Mikhail Mikhailovich Gerasimov

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Gerasimov, Mikhail Mikhailovich

 

Born Sept. 2 (15), 1907, in St. Petersburg; died July 21, 1970, in Moscow. Soviet anthropologist-sculptor and archaeologist. Doctor of historical sciences (1956) and director of the laboratory of plastic reconstruction at the Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (1950-70).

Gerasimov is known for his work in facial reconstruction on the basis of skull formation. Using the method he had devised, Gerasimov reconstructed a number of specimens of prehistoric (Pithecanthropus, Sinanthropus) and early peoples, as well as the likenesses of more than 200 historical figures, including Iaroslav the Wise, Andrei Bogoliubskii, Tamerlane, Ulug-Beg, Ivan the Terrible, and Schiller. Gerasimov also discovered and investigated the Upper Paleolithic Mal’ta settlement. He was the recipient of the State Prize of the USSR (1950), the Order of the Badge of Honor, and a medal.

WORKS

“Raskopki paleoliticheskoi stoianki v s. Mal’te.” In Paleolit SSSR. Moscow-Leningrad, 1935.
Vosstanovlenie litsa po cherepu. Moscow, 1955.
“Paleoliticheskaia stoianka Mal’ta (raskopki 1956-57 gg.).” Sovetskaia etnografiia, 1958, no. 3.
Liudi kamennogo veka. Moscow, 1964.

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.