Contributions – Page 2 – International Society for Archaeological Prospection

Polish things

Writing this ‘birthday memory’ for Irwin made me realise that I’ve known him for more than half my life – a life that is some 15 years shorter than his own. However… In 1974, the Council for British Archaeology held what it called a ‘symposium’ that was later published as Aerial reconnaissance for archaeology edited by David Wilson. In this, Irwin had a contribution about transformation of oblique aerial photographs that included a computer method that accurately converted a point from an image into its x, y and z coordin

From the early days …

I had my first contact with Irwin in 1983 when I was at high school and wanted to build a bleeper. At that time there were not many magnetometers around and hence I wanted to build an acoustic proton-magnetometer (for those of you who don’t know what a bleeper is). I wrote him a letter and got a response about hundred times longer than what I had written. He explained all the details and gave a lot of tips in this first letter and all the others following.

An Inspiration

Irwin Scollar died on 13th December 2021, aged 93. He was an Honorary Member of ISAP from the begining and will be missed by the community for his contributions and pioneering spirit.

Short Curriculum Vitae

Irwin Scollar was born in 1928 in New York City. He completed his BSc degree in Electrical Engineering at the Lehigh University in 1948 and graduated from Columbia University in 1951, where he studied Classical Archaeology. In 1959 he received his PhD in Prehistoric Archaeology at Edinburgh University, UK. He moved to Germany in 1959 to work at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum in Bonn. He retired in 1991.

A STEADFAST AND INTELLECTUALLY HONEST MENTOR

My experience with Professor Ciminale started in 2007 during my Master's degree thesis, and lasted until my PhD in 2014 and the following research contracts. During these years he was my mentor and reference for both professional and personal growth. Indeed, he was able to combine academic thoroughness and human qualities in a perfect way. He was a pure man and this is not always an easy thing to manage. The truth is often hard and he was true and demanding, trying always to put into practice intellectual honesty.

Prof. Marcello Ciminale during the ICAP 2001 Conference in Vienna

Prof. Marcello Ciminale during the ICAP 2007 Conference in Nitra

Thoroughness and fun

Marcello had a very thorough approach to archaeological geophysics and believed in doing things right, rather than botching them. He demonstrated that the application of processing methods known from exploration geophysics to archaeological data sets can provide new insights, but he was acutely aware of the special treatment such archaeological geophysics data demand. He was also a strong proponent of academic rigour in archaeological geophysics, which meant for him to support and contribute to the academic journal Archaeological Prospection.

Thanks from the family

Jane and Lynn Aspinall would like to thank you all for your contributions on this page, as well as the many personal letters that you have sent us.

We are very proud of our modest dad; he was oblivious to the effect that he had had on so many people's lives. We have enjoyed sharing your memories of him and are deeply moved by your expressions of admiration and, most of all, affection for him.

His passing has left a gaping hole in all our lives; you are all his legacy.

Kind regards

An inspiration to many

I first met Arnold in 2001 or 2002 when undertaking the MSc Archaeological Prospection course. I remember we were surveying in his back garden with the Pulseekko 1000. At some point, when it came to choosing dissertation topics I must have expressed some kind of interest in earth resistance survey because I ended up working closely with Arnold on a project about the square array. Once my disseratation was done, he was of course insistent that we should publish the work, while I dragged my feet! Over 10 years later, I still get quite excited about the square array and