Friedrich Max Uhle (25 March 1856 – 11 May 1944) was a German archaeologist, whose work in Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Bolivia at the turn of the Twentieth Century had a significant impact on the practice of archaeology of South America.

In 1888, a close friend, Alphons Stübel, who had recently published an article on the history of Peruvian archaeology, suggested Uhle concentrate his studies on that region.

[1] Uhle returned to South America in 1896, now sponsored by the American Exploration Society in Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.

In 1926, Max Uhle and paleontologist, Franz Spillmann, excavated, about 12 km east of Quito, Ecuador, an almost complete mastodon skeleton, together with associated obsidian and bone tools and about 150 potsherds.

[4] Uhle also made a notable contribution to North American archaeology in excavations of the Emeryville shell-mound in San Francisco Bay, California.