Ralph Stefan Solecki (October 15, 1917 – March 20, 2019) was an American archaeologist. Solecki was born in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York in October 1917, the son of Polish immigrants – Mary (nee Tarnowska), a homemaker, and Casimir, an insurance salesman. Solecki graduated from the City College of New York in 1942. He then served in the US Army in Europe and was wounded when he stepped on a land mine. After the war he did his graduate work at Columbia University. From 1959 to 1988, he was a member of the faculty at

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. His best-known excavations were at the

Neanderthal Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...

site at

Shanidar Cave Shanidar Cave (, ) is an archaeological site on Bradost Mountain, within the Zagros Mountains in the Erbil Governorate of Kurdistan Region in northern Iraq. Neanderthal remains were discovered here in 1953, including Shanidar 1, who survived se ...

, in the Kurdistan Region of

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

. His publications include early works on aerial photography and photo-interpretation as well as two volumes on Shanidar (1971, 1972). He was married to fellow archaeologist Rose Solecki, and they were the parents of American geographer William Solecki and

UNHCR The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is a United Nations agency mandated to aid and Humanitarian protection, protect refugees, Internally displaced person, forcibly displaced communities, and Statelessness, s ...

official John Solecki. In 2013, he was interviewed about his work by

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

. He died in March 2019, at the age of 101.

References

External links

*Matthew R. Goodrum: "Ralph Solecki." In: ''Biographical Dictionary of the History of Paleoanthropology''. Edited by Matthew R. Goodrum. (2020) Available at: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uR944nQWfZrH_2vL0yjwoqUs5MI6sifU/view
Ralph Stefan Solecki (b. 1917)
1917 births 2019 deaths American archaeologists American expatriates in Iraq American people of Polish descent Columbia University faculty American men centenarians {{US-archaeologist-stub

See also

References

External links