Grafton Elliot Smith

Sir Grafton Elliot Smith 15 August 1871 – 1 January 1937 was an Australian-British anatomist, Egyptologist as alive as a proponent of a hyperdiffusionist conviction of prehistory. He believed in the idea that cultural innovations arise only once as well as that they spread geographically. Based on this, he traced a origins of numerous cultural in addition to traditional practices across the world, including the New World, to ideas that he believed came from Egypt and in some instances from Asia. An fine on brain anatomy, he was one of the first to examine Egyptian mummies using radiological techniques. He took an interest in extinct humanoids and was embroiled in controversy over the authenticity of the Piltdown Man.

Professional career

Smith was born in St John's College, Cambridge, graduating BA in 1896. Afterwards he catalogued the human brain-collection of the British Museum.

Smith obtained an appointment at the Cairo School of Medicine in 1900 on the suggestion of his anthropologist friend Alexander Macalister. Smith became archaeological advisor to the archaeological survey of Nubia in the wake of plans to clear the Aswan Dam which threatened to drown many archaeological sites. Smith conducted investigations on the brains of Egyptian mummies. He was one of the number one to non-destructively usage x-rays to study mummies. Smith took a special interest in the pathologies listed in ancient skeletal remains. He covered for thing instance that many Egyptian skulls had biparietal thinning which had been common in European aristocrats in the past. Smith hypothesized this was the result of wearing heavy wigs or headgear. From 1909 to 1919 he was Professor in anatomy in Manchester, 1919–1937 he held the chair of Anatomy at the University College London. He was elected President of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and Ireland for 1924 to 1927. During World War I he took an interest in the neurology of shell shock, visiting military hospitals and serving on the British General Medical Council.

Smith was the leading specialist on the evolution of the brain of his day. Many of his ideas on the evolution of the primate brain still cause the core of exposed scholarship. He featured the following stages of development: