Just one object from these countries is from the PRM
founding collection: a stone arrow-head simply recorded as from ‘Palestine’ (1884.135.176).
The earliest dates of collection for these countries include an undated
fragment of polished marble from the Mount of Olives, collected by R.H. Inglis
in 1834 and transferred from the Ashmolean Museum in 1886 (1886.1.268), and an
assemblage of c. 20 archaeological
ceramic vessels and figures ‘brought back from Palestine, 1885–1887’, donated
to Ipswich Museum by Mercy Watson, and purchased by the PRM with a large
collection of other material from Ipswich Museum in 1966 (1967.29.32–35, 1967.29.59–62;
cf. 21.2.5 below). A small collection of 4 stone flakes from Galgala, Jordan
was donated from the estate of John Lubbock (Lord Avebury) in 1917 (1917.36.18).
As Finlayson observes in Chapter 22, the vast majority
of the collection from this region is made up of large assemblages from major
field projects, most notably the c. 2,885
objects collected by Dorothy Garrod from Israeli sites at Wadi Natuf (Shukbah [Shuqbah]
Cave) and Mount Carmel (Mugharet-el-Wad,
Mugharet-es-Skhul, Tabun) (1930.63,
1931.70, 1966.2.168–169), and the c. 531
objects collected by Francis Turville-Petre during fieldwork conducted through
the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem from Israeli sites including Mugharet el Emireh,
Mugharet el Kebarah (Mount Carmel) and Deishun (1923.29, 1925.48, 1929.55,
1932.65). Garrod and Turville-Petre had both read for the Diploma in
Anthropology at Oxford University in 1921, where their close relationship with
the PRM began. Similarly, of the c. 1,099
archaeological artefacts from Jordan, some 1,063 were collected by Alison Betts
during fieldwork at Ibn el Ghazzi and in the Arabian Desert (1984.21, 1986.8).
Since these collections were often divided between numerous institutions, the
research value of this material needs to be assessed in collaboration with
those other museums. Building such collaborations is a major priority for
future research into the PRM’s Middle Eastern archaeological collections.
21.2.2 Iraq
The PRM holds c. 323
archaeological objects from Iraq. Some 24 of these formed part of the PRM
founding collection: 4 Neo-Babylonian
cuneiform tablets (1884.98.9–12, Figure 21.1),
8 stone seals (1884.140.451, 1884.140.456, 1884.140.459–462, 1884.140.470–471), 11
undated ceramic lamps 1884.116.56–66), and a cast of a stone tool from the
British Museum (1884.125.151). The seals are unstudied and undated. The
cuneiform tablets date from c. 626–539 BCE, and were purchased by Pitt-Rivers in April
1878 from a Sotheby’s sale of William
Chadwicke Neligan’s collection. After their deposition in the PRM, translations
of the tablets were published by A.H. Sayce, an Oxford-based Assyriologist
(Sayce 1889). All 4 tablets are private business documents, and
seem to belong to the so-called Egibi archive: a family archive covering 120 years
(606–482 BCE), extending into the Achemenid period.
The Museum holds 3 more cuneiform tablets, a brick fragment bearing an
inscription, 2 bone cylinder seals, and 9 casts of cuneiform tablets and
cylinder seals. Two of the cuneiform tablets, from the Ur III period (2100–2000 BCE), were purchased by the PRM in 1900 from
George Fabian Lawrence, and are probably from the site of Telloh (1900.64.1–2). One (1900.64.1) is a four-column account of barley
from the 44th year of Shulgi, the second king of the Ur III Dynasty. The other
(1900.64.2) is a small account of temple livestock (Figure 21.2). Due to its unfinished appearance and many
irregularities this text is most likely a school exercise or model account:
such texts are rare from this period even considering our c.100.000 known texts in collections across the globe from this
100-year period. A third cuneiform tablet – known as the ‘Singashid Tablet’ –
is recorded as from Uruk, and was donated in 1966 from the estate of Denis
Alfred Jex Buxton (1966.32.76). These 3 tablets are unpublished. Another
artefact bearing an inscription – a Neo-Babylonian brick fragment (1891.60.2) -
mentions Nebuchadnezzar II, and was transferred from the OUMNH in 1891, but its
earlier history is currently unknown. Two bone cylinder seals, collected by
Helen Maria Dennis in the early 20th century, were donated in 1968 (1968.9.1–2).
