ANTHROPOLOGISTS from Czechia

Top 2

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Czech Anthropologists of all time. This list of famous Czech Anthropologists is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Aleš Hrdlička (1869 - 1943)

With an HPI of 52.86, Aleš Hrdlička is the most famous Czech Anthropologist.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages on wikipedia.

Alois Ferdinand Hrdlička, after 1918 changed to Aleš Hrdlička (Czech pronunciation: [ˈa.lɛʃ ˈɦr̩d.lɪtʃ.ka]; March 30, 1869 – September 5, 1943), was a Czech anthropologist who lived in the United States after his family had moved there in 1881. He was born in Humpolec, Bohemia (today in the Czech Republic). Hrdlička was a pioneer in the field of anthropology and the first curator of physical anthropology of the Smithsonian Museum from 1904 until 1941. He correctly theorized that migration from Asia to the Americas via the Bering Strait was the origin of the American Indians, but incorrectly dated that migration as having occurred not more than 3,000 years ago. He initially denied evidence by archaeological findings such as that of Folsom man in 1927 which pushed the date of human presence in the Americas back to more than 10,000 years ago.

2. Lubor Niederle (1865 - 1944)

With an HPI of 52.35, Lubor Niederle is the 2nd most famous Czech Anthropologist.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.

Lubor Niederle (September 20, 1865 – June 14, 1944) was a Czech archeologist, anthropologist and ethnographer. He is seen as one of the founders of modern archeology in Czech lands. He was born in Klatovy. He studied at the Charles University in Prague from 1883 to 1887. He was initially interested in classical archaeology, then studied anthropology, sociology and ethnology. Later, he studied in Munich under professor Johannes Rank (1889) and in Paris under professor Léonce Manouvriere at the École d’anthropologie. Niederle also travelled in several Slavic countries, studying archaeological findings and historical documents. In 1898 Niederle was named professor at the Charles University. As archaeologist he had represented the "university school" (univerzitní škola), opposed to the "museum school" (muzejní škola) represented by archaeologist Josef Ladislav Píč. During 1907–08 Niederle served as a dean of Faculty of Philosophy, during 1908–09 as a vice-dean and during 1927–28 as a rector of the faculty. In 1919 he helped to establish State Archaeological Institute (Státní archeologický ústav), today's Institute of Archaeology (Archeologický ústav). He also published many articles about Slavic ethnography and archaeology and was editor of several specialised journals. Niederle had helped to set up Slavic Institute (Slovanský ústav) in Prague and directed it from 1928 until 1931. Among his most-known works are Handbook of Czech Archaeology (Rukověť české archeologie, 1910, with Karel Buchtela) and mainly the eleven-volume series Slavic Antiquities (Slovanské starožitnosti) published between 1902 and 1934. This series exhaustively investigated origin and prehistory of the Slavs, continuing earlier work by historian Pavel Josef Šafařík. Niederle died on June 14, 1944, in Prague.