Ernst Valdemar Antevs was born in 1888. He received a Ph.D. from the University of Stockholm in 1917 where he studied with Gerard DeGeer, who was the creator of Swedish Varve Chronology. Before gaining U.S. citizenship in 1939, Antevs traveled to North America with DeGeer to further study the histories of several different ancient lakes to better understand their significance.
It was around that time in 1936 when Antevs and wife, Ada, built a home in Globe, Arizona while he studied other ancient lakes in the New Mexico area. By studying the salt composition found in the area, Antevs was able to determine the age of ancient dried lakes.
His most formidable work is his naming of the science of pollen. In 1944, Antevs wrote an article The Right Word. The article questioned if pollen analysis was the right term to be using for such a science. He made his argument by personal knowledge, gathered research, statistics, and by explaining the very meaning of the words themselves. His argument was well taken and published on March 15, 1944 in the P.B. Sears' Pollen Analysis Circular. Through his writing and the consideration of others, the study of pollen is know known as “Palynology”.
In 1948, Antevs published the three part “Neothermal Climatic Sequence” which was based on his studies of the ancient lakes. Shortly after in the 1950's his health began to fail and led to his death on May 19, 1974 from an illness that troubled him for a long time. Throughout those twenty some years Antevs did have to give up his field work, but he continued to study, give lectures and attend scientific meetings in the Arizona area where he was a Research Associate in the Geochronology Laboratories at the University of Arizona.
Former link, www.geo.arizona.edu/antevs/antves.html, (2003)
Palinology, http://geowords.com/histbooknetscap/b24.html, (2003)
Written by: Matthew Gansen, 2003