A prehistoric flint knife from Oxfordshire

A prehistoric flint knife from Long Wittenham, Oxfordshire

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 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)

Image/Object/Text: an AHRC Image Gallery

Image: screen grab from the new online image gallery of objects from Pitt-Rivers' English archaeological collections, hosted by AHRC

Today sees the launch of an online Image Gallery published by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), showcasing 12 new photographs of English archaeological objects from the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum.  The gallery builds directly on primary documentation work undertaken as part of the Excavating Pitt-Rivers project, and funded by Arts Council England through the Designation Development Fund. Our collaboration with photographer Ian Cartwright was funded by AHRC. A summary of the project is below.

The Pitt Rivers Museum is Oxford University’s Museum of Anthropology and World Archaeology. Founded in 1884 with a donation of c. 26,500 objects by General Augustus Lane Fox Pitt-Rivers, today the Museum holds more than half a million objects.  Pitt-Rivers was a key figure in the development of modern scientific archaeology, but his own archaeological collections have received little attention and less than 5% are on display in the Museum. To start to address this historic neglect, between November 2012 and December 2013 Dan Hicks ran a project, funded through a grant from the Designation Development Fund of Arts Council England (ACE), titled Excavating Pitt-Rivers. Working in the Museum stores, the project documented the English archaeological material collected by General Pitt-Rivers between c. 1865 and 1880. The project team documented some 10,696 archaeological artefacts from across England and published them on the Museum’s online database. In most cases, this is the first time that the objects have been examined since they came to Oxford in 1884.

This basic process of collections-based documentation and enhancement has made  possible this new image gallery, Image/Object/Text. One unexpected outcome of the Excavating Pitt-Rivers project was been a realization that Pitt-Rivers wrote on almost every object that he excavated – and that this text was re-written and added to by other curatorial hands from the 1870s into the 20th century, sometimes creating complex layers of hand-written text and printed labels, the idea of turning archaeological objects into a kind of manuscript record is one interesting way of thinking about Pitt-Rivers’ innovations in scientific archaeology, and his direct approach to objectivity and documentation.

Inspired by this observation, for this online gallery we invited archaeological photographer Ian Cartwright to work with Museum curators to create twelve new images that explore the different kinds of text that is found on these archaeological objects, excavated by Pitt-Rivers between the 1860s and 1880s.  Dan Hicks has written a series of captions, exploring how each text can be read to reveal elements of the object’s modern life-history, as well as its archaeological past.  Together, the images and captions show how entangled relationships between museum artefacts and their documentation can unfold, blurring the lines between premodern archaeological objects and modern manuscripts, and transforming artefacts into unique kinds of documents. 

You can read more and explore all the images on the AHRC Image Gallery Website

Report on Designation Development Fund award for the Excavating Pitt-Rivers project

Excavating Pitt-Rivers: Report for Designation Development Fund Award, December 2013

Between November 2012 and December 2013, the work of the Excavating Pitt-Rivers project was supported through an award of  £76,654 from the Designation Development Fund of Arts Council England. We have now published a Report, summarising what our team has achieved during through this award, and our plans for future work on the collections. The document is available here and the summary is provided below. 

The Excavating Pitt-Rivers project continues in 2014, building on the crucial proof-of-concept work funded through thus Arts Council England award, through further publication and public dissemination,  and further grant applications.

EXCAVATING PITT-RIVERS (DESIGNATION DEVELOPMENT FUND): SUMMARY

Through an award of £76,654 from the Designation Development Fund, the Excavating Pitt-Rivers project has enhanced the care, documentation and public understanding of the earliest archaeological collections that were acquired by General Augustus Pitt-Rivers from sites across England, and which are held at the Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM). Led by Dr Dan Hicks (Lecturer-Curator in Archaeology), the project team has documented, photographed and published to the Museum’s online database c.10,687 archaeological objects that were collected and excavated by General Pitt-Rivers from across England between c. 1864 and 1880.

Our understanding of this unique archaeological collection has been completely transformed by the project. In our application to the Designation Development Fund, we stated that “Our initial estimate is that this collection comprises c. 5,000 artefacts from more than 61 sites across at least 12 English counties”. Through a collections based approach, the number of objects recorded in the database has more than doubled to c. 10,687. The number of sites from which objects derive has risen from just 61 across 12 English counties to 267 across 32 counties. Before the project the vast majority of the objects had not been examined since their arrival in Oxford in 1884: the taking of more than 20,800 photographs of objects by the project team – now fully uploaded to the Museum’s database and website – is therefore a watershed moment. The newly enhanced documentation transforms not just our understanding, but also the future potential of the collection for research and display. It also highlights the potential of applying the highest standards of documentation to historic archaeological collections that have conventionally been treated in a more broad-brush manner.

At the same time, the project has pioneered an approach to collections-based documentation enhancement and desk-based research that is grounded in a programme of public engagement. A project blog (excavatingpittrivers.blogspot.com) has attracted more than 20,000 unique visitors over 12 months, and an additional estimated 100,000 people have been reached through an active Twitter campaign led by Pitt Rivers Museum (Twitter) and Dan Hicks (Twitter).

