The Most Influential People Across History
Find the most influential people in 24 academic disciplines and numerous subdisciplines
Find famous and important people related to your research. This is an excellent tool for research papers, topic papers, and building a bibliography. Using our influence-based algorithm, our rankings synthesize data from Wikipedia, Wikidata, Semantic Scholar, and CrossRef.
Students and researchers now have a fast and reliable way to find influential thinkers from 24 disciplines and 300 sub-disciplines (and growing). If you want to find history’s most influential philsosophers, or the world’s most influential mathematicians currently, now you can.
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List of the most influential people in Anthropology,
#2901
Carl Whiting Bishop
1881 - 1942 (61 years)
Carl Whiting Bishop was an American archeologist who specialized in East Asian civilizations. From 1922 to 1942 he was a curator at the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. At his death Bishop was praised for his ability to synthesize a wide range of evidence and present them "in ordered and highly engaging fashion", which was "the best sort of popularization of prehistory". He argued for the then popular theory of hyperdiffusionism, the theory that all civilizations originated in one place and spread to others, in this case, from the Near East to China. He was criticized, however, for g...
Go to Profile#2902
Joe Caldwell
1916 - 1973 (57 years)
Joseph Ralston Caldwell was an American archaeologist. In the late 1930s he conducted major excavations in the Savannah, Georgia area at the Irene site as part of Depression-era archaeology program. He also led excavations at other archaeology sites in Georgia, such as the Summerour Mound site in the early 1950s. He was among those conducting extensive excavations prior to the development of Lake Hartwell and Lake Strom Thurmond, which flooded numerous archeological sites.
Go to Profile#2903
Michela Schiff Giorgini
1923 - 1978 (55 years)
Michela Schiff Giorgini née Beomonte was an Italian archaeologist who is remembered for her extensive work in today's Sudan at Soleb on the River Nile where from 1957 she conducted excavations of the Temple of Amenhotep III. During the 20 years she spent in the area, she went on to investigate the temple of Queen Tiye at Sedeinga, and the tomb of Taharqa at Nuri. The Michela Schiff Giorgini Foundation was established in 1984 to preserve her memory and promote Egyptology. Her research is well documented in her many books and publications, beginning with Soleb: Volume 1 in 1965.
Go to Profile#2904
Robert Munro
1835 - 1920 (85 years)
Robert Munro FRSE FSA LLD was a Scottish physician and noted amateur archaeologist. Edinburgh University's Munro Lectures in Archaeology and Anthropology are named in his honour. Life He was born on 21 July 1835 at Assynt in Rossshire, and educated at Kiltearn Free Church School, and at the Royal Academy in Tain. He studied Medicine at the University of Edinburgh graduating MA in 1860 and MB ChB in 1867. He worked as a General Practitioner in Kilmarnock until 1886, when he turned his whole attention to archaeological research. He was a member of many learned societies at home and abroad and p...
Go to Profile#2905
Srečko Brodar
1893 - 1987 (94 years)
Srečko Brodar was a Slovene archaeologist, internationally best known for excavation of Potok Cave , an Upper Palaeolithic cave site in northern Slovenia. Life Brodar studied at the University of Vienna and University of Zagreb, graduating in 1920. Beginning in 1921, he taught at Celje Grammar School, and after the First World War, during which he received a serious elbow injury, he in 1939 received his PhD from the University of Ljubljana, and became a professor there in 1946, serving as the chair of Archaeological Department until retirement. Brodar was the director of the Institute of Arch...
Go to Profile#2906
Eberhard Otto
1913 - 1974 (61 years)
Eberhard Otto was a German Egyptologist. Otto studied from 1932 to 1937 in Leipzig, Munich and Göttingen and after his Promotion in 1938 and his Habilitation in 1943 was appointed in 1950 unofficial professor extraordinarius of Egyptology at the University of Hamburg. In 1955 he was appointed professor ordinarius of Egyptology at the University of Heidelberg. He was known for his work on the religion and art of ancient Egypt and, in particular, his role as co-editor, with Wolfgang Helck, of the first volume of the multi-volume Lexikon der Ägyptologie. After his death his successor as co-editor for volumes 2 through 7 was Wolfhart Westendorf.
Go to Profile#2907
Claudius Salmasius
1588 - 1653 (65 years)
Claude Saumaise , also known by the Latin name Claudius Salmasius, was a French classical scholar. Life Salmasius was born at Semur-en-Auxois in Burgundy. When Salmasius was sixteen, his father - a counsellor of the parlement of Dijon - sent him to Paris, where he became intimate with Isaac Casaubon . In 1606 he went to the University of Heidelberg, where he studied under the jurist Denis Godefroy, and devoted himself to the classics, influenced by the librarian Jan Gruter. Here he embraced Protestantism, the religion of his mother.
