John Desmond Clark was a paleoanthropologist who was born in London, England on April 10, 1916 to Thomas J.C. and Catherine (Wynne) Clark. Clark was educated at Monkton Combe School and Christ's College, Cambridge. The degrees that he obtained are C.B.E., F.B.A., F.S.A., Sc.D., and a Ph.D. Desmond was married to Betty Cable Baume in 1938. Along with his professional career he enjoyed walking, photography, and wood-cutting.
Most of Dr. Clark's professional career was spent in Africa where he did extensive field investigations of African prehistory. He held two main positions in his anthropological career, the first was as Director of the Rhodes-Livingstone Museum in Livingstone, Northern Rhodesia from 1938 to 1961. The second was as Professor of Anthropology at the University of California - Berkeley from 1961 to 1986.
There are numerous awards and medals of recognition that Professor Clark has obtained through his diligent work in anthropology. He served in the military from 1941 to 1946, taking him to East. Africa, Abyssinia, the Somalilands, and to Madagascar.
Awards and Accomplishments of John Desmond Clark:
1948: Founder,
Member and Secretary of Northern Rhodesia National Monuments Committee.
1965: Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1972: Huxley
Medalist,
Royal Anthropological Institute in London.
1985: Honorary Science Degree at
University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg and University of Cape Town.
1982: Golden Mercury International Award.
1985: Gold Medal, Society of
Antiquaries.
1986: Berkeley Citation, University of California
1987:
Fellows Medal, California Academy of Science
1988: Honorary Fellow Royal
Society of South Africa
1988: Sr. Fellow Institute for the Study of Earth
and Man, Southern Methodist University Dallas, Texas.
Publications of John Desmond Clark:
Prehistoric Cultures of Northeast Angola and their Significance in
Tropical Africa-1963
Atlas of African Prehistory-1967
Kalambo Falls Prehistoric Site- volume I-1969, volume II-1974
The
Prehistory of Africa-1970
In 1953 Dr. Clark discovered an incredible site, Kalambo Falls. This was a single drop, 722 foot waterfall on the frontier between Zambia and Tanzania. A small basin lake behind the falls was the focus of prehistoric occupation. It contained extensive archaeological deposits ranging in date from the late Acheulean into recent times.
In 1981 through the early 1990's, the Middle Awash research team was led by Desmond Clark and his colleague Tim White. The Middle Awash study lies south of Hadar along the Awash River. This site revealed tools dating 2.6 million years old. An earlier team found a massive Middle Pleistocene skull from Bodo (late Homo erectus) that revealed cut marks made by stone tools when the bone was fresh.
In the 1990's he made what is probably his greatest find. He found fossil hominids that date from 4 million years ago. These fossils, the earliest hominid ancestors, were placed into a new species of Australopithecus, Australopithecus ramidus, in 1994 and into a new genus Ardipithecus in 1995.
The Oxford Companion to Archaeology-The Oxford Press-1996.
The International Who's Who1996 to 1997, 60th edition.
Grolier Encyclopedia-1993.
American Anthropology Obituary IndexWritten by: Linda Robinson