Ian Richard Hodder (born 23 November 1948, in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

) is a British archaeologist and pioneer of postprocessualist theory in

archaeology 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, ...

that first took root among his students and in his own work between 1980 and 1990. At this time he had such students as Henrietta Moore, Ajay Pratap, Nandini Rao, Mike Parker Pearson, Paul Lane, John Muke, Sheena Crawford, Nick Merriman, Michael Shanks and Christopher Tilley. , he is Dunlevie Family Professor of Anthropology at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in the United States.

Early life and education

Hodder was born on 23 November 1948 in

, England, to Professor Bramwell William "Dick" Hodder and his wife Noreen Victoria Hodder. He was brought up in Singapore and in Oxford, England. He was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford, then an all-boys

private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

. He studied prehistoric archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, graduating with a first class

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

(BA) in 1971. He then studied at

Peterhouse, Cambridge Peterhouse is the oldest Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England, founded in 1284 by Hugh de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Peterhouse has around 300 undergraduate and 175 graduate stud ...

, and was awarded a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

(PhD) degree by the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

in 1975: his supervisor was David L. Clarke and his thesis was titled "''Some Applications of Spatial Analysis in Archaeology''".

Academic career

He was a lecturer at the

University of Leeds The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...

from 1974 to 1977. He then returned to the

, where he was an assistant lecturer (1977 to 1981) and then lecturer (1981 to 1990) in archaeology. From 1990 to 2000, he was director of the Cambridge Archaeological Unit and a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of Darwin College, Cambridge. The university appointed him Reader in Prehistory in 1990 and Professor of Archaeology in 1996. In 1999, Hodder moved to

in the United States. He became Dunlevie Family Professor in 2002. From 1993 - 2018, Hodder and an international team of archaeologists carried out new research and excavation of the 9,000-year-old

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

site of Çatalhöyük in central

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

(modern Turkey). He was the Director of the Çatalhöyük Archaeological Project which aimed to conserve the site, put it into context, and present it to the public. He endeavoured to explore the effects of non- positivistic methods in archaeology, which included providing each excavator with the opportunity to record his or her own individual interpretation of the site. In 2012 he dismissed most of the team, replacing them with other excavators and specialists, citing a need for a "shake up." His permit was completed in 2018 when handed over the site to a Turkish team. He was elected a

Fellow of the British Academy Fellowship of the British Academy (post-nominal letters FBA) is an award granted by the British Academy to leading academics for their distinction in the humanities and social sciences. The categories are: # Fellows – scholars resident in t ...

(FBA) in 1996. In the 2019 Queen's Birthday Honours he was appointed

Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is a British order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince of Wales (the future King George IV), while he was acting as prince regent for his father, King George I ...

(CMG) for services to archaeology and UK/Turkey relations.

Selected publications

*''Spatial analysis in archaeology'' (1976, with C. Orton) *''Symbols in action. Ethnoarchaeological studies of material culture'' (1982) *''The Present Past. An introduction to anthropology for archaeologists'' (1982) *''Symbolic and Structural Archaeology'' (1982) *''Reading the Past. Current approaches to interpretation in archaeology'' (1986) (revised 1991 and, with Scott Hutson, 2003) *''The Domestication of Europe: Structure and contingency in Neolithic societies'' (1990) *''Theory and Practice in Archaeology'' (1992) (Collected papers) *''On the Surface: Çatalhöyük 1993–95'' (1996), as editor, Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research and British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara. . *''The Archaeological Process. An introduction'' (1999) *''Archaeological Theory Today'' (2001) *''Archaeology beyond dialogue'' (2004) (Collected papers) *''The Leopard's Tale: Revealing the Mysteries of Çatalhöyük'' (2006) *''Religion in the Emergence of Civilization. Çatalhöyük as a case study'' (2010) *''Entangled: An Archaeology of the Relationships between Humans and Things'' (2012) *''Where Are We Heading? The Evolution of Humans and Things'' (2018)

References

External links

Home page for Ian HodderHome page at Stanford University, Department of AnthropologyHome page at Stanford Archaeology Center
with the Society for California Archaeology in 1999
Interview with Ian Hodder March 2017 "Ian Hodder: Çatalhöyük, Religion & Templeton’s 25%"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hodder, Ian 1948 births Living people 20th-century British archaeologists 21st-century British archaeologists Academics from Bristol Alumni of the University of London Academics of the University of Leeds Academics of the University of Cambridge Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge Fellows of the British Academy Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Fellows of Darwin College, Cambridge People educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford Çatalhöyük

Early life and education

Academic career

Selected publications

References

Further reading

External links