There are also 9 casts of tablets and seals: one donated by Cuthbert Edgar Peek
(1892.26.2), 7 from the collection of E.B. Tylor (1917.53.698, 1917.53.795–801,
1917.53.808), and one donated by Winifred Susan Blackman (1920.45.1).
The largest single component of the
PRM’s archaeological collections from Iraq comes from the site of Kish: a
Bronze Age site located c. 80 km
south of Baghdad on the floodplain of the River Euphrates, which was the focus
of a joint project between the University of Oxford and the Field Museum,
Chicago – known as the Weld-Blundel Expedition because it was backed
financially by Herbert Weld Blundell – that ran from 1923 to 1933 (Langdon
1924, 1930; Langdon and Watelin 1934). Criticized as ‘badly excavated…badly
recorded and…badly published’ (Lloyd 1969: 48), the results of the excavations
were partly published by Mcguire Gibson and by Roger Moorey in the 1970s
(Gibson 1972; Moorey 1978). More recently, the Field Museum has developed a
digitized archive of the excavations. The material recovered from Kish was divided between
the Iraq Museum in Baghdad, the Field Museum, and the Ashmolean Museum (e.g.
Langdon 1928), but c. 123 objects
from the site came to the PRM.
The PRM material from Kish dates mainly
from the Neolithic or Early Chalcolithic periods (6th–5th millennia BCE).
Accordingly, all of the material from Kish comprises stone tools, apart from a
cast (discussed below), a ceramic sickle (also discussed below), and a single
copper nail probably of early Bronze Age date (mid 3rd millennium BCE), recorded as ‘from the rim of a chariot
in
grave Y529’ (1943.3.45). Henry Balfour’s
archaeological interests in flintwork (Curator 1891–1939) were certainly a
central factor in the PRM’s acquisition of this material. Also very
significant, however, was Thomas K. Penniman’s participation in the 1928–1929
excavation season at Kish, shortly after completing his Diploma in Anthropology
at Oxford. The Oxford University Gazette records that Penniman was given a
room and ‘other facilities’ in the Department of Human Anatomy, then located in
the University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH) from 1929 ‘for the purpose of
mending the skeletal material which he excavated at Kish ... and of preparing a
report on the graves excavated during that season.’
Penniman took up the position of Curator of the PRM
after Balfour’s death in 1939.
Most of the Kish flintwork – c.
105 objects – came to the PRM in two donations by Herbert Joseph and the
Weld-Blundel Expedition in 1926 and 1932. These donations comprised material of
Neolithic or early Chalcolithic date (6th millennium BCE): c. 22 serrated ‘sickle-edged’ flint flakes (1926.46.3–7, (1932.64.1–18),
2 further flint tools with serrated edges ((1932.64.67–68), 42 awls (1932.64.19–60),
6 further flint scrapers and discs (1932.64.61–66), and a further unquantified
assemblage of flintwork (1926.46.7–9, 1932.64.69–78). The PRM also holds 2
objects from the site of Jesmet Nasr, c. 16
miles to the east of Kish, collected by the Weld-Blundel Expedition: a flint
core (1926.46.2), and an object described as a ‘ceramic sickle (jawbone
shaped), for edging with serrated flint-flakes set in pitch or other adhesive’,
probably dating from the 5th or 4th millennium BCE (1926.46.1).
