Excavating Pitt-Rivers

A Bronze Age Axe from Worthing, West Sussex

A Bronze Age axe from Worthing, West Sussex

Here is the caption for this image:

This is a Bronze Age copper alloy palstave axe with a side loop and high stop ridges. The

cut made into the blade is the result of metallurgical sampling done in the 1950. The red dot and white writing is also modern, dating from the late 19th or early 20th-century. The meaning of the dot and the text “No. 2” is obscure, although probably relate to its display at some point in the past. But the reference to ‘Forty Acres Field near Worthing’ is more helpful.

The modern text connects this axe to a historic discovery of Bronze Age hoard of axes, placed in a ceramic urn or vessel, at this site near Worthing in West Sussex. The writing has been copied from earlier text, and the date of 1871 is a mistaken transposition for the correct date of the discovery of the hoard, recorded in the museum’s accession book, of 1877. Pitt-Rivers acquired the axe at some point between 1877 and 1882.

In 1881, John Evans noted in his survey of "The Ancient Bronze Implements, Weapons and Ornaments of Great Britain and Ireland" that ‘nearly thirty palstaves, mostly, I believe, of this type, were found with about twelve socketed celts…and lumps of rough metal, near Worthing, in 1877. The whole had been packed in an urn, of coarse earthenware’. In 1882, the journal Sussex Archaeological Collections reported the name of the person who discovered the hoard was E.C. Patching.

The axe also connects the axe to another object from Pitt-Rivers’ own collection – a fragment of the urn, on which the text “Fragment of pot in which 40 bronze celts were found near Worthing in 1877”. Further research into this find-spot could yield further details about the hoard and the fate of the other axes found in it. The text present on the axe is a reminder of the dangers of introduced errors with each layer of copying and re-writing in museum documentation.

(Pitt Rivers Museum Accession Number 1884.119.111)

A Romano-British leather shoe from the City of London

A Romano-British leather shoe from the City of London, from the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum

Here is the caption for this image:

This is a Romano-British leather shoe (top and bottom view) with iron hobnails. The text written onto it in red ink – “ROMAN SOLDIER CALIGA, LONDON WALL, 22 FT IN PEAT DEC 11 1866” – refers to Pitt-Rivers’ pioneering salvage recording, undertaken during the construction of during the construction of the Gooch and Cousens wool warehouse on the south side of London Wall, opposite Finsbury Circus in the City of London.

The deep excavations revealed organic materials preserved in waterlogged deposits. The Pitt Rivers Museum holds more than 250 objects recovered during this salvage archaeology, including copper alloy pins, needles and spoons; a wide range of iron objects; Romano-British and post-Roman ceramics; animal bone and bone tools; samples of wooden piles; human remains, and leather shoes such as these.

Pitt-Rivers wrongly thought the site was a ‘lake village’ that was the stronghold of Cassivellaunus – the chieftain who led defence against Julius Caesar in 54 BC. A soldier himself, General Pitt-Rivers’ recording of a Roman military boot (caliga) conveys a sense of his imaginative interest in archaeological evidence of the encounters between prehistoric and Roman populations.

(Pitt Rivers Museum Accession Number 1884.92.42).

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).

A Ceramic Tile from Kent

Image: a ceramic tile from Castle Hill, Folkestone, Kent, excavated by Pitt-Rivers in 1878

Here is the text for this image:

This abraded ceramic tile, of Romano-British or post-Roman date, is from Pitt-Rivers’ fieldwork at Castle Hill in Folkestone, Kent in 1878. Initially believing its earthworks (known locally as ‘Caesar’s Camp’) dated from the Roman invasions of Britain, his excavations revealed the monument in fact to be a medieval timber castle. Four different museum catalogue numbers are present, and a hand-written label describes the circumstances of discovery. The label reads: FRAGMENT OF NORMAN OR ROMAN TILE FOUND IN INTERIOR SLOP TO UPPER RAMPART WEST END BENEATH NORMAN CARVING CAESAR’S CAMP FOLKESTONE JUNE 26TH 1878 THE ONLY PIECE FOUND IN THE CAMP. Written for museum display, the label’s text retains elements of the General’s interpretive challenges in the field – singling out this possibly Romano-British find from a site that proved to be medieval in date, and describing the monument as a ‘camp’ (a term suggesting a prehistoric hillfort or Roman military camp) rather than a castle. (Pitt Rivers Museum Accession Number 1884.138.25)

A ceramic bowl from the Thames

A ceramic bowl from the Thames, from the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum

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 shell-tempered ceramic bowl has been partially reconstructed after Pitt-Rivers acquired it, and (apart from two museum catalogue numbers) it bears one single word, painted onto the outside: THAMES. Many objects from Pitt-Rivers’ collection are recorded simply with the provenance of the River Thames – which may mean an object recovered from dredging the river, may imply it was found on the Thames foreshore in London or along the banks of the river further upstream, or even may represent a purposefully vague provenance given by a dealer that usefully removes any possibility of coming from privately owned land. Whatever the case for this object, there is no doubt that today the modern text has become an integral part of this medieval artefact. (Pitt Rivers Museum Accession Number 1884.35.38)

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

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.