Gordon Childe and Scottish Archaeology: The Edinburgh Years 1927–1946

Ralston, Ian

doi:10.1177/1461957109339702

Cited by 7 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…The historiography of archaeology in Scotland and its professionalization more generally has, with a few exceptions, not yet seen significant focused study in its own right. Research so far concerning this period has largely focused on the biographies and contribution of key individuals like Vere Gordon Childe (Ralston 2009), Armand Donald Lacaille (Morrison 1996), and Ludovic McLellan Mann (Ritchie 2002), in addition to the development of salient institutions such as the National Museum of Scotland and learned societies such as the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and the Glasgow Archaeological Society (Stevenson 1981;Mearns 2008). What is clear from the correspondence associated with this 1930s school boy adventure is that it offers further insights into the character of archaeological social networks in the west of Scotland and the authoritative position of Mann.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Tuesday Morning’, the schoolboy and Mann

Finlay¹,

Duffy²,

Wright³

et al. 2020

PSAS

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The rediscovery of human remains, correspondence and other unpublished excavation archival material in the Glasgow Museums collection of Ludovic McLellan Mann prompted the reappraisal of a short archaeological investigation undertaken in April 1931 at Holm Park, near Ballantrae, Ayrshire, by a schoolboy, Eric French and his biology teacher, William Hoyland. This article offers a re-evaluation of their fieldwork which exposed two inhumation burials, named ‘Tuesday Morning’ and ‘Tuesday Afternoon’. Eight dog whelk shells remain from an overlying diffuse shell midden spread that may reflect the remnants of a dye-processing site. The skeletons and marine shells went on temporary display at Bryanston School, Dorset. The area south of Ballantrae is well known for prehistoric flint scatter sites and the finds presented the intriguing possibility that the burials might be Mesolithic in age, the excavators believing they might even be Palaeolithic. A collection of flint cores, initially associated with the archive, now appears unrelated to this excavation for it was found with a note written by a local lithic collector, William Edgar. New osteological analysis confirmed the presence of at least two adult individuals, and one bone sample returned an early medieval radiocarbon date. This evidence contributes to national understandings of early historic burial practices in unenclosed cemeteries during the transition from Iron Age pagan to Christian burial rites, important given the paucity of 1st millennium evidence in south-west Scotland. It also offers insight into an earlier account of multiple inhumation burials, found in the general vicinity in 1879, although aspects of the precise location and relationship between the two discoveries is currently unresolved. Mann’s correspondence with French’s father, a prominent Glasgow industrialist, and with Hoyland reveals the character of archaeological social networks in western Scotland during the 1930s which have been a neglected aspect of research to date. Canmore ID 60957 Canmore ID 60935 Canmore ID 275902

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Tuesday Morning’, the schoolboy and Mann

Finlay¹,

Duffy²,

Wright³

et al. 2020

PSAS

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“…a) Women and men’s ‘vocational ambitions’ regarding higher education in inter‐war Britain, n = 523 (source: Dyhouse 2006, 36); b) Faculty of Arts student numbers at Edinburgh 1927–1946 (source: Ralston 2009, table 3).…”

Section: Women and Education In 1930mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There was no full Honours Archaeology syllabus, however, and most students completed a three‐year MA Ordinary degree, within which archaeology could be studied. Extraordinarily, however, Margaret Crichton Mitchell (later Stewart) completed a PhD under Childe in 1934 (Ralston 2009, 54, 65). By that year, Bill and Joan Varley were offering training in Prehistory fieldwork at the University of Liverpool, with a mixed‐sex team, but from Bill’s role in the Geography Department, not the Institute of Archaeology (Pope et al .…”

Section: Women and Education In 1930mentioning

confidence: 99%

Peggy Piggott: Women and British Archaeology (1930–1945)

Pope

Davies

2023

Oxford J Archaeology

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Summary The 2021 film, The Dig, stimulated much interest in discovering more about Peggy Piggott, the archaeologist who first ‘struck gold’ at Sutton Hoo. Piggott was a leading British prehistorian, who produced over sixty published works for the field. Here we examine her early life and career, her training with the Curwens and the Wheelers, her marriage to Stuart Piggott, and her recognized expertise that led to her joining the Sutton Hoo team in 1939. During WWII, she established the modern standard for barrow excavation, and in 1944 was recognized by the Society of Antiquaries for her ‘devotion to the study of archaeology’. Piggott provides a lens through which we consider the careers of 1930s women archaeologists – those factors enabling access to archaeology (class, wartime opportunity) and factors that limited progress (lack of a degree, marriage).

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The Invention of Prehistory and the Rediscovery of Europe: Exploring the Intellectual Roots of Gordon Childe’s ‘Neolithic Revolution’ (1936)

Brami

2019

J World Prehist

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Gordon Childe and Scottish Archaeology: The Edinburgh Years 1927–1946

Cited by 7 publications

References 63 publications

‘Tuesday Morning’, the schoolboy and Mann

‘Tuesday Morning’, the schoolboy and Mann

Peggy Piggott: Women and British Archaeology (1930–1945)

The Invention of Prehistory and the Rediscovery of Europe: Exploring the Intellectual Roots of Gordon Childe’s ‘Neolithic Revolution’ (1936)

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