A Biography of Archaeologist Bruce Trigger

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Few Archaeologists have been said to have shaped modern Archaeology. Bruce Trigger was one of those Archaeologists. Before his death in 2006, he published a great number of works that influenced professionals and students alike on an international stage (Fagan 1). His open-minded yet fact-based approach to archaeology changed the way many archaeologists approach their work in the modern era.

Bruce Graham Trigger was born in 1937 in a small town called Preston in Ontario, Canada (Fagan 1). From a very young age, he showed a profound interest in acquiring knowledge, which gave his father the idea to give his son a book about ancient Egypt (Martin). In one of his publications, Trigger recalls being “Wonderstruck” by the subject (Martin). Following his childhood, his college education was focused on furthering his knowledge of the ancient past. Trigger’s bachelor’s degree in Anthropology was obtained in 1959 at the University of Toronto, and his doctorate was obtained at Yale in 1964 (Fagan 1). His dissertation as a student of Yale was an expedition to Nubia to study the different factors that influenced the changes of Nubian settlements (Fagan 1). His first post-college publication, History and Settlement in Lower Nubia, was first seen in 1965, and was based on his thesis (Fagan 1). He moved back to Canada after obtaining his degree, this time settling in Quebec, where he would write publications that would greatly impact the anthropological field (Yellowhorn 1).

Trigger’s expedition in Nubia was a tremendous beginning to his career, starting his exploring in the lands that originally inspired him to follow his anthropological career path. His research in the area was primarily based on tracking the patterns of movements and chan...

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... pp. 542-544.

Fagan, Brian. “Bruce Graham Trigger (1937-2006).” Journal of Anthropological Research Vol. 63, No. 1 (Spring, 2007). pp. 1-2.

Martin, Sandra. Obituary, Canada, “The Globe and Mail.” Saturday, December 9th, 2006.

Patterson, Thomas C. “Review: A History of Archaeological Thought. by Bruce G. Trigger.”

Man. New Series, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Jun., 1991), pp. 353-354.

Ronda, James P. “Review: The Children of Aataentsic: A History of the Huron People to

1660 by Bruce Trigger” Ethnohistory. Vol. 24, No. 3 (Summer, 1977), pp. 287-288.

Trigger, Bruce G. “Paradigms in Sudan Archaeology” The International Journal of African

Historical Studies Vol. 27, No. 2 (1994), pp. 323-345.

Yellowhorn, Eldon. "Understanding Antiquity.” Journal of Social Archaeology. Sage

Publications, 2006. Web. 18 Sept. 2011. .

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