquarian William Camden is best known for Britannia, a history of the country written in Latin for Queen Elizabeth I.

Giovanni Belzoni [1778-1821]
Legendary Italian pot hunter and early archaeologist Giovanni Belzoni is best known for his work at Abu Simbel.