John Mervin Fritz’s family immersed his ashes in the Tungabhadra river on Thursday according to Hindu rituals. He was a popular archaeologist.
Fritz has made several trips to Hampi since 1981 for research purposes. John Mervin passed away in London because of cancer, and his last desire was that his ashes be immersed in the Tungabhadra River in Hampi in accordance with all Hindu rites.
His grandson William and daughter Alice came to Hampi together with other people to carry out the rituals on the banks of the river, to fulfill his last wish.
Who is John Merwin Fritz?
Fritz was born in Glendale, California, on December 29, 1939, and had made his home in London. His 1978 publication Paleo-Psychology Today foresaw not just new directions in archaeology but also the fundamental themes of his subsequent studies and writings on the symbolic elements of ancient architectural monuments and buildings, including elements of the Chaco site in New Mexico and, most significantly, Vijayanagara, Hampi.
In April 1981, Fritz teamed up with Australian architect George Michell to conduct an archaeological study at Hampi. He co-managed with George Michell a separate field camp in the center of the Hampi ruins for the following 20 years. Along with the several academics who joined the Vijayanagara Research Project, Fritz published significantly. He edited the two-volume “Vijayanagara: Archaeological Exploration, 1990-2000” and co-wrote a well-known manual for the location with George Michell.
The first of the numerous beautifully illustrated volumes were their collaboratively written “City of Triumph,” which was published in 1991 by Aperture in New York. They gave the British Library a large number of the project’s maps and sketches. Fritz left a contribution to the American Trust for the British Library before he passed away to pay for a one-year cataloging position for the collections.