Go to Profile#2908
Axel W. Persson
1888 - 1951 (63 years)
Axel Waldemar Persson was a Swedish archaeologist. He was professor of classical archaeology and ancient history at Uppsala University and conducted excavations of sites in Greece and in Asia Minor.
Go to Profile#2909
Wilhelm Koppers
1886 - 1961 (75 years)
Wilhelm Koppers was a Catholic priest and cultural anthropologist.
Go to Profile#2910
Claudius de Goeje
1879 - 1955 (76 years)
Claudius Henricus de Goeje was a Dutch Navy officer and cartographer, who took a special interest in the Wayana and Tiriyó peoples he encountered on his expeditions to the interior of Suriname. For his lifelong interest in the Amerindian peoples of the Surinamese interior, he was awarded an endowed professorship in the Linguistics and Anthropology of Suriname and Curaçao at Leiden University in 1946. De Goeje retired in 1951 and died four years later, in 1955.
Go to Profile#2911
George Macdonald
1862 - 1940 (78 years)
Sir George Macdonald was a British archaeologist and numismatist who studied the Antonine Wall. Life Macdonald was born in Elgin on 30 January 1862. His father, James Macdonald, was a schoolmaster at Elgin Academy and his mother was Margaret Raff. His father moved from Elgin Academy to Ayr Academy during his early youth.
Go to Profile#2912
Birger Nerman
1888 - 1971 (83 years)
Birger Nerman was a Swedish archaeologist, historian and philologist who specialized in the history and culture of Iron Age Sweden. Nerman was educated at Uppsala University, where he began his career as a lecturer in Nordic philology. He participated in archaeological excavations on Stone Age and Iron Age Sweden, and became noted for his efforts to combine archaeological and philological evidence. Areas investigated by Nerman include Gamla Uppsala and Gotland.
Go to Profile#2913
Walter Miller
1864 - 1949 (85 years)
Samuel Walter Miller, LL. D., Litt. D. was an American linguist, classics scholar and archaeologist responsible for the first American excavation in Greece and a founder of the Stanford University Classics department.
Go to Profile#2914
Percy Gardner
1846 - 1937 (91 years)
Percy Gardner, was an English classical archaeologist and numismatist. He was Disney Professor of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge from 1879 to 1887. He was Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art at the University of Oxford from 1887 to 1925.
Go to Profile#2915
Conrad Bursian
1830 - 1883 (53 years)
Conrad Bursian was a German philologist and archaeologist. Biography He was born at Mutzschen in Saxony. When his parents moved to Leipzig, he received his early education at Thomasschule zu Leipzig. From 1847 to 1851 he was a student at the University of Leipzig, where his instructors included Moritz Haupt and Otto Jahn . He then spent six months in Berlin, where he attended lectures given by Philipp August Böckh . In 1852 he completed his university studies at Leipzig, spending the next three years traveling in Belgium, France, Italy and Greece.
Go to Profile#2916
Mary Hamilton Swindler
1884 - 1967 (83 years)
Mary Hamilton Swindler was an American archaeologist, classical art scholar, author, and professor of classical archaeology, most notably at Bryn Mawr College, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Michigan. Swindler also founded the Ella Riegel Memorial Museum at Bryn Mawr College. She participated in various archaeological excavations in Greece, Egypt, and Turkey. The recipient of several awards and honors for her research, Swindler's seminal work was Ancient Painting, from the Earliest Times to the Period of Christian Art .
Go to Profile#2917
Orazio Marucchi
1852 - 1931 (79 years)
Orazio Marucchi was an Italian archaeologist and author of the Manual of Christian Archaeology. He served as Professor of Christian Archaeology at the University of Rome and director of the Christian and Egyptian museums at the Vatican Museums. He was also a member of the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology and was a scrittore of the Vatican Library.
Go to Profile#2918
Karl Lehrs
1802 - 1878 (76 years)
Karl Ludwig Lehrs , was a German classical scholar. Born at Königsberg, he was Jewish, but in 1822 he converted to Christianity. In 1845 he was appointed professor of ancient Greek philology at Königsberg University, a post he held until his death.
