The Prehistoric Society: From East Anglia to the World

Abstract

It is doubly appropriate that the Prehistoric Society should celebrate its jubilee in Norwich. The Society was born in the Castle on 23 February 1935 of a parent conceived improbably enough in the Public Library at a meeting held on 26 October 1908 to inaugurate an East Anglian Society ‘for the study of all matters appertaining to prehistoric man’. The question I want you to consider in this address is how the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia developed so rapidly to the point at which it achieved national status as The Prehistoric Society. Let me begin by removing one misapprehension. My hands are not dripping with East Anglian blood nor have I just wiped them clean. The Prehistoric Society was not the outcome of a revolutionary putsch. It stemmed from nothing more dramatic than a recognition that the Prehistoric Society had long ceased to be East Anglian. When we met at Norwich Castle for our Annual General Meeting in 1935 and passed the resolution which eliminated the words ‘of East Anglia’ from our title we were merely recognizing a fact, that we had long ceased to be East Anglian in anything but name. There were no dissentient votes.The two men who between them set the Prehistoric Society on its feet came from different but complementary backgrounds. W. G. Clarke was Norfolk born and bred and earned his living as a working journalist in Norwich, while cultivating a wide-ranging interest in natural history and prehistoric archaeology.

Neolithic and Bronze Age Norfolk

“…Prehistoric studies in East Anglia have a long and distinguished history (Clark 1985), where the Prehistoric Society's parent body was founded in 1908 (Harris 1994). During the first half of the present century Norfolk achieved national prominence in British prehistoric research, notably through the extensive collection and publication of flint objects on an unprecedented scale (Clark 1985) and from the much-debated excavation campaigns at Grime's Graves and the Arminghall henge. In some respectsand in spite of the outstanding quality of much recent research -the region's prominence in national prehistoric debate has receded somewhat during the second half of the 20th century.…”

Pathways to World Prehistory Presidential Address 1994

“…On the occasion of our 50th Anniversary Conference, held in Norwich in March 1985, Grahame Clark described the eventful history of the Society, and that of its predecessor, the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia. He analyzed the trend in membership and publication that signalled the Society's transformation, from a local band of mainly amateur enthusiasts to a national society of professional and amateur prehistorians, with, increasingly, an international view of their subject (Clark 1985). The sub-title of Professor Clark's paper -From East Anglia to the World -neatly encapsulated this theme, which he illustrated by analyzing the geographical coverage of articles published in the Pro-ceedings between 1911 and 1982: an analysis that brought up-to-date the earlier examination of publication trends that he had included in his own Presidential Address in 1959 (Clark 1959).…”