Martin Aitken obituary

My father, Martin Aitken, who has died aged 95, was a scientist who pioneered the application of physics to archaeology. He coined, with the archaeologist Christopher Hawkes, the term archaeometry, helping to make huge advances in dating finds from as early as the Lower Palaeolithic period.

He was born in Stamford, Lincolnshire, the younger son of Percy Aitken, an engineer draughtsman, and his wife, Ethel (nee Brittain), who farmed with her mother until her marriage. Martin was educated at Stamford school and studied physics at Wadham College, Oxford, before becoming a fellow of Linacre College and later a member of the Royal Society. He became Oxford professor of archaeometry in 1985 before retiring in 1989.