Seven public events have been held across the country, in Folkestone, Leeds, York, London, Lewes, Guildford and Oxford. Four visits by local archaeological societies have been hosted at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and have included talks and object handling sessions. Published outputs have ranged from a feature in British Archaeology magazine, and articles in the journals and newsletters of regional archaeological societies, to an open-access peer-reviewed paper in the distinguished American journal Current Anthropology (December 2013). The project has achieved extensive regional and national media coverage, including appearances by Dan Hicks on the BBC4 documentary Heritage! The Battle for Britain’s Past, and on Radio 4’s In Our Time.

The legacies of the project include a series of new connections across the museum and heritage sector that have already led to funding applications for new initiatives that build on the momentum built up through Excavating Pitt-Rivers, grounded in excellence, public engagement, and sustainability. The results of the project will also directly inform the re-display of the archaeological collections in the Museum’s permanent displays through the Museum’s £1.6m Heritage Lottery-supported redisplay and outreach programme VERVE (Visitors, Engagement, Renewal, Visibility, Enrichment), which runs from 2012-2017.

Unrolling a large watercolour of Stonehenge

images: Pitt Rivers Museum curatorial staff unrolling a large watercolour of Stonehenge for photographic documentation. This previously unknown item appears to be one of a series of visual aids made for, and used by, General Pitt-Rivers in lectures in the 1870s. Photograph by Ian Cartwright, Archaeology Imaging Unit, Institute of Archaeology, Oxford

In December 2013, the Excavating Pitt-Rivers team, in collaboration with the Institute of Archaeology and Philip Grover of the Pitt Rivers Museum, undertook a programme of photographic documentation for a selection of oversized archival material from the Pitt Rivers Museum archival collections. 

This material had been catalogued in the mid 20th century as from the collection of E.B. Tylor, and our documentation work has confirmed that a wide range of images made for use in Tylor's publications is present. However, documentary research also indicated that there may be some of General Pitt-Rivers' lecture aids amongst the items. They were accessioned by the Museum in 1944, shortly after the death of the Museum's curator Henry Balfour, and were recorded as used 'to illustrate lectures in places & at a time when lantern-slides could not be had or used'.

The process of documenting the material has led to some potentially important discoveries, including a series of seven large-format watercolours of British archaeological megalithic monuments, and a series of illustrations of firearms. Three working shots of one of these - a unique large-scale watercolour illustration of Stonehenge  - being carefully unfolded for photography by members of the museum's the curatorial team, is shown above.

Research and documentation is ongoing, but the evidence seems to indicate that these images were made for General Pitt-Rivers during the 1870s, for use by him as visual aids in  lectures (and possibly also in museum exhibits), before being transferred to the Pitt Rivers Museum. The watercolours bear some similarities to other (much smaller) images made for Pitt-Rivers by his illustrator, William Stephen Tomkin. 

These re-discovered images of archaeological monuments will be fully researched, documented and published as work continues, and updates will be posted through this blog. In the mean time, these rediscovered images are another reminder that processes of re-discovery and documentation that are akin to archaeological excavation can be undertaken within museums, as well as at more conventional archaeological sites. 

A Roman lamp stand

The Excavating Pitt-Rivers project has nearly finished cataloguing the Founding English archaeological material. Our last count totals just over 10,900 objects which is an increase of 3,500 from our original estimations!

The remaining objects are those that are more difficult to locate in our stores; the title of the project is currently very apt. One object that we recently found is an excellent Roman lamp stand thought to have been found in London.

Roman lamp-stand (1884.116.95 .1-3). 

The copper alloy lamp stand has been beautifully made and comprises of a tripod-foot with lion feet detailing and three birds sitting on the tops of each foot; a spirally-fluted shaft ornamented with a cockerel and a cat / weasel. The dish top is square and has fractured from the main shaft.

The shaft is spirally-fluted and has a cat / weasel attached to the lower section.

Above the cat / weasel is a cockerel; the detailing on this ornament is particularly fine. 

The feet of the tripod are lion feet and each has a bird attached.

The dish-top is square with a circular indent for holding the oil. A hole has been drilled through the middle to attach it to the main shaft, it is likely that this hole was created during restoration and is not an original feature.

This object is by no means characteristic of the majority of material that makes up the English archaeological founding collection but has to be one of my favourites. Similar examples can be seen at the British Museum (1756,0101.530, 1869,0304.1, and 1772,0302.43).

Sussex Archaeological Society visits the Pitt Rivers Museum

Public engagement, as previously mentioned, is a central element of the Excavating Pitt-Rivers project. In June Carlotta went to Lewes and presented the projects initial findings on Pitt-Rivers' time in Sussex and visited Mount Caburn with the Sussex Archaeological Society. On Saturday (19th October), as a follow up to this visit, the project invited the society to the Pitt Rivers Museum.  