Go to Profile#2919
Adolf Schöll
1805 - 1882 (77 years)
Gustav Adolf Schöll was a German art historian, archaeologist and classical philologist. Biography He studied at the universities of Tübingen and Göttingen, obtaining his habilitation at Berlin in 1833. In June 1837 he was appointed professor of rhetoric, classical philology, aesthetics and art history at the University of Dorpat. In 1839/40, with Karl Otfried Müller, he participated in a study trip to Italy and Greece.
Go to Profile#2920
Emily James Smith Putnam
1865 - 1944 (79 years)
Emily James Smith Putnam was an American classical scholar, author and educator. Biography She was the daughter of Justice James C. Smith. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1889 and studied at Girton College, Cambridge University, in 1889–90.
Go to Profile#2921
James Robinson Boise
1815 - 1895 (80 years)
James Robinson Boise was an American classicist. He was the author of several Greek text books. Biography He graduated from Brown University in 1840, and served there as tutor of Latin and Greek and as a professor of Greek until 1850. In 1852, he became professor of Greek language and literature in the University of Michigan. In 1868, he was called to the same chair in the old University of Chicago. In 1877, he became professor of New Testament Interpretation in the Baptist Union Theological Seminary. On the establishment of the new University of Chicago, he was made professor emeritus of New Testament Greek.
Go to Profile#2922
Rudolf Westphal
1826 - 1892 (66 years)
Rudolf Westphal was a German classical scholar. Life Westphal was born at Obernkirchen in Schaumburg. He studied at Marburg and Tübingen, and was professor at Breslau and Moscow . He subsequently lived at Bückeburg, and died at Stadthagen in Schaumburg-Lippe on 10 July 1892. Westphal devoted his life in translating and interpreting the works of Aristoxenus. He then applied Greek theories of poetic meter to eighteenth- and nineteenth century music.
Go to Profile#2923
Alexandre Moret
1868 - 1938 (70 years)
Alexandre Moret was a French Egyptologist. Life From 1906 to 1923 Moret was curator of the Musée Guimet. In 1918 Moret succeeded Émile Amélineau as Director of Studies for the Religions of Egypt within the Fifth Section of the École pratique des hautes études, devoted to religious science.
Go to Profile#2924
Arthur Ramos
1903 - 1949 (46 years)
Arthur Ramos de Araujo Pereira was a psychiatrist, professor, and psychologist who was a critical voice in the adoption of psychoanalysis in Brazil. Ramos challenged the White supremacist and eugenic ideologies that Brazilian psychiatrists were adopting in the first half of the 20th century and instead suggested the use of Freudian psychoanalysis to bridge the tensions between Whiteness and Blackness in Brazil.
Go to Profile#2925
George Johnston Allman
1824 - 1904 (80 years)
George Johnston Allman was an Irish professor, mathematician, classical scholar, and historian of ancient Greek mathematics. His fame rests mainly upon his authorship of Greek Geometry from Thales to Euclid, first published in Dublin in 1889, and republished several times subsequently.
Go to Profile#2926
Franz Studniczka
1860 - 1929 (69 years)
Franz Studniczka was a German professor of classical archaeology born in Jasło, Galicia. He studied classical archaeology in Vienna as a pupil of Otto Benndorf . In 1887 he received his habilitation in Vienna, and in 1889 became the Chair of Classical Archaeology at the University of Freiburg.
Go to Profile#2927
Talfourd Ely
1838 - Present (188 years)
Talfourd Ely FSA was a British archaeologist, classicist, and author of several books, notably A Manual of Archaeology and Roman Hayling. Career Talfourd Ely contributed many articles on archaeology to learned journals and taught Latin and other classical languages at University College London.
Go to Profile#2928
Henry Potonié
1857 - 1913 (56 years)
Henry Potonié was a German botanist and paleobotanist, known for his studies of coal formation. Potonié was born in Berlin. He studied botany at the University of Berlin, and from 1880 served as a research assistant in the botanical garden at Berlin. In 1885 he became associated with the Prussian Geological Survey, and from that time, devoted most of his time to paleobotanical research. In 1891 he was appointed professor of paleobotany at the Mining Academy in Berlin, then around 1901, became a professor of paleobotany and geology at the university.
Go to Profile#2929
Alfred Maximilien Bonnet
1841 - 1917 (76 years)
Alfred Maximilien Bonnet was a German Latinist classical scholar. He studied at Bonn University, then was a lecturer at Lausanne 1866–74 and in Paris 1874–81, then lecturer and from 1890 professor at the University of Montpellier. He made the first modern editions of various New Testament Apocrypha.
