Ian Hodder

Ian Hodder FBA (born 23 November 1948 in Bristol) is a British archaeologist and pioneer of postprocessualist theory in archaeology that first took root among his students and in his own work between 1980-1990. At this time he had such students as Henrietta Moore, Ajay Pratap, Nandini Rao, Mike-Parker-Pearson, Paul Lane, John Muke, Sheena Crawford, Nick Merriman, Michael Shanks and Christopher Tilley. As of 2008^[update], he is Dunlevie Family Professor of Anthropology at Stanford University in the United States. ^[1]

Hodder's fieldwork involves excavating of the 9,000 year-old Neolithic site of Çatalhöyük in the central Anatolia (modern Turkey). He is Director of the Çatalhöyük Archaeological Project which aims to conserve the site, put it into context, and present it to the public. He has endeavoured to explore the effects of non-positivistic approaches on method in archaeology which includes providing each excavator with the opportunity to record his or her own individual interpretation of the site.

He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree with First-Class Honours in Prehistoric Archaeology from the University of London in 1971, and a PhD on "spatial analysis in archaeology" at the University of Cambridge in 1974. He was a lecturer at the University of Leeds from 1974 to 1977 before moving back to Cambridge, where he held several academic positions, including Professor of Archaeology from 1996 to 1999. He moved to Stanford in 1999 and became Dunlevie Family Professor in 2002, and a Fellow of the British Academy in 1996.^[1]

Selected Publications

• Spatial analysis in archaeology (1976, with C. Orton)
• Symbols in action. Ethnoarchaeological studies of material culture (1982)
• The Present Past. An introduction to anthropology for archaeologists (1982)
• Reading the Past. Current approaches to interpretation in archaeology (1986) (revised 1991 and, with Scott Huston, 2003)
• The Domestication of Europe: structure and contingency in Neolithic societies (1990)
• Theory and Practice in Archaeology (1992) (Collected papers)
• On the Surface: Çatalhöyük 1993-95 (1996) As editor, Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara. ISBN 0-9519420-3-4.
• The Archaeological Process. An introduction (1999)
• Archaeology beyond dialogue (2004) (Collected papers)
• The Leopard's Tale: Revealing the Mysteries of Çatalhöyük (2006)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Curriculum Vitae - Ian Hodder, http://www.stanford.edu/dept/anthroCASA/pdf/Hodder/Hodder%20CV.pdf 

Further reading

• Balter, Michael. The Goddess and the Bull: Çatalhöyük: An Archaeological Journey to the Dawn of Civilization. New York: Free Press, 2004 (hardcover, ISBN 0-7432-4360-9); Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press, 2006 (paperback, ISBN 1-59874-069-5).
• Kerig, Tim. Ian Hodder und die britische Archäologie. In: M. K. H. Eggert & U. Veit (Eds.): Theorien in der Archäologie: Zur englischsprachigen Diskussion. Tübinger Archaeologische Taschenbucher 1. p. 217-242. Münster: Waxmann 1998 (paperback ISBN 3-89325-594-X).

External links

• Home page at Stanford University
• Curriculum vitae (PDF, 56K)
• Interview with the Society for California Archaeology in 1999