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.

ESRC Impact Accelerator Award: From Museums to the Historic Environment

Image: A selection of Bronze Age copper alloy axes from the UK and Ireland, collected by General Pitt-Rivers between c.1851 and 1881, from the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum. Photograph by Carlotta Gardner, taken as part of the Excavating Pitt-Rivers project in 2013

We were delighted to receive news today that our application through the ESRC Impact Acceleration programme for funding for a pilot programme of knowledge exchange in partnership with the British Museum was successful. The programme builds directly on the documentation work, funded by an award from Arts Council England, that was undertaken on the English archaeological collections in the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum in 2013. The project is led by Dan Hicks (Pitt Rivers Museum) and Dan Pett (British Museum).

The award of £28,947 will fund a pilot programme titled 'From Museums to the Historic Environment': using the Pitt-Rivers archaeological collections to explore the ways in which historic archaeological museum collections hold significant, untapped information about the historic environment of England that is of wider public value.

The project will involve enhancing our knowledge of the sites from which the archaeological objects acquired by General Pitt-Rivers derived, and exploring the wider value of this information through knowledge exchange.

Our aim is to experiment with how a range of new users across the fragmented heritage sector could benefit from knowledge generated from collections-based research into historic collections: from local government planning authorities and Historic Environment Records to archaeological contractors, community heritage groups, local historians, regional museums and national heritage agencies.

This pilot project will run during between April 2014 and October 2015. A project officer will be appointed in the first half of 2014, and a cross-sector workshop will be held in Oxford in Spring 2015. More details will be posted on the Excavating Pitt-Rivers blog as the project develops.

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. 

Wayland's Smithy Chambered Tomb - a scale model from the 1860s

Image: A scale model of Wayland's Smithy Neolithic Chambered Tomb, made in the 1860s by Alfred Lewis, and acquired by General Pitt-Rivers shortly thereafter. Pitt Rivers Museum Accession Number 1884.140.97

Among the material explored by the Excavating Pitt-Rivers project is a series of scale models collected by General Pitt-Rivers, some of which were made by him. The first models acquired by the General were made by Alfred Lewis in the 1860s, and included a series of sites in southern, western and north-western England. Dan Hicks published an account of one of these models - of Wayland's Smithy Chambered Tomb in Oxfordshire, and made with moss and cork on a wooden board - in 2011, in the inaugural issue of the Edgar Wind Society's Journal. You can now read the text for that short article on Dan's blog here: http://weweremodern.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/model-of-waylands-smithy-neolithic.html

Chalk carved figure from Bishopsgate, London

Chalk fragment carved in the form of a crucifix (or possibly a human figure with arms outstretched). Pitt Rivers Museum Accession Number 1884.58.54 

The Excavating Pitt-Rivers team completed the uploading of the photographs of the newly-documented archaeological objects from England, excavated or collected by General Pitt-Rivers, to the Museum database last week. This has enormously enhanced the documentation of the collection, and allows us to share images of the objects much more widely. We'll be posting a series of the documentation photographs of the more unusual objects on this blog in the coming weeks.  

Here is the first in this new series: a fragment of chalk carved in the form of a human figure: a crucifix, or possibly a figure with arms outstretched. It was found at Bull Yard, of Dunnings Alley on Bishopsgate in the City of London (EC2) on 16 November 1865. The Museum's accession book describes it as "Rough chalk carving of a crucified figure (no cross) on a block". 

We hope to be able to commission new professional photography for some of these objects through future projects. The object is now on display in the Court of the Pitt Rivers Museum.

Reverse of carved chalk fragment 1884.58.54

This is one of the earliest objects from early salvage or 'rescue' archaeology undertaken by Pitt-Rivers in London. It is unclear at present whether this is a 19th-century forgery made  for sale to Pitt-Rivers, or whether it is medieval in date.

Leather shoes from London

A fragmented sole of a Roman leather sole with hob nails still present (1884.92.41).

Organic artefacts are rare finds on archaeological sites. Organic material typically decays within most burial environments; however on occasion archaeologists are fortunate to excavate a waterlogged site or other environments, such as peat, that encourage the preservation of this material type.  

During Pitt-Rivers’ archaeological watching brief and excavations during the construction of the Gooch and Cousens Warehouse on London Wall in the City of London in October-December 1867, a number of organic objects were recovered and survive in the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum. His own publication on the site described how the peat was responsible for the preservation of this organic material (Lane Fox 1867). The material that was preserved included objects made of wood and leather. The wood preserved on the site comprises two handles attached to iron blades and also a series of wooden piles that are discussed and illustrated in Pitt-Rivers' publication.

Section drawings illustrating the wooden piles that were excavated at London Wall (Lane Fox 1867)

The leather objects from the site are all fragments of shoes and the majority are the soles of Romano-British shoes or boots. A number of the shoe soles have iron hobnails still attached. Pitt Rivers described them as “…being thickly studded with hob nails, may be recognized as the caliga of the Roman legions.” Due to the ‘great quantities’ of leather finds and the discovery of two iron implements, used for dressing leather, from one particular area of the site in his 1867 publication Pitt-Rivers queried whether this was an area where shoe-making took place - although he later concluded due to the worn nature of the shoes that it is very unlikely but does comment that more recently the site was in the vicinity of a tannery and that a passage close by is known as “leather-sellers’ alley”.

The leather shoe fragments have now been re-packed appropriately and a few, due to their fragile nature, are waiting for the museum's conservation team to assess. You can read the Excavating Pitt-Rivers project's full report on the Pitt-Rivers archaeological material from London here - https://www.academia.edu/4769220/Pitt-Rivers_in_London

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).