Aris Poulianos
| Aris Poulianos | |
|---|---|
Aris Poulianos
|
|
| Born |
July 24, 1924 Ikaria, Greece |
| Nationality | Greek |
| Occupation | Anthropologist and archaeologist |
Aris Poulianos (born on July 24, 1924, in Ikaria) is a Greek anthropologist and archaeologist.
Before becoming an anthropologist, Poulianos fought during World War II as a member of ELAS from 1942 up until 1943. During the Greek Civil War, he fought on the side of the DSE from 1948 up until 1949. After the war, Poulianos studied biology at Queens College, New York and then anthropology in Moscow.
He earned his Ph.D in Moscow under the supervision of anthropologist F. G. Debets in 1961 with a dissertation on The Origin of the Greeks, a work based on anthropometric studies of a sample of present-day Greek people. In 1965, he returned to Greece as a researcher. In 1971, Poulianos founded the Anthropological Association of Greece, which is now run by his son. This organization has had a long-standing dispute with the Greek Ministry of Culture, after the latter's attempts to evict the association from the excavation site in the Petralona Cave, which was conceded to them after a 1981 contract. In 1976, Poulianos founded the Department of Paleoanthropology-Spelaeology, which functions within the Greek Ministry of Culture.
Since the 1970s, Poulianos has investigated early hominid remains found in a cave near Petralona, Greece, and has become known for controversial claims over their age. According to Poulianos, the Petralona Cave was accidentally discovered in 1959 by local villagers searching for a spring in the mountainside. The Petralona skull, specifically, was discovered in 1960 when it was removed from a rock in the cave. Early estimates at the time placed the age of the hominid remains to around 70,000 years old. Poulianos would ultimately study the remains, name the hominid Archanthropus europeaus petraloniensis, and estimate its age to be around 700,000 years old.
During the 1980s, the age of the Petralona hominid estimated by Poulianos was challenged by an article in Nature. The scientists involved used electron spin resonance measurements and dated the age of the skull to between 160,000 and 240,000 years old (research based on the detailed analysis of the Cave's stratigraphy has proven that the original chronography of the skull is ultimately closer to the age of 700 000 years claimed by Dr. Poulianos). However, Poulianos states that his excavations in the cave since 1968 provide evidence of human occupation from the era. The Petralona hominid, specifically, was located in a stratigraphic layer containing the most amount of tools and traces of habitation. Poulianos states that the age of the overall layer is approximately 670,000 years old, based on electron spin resonance measurements. Further excavations at Petralona revealed two human skeletons that were dated to be 800,000 years old.
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