Hugh O'Neill Hencken

Hugh O'Neill Hencken FBA (January 8, 1902 – August 31, 1981) was an American archaeologist who specialized in Iron Age Europe. He was curator of European archaeology at the Peabody Museum, Harvard University, from 1932 to 1972.

Career

O'Neill Hencken was born in New York City on January 8, 1902,[1] to an Irish American family.[2] He studied at Princeton University and the University of Cambridge, where he obtained his doctorate in archaeology in 1929.[1] He was appointed the curator of European archaeology at the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in 1932, serving until his retirement in 1972.[1] During this period he also held positions as a lecturer at Harvard University, director and chairman of the American School of Prehistoric Research, the Peabody Museum's research division,[1] and taught at the University of Oxford, the University of London, and the University of Edinburgh.[3] In the 1940s he was part of the American Defence Harvard Group, a committee of Harvard faculty that compiled lists of historic monuments for the Allied forces in World War II.[4]

Specializing in Iron Age Europe, O'Neill Hencken worked in a number of countries, including England, Ireland, Morocco, Algeria, Italy, and Greece.[1] Between 1934 and 1936, he directed the archaeological programme of Earnest Hooton's Harvard Archaeological Mission to Ireland, including excavations in County Antrim, County Londonderry, and County Down.[2] As curator at the Peabody Museum, he acquired much of the material and notes from the Duchess of Mecklenburg's excavations in Slovenia, conducted between 1904 and 1913, which were confiscated at the end of World War I and eventually sold at auction in the 1930s. This included the collection from Magdalenska gora, an important Iron Age cemetery, which O'Neill Hencken was able to finally bring to publication in 1978, sixty-five years after it was excavated.[5][6] In the later years of his career he published a number of major synthetic studies, including The Earliest European Helmets (1971),[7] and two volumes dealing with Etruscan origins, Tarquinia, Villanovans and Early Etruscans (1968) and Tarquinia and Etruscan Origins (1968).[8][9][10]

O'Neill Hencken was an honorary member of the Prehistoric Society[10] and was elected a corresponding fellow of the British Academy in 1972.[11] A Festschrift in his honour, Ancient Europe and the Mediterranean, edited by Vladimir Markotic, was published in 1977.[10] His collected papers are held by the Harvard Library.[3]

Personal life

O'Neill Hencken's second wife Thalassa Cruso was a well-known television presenter. They met in Ireland, where both O'Neill Hencken and Cruso, a student of Mortimer Wheeler, were excavating, and married in 1935. They had three daughters.[1]

References
  1. Treaster, Joseph B. (4 September 1981). "HUGH HENCKEN, 79; NOTED ARCHEOLOGIST AND MUSEUM CHIEF". The New York Times.
  2. Carew, Mairead (April 28, 2018). "Nazis, spies... and the hunt for first Irishman". Belfast Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2021-08-16.
  3. "Collection: Hugh O'Neill Hencken papers". HOLLIS. Harvard University. Retrieved 2021-08-15.
  4. Bradsher, Greg (2014-08-28). "The American Defense, Harvard Group's Committee on the Protection of Monuments". The Text Message. National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved 2021-08-16.
  5. Champion, T. C. (1981). "Mecklenburg Collection, Part II: the Iron Age Cemetery of Magdalenska Gora in Slovenia. By Hugh Hencken. 316pages, 380 figures. American School of Prehistoric Research, Bulletin 32, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass, U.S.A.1978. Price $25.00". Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 47: 347. doi:10.1017/S0079497X0000918X. ISSN 2050-2729. S2CID 163715684.
  6. Alexander, John (1979). "The Iron Age Cemetery of Magdalenska gora in Slovenia, Mecklenburg Collection. (Part II.) By H. Hencken, with editorial assistance from P. S. Wells. (Bulletin 32, American School of Prehistoric Research.) 27 × 19·5 cm. Pp. 316 + 381 figs. Cambridge, Mass.: Peabody Museum of Harvard University, 1978. $25·00". The Antiquaries Journal. 59 (1): 145–146. doi:10.1017/S0003581500065471. ISSN 1758-5309.
  7. Marcadal, Yves (1973). "Hugh Hencken, The earliest european helmets. Bronze Age and early Long Age (Americain School of Prehistoric Research, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, Bulletin n° 28), 1971". Revue des Études Anciennes. 75 (3): 409–410.
  8. Ward-Perkins, John (1970). "Hugh Hencken: Tarquinia, Villanovans and Early Etruscans. Cambridge, Mass.: Peabody Museum, 1968. (Bulletin of the American School of Prehistoric Research, No. 23.) 2 vols.: 719 pp., 417 illustrations. $30. - Hugh Hencken: Tarquinia and Etruscan Origins. London: Thames and Hudson, 1968. (Vol. 62, Ancient Peoples and Places.) 248 pp., 173 photographs, 45 figs. 42s". Antiquity. 44 (173): 80–81. doi:10.1017/S0003598X00041193. ISSN 0003-598X.
  9. Ridgway, David (1970). "Tarquinia, Villanovans and Early Etruscans. By Hugh Hencken. (American School of Prehistoric Research: Bulletin no. 23). 10½ × 7¾. 2 vols.; pp. xxxi+719+497 text-figs.+6 charts in back cover pocket. Cambridge, Mass.: Peabody Museum, 1968. $30". The Antiquaries Journal. 50 (2): 369–371. doi:10.1017/S0003581500032182. ISSN 1758-5309. S2CID 164017824.
  10. Kinnes, Ian (1979). "Ancient Europe and the Mediterranean: Studies presented in honour of Hugh Hencken. Edited byV. Markotic. xii ± 201pagesAris and Phillips, Warminster, 1977. Price £17.50". Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 45: 92. doi:10.1017/S0079497X00009671. ISSN 2050-2729. S2CID 163662474.
  11. "Professor Hugh O'neill Hencken FBA". The British Academy.
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