Jacques Bordaz papers

51 Pages·2017·0.08 MB·English

Jacques Bordaz papers
1167
Finding aid prepared by Lawrence Rosen and James DeWalt.
Last updated on March 02, 2017.
University of Pennsylvania, Penn Museum Archives

2016
Jacques Bordaz papers
Table of Contents
Summary Information....................................................................................................................................3
Biography/History..........................................................................................................................................4
Scope and Contents.......................................................................................................................................6
Administrative Information...........................................................................................................................7
Controlled Access Headings..........................................................................................................................7
Collection Inventory......................................................................................................................................9
Correspondence........................................................................................................................................9
Employment...........................................................................................................................................10
Publications............................................................................................................................................10
Louise A. Bordaz series........................................................................................................................11
Shanidar Cave Project...........................................................................................................................13
Dandalas Valley Project........................................................................................................................13
Mott's Point Project...............................................................................................................................14
Suberde Project......................................................................................................................................15
Erbaba Project........................................................................................................................................26
Archaeological Site Survey...................................................................................................................45
Traditional Crafts of Turkey.................................................................................................................46
Photographs............................................................................................................................................47
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Jacques Bordaz papers
Summary Information
Repository University of Pennsylvania: Penn Museum Archives
Creator Bordaz, Jacques, 1926-2000
Creator Bordaz, Louise Alpers, b. 1941
Title Jacques Bordaz papers
Call number 1167
Date [bulk] 1960-1989
Date [inclusive] 1956-2003
Extent 13.8 linear feet
Language English
Abstract Jacques Bordaz (1926-2000) was a French-born anthropologist and
archaeologist who conducted field work and research at Native-American
sites from 1949-1963, and at Neanderthal and Neolithic sites in Iraq and
Turkey since 1960. Along with his wife, fellow archaeologist Louise
Alpers Bordaz (1941-2002), he excavated and studied the Neolithic sites
of Suberde and Erbaba in southwestern Turkey between 1964 and 1978.
A major focus of both of these projects was the study of the manufacture
and use of stone tools. The Suberde project included an analysis of animal
bone remains to determine patterns of hunting and stock-raising, and the
Erbaba project included analysis of Neolithic pottery. Jacques and Louise
Bordaz subsequently undertook a joint study of the traditional crafts of
Turkey. The Jacques Bordaz papers consist of 13.8 linear feet of textual
documents from 1958 to 2003 (bulk 1960-1989) and photographs from
1956 to 1977. The greater part of the collection (7.5 linear feet, including
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card indexes) relates to the Suberde and Erbaba projects. There are a
few files related to the Neanderthal site of Shanidar Cave in northern
Iraq, excavated under the direction of Robert Solecki (1960-1961), a
survey of the Dandalas Valley in southwestern Turkey (1962), and a
curious collection of Termatrex data sheets intended for analysis and
interpretation of a number of sites in Turkey and the Middle East. The
collection includes records pertaining to the early teaching careers of both
Jacques and Louise Bordaz, but there is virtually no record of Bordaz?
Native-American research except for a small file from the Mott?s Point
site in New York, and some photographic prints from the Penitas project
in Mexico. Text files concerning traditional crafts of Turkey are not well
represented. About 30% of the files in this collection are in French. A
collection of slides documenting the Karatas, Suberde and Erbaba sites, as
well as a significant collection of slides pertaining to the traditional crafts
of Turkey, is filed separately.
Cite as:
[Item name]. Box [Box number]. Jacques Bordaz papers. Penn Museum Archives. Accessed [Date
accessed].
Biography/History
Jacques Bordaz
Jacques Bordaz was born in Paris February 14, 1926. He received his baccalaureate in Philosophy-Letters
from the University of Paris in 1944. From 1944 to 1947 he attended the Institut d?Etudes Politiques,
University of Paris, and in 1964 received his Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University
(dissertation: Pre-Columbian Ceramic Kilns at Pe?itas, a Post-Classic site in Coastal Nayarit, Mexico).
From 1948 to 1954 he was attached to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in
New York.
Early fieldwork included sites in Peru and Bolivia in 1949. He attended the U.C.L.A. Archaeological
Field School in Utah in 1955, and in 1956 he conducted fieldwork at Pe?itas, Mexico, after which
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he served as Research Assistant for the study of Mexican material at U.C.L.A. in 1956 and 1959. He
was Research Assistant to William Duncan Strong, Columbia University, from 1956-1958 (research
fellowship for dissertation, 1959-1960). His academic positions included: Lecturer in Anthropology,
Columbia University, 1958-1959; Instructor in Anthropology, New York University, 1961-1964
(Assistant Professor, 1964-1966); Professeur agr?g?, D?partment d?Anthropologie, University of
Montreal, 1966-1971 (Professeur titulaire, 1971-1972); Associate Professor and Assistant Chairman,
Department of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania 1972-1974 (Associate Professor from 1974).
