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References
Knight, Vernon J., Jr., and Vincas Steponaitis. 1998 Archaeology of the Moundville Chiefdom. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
(1846–1934)
Sophus Müller was born in Copenhagen, denmark, the son of a numismatist and museum director. Enrolling at Copenhagen University in 1864 to study classics, he attended jens jacob worsaae’s lectures on archaeology and read the work of English geologist charles lyell. After graduating in 1871 Müller worked as a teacher, but he gradually became associated with the collections in Copenhagen and with Worsaae, the curator of the Royal Museum of Nordic Antiquities (after 1892 the National Museum).
Müller begun to publish articles on the Danish Iron and Bronze Ages and traveled to the major museums and collections in central, western, and northern Europe. In 1878 he was employed as a scientific assistant to his father in the Department of Numismatics at the museum. He kept in contact with Worsaae and his group and participated in the activities of the museum. He also began publishing the Nordic Journal in Stockholm. In 1880 he received a Danish doctoral degree for his dissertation on animal ornamentation in Scandinavia.
In 1885 he became a curator at the Royal Museum and seven years later was named codirector of the new National Museum, with responsibility for prehistoric, ethnographic, and classical collections. During his tenure the National Museum assumed all the main tasks arising from archaeology’s emergence as a discipline: publications, the preparation of finds for exhibition or storage, excavations, inspections, conservation, and the training of the next generation of archaeologists. The teaching of archaeology disappeared from the university and was taken over the by National Museum. Remaining at the museum until his retirement in 1921, he effectively dictated and controlled Danish archaeology during this period.
Müller also had extensive excavation experience, and the context of the finds he worked on always played a paramount role in his analysis and interpretations. He was at times a publicist, and he was also well traveled. He was therefore familiar with much of the prehistoric material then known and housed in the main European museums and collections. From 1881 on he was secretary of the Royal Nordic Antiquaries Society and editor of its journal, Yearbook for Nordic Archaeology.
Müller is one of the key figures in the nineteenth-century development of the methods and theories of archaeology. His dispute with oscar montelius about typology has been characterized as the first methodological debate on such issues—an illustration opposing an essentially objective and subjective methodology and how each methodology could affect the discipline. Müller also defined several significant cultural sequences in Danish prehistory and laid a solid foundation for future studies. His works include various illustrated manuals, such as The Arrangement of Denmark’s Prehistoric Objects (1888–1895). Much of this work still constitutes the backbone of the discipline in Denmark, and researchers actively draw upon it today. Müller can be credited with establishing the fundamental themes of Danish archaeology—wide-ranging research, penetrating analysis, and a profound respect for source material.
References
For references, see Encyclopedia of Archaeology: The Great Archaeologists, Vol. 1, ed. Tim Murray (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 1999), pp. 207–209.
(1925– )
John Mulvaney is an Australian archaeologist who trained at Cambridge University after completing a history degree at the University of Melbourne. On his return to Australia Mulvaney followed the pioneering work of norman tindale and fred mccarthy at Fromm’s Landing and Kenniff Cave (among other sites). He noted that there was clear evidence for cultural change in prehistoric Australia, and his work at Kenniff Cave revealed conclusive evidence (through radiocarbon dating) of the Pleistocene occupation of Australia.
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