CARTER, George

CARTER, George F. (1912-2004), San Diego-born archaeologist who received his first field training through the San Diego Museum of Man, of which he was later curator for four years. He received his Ph.D. in geography from the University of California at Berkeley in 1942, and was a fellow graduate student with Robert Heizer who was in the anthropology department. Carter later retired as a professor of geography from Texas A & M University.

Just out of high school, Carter was a member of the museum's five-week expedition to San Nicolas Island in 1930. Later Carter visited Santa Rosa Island in the company of Carl Hubbs and Phil Orr. “I saw stone, saw bone,” Carter reported of this visit. He hypothesized, due to lithic evidence he found, that man cooked elephants on Santa Rosa Island about 30,000 years ago. This has become one of the most controversial early human history sites in the Americas. Carter died in Bryan, Texas on March 16, 2004.

» Carter, George F. Earlier Than You Think Texas A & M University Press, (1980).