Archaeologists

Apellániz Castroviejo, Juan María

Multifaceted archaeologist born in Bilbao (Bizkaia) on 12 January 1932.

He studied for the priesthood at the seminary in Vitoria until 1955, Philosophy and Arts at the University of Madrid, Church History at the Gregorian University in Rome, Christian Archaeology at the Archaeological Institute in Rome, Special Archaeology at the University of Tübingen, Oriental Archaeology at the Biblical School in Jerusalem, Psychoanalysis and Group Psychotherapy at the Peña Retama Institute, as part of the Chair of Psychiatry in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Bilbao.

He obtained his PhD from the University of Madrid with a work on The evolution of prehistoric cultures with ceramics from the cave population of the Basque Country, later published (1972) in three volumes: Corpus of materials from prehistoric cultures with ceramics in the Basque Country, The Husos Group during prehistoric times with ceramics and The Santimamiñe Group during prehistoric times with ceramics. Director of the Diocesan Museum of Bizkaia. Member of the editorial board of Munibe of the Aranzadi Society, director of excavations and of many publications.

Apellániz excavated several dolmens and burial mounds in the Basque Country and prehistoric sites in caves. He also collaborated in the excavations of castros in the province of Alava, with the team of the Provincial Archaeology Museum of Vitoria, and, as a member of the House of St. James in Jerusalem, he also excavated Tell Medeyneh in Jordan.

Professor at the Bilbao Diocesan Seminary of the History of Culture and of Prehistory and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Deusto, of which he has been director of the Archaeology Seminar, as well as of a series of archaeological monographs entitled Cuadernos de Arqueología de Deusto (Deusto Archaeology Notebooks). Emeritus Professor at the University of Deusto.

In addition to his thesis, the following can be cited:

Monumentos megalíticos de Vizcaya y Álava (1966), Excavation, study and dating by Carbon-14 of sepulchral caves in Vizcaya (1968), La caverna de Santimamiñe (1970). In collaboration with Dr. J. Altuna, an extensive work dedicated to the cave art of the cave of Altxerri (Orio, Gipuzkoa) with which they both won the 5th edition of the Basauri Prize for Basque Studies of the Athenaeum of Bilbao; Las cuevas sepulcrales de Lechón, Arralday y Gobaederra (1970); Las dataciones por el carbono 14 de los yacimientos del País Vasco. Estudios de arqueología alavesa (1970); El mesolítico de la cueva de Tarrerón (1971); El Grupo de los Husos en el País Vasco y en el borde septentrional de la meseta (1973); Corpus de materiales de las culturas prehistóricas con cerámica del País Vasco (1972).

Contributor, among others, to the journals "Estudios de Arqueología alavesa" and "Munibe" of the Sociedad de Ciencias Naturales Aranzadi, San Sebastián.

In May 2001, he presented the book La abstracción en el arte figurativo del Paleolítico (Abstraction in Paleolithic figurative art). In this study, he compares Palaeolithic paintings with the avant-garde manifestations of the 20th century, pointing out how naturalism and abstraction coexisted in prehistoric art. Apellániz considers that the features of abstraction in Palaeolithic art are the deformation of contours, the tisation of forms, disproportion, the inclusion of space in perspective and the subjectivisation of colour.

In May 2003 he attended the inauguration of the conference ''30 years of archaeology, 1972-2002'', organised by the Cultural Department of the Provincial Council in homage to his career. Historians and archaeologists contributed their knowledge on the premises of the Bilbao Provincial Archives.