Walter Ashlin  Fairservis  ( 17.02.1921  -  12.07.1994 )

Walter Ashlin Fairservis was an American Egyptologist. He was an asistant at the American Museum of Natural History from 1941 apart from war service. He exavated in the Middle-East and later at Hierakonpolis, where he initiated in 1967 an archaeological project that continues to this day. He conducted test fieldwork in the town-mound of Nekhen and an extensive surface survey of sites in the low desert. In 1969, an elaborately niched, mud-brick gateway and enclosure of an Early Dynastic palace were found in Nekhen. Further investigation of domestic, religious and industrial architecture elucidated the nature of the Dynastic town. The 1969 season also saw the first scientific excavation of a predynastic settlement, at locality HK14, since Oliver H. Myers' work at Armant more than thirty years earlier. That year, he was appointed head of the Department of Anthropology at Vassar College. Unfortunately, the international political situation prevented work to take place for nine years. In 1978, as work resumed, the archaeological concession of Hierakonpolis was split in two: Walter Fairservis retained the area of the town-mound of Nekhen, where he continued work until 1990, while two study seasons took place in 1991 and 1992.