Excavating Pitt-Rivers: pitt rivers

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An initial map of General Pitt-Rivers' English archaeological collections

A map of Pitt-Rivers' English archaeological collections, assembled during the 1860s and 1870s

Earlier this month, the Excavating Pitt-Rivers team downloaded and transferred our project data, and shared it with our project partners - the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme, as we move into the next phase of the project. The data comprise the locations at which the c. 10,986 English archaeological objects acquired by General Pitt-Rivers between c. 1866 and 1880 were excavated or found. These objects are those held by the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, and so do not include his later excavations on his estate at Cranborne Chase in the 1880s and 1890s: instead, they are a snapshot of the younger Pitt-Rivers at a crucial formative period in which he was developing his modern, scientific approach to archaeological fieldwork.

In the coming weeks, further data cleaning, checking and research will lead to the data being published through the Portable Antiquities Scheme, linking Museum records to databases that are shared with local archaeological groups, local authority Historic Environment Records, and researchers around the world. The data will also be shared through Europeana portal and the Collections Trust's Culture Grid. Funded by ESRC, this strand of research for the Excavating Pitt-Rivers project, which we have titled "From Museums to the Historic Environment" - experiments with using historic museum collections as resources for understanding England's historic environment today.

The screen grab above shows the initial geographic distribution of the c. 256 archaeological sites represented by the data set - a unique map of the beginning of modern archaeology, which will be developed, enhanced and refined in the coming weeks - watch this space! Meanwhile, you can consult a list of the sites represented in the collection in our previous post here - http://excavatingpittrivers.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/pitt-rivers-and-english-archaeology.html

A Cast of a Palaeolithic Handaxe from Hoxne, Suffolk

A cast of a Palaeolithic handaxe from Hoxne, Suffolk

During August, we are publishing through this blog a series of new photographs taken by archaeological photographer Ian Cartwright for an online Image Gallery created with the support of the Arts and Humanities Research Council. You can read more about the gallery here, and you can see the whole gallery online here.

Here is the caption for this image:

This object appears at first glance to be a prehistoric stone implement, but is in fact a Victorian plaster cast of a Palaeolithic hand-axe.

Written on a label attached to the object, and re-written directly onto the axe, are the words “FOUND AT HOXNE, SUFFOLK IN 1797”. This is a reference to the famous discovery of hand-axes at this location by John Frere, who published his ‘Account of Flint Weapons Discovered at Hoxne in Suffolk’ in the journal Archaeologia in the year 1800. Frere wrote of the hand-axes that 'They are, I think, evidently weapons of war, fabricated and used by a people who had not the use of metals [and are from] a very remote period indeed.'

We know today that the original hand-axe dates from c.400,000 years age. It is held by the Society of Antiquaries, and is on long-term loan to the British Museum. The writing on the object can be cross-referenced with Pitt-Rivers’ own record in 1874 of “3 casts of implements in the British Mus” in his own collection - indicating that he acquired this cast at some point before 1874.

This object is an indication of Pitt-Rivers’ early interest in Palaeolithic archaeology, and his use of casts of museum objects for comparative purposes. You can read more about the original object on the British Museum's website here

(Pitt Rivers Museum Accession Number 1884.122.2).

A prehistoric flint knife from Oxfordshire

A prehistoric flint knife from Long Wittenham, Oxfordshire

Here is the caption for this image:

This prehistoric discoidal flint knife has been made by being bifacially flaked and ground on the edges. The 20th-century label has been made for display purposes in the Pitt Rivers Museum, but includes information from the museum’s documentation and probably includes some copying from other earlier labels that do not survive.

As with other objects, the text provides information about its modern history. Rev. J.C. Clutterbuck was a vicar in the village of Long Wittenham, which is on the River Thames in south Oxfordshire (but historically in the county of Berkshire).

Pitt-Rivers acquired various Romano-British objects from Clutterbuck's collection, from London and Oxfordshire, as well as this object.

(Pitt Rivers Museum Accession Number 2007.74.1)

A Neolithic polished stone axe from Lancing, West Sussex

A Neolithic polished stone axe from Lancing, West Sussex, from the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum

Here is the caption for this image:

Two museum catalogue numbers are written onto this Neolithic stone axe from West Sussex. One matches a museum manuscript catalogue entry from 1882: “4 flint celts Lancing 2.7.79 - 98/9680”. Two historic labels are attached. “Pol.” simply records that it is a polished stone axe. “Lancing nr Brighton” refers to the site, near the town of Worthing, of excavations by James Medhurst in the 1820s. Cross-referencing textual sources, we can place this object at a Sotheby’s auction on 2.7.1879, at which we know Pitt-Rivers bought other items. The catalogue listed items from “the Museum formed by the late Mr James Medhurst of Worthing”. The axe’s multiple texts thus link Pitt-Rivers’ metropolitan collection with an earlier provincial history of archaeological fieldwork and collecting. (Pitt Rivers Museum Accession Number 1884.123.37)

