Archaeological Institute) and a honorary member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences (both in Berlin), a honorary member of the Anthropological Society of Vienna, and a honorary fellow of the Royal Irish Academy.

In 1927, Obermaier founded, and directed until 1936, the monthly magazine Investigación y Progreso sponsored by the Center for Germano-Spanish Cultural Exchange, which published short papers on all fields of knowledge and research, mostly by German authors. Absent from Spain at the outbreak of the Civil War, he never resumed his academic career or residence there again. He was in Italy for a short time and then, in 1937, became a lecturer in prehistory at the Catholic University of Friburg in Germany, where he died.

Obermaier made important contributions to knowledge of Iberian prehistory in Europe, and to the development of the discipline of prehistory in Spain, through his teaching activity at the University of Madrid and through his research, which was primarily published in German and French. This research was concerned with Quaternary geology, the European Paleolithic period, Paleolithic rock art, and rock art during the postglacial period, both on the Iberian Peninsula and in Africa. He was responsible for the fundamental study of megalithic burial grounds, such as the dolmen of Matarrubilla (Seville) and the passage grave of Soto (Huelva).

Obermaier’s first work of synthesis, Der Mensch der Vorzeit (1931), was translated into Russian a year later. The books El hombre fósil (1916) and El hombre prehistórico y los orígenes de la humanidad (1932) have been fundamental references for the study of the Paleolithic period in Spain for several decades.

In Spain, Obermaier’s solid empirical training helped “to definitely overcome the distrust and prejudice which existed in academic circles with regard to Prehistory” (Peiro Martin and Pasamar Alzuria 1989–1990, 24). The introduction of Obermaier into these circles was additionally facilitated by his position as a Catholic author and by the sponsorship of the Duke of Alba. His most original contribution was his attempt to convert prehistory into paleoethnology by using ethnographic parallels. He was close to the historical-cultural school, but he did not consider it adequate for the study of the origins of human cultures (Obermaier 1926, 19). His paleoethnology was based on the community of ideas among peoples with the same degree of maturity, “how ever distant they were placed in space and in time” (Pairo Martin and Pasamar Alzuria 1989–1990, 27), and archaeological data. Some of the most important Spanish archaeologists were his pupils.

Isabel Martínez Navarrete

References

Ballesteros y Beretta, Antonio. 1926. “Discurso de contestación.” In Discursos leídos ante la Real Academia de la Historia en la recepción de Don Hugo Obermaier el 2 de Mayo de 1926, 103–117. Madrid: Imprenta Caro Raggio.

Bandi, H. G., and Maringer, J. 1953. “Das Werk Professor Dr. Hugo Obermaiers 1877–1946.” Eiszeitalter und Gegenmart 3: 136–143.

Breuil, H. 1950. “Hugo Obermaier (1877–1946).” Revue Archéologique, 6th ser., 35: 105–119.

Garcia Bellido, Antonio. 1947. Hugo Obermaier. Madrid: Imprenta y Editorial Maestre.

“Noticias.” 1935. Sociedad Española de Antropología, Etnografía y Prehistoria, Actas y Memorias 14: 311–312.

Obermaier, H. 1926. “La vida de nuestros antepasados cuaternarios en Europa.” In Discursos leídos ante la Real Academia de la Historia en la recepción de Don Hugo Obermaier el 2 de Mayo de 1926, 7–101. Ed. A. Ballesteros y Beretta. Madrid: Imprenta Caro Raggio.

Peiro Martin, Ignacio, and Gonzalo Pasamar Alzuria. 1989–1990. “El nacimiento en España de la Arqueología y la Prehistoria (Academicismo y profesionalización, 1856–1936).” Kalathos 9–10: 9–30.

Perez de Barradas, José. 1948. “Hugo Obermaier Grad.” Trabajos del Instituto “Bernardino de Sahagún” de Antropología y Etnología 6: 9–14.

Okladnikov, Aleksei Pavlovich

(1908– )

The son of a village schoolteacher, Aleksei Pavlovich Okladnikov was born in Siberia and developed an interest in the history, traditions, and folklore of that region. Okladnikov finished school in 1925 and entered the teacher-training