After the Australopithecines; followed by George Kukla

Ian Smalley
Loess Letter Office, in !rum "ooks, #$ %arborough &oad,
Leicester L'( )"&, *K+ ,i-smalley.gmail+com/

At the time of the 0
st
Loess1est in 0222 a list was drawn
up,and subse3uently published in Earth Science Reviews/
of the twel4e leading contributors to loess science+
Ob4iously it was a slightly contentious list but the 05 who
emerged were acknowledged to be leading loess people+
hey were Leonhard, Lyell, 6ardcastle,utko4skii,
&ichthofen, Obruche4, "erg, Grahmann, &ussell, 1ink, Liu
and Kukla+ 7hat did they do to -ustify inclusion8 6ow is
their contribution to be briefly and neatly described8
Leonhard named and defined the material; Lyell told
people, he spread the word; 6ardcastle showed that it
carried a palaeoclimatic message; utko4skii made links
with glaciers and glacieri9ation; &ichthofen promoted the
idea of aeolian deposition; Obruche4 indicated links with
deserts; "erg preferred it as a normal mineral soil;
Grahmann mapped the loess in 'uropa; &ussell wanted an
in:situ formation process; 1ink established the I%;*A
Loess <ommission; Liu used loess to demonstrate the
multi:e4ent nature of the ;uaternary; and Kukla linked
loess into the rest of ;uaternary stratigraphy, and
emphasi9ed its key role in ;uaternary science+ hese were
all turning points; this was loess history in the true
6erodotus sense: a key moment is identified+
7e can e=amine two key Kukla contributions> a famous
paper and a notable chapter+ In 02?) he published a
paper called @<orrelations between loesses and deep sea
sedimentsA in Geologiska foreningens I Stockholm
forhandlinger BG11C,7orld List 50)DE/ 92, 0E$:0$)+ his
was a 4ery important paper and it essentially established
the e=cellent linkages between the loess record and the
deep sea record: at a time when the deep sea record was
the default record of ;uaternary e4ents+ 6ere was the
loess record increasing its significance in ;uaternary
stratigraphy and palaeoclimatology+ 7e step to the front+
In 02?D the book @After the AustralopithecinesA appeared+
his was edited by Karl "ut9er and G+Ll+Isaac; a large
tome of 200 pages containing papers by 4arious
significant authors: %ick Shackleton, Karl "runnacker: and
George Kukla+ he Kukla paper was called @Loess
stratigraphy in <entral 'uropeA and it pro4ided an
authoritati4e 4iew of loess in this important part of the
world+ 7e still notice and admire this work; it is one of the
few chapters,as distinct from -ournal papers/ which ha4e
remained significant and much cited+ After @After++A KuklaAs
significance increased, and so did that of loess
stratigraphy+