Hilary John Deacon (10 January 1936 – 25 May 2010)[1][2] was a South African archaeologist and academic. He was Professor of Archaeology at the University of Stellenbosch in Stellenbosch, South Africa. His research focused on the ‘emergence of modern humans’ and African archaeology.[3] He was principal researcher at the Klasies River Caves one of the oldest known sites of ‘anatomically modern humans’ who lived there circa 125,000 years ago.
Deacon was born in Cape Town and did his undergraduate studies in Geology and Archaeology at the University of Cape Town, graduating in 1955. He started his career as a field geologist working in East and West Africa, before being appointed as Archaeologist and Deputy Director of the Albany Museum in Grahamstown, from 1963 to 1971.[4] He then established the Department of Archaeology at the University of Stellenbosch, until his retirement. In 1967 he spent a year as a British Council Scholar at the University of London. He received his PhD from the University of Cape Town in 1974. He was a Visiting Professor at University of California, Berkeley (1986); a Visiting Fellow at Australian National University, Canberra (1984); and a Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago (1978).
Deacon taught archaeology at the University of Stellenbosch and authored over a hundred publications in journals, books, monographs and conference proceedings.[2] He served on the Council of the University and also as Past-President of the South African Archaeological Society, the Southern African Association of Archaeologists, the South African Society for Quaternary Research, and member of the Board of Iziko Museums in Cape Town. He was married to Janette Deacon,[5] who also taught archaeology at the University of Stellenbosch.