Hans Peter Helbæk (8 April 1907,

Roskilde Roskilde ( , ) is a city west of Copenhagen on the Danish island of Zealand. With a population of 53,354 (), the city is a business and educational centre for the region and the 10th largest city in Denmark. It is governed by the administrative ...

– 10 February 1981,

Kagerup Kagerup is a village in the Gribskov Municipality in North Zealand, Denmark. It is located six kilometers southeast of Helsinge and 10 kilometers north of Hillerød. As of 2025, it had a population of 392. Kagerup is served by Kagerup railway s ...

) was a Danish

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and

palaeobotanist Paleobotany or palaeobotany, also known as paleophytology, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant fossils from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (pale ...

. He studied the plant remains from

James Mellaart James Mellaart FBA (14 November 1925 – 29 July 2012) was a British and Dutch archaeologist and author who is noted for his discovery of the Neolithic settlement of Çatalhöyük in Turkey. He was expelled from Turkey when he was suspected o ...

's excavations at

Çatalhöyük Çatalhöyük (English: Chatalhoyuk ; ; also ''Çatal Höyük'' and ''Çatal Hüyük''; from Turkish language, Turkish ''çatal'' "fork" + ''höyük'' "tumulus") is a Tell (archaeology), tell (a mounded accretion resulting from long-term huma ...

and the last meal of the

Grauballe Man The Grauballe Man is a bog body that was uncovered in 1952 from a peat bog near the village of Grauballe in Jutland, Denmark. The body is that of a man dating from the late 3rd century BC, during the early Germanic Iron Age. Based on the evidenc ...

. Helbæk married twice. First to Helga Ørskov Hansen and then, in 1964, to British archaeologist

Diana Kirkbride Diana Victoria Warcup Kirkbride-Helbæk, (22 October 1915 – 13 August 1997) was a British archaeologist who specialised in the prehistory of south-west Asia. Biography She attended Wycombe Abbey School in High Wycombe and served in the Women' ...

Selected bibliography

* Jessen, Knud and Helbæk, Hans (1944), Cereals in Great Britain and Ireland in prehistoric and early historic times. ''Biologiske Skrifter'', Det Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskab, bd. III, nr. 2. * Helbæk, Hans (1958), Grauballemandens sidste måltid, ''Kuml'',

Aarhus University Press Aarhus University Press () is a commercial foundation, founded in 1985 by Aarhus University, Denmark. The main purpose of the press is to publish the scholarly works of researchers at the university, but many authors come from other Danish insti ...

, pp. 83–116. * Helbæk, Hans (1970), Da rugen kom til Danmark, ''Kuml'',

References

External links

Hans Helbæk
from the ''

Dansk Biografisk Leksikon ''Dansk Biografisk Leksikon'' (usually abbreviated DBL; title of first edition written ''Dansk biografisk Lexikon'') is a Danish biographical dictionary that has been published in three editions. The first edition, ''Dansk biografisk Lexikon, til ...

'' 1907 births 1981 deaths People from Roskilde Paleobotanists Archaeologists of the Near East 20th-century Danish archaeologists {{Denmark-archaeologist-stub