Grete Mostny (17 September 1914 – 15 December 1991) was a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n who became a leading

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an anthropologist. She was born in Austria but had to leave because of the rise of the Nazis. She went to Belgium to complete her studies before leaving for Chile. At the end of the war she was invited back to Austria but she preferred to become a naturalised Chilean. She led a number of archaeological investigations and the

Chilean National Museum of Natural History The Chilean National Museum of Natural History ( es, Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, links=no or ) is one of three national museums in Chile, along with the Museum of Fine Arts and the National History Museum. It is located in Quinta Normal P ...

Life

Mostny was born in

Linz Linz ( , ; cs, Linec) is the capital of Upper Austria and third-largest city in Austria. In the north of the country, it is on the Danube south of the Czech border. In 2018, the population was 204,846. In 2009, it was a European Capital ...

in 1914. She enrolled at Vienna University but she had to leave in 1937 because of the rise of the Nazis. She had already completed her dissertation on the clothes of ancient Egypt and part of her exams but she had to complete her doctorate in Brussels in Belgium in 1939. She had already taken part in archaeological investigations at both Luxor and Cairo in Egypt. She left with her brother, Kurt, and her mother for Chile. Chile took in a large number of German refugees in 1939. There was already a significant German community in Chile, but this was also a source of anti-Semitism. At the end of the war she was invited back to Austria but she preferred to become a naturalised Chilean in 1946. She led a number of archaeological investigations in South America. In 1954 she was involved when her museum took delivery of the

Plomo Mummy The Plomo Mummy (also known as Boy of El Plomo, El Plomo Mummy, or La Momia del Cerro El Plomo in Spanish) is the well preserved remains of an Incan child found on Cerro El Plomo near Santiago, Chile in 1954. It was discovered by Guillermo Cha ...

. This mummy was the remains of a child found on a mountain where it had been sacrificed by the Incas. Mostny took over from

Humberto Fuenzalida Humberto Fuenzalida Villegas (1904–1966) was a Chilean geologist, paleontologist and geographer. Fuenzalida headed in turn the geography and geology departments of the University of Chile,Recordando a Don Humberto, Estanislao Godoy. being also f ...

and led the

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

from 1964 to 1982.Grete Mostny
Memorial for the victims of National Socialism, University of Vienna, Retrieved 9 November 2015 Mostny died from cancer in

in 1991.

Legacy

The University of Vienna records her biography as she was an expelled student and a victim of

National Socialism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Naz ...

. The university gives a prize for a dissertation in honour of Grete Mostny.Grete-Mostny-Dissertationspreis for Barbara Hausmair
2014, uni-konstanz.de, Retrieved 9 November 2015 The prize is for a dissertation in the Historical and Cultural Studies faculty and it has been awarded since 2013. Mostny's dissertation is stored in ceramic form in a salt mine in

Hallstatt Hallstatt ( , , ) is a small town in the district of Gmunden, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Situated between the southwestern shore of Hallstätter See and the steep slopes of the Dachstein massif, the town lies in the Salzkammergut ...

.Grete-Mostny-Dissertationspreis
University of Vienna, Retrieved 9 November 2015

Selected works

* ''Culturas precolombinas de Chile'', 1954 * ''Peine, un pueblo atacameño'', 1954 * ''Los museos de Chile '', 1975 * ''Prehistoria de Chile '', 1971 * ''Arte rupestre chileno'', 1983

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mostny, Grete 1914 births 1991 deaths Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss Austrian women anthropologists Chilean women anthropologists 20th-century women scientists Austrian emigrants to Chile Naturalized citizens of Chile Employees of the Chilean National Museum of Natural History Austrian women archaeologists Chilean women archaeologists