Dan Hicks giving an introductory lecture to members of Sussex Archaeological Society 
at the Pitt Rivers Museum

The day began with an introductory talk by Dan Hicks who updated the society on our progress over the past couple of months. After lunch, which included excellent discussion on the theme of the day, we were able to show the group a selection of the material collected in Sussex. The material we had on display was from two of the key sites in Sussex (Mount Caburn and Cissbury) and included flint implements, ceramic sherds, fragments of metal, and four examples of Pitt-Rivers' experimental work at Cissbury. We asked the group to look at the material in a different way to expected; instead of looking at the objects as examples of archaeological artefacts we wanted to look at them as a source of information about Pitt-Rivers. This demonstrated the importance of using the artefacts within the founding collection as an important source of information when studying his early archaeological work. 

Four members of Sussex Archaeological Society examining a selection of material excavated by General Pitt-Rivers from Mount Caburn and Cissbury.

An example of the documentation that is on the objects that Pitt-Rivers collected during his time in Sussex. Almost every single object from Mount Caburn has a label similar to this attached, it typically records the date and location from which it was excavated. In this case the label for 1884.137.41 .7 reads 'MOUNT CABURN SEPT 1877 Upper Rampart interior slope'.

The day was a great success and we hope that Sussex Archaeological Society found it as useful and enjoyable as the project team. We look forward to our next visit from Yorkshire Archaeological Society on the 4th November. 

Pitt-Rivers' field diaries

The P-series of documents from the Pitt-Rivers archive, which is currently on loan to the Pitt Rivers Museum from the Salisbury & Wiltshire Museum, consists of various notes and drafts written by Pitt Rivers, most of which were subsequently published. Over the past month, Maria Temporal has been transcribing the documents from this archive that are most relevant to the Excavating Pitt-Rivers project. Below is her summary of one of the papers.

Document P23 is a day-by-day manuscript account of Pitt Rivers’ excavations at Cissbury Ring, on the South Downs in West Sussex, over five days in April 1875. Pitt-Rivers describes the excavation of a ditch and the various artefacts recovered from different layers of the ditch fill. He also describes the excavation of two intercutting pits, and earthworks in the environs of the site.

Pitt-Rivers' field sketches ceramics found in 'Pit 2' at Cissbury, West Sussex (Document P23, folio 7).

The account includes sketches and drawings of sections of the ditch and the pits, such as that reproduced above. His day-by-day field diary presents his ongoing interpretation of the site, including his account of a large earthwork feature on which further work might be undertaken in the future. These field diaries provide a vivid account of the General in the field. As the project progresses, these accounts will help the interpretation of the objects from these excavations which survive in the Pitt Rivers Museum founding collection.

A Romano-British medical set

Roman medical implements.
(left to right: PRM 1884.140.530, 1884.140.531, 1884.140.1532 &1884.140.509)

Four Roman medical implements have recently been catalogued and researched as part of the Excavating Pitt-Rivers project. These implements are made of copper alloy and would have been cast and then hammered into shape. These objects are recorded as being from London Wall where we know Pitt-Rivers completed excavations in 1865, 1866 and 1867.

The two implements on the left are waisted leaf-shaped spatulas; they would have been used to mix and apply ointments to patients. Sometimes the spatula was also used as a cautery, as a tongue depressor and as a blunt dissector (Baker 2009).

The two implements on the right are spoon probes with olivary ends. These are similar to the spatula probe, but have narrow leaf shaped spoons in place of the spatula. The spoon could have been used for a number of different purposes to remove medicines from containers, to mix ointments, as a curette and possibly in lithotomy operations. The olivary end could also be used to mix ointments, to create a drip effect, to explore fistula and examine carious bone. (Baker 2009).

More information on these particular objects and other Roman medical implements can be found in this paper by Patricia Baker. 

Pitt-Rivers in Acton

The time Pitt-Rivers spent in London is of particular interest to the project. Not only is the material he collected of great interest, ranging from Paleolithic flint implements to medieval ceramics, it also provides a wealth of information about his collecting methods.

The Excavating Pitt-Rivers team has just started working on the stone implements that were recovered during the General’s fieldwork at Acton in 1869, 1870, 1871 and 1874. He was specifically interested in this area due to the flint implements that were being recovered and he believed they were a link between Palaeolithic and Neolithic technologies. The flint implements that we hold at the PRM were collected both by Pitt-Rivers and also acquired from workmen, excavating brick-earth, who were shown examples of the types of stone implements that might be found.

One of the many stone implements collected from Acton, High Terrace Gravel (PRM 1884.122.333).

Whilst examining and cataloguing the stone tools a section of the Acton High Terrace Gravel, drawn by Pitt-Rivers, was discovered. In this section he illustrates the geological strata and marks where he found ‘the sharp flakes’.  Along with this a number of labels were discovered that were clearly used when displaying the specimens found in the Acton area.

A section drawn, by Pitt-Rivers in 1871, of the Acton, High Terrace Gravel where he collected a number of flit implements.

The material collected has very detailed labeling and we hope to pin-point when and where Pitt-Rivers was in Acton.