Victorian Pioneers of Archaeology
Our March meeting saw 35 members and guests hear Katherine
Baxter, curator of archaeology for Leeds Museums and Galleries deliver
a fascinating presentation on the Victorian Pioneers of Archaeology. Katherine
has been in post in Leeds since 2005, and previously worked for three
years at the Manchester Museum. Her particular areas of interest are the
Middle East and human remains. Last year Katherine took time out from
her day job in Leeds to spend a year sabbatical in Canada.
She began her talk by saying she would tell us about some of the eccentric
characters who were the leaders of the development of archaeology as a
science, and ended by bringing us up to date on some of the ethical issues
now associated with the acquisition of ancient artefacts. She explained
that the first artefacts were collected by wealthy Europeans taking the
Grand Tour, who thought nothing of filling their trunks with finds and
displaying them on their return in 'Wunderkammer' or Cabinets of Wonder.
Katherine informed us the first person to develop rules and processes
to support a dig was the Danish archaeologist Christian Thomsen who, during
the 19th century pioneered the three-age dating system, which is still
in use today. This identified three consecutive time periods, the Stone
Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age which was based on the tool making
technologies of the time.
She
then went on to explain a major event which allowed budding archaeologists
to make giant strides forward - the finding and subsequent interpretation
of the Rosetta Stone, a feat attributed to Frenchman Jean Francois Champollion.
We were delighted therefore to hear her then describe the work of another
important Victorian archaeologist the English novelist Amelia Edwards
who developed an all consuming interest in Egyptology following a trip
down the Nile in the 1870's. This seemed to spark a golden age in archaeology,
and other significant participants were Flinders Petrie, who it
seems supplied most museums in England with ancient finds, and Heinrich
Schliemann who discovered Troy. Both these gentlemen appeared flawed however.
Petrie had such a high opinion of his own intellect that on his death
he donated his head to the Royal College of Surgeons believing they could
learn much from studying such a tremendous brain. And Schliemann was not
above having objects created and buried in order for him to 'discover'
them later.
Issues like these as well as the practice of removing significant finds
from the country of origin have led to changes in archaeological practice,
and nowadays no museum would purchase overseas objects, or indeed acquire
any objects without observing defined protocols. However argument still
rages for example over the Elgin Marbles where the British Museum is steadfastly
resisting requests for them to be returned to Greece. Ending with some
lovely images of the displays in the Leeds Museum Katherine had held her
audience spellbound for over an hour. We were all left wondering how she
had managed to pack so much interesting information into such a short
time.
The next meeting on Monday 18th April will be an illustrated talk by James Lomax on Lady Meynell Ingram - Victorian Chatelaine Extraordinaire . This will be followed by the annual Pea and Pie Supper.