In 1960 Bordaz served as assistant to Ralph S. Solecki at the Neanderthal site of Shanidar Cave in
northern Iraq, continuing as research assistant from 1960-1961 (Columbia University). In 1963, while
Instructor at New York University, he participated in a joint excavation with Columbia University of
a Native American shell midden site at Mott?s Point, New York. During 1962 Bordaz participated
in an archaeological survey of prehistoric sites, known as the Anatolian Research Project (New York
University), in the Dandalas Valley of southwestern Turkey, also under the direction of Ralph Solecki.
One of the sites identified by Dr. Solecki was the pre-pottery Neolithic settlement at Suberde in the
Beysehir-Sugla lake region. Bordaz served as director of the Suberde excavations (NYU) for two seasons,
from 1964 to 1965, followed by a study season in 1966. A focal point of this project was the analysis of
faunal remains to determine the prevalence of hunting as opposed to stock raising in Neolithic culture, as
well as a study of chipped stone artifacts. Bordaz was subsequently director of the excavations at Erbaba
(University of Montreal, later Columbia University and University of Pennsylvania), a Neolithic site not
far from Suberde. Active excavations were undertaken in 1969, 1971,1974 and 1977, with study seasons
between. Significant aspects of the Erbaba project included the study of stone tools, worked bone, and
pottery. Bordaz authored Tools of the Old and New Stone Age in 1970 (New York, The Natural History
Press, the American Museum of Natural History), which became a standard introductory text in this field.
He also produced a film, Stone Knapping in Modern Turkey in 1971, and was the author of numerous
scholarly articles.
Jacques Bordaz collaborated on several projects with fellow archaeologist Victoria von Hagen. An
ongoing concern of theirs was the use of the new technology of data processing as applied to archaeology.
They also pioneered the use of the Termatrex system, a less expensive system of data collection and
interpretation. Jacques and Victoria married, and Victoria spent at least the 1965 season at Suberde as a
member of the expedition. Jacques Bordaz married Louise A. Alpers sometime in late 1969 or early 1970.
Louise Alpers was also an archaeologist and a member of the expedition at Suberde in 1966. Jacques
and Louise Bordaz worked closely together on several projects. By 1975 they had shifted their scholarly
focus to the traditional crafts of Turkey. Other projects at this time included monographs in preparation
concerning the Suberde and Erbaba projects, and a study of human occupation in the Beysehir-Sugla
region of Turkey from the Neolithic to the Islamic periods, comprising sixty sites, and incorporating
data collected since 1964. It is unclear if, or in what form, any of these projects were completed. Jacques
Bordaz died on October 24, 2000.
Louise Alpers Bordaz
Louise A. Alpers (Bordaz) was born June 6, 1941 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She received her
A.B. from Bryn Mawr College in 1963 in Archaeology (honors thesis: A Study of Glazed Wares in
the Ancient Near East and the Aegean from the Earliest Appearances through the Late Bronze Age).
She earned her Ph.D. in 1973 in Near Eastern and Aegean Archaeology, also from Bryn Mawr College
(dissertation: The Metal Artefacts from the Bronze Age Excavations at Karatas-Semay?k, Turkey and
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Their Significance in Anatolia, The Near East, and the Aegean). Her professional positions included:
Teaching Assistant, Department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology, Bryn Mawr College,
1965-1966; Acting Director, Ankara Branch, American Research Institute in Turkey, 1967-1969;
Lecturer, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, 1973-1974 (since 1974
Assistant Professor). Louise Alpers' research and field work included three seasons as field supervisor
at the Bryn Mawr College excavations at Elmali in Turkey, 1964-1966, and five at Karatas-Semay?k,
1964-1968, both under the direction of Professor Machteld J. Mellink. She studied ceramic material
collected by the Beysehir-Sugla Lakes Basin Survey in 1966, during which she was also field supervisor
for the Ankara Archaeological Museum excavations at Eskiyapar, Raci Temizer, Director. She conducted
an analysis of the post-Neolithic ceramic material collected by the Suberde excavation in 1966. In 1969 or
1970 she married Jacques Bordaz. Between 1970 and 1978 she conducted field work at Erbaba (Associate
Director since 1971), alternating archaeological excavation with material study. Her subsequent research
was almost exclusively in collaboration with Jacques Bordaz, detailed above. She spoke and wrote fluent
Turkish, and collaborated on research, translation, and editing books and articles by Turkish scholars. Her
publications included collaborative articles and reports with Jacques Bordaz on the Erbaba excavations,
and co-production of the film, Stone Knapping in Modern Turkey. Louise Bordaz died on August 28,
2002.
Scope and Contents
The Jacques Bordaz papers consist of 13.8 linear feet of textual and photographic records covering the
career of archaeologist Jacques Bordaz from 1956 to 2003 (bulk 1960-1989). The collection includes
papers relating to the early academic careers of Bordaz and his wife and fellow archaeologist, Louise
Bordaz, with whom he collaborated on many projects. There is no documentation of any of Bordaz?