A stone axe from Cissbury, West Sussex

Image: A stone axe from Cissbury, West Sussex, from the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum

Here is the caption for this image:

Pitt-Rivers’ fieldwork at the Neolithic site of Cissbury in West Sussex in 1867-8 is less well known that his more famous excavations at Cranborne Chase later in his life. It was one of the first field projects to be directed by Pitt-Rivers. But in his account of Ninety Years of Archaeological Discovery, written in 1932, archaeologist J.L. Myers suggested that 'systematic excavation in Britain began with Pitt-Rivers’ work at Cissbury'.

This Neolithic flint axe offers some textual evidence to support the claim that Cissbury was one of the first modern scientifically recorded archaeological excavation. Attached to it is a pre-printed label, completed by hand: “CISSBURY PIT NO. 22 FEB 4 1868 ALF”. The label is a very early example of the recording of archaeological features or contexts from which objects were recovered.

This modest 150-year-old label is just as significant as the Stone Age axe to which it is glued – perhaps more so. The letters “ALF” stand for Augustus Lane Fox – as the fieldwork was undertaken before the General took his full name, Augustus Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers.

(Pitt Rivers Museum Accession Number 1884.125.153).

General Pitt-Rivers' English Archaeology, c 1851-1881

Image: a stone axe from Yorkshire collected by Pitt-Rivers before 1884 (Pitt Rivers Museum accession number 1884.123.326)

General Pitt-Rivers' English Archaeology, c.1851-1881

In April, Beth Asbury joined the Excavating Pitt-Rivers project to work on its next phase, which is funded by ESRC for one year and is run in partnership with the Portable Antiquities Scheme at the British Museum.

Beth has a BA in Ancient History and Archaeology and an MPhil in Egyptology. She worked for the Institute for Archaeologists and the Egyptian Ministry of State for Antiquities before to coming to the Pitt Rivers Museum. Beth will be building upon the work of project researchers Carlotta Gardner and Judy White, consolidating the information known so far about the English artefacts collected by Pitt-Rivers before 1881, and sharing it in a two-way exchange with Historic Environment Records officers, with the wider archaeological community, and with the public.

Approximately 10,986 archaeological artefacts have now been identified in the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum as having been collected, excavated or otherwise acquired by the General from at least 269 individual named sites. What is emerging is a more picture from the c. 64 English excavation sites identified by Mark Bowden in his pioneering study of Pitt-Rivers' archaeological activities more than 20 years ago (1991: 57-94). Building on Mark's excellent study, we are using museum artefacts themselves as primary evidence of the General's archaeological activities.

Image: Map showing Pitt-Rivers’ archaeological sites up to c. 1881 as identified by Mark Bowden (1991: 59, 68). Our project is expanding by more than 200 the number of sites shown on this map.

Our provisional list of sites is below, ordered by English region and ceremonial county. We are now seeking to add to our understanding of these sites - their precise locations, other antiquarian activity in the areas, etc. Created through detailed collections-based research – mainly site names, dates and other information physically written on objects – the list is a significant expansion of our previous understanding of the English archaeological activities of Pitt-Rivers. In the coming months, in knowledge exchange partnerships with Historic Environment Records and the British Museum’s Portable Antiquities Scheme, Beth will be adding detail to our understanding of each of these sites and the circumstances of antiquarian investigation of them.

At some sites, Pitt-Rivers actually excavated or collected objects during field walking. At others, the fieldwork may have been done by other antiquarians or others. Our project aims to add to our understanding of the assembling of this national collection during the 1850s, 1860s and 1870s, during the earliest years of Pitt-Rivers' archaeological career. In many cases, the only evidence of Pitt-Rivers' engagement with these sites is represented by the objects themselves - so we are undertaking a kind of archaeology of Pitt-Rivers' own fieldwork, looking outwards from the museum across the country.

If you are familiar with the early archaeological investigations of any of the sites listed below, and wish to contribute information to the project, please do send an e-mail to dan.hicks@prm.ox.ac.uk.

