Jean de Heinzelin de Braucourt (6 August 1920 – 4 November 1998) was a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althou ...

who worked mainly in Africa. He worked at the universities of Ghent and

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. He gained international fame in 1960 when he discovered the

Ishango Bone The Ishango bone, discovered at the "Fisherman Settlement" of Ishango in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is a bone tool and possible mathematical device that dates to the Upper Paleolithic era. The curved bone is dark brown in color, about 10 ce ...

. "Jean de Heinzelin was a geologist. A kind of a modern adventurer, Jean de Heinzelin was a field worker and a remarkable observer. Africa was his main area of work, but he also took part in various expeditions in Europe, the United States and the Middle East. From 1946 onward, he was associated with the Royal Belgian Institute for Natural Sciences. At the Universities of Ghent and Brussels, he imparted his knowledge enthusiastically to students. A chance in his career - the Ishango Bone discovery - brought him international fame." A consistent voice of empiricism and reason in African paleoecology, Dr. Heinzelin made many contributions to the understanding of how geology can inform about the history and prehistory of tropical landscapes. Many of his original conclusions are still valid, especially his interpretation of the humid tropical fluvial origin of sand and gravel sediments in Central Africa that are still wrongly attributed to desert processes (e.g., J. Runge 2007)..

References

Biography
at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences Accessed January 2007 Belgian geologists 1920 births 1998 deaths 20th-century geologists Belgian expatriates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo {{geologist-stub