Frank Hole is an archaeologist who received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Chicago in 1961. He taught at Rice University for 17 years and then joined the faculty of Yale Univeristy in 1980. He has served since 1981 as Curator of Archaeology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History. He chaired the Department of Anthropology from 1980-1983.
Dr. Hole is an early agriculture specialist who has conducted much of his archaeological fieldwork in the Near East, particularly Iran and Syria. The technique of flotation, a method for recovering charred plant remains, was a result of his work on early sedentary villages in the Middle East. In 1991, he outlined what he thought was the location of the origins of agriculture where wheat and barley were first cultivated around 10,000 years ago. Frank Hole has also done extensive research on ceramic vessels dated to 6,000 years ago found in a cemetery in Iran.
Hole is the author of numerous articles, scholarly papers, monographs and books. Hole's honors include election to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Sciences and the Connecticut Academy of Sciences and Engineering.
Frank Hole's Publications:
1965 An Introduction to Prehistoric Archeology. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. (co-authored with Robert F. Heizer, multiple editions).
1967 Computer Analysis of Chronological Seriation. Houston: William Marsh Rice University (co-authored with Mary Shaw).
1969 Prehistory and Human Ecology of the Deh Luran Plain: an Early Village Sequence from Khuzistan, Iran. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. (co-authored with Kent V. Flannery and James A. Neely).
1977 Prehistoric Archeology: a Brief Introduction. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston (co-authored with Robert F. Heizer).
1977 Studies in the Archeological History of the Deh Luran Plain: the Excavation of Chagha Sefid. Ann Arbor: Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.
1987 The Archaeology of Western Iran: Settlement and Society from Prehistory to the Islamic Conquest. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press (edited by Frank Hole).
Hole, Frank and Heizer, Robert. An Introduction to Prehistoric Archeology. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc. 1969.
Hole, Frank and Heizer, Robert. Archeology, a Brief Introduction. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc. 1977.
Written by: Students in an Introduction to Anthropology Class, Minnesota State University, Mankato, Minnesota 2000