Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (382 page)

The measurement of stable isotopes of lead using a mass spectrometer in order to characterize particular samples and associate them with known lead sources. Four isotopes are commonly used—
²⁰⁶
Pb,
²⁰⁷
Pb,
²⁰⁸
Pb, and
²⁰⁴
Pb—the first three of which are the ultimate decay products of the radioactive series associated with
²³⁸
U,
²³⁵
U, and
²³²
Th respectively, and will therefore vary considerably in their concentration according to the geological age of the lead ores. The main lead sources in Greece, England, and Spain, for example, can each be distinguished from one another on the basis of their isotopic ratios.

 
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Leakey , Louis Seymour Bazett
(1903–72)
[Bi].

A Kenyan-born archaeologist and palaeontologist who spent most of his life working on the recovery and analysis of early hominid remains from East Africa. Born and brought up at Kabete, Kenya, into a family of missionaries, his boyhood was spent with local children through whom he came to learn about and love Africa. In 1919 he went to Weymouth College and then to St John's College, Cambridge, where he read modern languages for the first two years followed by the archaeology and anthropology tripos. Between graduating in 1926 and 1935 he led four expeditions to East Africa and established the sequence of early cultures in Kenya and northern Tanzania. He took his Ph.D. in 1930 and was elected a research Fellow for six years in his old college.
In addition to archaeology, Leakey was a great lover of animals and heavily involved in the politics of Kenya. At the outbreak of WW2 he was in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department in Nairobi, and in 1945 he was made curator of the Coryndon Memorial Museum in Nairobi, a post he held until 1961. In 1942 Leakey and his wife
Mary Leakey
(1913–96) discovered the Acheulian site of Olorgesailie in the Rift Valley, but it is the site of Olduvai for which they are best remembered. In the first season, 1959, Mary Leakey found the skull of Zinjanthropus (Australopithecus) and the following season their son Jonathan discovered the first remains of
Homo habilis
. Through this work over a period of more than a decade Leakey and his family revolutionized understandings of the Lower Palaeolithic, and promoted the study of African archaeology in its world context.
At his death the Kenyan authorities established a museum and research institute now called the Louis Leakey Memorial Institute for African Prehistory. He is buried beside his parents overlooking the Rift Valley.
[Bio.: S. Cole , 1975,
Leakey's luck
. London: Harcourt; Mary Leakey, Obit.:
The Times
, 10 December 1996]

 
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Artificial channel created to supply water from a natural source to a mill or other installation.

 
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The state of a pottery vessel after it has been air-dried, before firing. The clay is stiff enough for the vessel to be picked up without distortion, yet soft enough to respond to pressure for burnishing, attaching handles, and other finishing processes.

 
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Leeds , Thurlow
(1877–1955)
[Bi].

British archaeologist and Anglo-Saxon scholar. Born near Peterborough he was educated at Uppingham before going up to Magdalene College, Cambridge, to study the classics tripos. From 1900 to 1903 he was a cadet in the Federated Malay States service and spent some time in China learning Chinese. His health broke down in the Far East and he returned home to recuperate. A chance encounter with Arthur Evans in 1908 brought him an appointment as Assistant Keeper at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, a kind of work that delighted him. He went on to become Keeper of the Department of Antiquities and in 1928 Keeper of the Museum. While working at the Ashmolean, Leeds carried out fieldwork in the Oxford area and published numerous books and articles about the Anglo-Saxon period especially, including
The archaeology of Anglo-Saxon settlements
(1913, Oxford: Clarendon Press) and
Early Anglo-Saxon art and archaeology
(1936, Oxford: Clarendon Press).
[Obit.:
The Times
, 18 August 1955]

 
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