Florentino_López_Cuevillas

Florentino López Alonso-Cuevillas (November 14, 1886 – July 30, 1958) was a Spanish anthropologist and prehistorian, although in the course of his life he also became involved in writing, primarily essays and fiction. Like several other Galician intellectuals of his generation, he was a member of Xeración Nós, of the Seminar of Galician Studies and the Irmandades da Fala, combining the cultural and linguistic activities he carried out in those institutions with a discrete participation in pro-Galician politics. However, his social and political activities were profoundly disrupted by the victory of nationalists in the Spanish Civil War, although in the 1940s he returned to his commitment to the spread of Galician culture as a full member of the Royal Galician Academy, and of the Instituto de Estudios Gallegos Padre Sarmiento.
Like the other members of his generation, he contributed to the maturation of Galician literature, but he was renown as a result of his efforts in the field of science. Galvanized by Hugo Obermaier's book (Impresiones de un viaje prehistórico por Galicia), Cuevillas undertook the complicated task of developing the field of archeology in Galicia with the aim of reconstructing and studying a period of history that had been hitherto forgotten. His field research, mostly directed at the study of megalithic art and the Celtic Castro culture, as well as his systematization of Galician prehistory, lead him to be crowned as the most important figure in Galicia in the field of prehistory. Indirectly, his scientific work contributed to the normalization of the Galician language.