Glynn L. Isaac was an anthropologist who focused on Old World prehistory. He was aPh.D. in Anthropology at the University of California Berkeley. He also was an editor of The Pattern of the Past. He wrote in the book an essay about his theories on the behavioral patterns of hominids in the last few thousand years. In his short bit of writing he explains a few of his theories about why hominids in particular acted the way that they did (Pattern of the Past, 152). He concentrates particularly on the movement of early people and where they tended to prefer to live. Isaac made maps and intricate diagrams of the movement of the hominids. He shows intricate maps of the movement and of the artifacts left by the early hominids. He found that throughout every individual's life, they leave certain objects or possessions along the way they travel. These artifacts were the best and sometimes the only indicators of how old something is.
He also realized that there were some inaccuracies with these maps of artifacts found (Isaac, 5). He understood that artifacts found could have been carried away from thier original sites by floods, erosion or another individual who had found it and had taken it with him or her. In this small example of some of the work done by Glynn L. Isaac, he makes it clear that he felt records of discarded human artifacts cannot be indicators of where those artifacts were used or from whence they came. From merely reading a portion of his findings, it is easy to see that Glynn Isaac is very passionate about his work.
Isaac, G. Ll.and Harris, J. W. K. (1975). "The scatter between the patches," paper presented to the Kroeber Society, University of California, Berkeley. Clarendon.
Pattern of the Past: studies in honour of David Clarke. Ian Hodder, Glynn Isaac, Norman Hammond. Cambrige University Press 1981. London.
Written by: Mike Forsythe