Emil Riebeck (11 June 1853 – 22 June 1885) was a German explorer,

mineralogist Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of the chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of minerals and mineralized artifacts. Specific studies within mineralogy include the proces ...

ethnologist Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural, social, or sociocultural anthropology) ...

, and naturalist. He was born in Preusslitz to

Carl Adolf Riebeck Carl Adolf Riebeck, originally Carl Adolph Riebeck (27 September 1821 in Clausthal – 28 January 1883 in Halle (Saale), Halle) was an industrialist and mining Entrepreneurship, entrepreneur. The controversy around his sole possession after his dea ...

, an industrial magnate. He traveled to

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

and

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plate. ...

several times, and in 1881 travelled with

Georg Schweinfurth Georg August Schweinfurth (29 December 1836 – 19 September 1925) was a Baltic German botanist and ethnologist who explored East Central Africa. Life and explorations He was born at Riga, Latvia, then part of the Russian Empire. He was edu ...

on an expedition to

Socotra Socotra or Soqotra (; ar, سُقُطْرَىٰ ; so, Suqadara) is an island of the Republic of Yemen in the Indian Ocean, under the ''de facto'' control of the UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council, a secessionist participant in Yemen’s ...

. He traveled with

Adolf Bastian Adolf Philipp Wilhelm Bastian (26 June 18262 February 1905) was a 19th-century polymath best remembered for his contributions to the development of ethnography and the development of anthropology as a discipline. Modern psychology owes him a great ...

to the hills of

Chittagong Chittagong ( /ˈtʃɪt əˌɡɒŋ/ ''chit-uh-gong''; ctg, চিটাং; bn, চিটাগং), officially Chattogram ( bn, চট্টগ্রাম), is the second-largest city in Bangladesh after Dhaka and third largest city in B ...

in 1882. In 1884, he financed

Gottlob Krause Gottlob Adolf Krause (January 5, 1850 in Ockrilla near Meissen – February 19, 1938 in Zürich)''Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft'', Vol. 93, Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft, Kommissionsverlag F. Steiner, 1966, ...

’s expedition to the

Niger River The Niger River ( ; ) is the main river of West Africa, extending about . Its drainage basin is in area. Its source is in the Guinea Highlands in south-eastern Guinea near the Sierra Leone border. It runs in a crescent shape through ...

Benue River The Benue River (french: la Bénoué), previously known as the Chadda River or Tchadda, is the major tributary of the Niger River. The river is approximately long and is almost entirely navigable during the summer months. The size of its bas ...

, and

Lake Chad Lake Chad (french: Lac Tchad) is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Central Africa, which has varied in size over the centuries. According to the ''Global Resource Information Database'' of the United Nations Environment Programme, ...

. Riebeck amassed an extensive collection of artifacts from Eastern Asia, India, Arabia and Africa. The mineral

riebeckite Riebeckite is a sodium-rich member of the amphibole group of silicate minerals, chemical formula Na2(Fe2+3Fe3+2)Si8O22(OH)2. It forms a solid solution series with magnesioriebeckite. It crystallizes in the monoclinic system, usually as long prisma ...

is named after him. Also, a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

n lizard, ''

Haemodracon riebeckii ''Haemodracon riebeckii'' is a species of lizard in the Family (biology), family Phyllodactylidae. The species is Endemism, endemic to Yemen. Etymology The Specific name (zoology), specific name, ''riebeckii'', is in honor of German ethnologis ...

'', is named in his honor.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Riebeck", p. 221).

References

External links

* Emil Riebeck
Sonderausstellung der Riebecksammlung im Kunstgewerbemusseum Berlin 1883/1884

Literature

* Otto Taschenberg: ''Beiträge zur Fauna der Insel Sokotra, vorzüglich nach dem von Herrn Dr. Emil Riebeck aus Halle a.S. gesammelten Materiale zusammengestellt von Dr. O. Taschenberg in Halle a.S.'', in: Zeitschrift für Naturwissenschaft, Leipzig 1883 *Emil Riebeck: ''Die Hügelstämme von Chittagong.'' Berlin 1885. 1853 births 1885 deaths People from Bernburg German explorers German mineralogists German ethnologists German explorers of Africa Explorers of Asia Explorers of Arabia {{Germany-scientist-stub