American archaeological projects, except for a small file concerning the Mott?s Point, New York project
(1962) and a collection of photographs from the Penitas, Mexico project (1956, 1964). There are several
files concerning the Shanidar Cave project in northern Iraq (1960-1961), and the Anatolian Research
Project, an archaeological survey of the Dandalas Valley region of southwestern Turkey (1962). Both the
Shanidar Cave and the Dandalas Valley projects were under the direction of Dr. Ralph Solecki (Columbia
University). The majority of the collection consists of the records of the Suberde (1964-1965) and Erbaba
(1969-1974) projects, Neolithic sites in the Beysehir-Sugla region of southwestern Turkey. Both of
these projects had a strong focus on the production and use of stone tools, a major concern of Bordaz
throughout his career. The Suberde project also included a significant study of animal bones, in part to
determine the prevalence of hunting as opposed to stock raising for food production. The Erbaba project
included a study of Neolithic pottery. The collection also includes a curious set of Termatrex data sheets
with descriptive text and illustration, intended to provide analysis and interpretation of various aspects
of Neolithic settlement. A very small collection of documents concerns the study of traditional crafts of
modern Turkey. There is virtually no documentation in this collection concerning Victoria (von Hagen)
Bordaz, Jacques? former wife, also an archaeologist with whom he collaborated on several projects. There
are no textual files related to the early archaeological work of Louise Bordaz.
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The collection includes a series of photographic prints, most with negatives, from the Penitas excavation,
the Shanidar Cave site, the Dandalas Valley project, and the Suberde and Erbaba projects. This evidence
both predates and postdates the textual records. A collection of slides documenting both objects and
excavation at Suberde and Erbaba, traditional crafts of Turkey, as well as Louise Bordaz' field work at
Karatas-Semayuk, is filed separately.
About 30% of the documents in this collection are in French or a combination of French and English,
especially early projects. A very small number of documents of an administrative nature are in Turkish.
Administrative Information
University of Pennsylvania, Penn Museum Archives

2016
Finding aid prepared by Lawrence Rosen and James DeWalt.
Access Restrictions
Although many items from the archives are in the public domain, copyright may be retained by the
authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law. The
user is fully responsible for compliance with relevant copyright law.
Controlled Access Headings
Geographic Name(s)
• Dandalas Valley (Turkey)
• Erbaba (Turkey)
• Mott's Point Site (New York)
• Shanidar Cave (Iraq)
• Suberde (Turkey)
Personal Name(s)
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• Solecki, Ralph S. , b. 1917
Subject(s)
• Flintknapping
• Handicraft--Turkey
• Neanderthals--Middle East.
• Neolithic period--Turkey.
• Stone implements
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Correspondence
Collection Inventory
Correspondence, 1961-2003 (Bulk, 1961-1996) .
Scope and Contents note
The correspondence series contains general correspondence, arranged by correspondent, from 1961
through 1996, with some outliers dating to 2003. Subjects include archaeological activity, teaching and
student advising, and some letters of a more personal nature. Many of the project series in this collection
also have correspondence files, and correspondence can be found within subject files in various series.
Many of the letters are in French, a few in Turkish.
Box
Correspondence A-B. 1
American Embassy, Turkey 1964-1973. 1
Correspondence C-F. 1
Canadian Embassy, Turkey 1966-1971. 1
Correspondence G-K. 1
General Directory of Antiquities and Museums, Turkey 1963-1979. 1
Correspondence L-T. 1
Turkish Embassy 1973-1981. 1
Correspondence U-Z. 1
Miscellaneous Correspondence. 1
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Employment
Employment, 1962-1987.
Scope and Contents note
The employment series contains files related to Jacques Bordaz? academic career at New York
University (1962-1965), the University of Montreal (1968-1972), and the University of Pennsylvania
(1987 only). Some of the material relates to Bordaz? student work, but most of the contents document
his course assignments as instructor or professor. A significant portion of this series pertains to a series
of student protests directed at Professor Bordaz regarding alleged misappropriation of grant funds and
generally poor relations with students at the University of Montreal in 1972, leading to his acceptance of
a position at the University of Pennsylvania. Most of the documentation from the University of Montreal
is in French.
Box
New York University 1962-1965. 1
University of Montreal 1968-1971. 1
University of Montreal-Student Protest 1972. 1
University of Pennsylvania 1987. 1
Publications, 1958-1992.
Scope and Contents note
This series contains documentation concerning publications not specifically related to the Suberde or
Erbaba projects. Included are book and article reviews by Jacques and Louise Bordaz, drafts of articles,
and reviews of Bordaz? Tools of the Old and New Stone Age.
Box
Pan Am Clipper Articles 1982. 1
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