Peter Woodman
{{short description|Irish archaeologist}}
{{about||the Anglican priest|Peter Woodman (priest)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{Use Irish English|date=June 2021}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Peter Woodman
| birth_date = 2 July 1943
| death_date = 24 January 2017 (aged 73)
| fields = {{plainlist|
}}
| workplaces = {{plainlist|
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| alma_mater = Queen's University of Belfast
| known_for = Excavations at Mount Sandel, Newferry and Ferriter's Cove
| awards = Europa prize, 2009
}}
Peter Woodman {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|FSA|size=80%}} {{post-nominals|MRIA|size=80%}} (2 July 1943 – 24 January 2017){{Cite news|url=http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/obituary-prof-peter-woodman-1.2962379?campaign_id=A100|title=Obituary: Prof Peter Woodman|newspaper=The Irish Times|language=en-US|access-date=2017-02-04}} was an Irish archaeologist specialising in the Mesolithic period in Ireland. He was a professor emeritus at University College Cork and a former keeper of the Ulster Museum.
Education and career
Woodman grew up in Holywood, County Down and studied archaeology at Queen's University Belfast.{{Cite web|url=https://sites.google.com/site/mesolithiceuropaconference/Home/conference/peter-woodman|title=Peter Woodman|website=Mesolithic Europa Conference|publisher=The Prehistoric Society|access-date=2017-02-04}} After obtaining his doctorate, he became the Assistant Keeper of Prehistoric Antiquities at the Ulster Museum. In the 1970s he excavated Mesolithic sites at Mount Sandel, the oldest known site of human occupation in Ireland,{{Cite news|url=http://www.colerainetimes.co.uk/news/mountsandel-where-irish-history-started-1-6785036|title=Mountsandel: where Irish history started|date=2015-06-09|work=Coleraine Times|access-date=2017-02-04}}{{Cite web|url=http://archaeology.about.com/od/mesolithicarchaic/a/mount_sandel.htm|title=Mount Sandel - Mesolithic Settlement in Ireland|last=Hirst|first=K. Kris|date=2015-08-30|website=About.com Archaeology|access-date=2017-02-04}} and Newferry in County Antrim.{{Cite journal|last=Woodman|first=Peter C.|year=1977|title=Recent Excavations at Newferry, Co. Antrim|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/proceedings-of-the-prehistoric-society/article/div-classtitlerecent-excavations-at-newferry-co-antrimdiv/E5D9646B367B8971382E6331A843A649|journal=Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society|volume=43|pages=155–199|doi=10.1017/S0079497X00010379|s2cid=130442977 |issn=2050-2729|url-access=subscription}}
He became a professor at University College Cork in 1983, where he continued his research into the Mesolithic period, discovering some of the first evidence of the Mesolithic from the Republic of Ireland at Ferriter’s Cove on the Dingle Peninsula.{{Cite book|title=Excavations at Ferriter's Cove, 1983-95: Last foragers, First Farmers in the Dingle Peninsula|last1=Woodman|first1=Peter C.|last2=Anderson|first2=Liz|last3=Finlay|first3=N.|publisher=Wordwell|year=1999|isbn=186985733X|location=Bray}} After retiring, he published Ireland’s First Settlers: Time and the Mesolithic, bringing together fifty years of research into the Irish Mesolithic.{{Cite book|jstor=j.ctt19dzdtd|title=Ireland's First Settlers: Time and the Mesolithic|last=Woodman|first=Peter|publisher=Oxbow Books|year=2015|isbn=9781782977780|location=Oxford}}
Woodman was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1982. He was awarded the Europa Prize by the Prehistoric Society in 2009, recognising outstanding contributions to the study of European prehistory.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ucc.ie/en/about/uccnews/archive/2009pressreleases/fullstory-76348-en.html|title=Professor Peter Woodman honoured|date=2009-06-05|publisher=University College Cork|language=en|access-date=2017-02-04}} In the same year, the Prehistoric Society organised a conference and published a festschrift in his honour.{{Cite book|jstor=j.ctt1cd0p7p|title=From Bann Flakes to Bushmills: Papers in Honour of Professor Peter Woodman|publisher=Oxbow Books|year=2009|isbn=9781842173558|editor-last=Finlay|editor-first=Nyree|series=Prehistoric Society Research Papers 1|location=Oxford|editor-last2=McCartan|editor-first2=Sinéad|editor-last3=Milner|editor-first3=Nicky|editor-last4=Wickham-Jones|editor-first4=Caroline|last1=Allen|first1=Michael J.|last2=McOmish|first2=David|volume=1}} Following Woodman's death in January 2017, James Mallory described him as QUB's "most illustrious archaeology graduate", whose work provided the "basic structure of all subsequent research into the Irish Mesolithic".
References
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Category:People from Holywood, County Down
Category:20th-century Irish archaeologists
Category:21st-century Irish archaeologists
Category:Archaeologists from Northern Ireland
Category:Alumni of Queen's University Belfast
Category:Academics of University College Cork