Robert Braidwood: Pioneer who blended archaeology & science

This American archaeologist and anthropologist spent his life exploring the mysterious period in human history in which nomadic hunter-gatherers evolved into stationary farmers. As one of the founders of scientific archaeology, he pioneered in the field of Near Eastern Prehistory.

Born on July 29, 1907 in Detroit, Michigan, Robert Braidwood was the first child of Walter John Braidwood and Reay Nimmo.

Academic pursuits
Educated at the University of Michigan, he obtained an M.A. in architecture in 1933. Within a year, he joined the University of Chicago Oriental Institute’s expedition to the Amuq Plain in Turkey. He was a member of the expedition until 1938. During the same period, he married fellow Michigan graduate Linda Schreiber who joined him in field and in research.

The Braidwoods extensively explored the Middle East region of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, where some of the world’s earliest cities were located around 3100 BC. During World War II, Braidwood put in a stint with the Army Air Corps and was given charge of a meteorological mapping initiative. In 1943, he received Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. He stayed on with the University’s Oriental Institute and Department of Anthropology as a professor until retirement.

Major works
The expedition to the Amuq Plain was one of the first scientific archaeological surveys that involved the rigorous dating of artifacts, extensive mapping and record-keeping.

In 1947, Braidwood had learned about the innovation of carbon dating from his Chicago colleague Willard Libby and soon put the method for the precise dating of artifacts. He also launched the Oriental Institute’s Jarmo Project in Iraq. The project brought together archaeologists, biologists and geologists in a path-breaking effort which obtained a National Science Foundation grant in 1954— one of the first when an anthropological project received such a grant. The political situation in Iraq was tumultuous which prompted him to leave and take up similar projects in Iran and Turkey.

Together with researchers from the Istanbul University, Braidwood then began focusing on Cayonu, a site in southern Turkey. Their efforts helped highlight extensive and significant evidence for the theory that southern Turkey had witnessed a shift from a hunter-gatherer to an agricultural society between 8,000 and 12,000 years ago. He focused on examining the hypothesis that an agricultural revolution had taken place separately and prior to the onset of civilisations. That was the basis that led to the launching of the Prehistoric Project at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.

Braidwood was the first archaeologist to study and analyse all aspects of material remains in the field. His strategies led him to recruit botanists, zoologists and geologists on expeditions, transforming archaeology into an interdisciplinary study.

Death
Braidwood and his wife Linda both passed away due to pneumonia on January 15, 2003.

Notable accomplishments
Braidwood authored the work titled Prehistoric Men, a 181-page booklet in a series on popular topics published in 1967 by the Field Museum. In 1971, the Archaeological Institute of America awarded him the Gold Medal Award for distinguished archaeological achievement.

Interesting Facts
Robert Braidwood held an apprenticeship in a carpentry union in the summer prior to starting college, and the skills he acquired proved extremely useful years later in archaeological field camps.

With his wife Linda and others, Braidwood wrote Excavations in the Plain of Antioch, Prehistoric Village Archaeology in Southeastern Turkey, and Prehistoric Archaeology along the Zagros Flanks. He disproved the theory that an agricultural revolution occurred significantly prior to the establishment of civilisations, as his evidence showed the two were very intimately correlated.

Braidwood and Linda worked together in the United States and in many other countries for over six decades, leading archaeological expeditions with fieldwork in Syria, Iraq, Iran and Turkey.

Under the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Braidwood was one of the first archaeologists to assemble geologists, botanists and scientists from other disciplines to examine fragments of civilised humanity.