Jindřich Wankel ( German: Heinrich Wankel; 15 July 1821,

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

– 5 April 1897,

Olomouc Olomouc (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 103,000 inhabitants, making it the Statutory city (Czech Republic), sixth largest city in the country. It is the administrative centre of the Olomouc Region. Located on the Morava (rive ...

) was a

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

palaeontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

and

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, ...

. 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. He came to work in the area of the Moravský kras (''Moravian Karst'', today's

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

) in 1847, and from 1849 lived in

Blansko Blansko (; ) is a town in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 20,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Svitava River on the border of the Moravian Karst. It is mainly an industrial town. Administrative division Blansko consi ...

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 The Cenozoic Era ( ; ) is Earth's current geological Era (geology), era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterized by the dominance of mammals, Insect, insects, birds and flowering plant, angiosperms (floweri ...

where he assembled a complete skeleton of a

cave bear The cave bear (''Ursus spelaeus'') is a prehistoric species of bear that lived in Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene and became extinct about 24,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum. Both the word ''cave'' and the scientific name '' ...

(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 The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

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 Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

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)
Paleontologists 19th-century archaeologists Scholars from the Austrian Empire Scholars from Austria-Hungary 1821 births 1897 deaths {{paleontologist-stub