Therkel Mathiassen

Therkel Mathiassen

Mathiassen, ca. 1921
Born 5 September 1892
Favrbo, Denmark
Died 14 March 1967
Citizenship Denmark
Nationality Danish
Fields Arctic
archaeology
anthropology
cartography
ethnography
writer
Known for Thule culture excavation at "Naujan" (Naujaat)
Influences Knud Rasmussen
Influenced Jørgen Meldgaard; Frederica de Laguna
Notable awards Member of the initial Danish committee of Societas Arctica Scandinavica

Therkel Mathiassen (5 September 1892 in Favrbo, Denmark[1]— 14 March 1967) was an archaeologist, anthropologist, cartographer, and ethnographer notable for his scientific study of the Arctic.

Mathiassen and Peter Freuchen took part in the Fifth Danish Thule Expedition led by Knud Rasmussen.[2] During his travels, Mathiassen gave out thimbles to local Inuit, thus earning the Igloolik nickname, Tikkilik ("the one with the thimbles"). In 1922, Mathiassen began an archaeological investigation at a site he called "Naujan" (Naujaat); the first archaeological excavation in Canada's Arctic.[3] This was also the second ever Thule culture archaeological excavation, following the 1916 Comer's Midden in North Greenland. Mathiassen was able to manually excavate through peat, sod, and gravel, portions of 12 sod houses and a kitchen-midden.[3]

In 1929, Mathiassen worked on another midden archaeological excavation, and uncovered a Norse culture in Inugsuk, Greenland.[4] Frederica de Laguna was his research assistant.[5]

Mathiassen was a member of the initial Danish committee of Societas Arctica Scandinavica, dedicated to Scandinavian research in Arctic humanistic and natural sciences.[6] He was a prolific author of works, which have later been described as monumental and as marking the beginning of the professional period in arctic archaeology.[7][8] His works of the 1920s and 1930s introduced the concept of the Thule culture but also dismissed the theory of a stone age people in Greenland as first described on a scientific basis by Ole Solberg in 1907.[7][9] The existence of a stone age people in Greenland was later established through the use of radiocarbon dating in the 1950s.[10]

Partial bibliography

Notes

  1. "Today in Science History". Retrieved 2008-05-04.
  2. Rasmussen, 1927, viii
  3. 1 2 Folger, 2006
  4. Mathiassen, 1930, p. 605
  5. "Frederica de Laguna". webster.edu. Retrieved 2008-05-04.
  6. Collins, 1946, p. 141
  7. 1 2 Meldgaard, 1996, p. 9
  8. Grønnow, 1996, p. 180
  9. Grønnow, 1996, p. 178
  10. Grønnow, 1996, pp. 182–183

References

External links

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