Go to Profile#2930
Robert Wood
1717 - 1771 (54 years)
Robert Wood was an Irish-British traveller, classical scholar, civil servant and politician. He was the son of the Revd James Wood of Summerhill, County Meath and educated at Glasgow University and the Middle Temple . His father was a patron of Hercules Rowley of Summerhill House.
Go to Profile#2931
Curt Wachsmuth
1837 - 1905 (68 years)
Curt Wachsmuth was a German historian and classical philologist. He was a son-in-law to philologist Friedrich Ritschl. Academic biography From 1856 to 1860 he studied at the universities of Jena and Bonn, where he later received his habilitation in classical philology and ancient history. In 1864 he became a professor in ancient history at the University of Marburg, followed by professorships in classical philology at the universities of Göttingen and Heidelberg . From 1885 to 1905 he was a professor of classical philology and ancient history at the University of Leipzig. In 1897/98 he serve...
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Mikhail Artamonov
1898 - 1972 (74 years)
Mikhail Illarionovich Artamonov was a Soviet and Russian historian and archeologist, who came to be recognized as the founding father of modern Khazar studies. Biography Artamonov was born into a peasant family in Tver Governorate. He moved to Saint Petersburg when he was nine years old to pursue secondary education, including studying painting under Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin and art history under Nikolai Sychov, as well as archaeology. He was an active participant in the Russian Revolution.
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Samuel Wide
1861 - 1918 (57 years)
Samuel Karl Anders Wide was a Swedish classical archaeologist, ancient historian and philologist. Biography Wide was born at Stora Tuna in Kopparberg County, Sweden. Wide became a student at Uppsala University in 1879. In 1888 he received his PhD in Greek language and literature from Uppsala University.
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Konrad Theodor Preuss
1869 - 1938 (69 years)
Konrad Theodor Preuss was a German ethnologist. He was chairman of the Lithuanian Literary Society . Preuss was born in Preußisch-Eylau. After studying at the Albertina in Königsberg in Prussia and at Frederick William's University of Berlin he joined the Ethnological Museum of Berlin in 1895, advancing to director of the Central and North American department in 1920, before retiring in 1934. He also became a member of the faculty of the University of Berlin and died in Berlin.
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Karl Friedrich Hermann
1804 - 1855 (51 years)
Karl Friedrich Hermann was a German classical scholar and antiquary. Biography He was born at Frankfurt-am-Main. Having studied philosophy at the universities of Heidelberg and Leipzig , he went on a tour of Italy; on his return from which he lectured as privatdozent in Heidelberg. In 1832 he was appointed professor of classical philology at the University of Marburg, and in 1833 received the additional offices of second librarian at the university, and director of the philological seminary. In 1842 he transferred to Göttingen as the chair of philology and archaeology, vacant by the death of Otfried Müller.
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Oleh Olzhych
1907 - 1944 (37 years)
Oleh Oleksandrovych Kandyba , better known by the pen name of Oleh Olzhych , was a Ukrainian poet and political activist. He was forced to emigrate from Ukraine in 1923 due to occupation by the Soviet Russia and lived in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He graduated in 1929 from Charles University with a degree in archaeology. In 1929 he joined the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and became head of their cultural and educational branch.
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James Luce Kingsley
1778 - 1852 (74 years)
James Luce Kingsley was an American classical and biblical scholar. Biography Born in Windham, Connecticut, Kingsley was educated at Williams and Yale, where he was graduated in 1799. He afterward taught for two years, first in Wethersfield, Connecticut and then in Windham, and in 1801 became a tutor at Yale. In 1805 he was appointed to the newly established professorship of Hebrew, Greek, and Latin in there. Kingsley was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1825. He was relieved of a part of his duties in 1831, when a separate professorship of Greek was establishe...
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Oscar Almgren
1869 - 1945 (76 years)
Oscar Almgren was a Swedish archaeologist specializing in prehistoric archaeology. He published a dissertation on Nordic types of brooches in 1897. He was also the father of Bertil Almgren, who followed in his father's footsteps in also becoming a professor of Scandinavian and Comparative Archaeology at Uppsala University.
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Richard Schöne
1840 - 1922 (82 years)
Richard Schöne was a German archaeologist and classical philologist. He studied classical philology and archaeology at the University of Leipzig, receiving his doctorate in 1861 with a dissertation on Plato's Protagoras. He then studied painting under Friedrich Preller the Elder, and from 1864 conducted archaeological research in Italy, during which time, he visited numerous museums and libraries, and participated in excavations at Pompeii. In Rome, he worked alongside Otto Benndorf and Reinhard Kekulé von Stradonitz.
