Finding Time for the Old Stone Age: A History of Palaeolithic Archaeology and Quaternary Geology in Britain, 1860-1960

464 Pages·2007·6.73 MB·English

by  Anne O'Connor

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Finding Time for the Old
Stone Age
A History of Palaeolithic Archaeology and
Quaternary Geology in Britain, 1860–1960
ANNE O’CONNOR
1
3
GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp
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O’Connor,Anne.
Findingtimefortheoldstoneage:ahistoryofPalaeolithic
archaeologyandquaternarygeologyinBritain,1860–1960/AnneO’Connor.
p. cm.
ISBN 978–0–19–921547–8
1. Paleolithicperiod—GreatBritain. 2. Archaeological
geology—GreatBritain—History. 3. Geology,Stratigraphic—Quaternary.
4. Tools,Prehistoric—GreatBritain. 5. Antiquities,
Prehistoric—GreatBritain. I. Title.
GN772.22.G7027 2007
936.1—dc22 2007012021
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ISBN 978–0–19–921547–8
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Acknowledgements
This book has been helped on its way to publication by the kindness of
numerous people over the past six years. I am particularly grateful to my
brother, Ralph O’Connor, at Aberdeen University, for his encouragement.
The committee and members of the History of Geology Group replenished
mymotivationthroughtheirheartfeltappreciationofthehistoryofgeology;
as did Jim Secord, Anne Secord, and Martin Rudwick at the University of
Cambridge.Iamdeeplyindebtedtomyreviewers—MarianneSommer,atthe
Swiss Federal Institute for Technology, Zurich; and David Oldroyd, at the
UniversityofNewSouthWales,Australia—forgoingoverthemanuscriptso
thoroughly and making so many valuable suggestions. The manuscript also
gainedclarityfromapatientperusalbymyfather,JohnO’Connor;andIam
gratefultomysister,Cle´menceO’Connor,andmygoodfriend,Anne-Louise
Russell, for checking my French translations. This book would not have
appeared were it not for the open-minded attitude of my editor, Hilary
O’SheaatOxfordUniversityPress,whenWrstfacedwiththeunconventional
miscellanyinmymanuscript;andIammuchobligedtothestaVatOUPfor
theirsupportthereafter.
Ihavenotforgottenthethoughtfuladvicegivenbackin2000byDerekRoe,
thenattheUniversityofOxford,whentheseideaswereWrsttakingshape;or
the generosity of John McNabb, at Southampton University, in sharing his
own research on my visit that same year. For friendly discussions about the
history of archaeology, thanks are due to Peter Rowley-Conwy, Margarita
Diaz-Andreu,andRichardHingley,allatDurhamUniversity;RogerJacobiat
the British Museum; Raf de Bont at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven; and
C. Stephen Briggs. Phil Howard, at Durham University, kindly explained to
me the complexities of mapping software; whilst JeV Veitch, at the same
institution, contributed his photographic skills. The archaeological core of
thisbookcomesfrommyPh.D.thesis,whichwasfundedby theAHRC.
Ihaveexperiencedvaluableassistanceandcongenialconversationamongst
thearchivesexploredinthiswork,butparticularthanksaredueto:Jeannine
Alton, Stella Brecknell, Eliza Howlett, and Jim Kennedy at the Oxford Uni-
versityMuseumofNaturalHistory;GrahamMcKenna,GillNixon,andJoan
Bird at the British Geological Survey Library; Susan Snell, Polly Tucker, and
Andrew Currant at the Natural History Museum; Susanne Bangert at the
AshmoleanMuseum,UniversityofOxford;ClaireFreemanandJeremyCoote
viii Acknowledgements
at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford; Wendy Cawthorne at the Geological
SocietyofLondon;andthestaVintheRareBooksRoomandtheDepartment
ofManuscripts,CambridgeUniversityLibrary.
Theauthorwouldliketothankthefollowingforpermissiontoreproduce
publishedmaterial:theUniversityofAberdeen(Figs.4.4and4.5);Anthropos
(Fig. 8.11); Figure 5.9 is reproduced by permission of The Geologists’
Association from Proceedings of The Geologists’ Association, A. O’Connor,
‘Geology, Archaeology and ‘‘the raging vortex of the eolith controversy’’’,
114, pp. 255–262, Wg. 3(cid:1) 2003The Geologists’Association; and by permis-
sion of the Prehistoric Society. Figure 5.10 is reproduced by permission of
Blackwell Publishing from the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute:
S. H. Warren, ‘The Experimental Investigation of Flint Fracture and its
ApplicationtoProblemsofHumanImplements’,44,pp.412–450,Wg.11.
Images and extracts from archives are reproduced by permission of Uni-
versity of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology (Fig. 10.3:
W21/1/3); the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford; the BGS Library
Archive (Figs. 2.5, 2.7, 8.2); the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford; the
BritishLibrary;DerbyshireCountyCouncil:BuxtonMuseumandArtGallery
(wbd colln); the College Archives, Imperial College London; the Institute
of Archaeology, University College London (Fig. 10.1); the Institute of
Archaeology, University of Oxford (jacket picture and Fig. 5.2); Llyfrgell
Genedlaethol Cymru / The National Library of Wales; the National Portrait
Gallery, London (Fig. 5.4); the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford
(Figs. 5.1,5.3, 5.6,6.5, 8.9);thePrehistoricSociety(Figs. 5.9,6.9, 6.10,8.10,
9.2,9.5,9.6);Salisbury&SouthWiltshireMuseum;theSocietyofAntiquaries
ofLondon(Figs.8.1,8.6);theSyndicsofCambridgeUniversityLibrary(Figs.
1.1,6.4,7.2,9.1,9.3,10.4);EdinburghUniversityLibrary,SpecialCollections
Department (Fig. 2.1); the Oxford University Museum of Natural History;
Figures6.2 and 6.7 (cid:1) Copyright the Trustees of The British Museum. Many
thankstoJamesDyerandDerekRoeforsupplyingtheimagesforFigures3.7
and5.2respectively.
Images and extracts from archives are reproduced courtesy of the Geo-
logicalSocietyofLondon(Figs.1.2,1.4,1.5,2.3,2.4,5.5,5.7,6.3,6.6,8.3,8.4,
8.5, 8.12,10.2); Moray Council Museums Service(Fig. 1.3);and bycourtesy
oftheUniversityofLiverpoolLibrary(Fig.7.1).AllmaterialfromtheNHM
archives is used here by permission of the Trustees of the Natural History
Museum, London (including Figure 9.4, (cid:1) The Natural History Museum,
London).ArchivematerialisusedcourtesyoftheSedgwickMuseumofEarth
Sciences,UniversityofCambridge.
PermissiontoquotefromlettershaskindlybeengivenbyFrancisBurkitt;
A. N. Greenwell; Jane Fawcett (for the papers of T. McKenny Hughes); Nina
Acknowledgements ix
Laborde (for the papers of E. Ray Lankester); the Executors of the Leakey
Estate;LordLyell;ErikT.Paterson(forFig.10.3);CharlesA.I.Wood;andthe
nieces of Donald Baden-Powell. A reasonable eVort has been made to trace
copyright holders; if, however, anyone has further information that may
require a change to subsequent editions, please contact the author through
OxfordUniversityPress.