SOUTH-EAST ENGLAND

East Sussex and West Sussex

East Sussex: Mount Caburn

East Sussex: Ranscombe Camp

East Sussex: Seaford

East Sussex: Castle Hill Hillfort, Newhaven, Lewes

East Sussex: “One mile west of Newhaven”, Lewes

East Sussex: Plumpton Plain

East Sussex: Mount Harry

East Sussex: Southerham

East Sussex: Newmarket Hill, Kingston near Lewes

East Sussex: Telscombe

East Sussex: Bishopstone

East Sussex: Blackcap

East Sussex: ‘Downs at Falmer’

East Sussex: Southease [Southese]

East Sussex: Hillfort near Bel Tour Lighthouse, Birling Gap and Beachy Head

East Sussex: Seven Sisters

East Sussex: Beachy Head

East Sussex: Wealden

East Sussex: Hollingbury Castle Camp Hillfort

East Sussex: Long Barrow at Beacon Hill

East Sussex: Sedlescombe Hoard

East or West Sussex: South Downs

West Sussex: Cissbury Ring

West Sussex: Highdown Hill

West Sussex: Forty Acre Farm

West Sussex: Worthing

West Sussex: Lancing

West Sussex: Lancing Hill

West Sussex: Black Burgh Barrow

West Sussex: Chanctonbury Ring

West Sussex: Wolstonbury Hill

West Sussex: Bramber

Kent

Castle Hill (Caesar’s Camp), Folkeston

East Wear Bay

Brickearth Pit at St Peter’s

Fieldwalking near Broadstairs

Minster in Thanet

Reculver

‘Pudding Pan Rock’

Bigbury Wood, Canterbury

Kit’s Coty House

Chatham

Richborough Castle

Hampton on Sea, Herne Bay

Knockholt Beeches, Sevenoaks

Kentish Knock Buoy, Thames Estuary

Surrey

Postford Farm

St Martha’s Hill

Warren Farm and St. Catherine’s Hill

White Lane Farm

Whitmoor Common

Merrow Down

Peasmarsh

Stoke Quarry

Stoke Park

Guildford

New Barn Farm

St. Giles’s Church

Tangley Farm, Guildford

Uplands

Reigate

Redhill, Reigate

Wanborough Manor

Chinthurst Hill, Wonersh

Opposite Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey

River Thames at Chertsey, Runnymede

Oxfordshire

Standlake

Ditchley

Devil’s Pool, Ditchley

Callowhill, Stonesfield

Shipton-under-Wychwood

Dorchester Dykes

Dorchester on Thames

Sinodun Hill Camp

Little Wittenham

Long Wittenham

79-84 High Street, Oxford

Wayland’s Smithy, Ashbury

Hampshire

St Catherine’s Hill Hillfort

South Wonston Long Barrows, Winchester

South Wonston

Andover

Weyhill, Andover

Moody’s Down Long Barrows

Barton Cliff, Barton on Sea

Hayling Island

Hill Head, Stubbington

Southampton

Berkshire

Worlebury Camp Hillfort

Kintbury

GREATER LONDON

London Wall

Gooch and Cousens Wool Warehouse

London Wall

Great Winchester Street

Palaeolithic Material from the Thames Valley, West London

London Borough of Ealing: Acton

London Borough of Ealing: Acton Green

London Borough of Ealing: Acton Main Line Railway Station

London Borough of Ealing: Acton Village

London Borough of Ealing: Brown’s Orchard

London Borough of Ealing: Church Field

London Borough of Ealing: Friar’s Place Lane

London Borough of Ealing: Mill Hill

London Borough of Ealing: Acton Station

London Borough of Ealing: West Ealing (Ealing Dean)

London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham: East Acton

London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham: Brick Field at Shepherd's Bush

London Borough of Lambeth: Clapham Rise

London Borough of Wandsworth: Battersea Rise

“Thames Valley”

Other Sites in the City of London

Holborn Viaduct (EC1)

Smithfield (EC1)

Bishopsgate (EC2)

Broadgate (EC2)

Tokenhouse Yard, Lothbury (EC2)

Moorfields (EC2)

Old Jewry (EC2)

Mansion House Street, Poultry (EC2)

Bartholomew Lane (EC2)

Cripplegate, London Wall (EC2)

Finsbury Circus (EC2)

Lombard Street (EC3)

Brewer’s Quay, Lower Thames Street (EC3)

Minories (EC3)

Birchin Lane (EC3)

Cannon Street (EC4)

Cannon Street Station (EC4)

Bucklersbury (EC4)

Clement’s Lane (EC4)

Bell Yard, Fleet Street (EC4)

Mansion House (EC4)

Walbrook (EC4)

Billingsgate (E14)

Queenhithe Dock, Thames Street (SE1)

