Frank Hole | |
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| Academic background | |
| Education |
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| Doctoral advisor | Robert Braidwood |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Anthropology |
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Frank Hole (born 1931) is an AmericanNear Eastern archaeologist known for his work on theprehistory of Iran, theorigins of food production, and the archaeology ofpastoral nomadism. He is C. J. MacCurdy Professor Emeritus of Anthropology atYale University.[1]
Hole studied atCornell College (BA, 1953),Harvard University (1957–58), and theUniversity of Chicago (MA, 1958; PhD, 1961). He worked atRice University from 1961 to 1980, and was afull professor from 1968. In 1980, he moved toYale University, where he served as the C. J. MacCurdy Professor of Anthropology (1996–2005) and the head of the division of anthropology at thePeabody Museum (1996–2005). He retired in 2005 and was appointed a senior research scientist andprofessor emeritus. He has heldvisiting professorships at theUniversity of Colorado (1971), Yale (1972–1973), andMasaryk University.[2]
Hole was elected aFellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1966,[2] a member of theNational Academy of Sciences in 1981,[3] and a member of theConnecticut Academy of Science and Engineering in 1983.[2] He received the 2007 lifetime achievement award from theSociety for American Archaeology,[4] and aFarabi International Award in 2011.[5]
At Chicago, Hole studied underRobert Braidwood, who was investigating theorigins of food production inSouthwest Asia.[6] In 1959, when political instability prevented him from returning to his excavations atJarmo inIraqi Kurdistan, Braidwood began working across the border in the Iranian part of theZagros Mountains.[7][8] Hole joined Braidwood's team,[9] which in 1959 conducted the first systematic surveys of early prehistory in Iran, in the region ofKermanshah,[10][11] and the following year conducted excavations atAsiab,Sarab, andWarwasi.[7] After this Braidwood moved on tosoutheastern Turkey,[8] but Hole and another of his students,Kent Flannery, returned to work in western Iran.[12]
Between 1961 and 1965, Hole and Flannery conducted a number of surveys inLurestan andKhuzestan, and excavated atGar Arjeneh,Yafteh,Pasangar,Ghamari,Kunji Cave,Ali Kosh, and (withJames Neely)Tepe Sabz.[12][13] These sites produced what was, at the time, some of the earliest evidence for theplant andanimal domestication in the world.
He is also known for his pioneering work on the archaeology ofpastoral nomads in the Near East, in particular hisethnoarchaeology ofLuri pastoralists in western Iran.[14][15]
