David L. Clarke | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1937-11-03)3 November 1937 |
| Died | 27 June 1976(1976-06-27) (aged 38) |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | Peterhouse, Cambridge |
| Doctoral advisor | Grahame Clark |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Archaeology |
| Institutions | Peterhouse, Cambridge |
David Leonard Clarke (3 November 1937 – 27 June 1976) was an Englisharchaeologist and academic. He is known for his work onprocessual archaeology.
Clarke was born inKent,England. He studied atPeterhouse, Cambridge, from which he obtained his PhD in 1964 under the supervision ofGrahame Clark.
He became aFellow of Peterhouse in 1966. His teaching and writing, particularly in analytical archaeology in 1967, transformed European archaeology in the 1970s. It demonstrated the importance ofsystems theory,quantification, andscientific reasoning in archaeology, and drewecology,geography, and comparativeanthropology firmly within the ambit of the subject. Never really accepted by the Cambridge hierarchy, he was nevertheless loved by his students for his down-to-earth, inclusive attitudes toward them. In 1970, he published his PhD thesis about British and Irish Bell Beaker pottery.
In 1975 and 1976 Clarke led an excavation of theGreat Wilbraham causewayed enclosure, near Cambridge.[1]
Clarke died in 1976 as a result ofthrombosis arising from a gangrenous twisted gut.[2]
