Alois Ferdinand Hrdlička, after 1918 changed to Aleš Hrdlička (Czech pronunciation: [ˈa.lɛʃ ˈɦr̩d.lɪtʃ.ka]; 30 March 1869 – 5 September 1943), was an Austro-Hungarian-born anthropologist who lived in the United States after his family had moved there in 1881. He was born in Humpolec, Bohemia (today in the Czech Republic).
Hrdlička was a pioneer in the field of anthropology and the first curator of physical anthropology of the Smithsonian Museum from 1904 until 1941. He believed in the theory that migration from Asia to the Americas via the Bering Strait was the origin of the American Indians, a migration he said had occurred not more than 3,000 years ago. He initially denied evidence by archaeological findings such as that of Folsom man in 1927 which pushed the date of human presence in the Americas back to more than 10,000 years ago.
