Maria Hopf (13 September 1913 – 24 August 2008) was a pioneering

archaeobotanist Paleoethnobotany (also spelled palaeoethnobotany), or archaeobotany, is the study of past human-plant interactions through the recovery and analysis of ancient plant remains. Both terms are synonymous, though paleoethnobotany (from the Greek words ...

, based at the RGZM, Mainz.

Career

Hopf studied botany from 1941–44, receiving her doctorate in 1947 on the subject of soil microbes. She then worked in phytopathology and plant physiology. From 1952–56 she studied glume wheat grain and glume anatomy at the ''Max Planck institute for Zuchtungsforschung'' in Berli-Dahlem. Hopf was introduced to the study of the history of cultivated plants by

Elisabeth Schiemann Elisabeth Schiemann (; 15 August 1881 – 3 January 1972) was a German geneticist, crop researcher and resistance fighter in the Third Reich. Background and education Elisabeth Schiemann was born in Viljandi, Estonia, at the time part of the ...

. She then moved to the '' Romisch Germanisches Zentral Museum'' in Main, working first as a scientific assistant, before being appointed as the head of the newly founded division of archaeobotany in 1961. The archaeobotanist

Gordon Hillman Gordon Hillman (20 July 1943 – 1 July 2018) was a British archaeobotanist and academic at the UCL Institute of Archaeology. He has been described as "a pivotal figure in the development of archaeobotany at the Institute of Archaeology at Univer ...

studied archaeobotany for a year in Mainz with Hopf. In 1968 Hopf was one of the founders of the IWGP along with Maria Follieri, and

Jane Renfrew Jane Renfrew, Lady Renfrew of Kaimsthorn is a British archaeologist and paleoethnobotanist noted for her studies on the use of plants in prehistory, the origin and development of agriculture, food and wine in antiquity, and the origin of the v ...

. During her career, Hopf received scholarships to study at the Israel Museum and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Hopf retired in 1979. A Festschrift for Maria Hopf was published in 1979, edited by Körber-Grohne. Hopf's work spanned the regions of Europe and Asia, and all time periods, with a particular focus on Germany, Spain and the Balkans. She published over 100 works, with a key work being the co-authored volume ''Domestication of Plants in the Old World'', first published in 1988. Hopf studied plant remains from

Kathleen Kenyon Dame Kathleen Mary Kenyon, (5 January 1906 – 24 August 1978) was a British archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent. She led excavations of Tell es-Sultan, the site of ancient Jericho, from 1952 to 1958, and has been called ...

's excavations in Jericho. In Iberia, Hopf studied plant remains from Neolithic sites in the Pais Valenciano and Andalucia.

Selected publications

* Hopf, M. (1991). South and southwest Europe. In W. van zeist (Ed.), ''Progress in Old World Palaeoethnobotany'' (pp. 241–250). Balkema: Rotterdam. * Hopf, M. (1983). Jericho plant remains. In K. Kenyon & T. Holland (Eds.), ''Excavations at Jericho'' (pp. 576–621). London: British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. * Rowlett, R. M., Hopf, M. (1982). Differential grain use on the Titelberg, Luxembourg. ''J Ethnobiol'', ''2(1)'', 79–88. * Hopf M (1974) Pflanzenreste aus Siedlungen der Vinča-Kultur in Jugoslawien. ''Jahrbuch Des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz'' 21:1–11 * Hopf M (1961) Untersuchungsbericht über Kornfunde aus Vršnik. ''J Natl Mus Štip'' 2:41–50 * Hopf, M. (1957). Botanik und Vorgeschichte. ''Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums Mainz'', ''4''. http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.11588/jrgzm.1957.0.32823 * Hopf, M. (1955). Formveränderungen von Getreidekörnern beim Verkohlen. ''Berichte der Deutschen Bontanischen Gesellschaft'', ''68'', 191–3.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopf, Maria Archaeobotanists