Junius Bouton Bird (1907–1982), born in

Rye, New York Rye is a coastal suburb of New York City in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is separate from the Town of Rye, which has more land area than the city. The City of Rye, formerly the Village of Rye, was part of the Town until it r ...

, was an American archaeologist who was appointed

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

of South American Archaeology at the American Museum of Natural History in 1934. His contributions to the study of ecology, climate, and

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...

archaeology earned him several awards including: ''The Viking Fund Medal for Archaeology'' (1956) and The ''Order of "El sol de Peru"'' (1974). With his excavations e.g. at Fell Cave in the late 1930s Bird was one of the pioneers of

Patagonian Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and g ...

archaeology and contributed to the investigation of the earliest settlement of the Americas. In 1961 he was elected as the president of the

Society for American Archaeology The Society for American Archaeology (SAA) is a professional association for the archaeology of the Americas. It was founded in 1934 and its headquarters are in based in Washington, D.C. , it has 7,500 members. Its current president is Deborah L. ...

. He studied at Columbia College and was in the class of 1930. Bird has been cited as a possible real-life inspiration for the fictional movie character Indiana Jones.
Indy Spirit Awards, Archaeology Magazine, May/June 2008

References

External links

Junius Bouton Bird Web Page
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Junius Bird Biography
��No longer in service. People associated with the American Museum of Natural History American curators 1907 births 1982 deaths Columbia College (New York) alumni 20th-century American archaeologists {{US-archaeologist-stub

See also

References

External links