It is with great sadness that we note the death of Professor Merrick Posnansky (93).

Merrick was a pioneering Africanist archaeologist who trained for a short time in Cambridge, undertaking a Diploma in Prehistoric Archaeology with Graeme Clark, before completing a PhD at Nottingham (1956). Merrick went on to highly important roles in Africa including as a warden for prehistoric sites in Kenya, Curator of the Uganda Museum (1958-62), Deputy Director of the British Institute in Eastern Africa (1962-64), Director of the African Studies programme at Makerere University (1964-67), Professor of Archaeology, University of Legon, Ghana (1967-1977) and Professor of Archaeology, UCLA (1977 to 1994).  Merrick initiated multiple important research trajectories across Eastern and Western Africa, especially focussing on the later and historical archaeology of the region, training students who went on to their own pioneering programmes of research and teaching and supporting the development of academic programmes across the continent. His work was unique for its time in linking archaeological remains to the oral histories of contemporary communities. Some of the most notable contributions among his vast body of work include his crucial role in initiating the archaeology of the Interlacustrine Kingdoms, the later Iron Age archaeology of the Central Rift Valley, longitudinal ethno-archaeology in Ghana, and the historical archaeology of colonialism in Africa and the Americas. Merrick will be remembered as inspiring and generous in equal measure. 

If you would like to read more about his life and works, please read this excellent interview from 2010 in the African Archaeological Review.