Obituary: Linda R. Owen

January 31st 1952 – February 26th 2021

“Sadly Linda Owen was taken by the Coronavirus on 26 February, 2021. With Günther Unrath, Linda designed and organized the first multi-analyst blind test of microscopic analysis; this work was published in 1986 as Technical Aspects of Microwear Studies on Stone Tools, in a triple volume of Early Man News 9/10/11. In 1997 she co-organized with Martin Porr the conference Ethno-Analogy and Reconstruction of Prehistoric Artefact Use and Production (publication 1999). In 2005, in her book Distorting the Past: Gender and the Division of Labor in the European Upper Paleolithic, Linda rehabilitates the work and the place of women among present-day or prehistoric hunter-gatherers through a fine analysis of a very large documentation. We remember her razor-sharp mind and her ability to come to the core of an argument, as well as her happy laugh! With Linda a great pioneer of microwear analysis has passed away“.

Written by Sylvie Beyries & Annelou van Gijn