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Karl Joseph Hieronymus Windischmann
1775 - 1839 (64 years)
Karl Joseph Hieronymus Windischmann was a German philosopher and anthropologist. Biography Windischmann attended the Gymnasium in Mainz, and in 1772 took the course in philosophy at the university there. He continued this course at Würzburg, where he also studied the natural sciences and medicine until 1796. After a year at Vienna he settled in 1797 as a practising physician at Mainz, where he also gave medical lectures. In 1801 the Elector of Mainz, Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal, summoned him to Aschaffenburg as court physician.
Go to Profile#2941
Andreas Rumpf
1890 - 1966 (76 years)
Andreas Rumpf was a German classical archaeologist born in Potsdam. He was a specialist of ancient Greek and Roman art, in particular, vase painting and Greek wall painting. He was the son of painter Fritz Rumpf .
Go to Profile#2942
Daniel Schlumberger
1904 - 1972 (68 years)
Daniel Théodore Schlumberger was a French archaeologist and Professor of Near Eastern Archaeology at the University of Strasbourg and later Princeton University. Biography After having been invited by Khan Nasher in the 1960s, he conducted fieldwork at Ay Khanum in Afghanistan as Director of the Délégation Archéologique Française, discovering ruins and artifacts of the Hellenistic period. His written works were included posthumously in The Cambridge History of Iran .
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Paul Maas
1880 - 1964 (84 years)
Paul Maas was a German scholar who, along with Karl Lachmann, founded the field of textual criticism. He studied classical philology at the universities of Berlin and Munich, receiving his doctorate in 1903. In 1910 he obtained his habilitation and in 1920 became a full professor at Berlin. In 1930 he was appointed chair of classical philology at the University of Königsberg. In 1934 he was forced into retirement by the Nazi government due to his Jewish ancestry, and in 1939 he emigrated to Great Britain, where he taught classes at Oxford University. After his death, he was buried at Wolverco...
Go to Profile#2944
Jiří Polívka
1858 - 1933 (75 years)
Jiří Polívka was a Czech linguist, slavist, literary historian and folklorist. He was a disciple of Jan Gebauer. In 1895 he was appointed professor at Charles University in Prague. He became a corresponding member of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts and corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences . He was a supporter of Theodor Benfey’s migration theory. His major work was the collection Slavic Tales and studies about Slavic dialectology.
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Bertha Parker Pallan
1907 - 1978 (71 years)
Bertha Pallan Thurston Cody was an American archaeologist, working as an assistant in archaeology at the Southwest Museum. She was also married to actor Iron Eyes Cody. She is thought to be the first Native American female archaeologist, of Abenaki and Seneca descent.
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Yulian Bromley
1921 - 1990 (69 years)
Yulian Vladimirovich Bromley was a Soviet and Russian anthropologist who gained an international recognition. He became Director of the Institute of Ethnography at the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union in 1966 and held the post until 1989.
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Harry Skinner
1886 - 1978 (92 years)
Henry Devenish Skinner , known as Harry Skinner or H.D. Skinner, was a notable New Zealand soldier, ethnologist, university lecturer, museum curator and director, and librarian. Early life and education The son of William Skinner and Margaret Bracken Devenish, Henry Devenish Skinner was born in New Plymouth, New Zealand, on 18 December 1886.
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W. J. Varley
1904 - 1976 (72 years)
William Jones Varley, FSA was a British geographer and archaeologist, particularly known for his excavations of English Iron Age hillforts, including Maiden Castle and Eddisbury hillfort in Cheshire, Old Oswestry hillfort in Shropshire, and Castle Hill in West Yorkshire. He was also a pioneer of geographical research and education in colonial Ghana where he worked from 1947 to 1956, and was involved in historical conservation there.
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Edith Hall Dohan
1877 - 1943 (66 years)
Edith Hayward Hall Dohan was an American archaeologist who earned Bryn Mawr College's first classical archaeology Ph.D. Hall was part of an excavation team with Harriet Boyd in her early career that most notably brought the first Mycenaean and pre-Mycenaean collection to be displayed in America. Hall later wrote The Decorative Art of Crete in the Bronze Age, which was published in 1906 that breaks down the evolution of the art and pottery in Crete from the Bronze Age.
Go to Profile#2950
Giovanni Becatti
1912 - 1973 (61 years)
Giovanni Becatti was an Italian Classical art historian and archaeologist. Born at Siena, Becatti was educated at the University of Rome under Giulio Giglioli. Becatti was appointed to the Superintendency of Ostia in 1938. He was professor of Archeology and History of Classical Art at the University of Pisa and at the University La Sapienza of Rome .
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