Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (387 page)

Libby , Willard Frank
(1908–80)
[Bi].

American chemist and atomic physicist. Born in Colorado, USA, he took a bachelor's degree and doctorate in chemistry at the University of California (Berkeley) and also studied at Princeton. After ten years teaching at Berkeley he joined the Manhattan Project which developed the first atomic bomb. After the war Libby taught at the Institute for Nuclear Studies in the University of Chicago, and served on the Atomic Energy Commission. From 1959 to 1962 he was Professor of Chemistry in the University of California, and from 1962 Director of the Institute of Geophysics.Libby is best known in archaeology for developing
RADIOCARBON DATING
, for which, at the age of 52, he received the 1960 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.
[Bio.: R. Burleigh , 1981, W. F. Libby and the development of radiocarbon dating.
Antiquity
, 55, 96–8]

 
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A pot in which the rim is ledged, dished, or grooved internally to keep a lid in place.

 
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The number of further years that people of a given age can, on average, expect to live.

 
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Studies of the lives of individuals, often based on both self-reporting and documents such as letters. Also applied to archaeological objects where the aim is to examine their progress from creation to eventual recovery through the archaeological process.

 
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The maximum length of life that is biologically possible for a member of a given species.

 
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Lightfoot , Joseph
(1828–89)
[Bi].

Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity, who in 1879 became bishop of Durham. An exponent of the Mosaic cosmogony, he amplified Archbishop Ussher's calculations by arguing that the creation took place at 9 o'clock on the morning of 23 October in the year 4004 bc. The proximity of this date to the traditional start of the Michaelmas term has often been remarked upon.
[Bio: J. A. T. Robinson , 1981,
Joseph Barber Lightfoot.
Durham: Dean and Chapter of Durham Cathedral]

 
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