Jindřich Wankel (
German: Heinrich Wankel; July 15, 1821,
Prague – April 5, 1897,
Olomouc) was a
Bohemia
Bohemia ( ; cs, Čechy ; ; hsb, Čěska; szl, Czechy) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. Bohemia can also refer to a wider area consisting of the historical Lands of the Bohemian Crown ruled by the Bohem ...
n
palaeontologist and
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
.
Wankel was born to Damian Wankel, a clerk, and his wife Magdalena, née Schwarz, in a bilingual environment. He attended German schools in Prague and later studied Medicine at the
University of Prague as a student of
Josef Hyrtl
Josef Hyrtl (7 December 1810 – 17 July 1894) was an Austrian anatomist. Biography
Hyrtl was born at Kismarton, Hungary (now Eisenstadt, Austria). He began his medical studies in Vienna in 1831, having received his preliminary education in h ...
.
He came to work in the area of the
Moravský kras
The Moravian Karst ( cs, Moravský kras) is a karst landscape and protected landscape area to the north of Brno in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It encompasses a number of notable geological features, including roughly 1100 c ...
(''Moravian Karst'', today's
Czech Republic) in 1847, and from 1849 lived in
Blansko as a medical doctor. He started geological exploration of the area and later carried out
palaeontological, archaeological, and anthropological research.
In 1850, in Blansko, he set up the first ever laboratory to research fossil bones from the
Cenozoic Era where he assembled a complete skeleton of a
cave bear (until then, such bones were used for
spodium in the nearby sugar refiner
. His most famous discovery (1872) was the burial site of a nobleman from the
Bronze Age at the ''
Býčí skála cave'', with skeletons of 40 ritually killed young women
.
His grandson Karel Absolon was also a famous archaeologist and worked in the same area.
Works (selection)
* ''Der Menschenknochenfund in der Býčískálahöhle'' ("The human bones found in the Býčí skála Cave") ( Vienna 1871)
* ''Prähistorische Eisenschmelz- und Schmiedestätten in Mähren'' ("Prehistoric iron smelting and forging facilities in Moravia") (Vienna 1879)
* ''Bilder aus der Mährischen Schweiz und ihrer Vergangenheit'' ("Images from the Moravian Switzerland and their past") (Vienna 1882)
* ''Beitrag zur Geschichte der Slaven in Europa'' ("Contribution to the history of the Slavs in Europe") (Olomouc 1885)
External links
Short biography (in Czech)
Czech paleontologists
Czech archaeologists
1821 births
1897 deaths
{{CzechRepublic-scientist-stub