Ari Siiriäinen


Ari Pekka Siiriäinen was a Finnish archaeologist. He worked as the Professor of Archaeology in University of Helsinki from 1983 to 2004.

Early life

Siiriäinen was born on 16th of November 1939 in Viipuri, Finland but was evacuated in a splint basket to Helsinki when he was just few weeks old, after Winter War had started.
He grew up in Helsinki and graduated from Normal Lyceum of Helsinki in 1958. After serving in the army as a conscript, he started studying geology in the University of Helsinki, but soon changed his major to archaeology.

Career

Shortly after becoming a student of archaeology, Siiriäinen was hired for a summer job to excavate in Lapland in 1960.
He was selected as the professor of archaeology in the University of Helsinki in 1983, after his predecessor Carl Fredrik Meinander had retired.
Siiriäinen worked as a visiting researcher in University of California, Berkeley in 1978-1979 and as a visiting professor in State University of New York in 1994.
Siiriäinen was a founding member of The Archaeological Society of Finland and acted as its chairman in 2002.

Illness and death

Shortly after retiring, Siiriäinen was diagnosed with cancer and heart disease in 2003, after returning from his last expedition to South America. Siiriäinen died to cancer on 9th of December 2004. Before his passing, he stated that "I'll die as a happy man".

Award and honours

A peer-reviewed festschrift, published by the Finnish Antiquarian Society, was dedicated to Siiriäinen in 1999.

Publications

Books

Lohjalaisten historia Suur-Tuusulan historia: Tuusula - Kerava - Järvenpää. 1. Esihistoriallisesta ajasta seurakunnan perustamiseen 1643 Mankkaan seudun historiikki
  • ''Afrikan kulttuurien juuret''

Selected academic works

The Wadi Halfa region in the Stone Age, based on the researches of the Scandinavian joint expedition to Nubia 1962-1963 Studies Relating to Shore Displacements and Stone Age Chronology in Finland Iron Age Cultivation in SW Finland Excavations in Laikipia: An Archeological Study of the Recent Prehistory in the Eastern Highlands of Kenya Archaeological evidence for dating the sediments in a playa in Farafra, Western Desert of Egypt
  • ''Reports of the Finnish-Bolivian Archaeological Project in the Bolivian Amazon II - Noticias del proyecto arqueológico finlandés-boliviano en la Amazonia boliviana II''