Archaeologist Frank Hole, a specialist
in early agriculture, has been named the
C.J. MacCurdy Professor of Anthropology by vote of the Yale Corporation.
Hole joined the faculty in 1980 after teaching for 17 years at Rice University. He has served since 1981 as curator of archaeology at the Peabody Museum of Natural History. He is also chair of the University's Council on Archaeological Studies, head
of the Peabody Museum's division of anthropology and director of graduate studies in archaeological studies. He chaired the anthropology department 1980-83.
A graduate of Cornell College in Iowa, Hole received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Chicago. Since beginning his career, the archaeologist has conducted much of his work in the Near East, particularly Iran and Syria. His early work in Iran included the excavation of the prehistoric nomad site of Tepe Tula'i. He also studied the early villages of sedentary farmers, and his excavations helped introduce the technique of flotation, a method for recovering charred plant remains, in the Near East. This technique resulted in the recovery of the first substantial body of seeds from an early agricultural site in the region.
In 1991, he pinpointed the origins of agriculture to an area surrounding the Dead Sea, where he believes wheat and barley were first cultivated about 10,000 years ago. His other work in Iran has included research on ceramics unearthed in a 6,000-year-old cemetery.
Since the revolution in Iran, Hole has concentrated his fieldwork in northeastern Syria, where he has studied the relationship between nomads and sedentary peoples,
as well as the environmental history of
the Near East and its effect on the region's cultures.
Since 1997 he has been engaged in and serves as codirector of a project, funded by the National Aeronautic and Space Administration, exploring the interaction of climate, agriculture and land use in the Near East.
Hole is the author of more than 80 articles and scholarly papers, monographs and two books, "Prehistoric Archeology: A Brief Introduction" and "An Introduction to Prehistoric Archeology" (both with Robert Heizer). He edited and was a contributor
to "The Archaeology of Western Iran."
He formerly was editor of American Antiquity.
Hole's honors include election to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Academy of Sciences and the Connecticut Academy of
Sciences and Engineering.