<< News >> Andrew Sherratt Obituary
Submitted by Andy B on Wednesday, 01 March 2006 Page Views: 2604
DiscoveriesIt is with deep sorrow that we pass on this obituary on behalf of the Sheffield University Department of Archaeology, announcing the sudden death of Professor Andrew Sherratt on Friday 24 February. Andrew Sherratt (with Richard Rudgley) is best known in 'New Antiqurian' circles for his scholarly writing on the role of psychoactive substances in prehistoric societies.Andrew joined the department in October 2005 to take up a newly-created Chair
in Old World Prehistory and both he and the department were
looking forward to a long and productive association. He is
survived by his wife Sue, their three children and his
mother.
Born in 1946, Andrew´s first archaeological publication, in
the Transactions of the Thoroton Society on an 18th-century
Nottinghamshire antiquary, reflects not only his early life
in the region, but also a life-long interest in the history
of archaeology. He went to Cambridge in 1965, completing a
BA in Archaeology and Anthropology there in 1968 and a Ph.D.
in 1976 on `The Beginning of the Bronze Age in south-east
Europe´. By then Andrew had already moved to Oxford, where
he had been appointed Assistant Keeper of Antiquities at the
Ashmolean Museum in 1973. Oxford remained his academic home
until last year and his burgeoning international reputation
received recognition there surprisingly recently when he was
recognised with the titles of Reader in 1997 and Professor
in 2002. Although based in Oxford, Andrew travelled
frequently as a visiting speaker, perhaps most notably when
invited to give the prestigious Human Context and Society
Lectures at Boston University in 1998, on the topic `Between
Evolution and History: long-term change in human societies´.
Further evidence of his international reputation is the
award of the McNeill Erasmus Prize for the 1998-1999
academic year.
It is impossible to sum up in a few words the many strands
in Andrew´s intellectual contribution to our field. His
ability to work at a continental, even global, scale of
analysis has invited comparisons with V. Gordon Childe, a
similarity explicitly recognised by Andrew himself. Perhaps
his most cited publication is `Plough and pastoralism:
aspects of the secondary products revolution´, published in
1981 in Pattern of the Past: Studies in honour of David
Clarke, the article that `launched´ his idea of the
`Secondary Products Revolution´. It is no small irony that
this enormously influential article was produced as a
tribute to another archaeologist taken from us long before
his time. Analysis at the continental scale led him into
adaptation of world-systems theory to questions of change on
the large scale in archaeology, notably in the first volume
of the Journal of European Archaeology (`What would a Bronze
Age world system look like? Relations between temperate
Europe and the Mediterranean in later prehistory´) and in
his 1995 David Clarke Memorial Lecture, also published in
JEA: `Reviving the grand narrative: Archaeology and
long-term change´. Such interests in linking across
continents meant that Andrew maintained an interest in all
the major shifts in humanity from global colonisation,
through the spread of agriculture to the development of
metallurgy and urbanism, including the Indo-European
question and the development of new forms of consumption. A
collection of his most significant publications in many of
these areas appeared in 1996 as Economy and Society in
Prehistoric Europe: changing perspectives.
Andrew will be remembered by many as a stimulating
interlocutor and an inspirational teacher, who had a
significant hand in designing Oxford´s undergraduate course
in Archaeology and Anthropology. However, presenting his
ideas at the appropriate scale has been a constant
challenge, as is reflected in an early edited work, The
Cambridge Encyclopedia of Archaeology, published in 1980 and
translated into German, French, Italian, Dutch and Swedish
subsequently. Recently, Andrew had initiated a project
(ArchAtlas) that uses modern remote sensing technology,
combined with image and text, to communicate the complex
patterns of change and interaction he studied so
effectively. This was one of a number of projects Andrew
had brought to Sheffield, and to which he hoped to devote
his attention over the next few years. We hope that these
will take their place alongside his many other projects and
offer a fitting monument to one of the truly great thinkers
in archaeology at the beginning of the 21st century.
Source: Sheffield University
http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/obituary.html
<< Rare pendant sheds light on Neolithic period
Polish archaeologist unearths Europe's most ancient graves >>
We would like to know more about this location. Please feel free to add a brief description and any relevant information in your own language.
Wir möchten mehr über diese Stätte erfahren. Bitte zögern Sie nicht, eine kurze Beschreibung und relevante Informationen in Deutsch hinzuzufügen.
Nous aimerions en savoir encore un peu sur les lieux. S'il vous plaît n'hesitez pas à ajouter une courte description et tous les renseignements pertinents dans votre propre langue.
Quisieramos informarnos un poco más de las lugares. No dude en añadir una breve descripción y otros datos relevantes en su propio idioma.