Other sites in Greater London

London Borough of Southwark: Southwark

London Borough of Southwark: Railway Works, Southwark

London Borough of Southwark: Southwark Street

London Borough of Southwark: Borough High Street

London Borough of Waltham Forest: Peat bog, Lee Valley, Walthamstow

London Borough of Waltham Forest: Walthamstow

London Borough of Camden: Queen Square

London Borough of Camden: Lincoln’s Inn, Serle Street

London Borough of Camden: British Museum

London Borough of Camden: Grays Inn Road

London Borough of Richmond: Hampton Court

London Borough of Hounslow: Yeading Brook, Hounslow Heath

City of Westminster: Charing Cross Station

London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham: Wormwood Scrubs

London Borough of Barnet: Mill Hill

London Borough of Croydon: Sanderstead

London Borough of Hackney: Cesspool at Homerton

London Borough of Wandsworth

River Thames in London

City of London: Queenhithe Dock, Thames Street (SE1)

City of London: Cannon Street Station (EC4)

London Borough of Wandsworth: Battersea

London Borough of Wandsworth: Wandsworth

London Borough of Wandsworth: Old Swan Wharf

London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham: Hammersmith

London Borough of Richmond: Hampton Court

London Borough of Lambeth: Westminster Bridge

London Borough of Southwark

London Borough of Tower Hamlets: River Thames at Limehouse

YORKSHIRE AND THE HUMBER

North Yorkshire

Ganton Wold

Ganton Wold or Sherburn Wold

Willerby Wold

Grimston Moor

Weaverthorpe

Kirby Grindalythe

Sherburn

Sleights, Scarborough

Unnamed house, Scarborough

Sharp Howe

York

Richmond

Yorkshire Wolds

East Riding of Yorkshire

Bridlington

Metlow Hill Round Barrow, Bempton

Rudston

Fordon

North Burton

North Burton or East Burton

Langtoft Wold

West Yorkshire

St Helen’s Well, Thorp Arch

Breary Marsh

EAST OF ENGLAND

Suffolk

Brandon

Icklingham

Warren Hill

Mildenhall

Santon Downham

Lakenheath

Elveden

Snape Anglo-Saxon Cemetery

Aldeburgh

Hazelwood Common, Aldeburgh

Hundred River

River Alde

Cretingham

Dunwich

Sutton

Westleton

West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village

Lackford

Euston, St Edmundsbury

Stanton, St Edmundsbury

Wangford, Waveney

Warren Farm

Hoxne

Stonham Aspal or Earl Stonham

Norfolk

Shrubhill Farm Gravel Pits

Little Ouse River Valley

Thetford

Grimes Graves

Broomhill Gravel Pit

Larling

Worstead Common

Eaton, Norwich

Trowse Newton, Norwich

Bedfordshire

Maiden Bower Hillfort

Bedford

Essex

Wallbury Camp

Colchester

Pitchbury Ramparts, Great Horkesley

Cambridgeshire

Swaffham Prior or Swaffham Bulbeck

Wicken

Whittlesey, Fenland

Hertfordshire

Unlocated

SOUTH-WEST

Dorset

Jordan Hill, Weymouth

Weymouth

Portland

East Burton

Wiltshire

Stonehenge

Unnamed tumulus near Stonehenge

Milford Hill, Salisbury

St Andrew’s Church, Bemerton

High Field, Salisbury

Roundway

Cranborne Chase

Gloucestershire

Uley Bury Hillfort

Fairford

Devon

Hopes Nose, Torquay

Hawkchurch Railway Ballast Pit

Guildhall, Exmoor National Park

Grimspound, Teinbridge

Spinsters Rock, Drewsteignton

Somerset

Somerset: Wookey Hole

Somerset: West Buckland Bronze Hoard

Bath and North-East Somerset: Little Solsbury Hill Fort

North Somerset: Banwell Bone Cave

Cornwall

Lanyon Quoit

Men-an-Tol

Chun Quoit

Beacon at Camborne

Trethery Quoit, St Cleer

Merry Maidens Stone Circle

NORTH-WEST

Cheshire

Alderley Edge

Chester

Cumbria

Cliburn

Blencow Beacon, Penrith

Wath, Silloth

Longlands, Hekset Newmarket

Ambleside, Westmoreland

Merseyside

Calderstones Chambered Tomb, Calderstones Park

WEST MIDLANDS

Shropshire

Wroxeter

Corvedale, Much Wenlock

Petton

Shrewsbury

EAST MIDLANDS

Derbyshire

Miller’s Dale

Lincolnshire

Unnamed barrow(s)

Northamptonshire

Raunds or St. Peter’s Church, Northampton

Reference

Bowden, M. 1991. Pitt Rivers: The Life and Archaeological Work of Lieutenant-General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers, DCL, FRS, FSA. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.