Some 17 further artefacts from Kish were donated by Penniman himself,
in 4 separate donations: a collection of 9 chert cores and blades donated (1944.11.2),
and recorded as ‘from factories in Y area, 3–6 metres below modern plain
level’; the copper nail mentioned above; 2 flint borers (1943.3.46–47); and 4
serrated fragments of flint saws or sickle blades from ‘between Jesmet Hasr
layer and Dynastic or Royal Tomb stratum, Chalcolithic date’ at ‘Tal Ingharra’,
one of which is set in bitumen (1929.21.1, 1941.10.54–56). In the first years
of his Curatorship. Penniman oversaw the purchase by the PRM of a cast of a
rare terracotta head recorded as ‘from red stratum, Harsagkalamma’, made in Oxford around 1930 (1941.12.1 B). A duplicate
exists in the Ashmolean (Moorey 2004: 68–9), but the original was kept in
National Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad. Penniman is recorded on the PRM
catalogue as the ‘co-excavator’ of the original object, with Louis Charles
Watelin. Penniman later donated c. 51 photographic negatives from the
1928–1929 excavations (1971.16.1–2, 1998.282.25.1–2), as well as copies of some
of the pages of his fieldnotes and correspondence (Figures 23.3 and 23.4). The location of the full set of fieldnotes is
currently unknown. Penniman’s unpublished autobiography includes an account of life at the site, but limited
information about the finds.
Also from Kish is a single ceramic sherd, transferred from the
Ashmolean Museum in 1950 (1950.5.25, Ashmolean Museum number 1930.236a). Arthur
Evans is (perhaps incorrectly) identified as possibly the field collector for
this object.
Apart from the material from Kish, there are a
number of smaller donations. These include c.
11 flint and obsidian tools collected at Ur by Arnold Walter Lawrence (1923.10.1–11);
5 stone cores from Makertou, collected through the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in
1923 and donated through the British Museum (1925.5.1–5); and 2 undated ceramic
lamps collected by Henry Balfour (1932.88.499, 1932.88.516). There is also a
collection of c. 23 Neolithic and
Bronze Age ceramic sherds transferred from the Ashmolean Museum in 1950: from
the sites of Tell Arpachiyah (1950.5.20), Eridu (1950.5.22), Ur (1950.5.23), Samarra (1950.5.24),
Jemdet Nasr (1950.5.26), and Ninevah
(1950.5.27). A further assemblage of c.
5 ceramic sherds from Jesmet Nasr was acquired through an exchange with
Newbury Museum, per Herbert Henery Coghlan, having previously been obtained
through an exchange with Chicago Natural History Museum (1951.11.1–5). A
fragment of a ceramic sickle – also from Jesmet Masr – was donated from the
estate of Leonard Halford Dudley Buxton in 1959 (1959.2.49). A Bronze Age ceramic vessel from southern Iraq was
also from Buxton’s collection (1966.32.52), as well as the clay tablet
mentioned above (1966.32.76). There are 3 pieces of 8th-century BCE iron tripod
from Nimrud, which were donated from the British Museum in 1953 for
metallurgical analysis (1953.6.1). Seven sherds of Chinese Tang Dynasty
ceramics were obtained through an exchange with the National Museum of Iraq in
1957 (1957.5.2–8). Finally, there is also an undated ceramic tobacco pipe bowl
collected from a cave in the Bradost Mountains by the Oxford University
Expedition to Iraqi Kurdistan (1957.7.6); and 6 Palaeolithic stone tools
collected by Dorothy Garrod from Tarjil, Kirkuk, which came to the Museum
through the purchase of collections from the Ipswich Museum in 1966 (1966.2.152).
21.2.3 Saudi
Arabia
There are c. 227 ‘archaeological’ objects from
Saudi Arabia. However, this is only a rough estimate, since all but 3 of these
objects are from an unquantified assemblage of material collected by Richard
Francis Burton from the site of ‘Midian’ – a name used by Burton to describe a
mountainous area to the south-west of the Gulf of Aqaba, on the east coast of
the Red Sea in western Saudi Arabia (Burton 1878). An estimated 101 stone
flakes collected by Burton from ‘Midian’ came to the Museum as part of the PRM
founding collection (1884.132.90, 1884.132.164). The PRM’s primary
documentation does not record when or how these objects came into Pitt-Rivers’
own collection. However, it is probable that they were collected in
archaeological activities conducted during Burton’s participation in the
‘Second Khedevial Expedition’ of 1878–1879, the main purpose of which was to
find gold. Details of the expedition were published in the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London (Burton 1879a)
and in his two-volume The Land of Midian
(revisited) (Burton 1879b). In the first volume of The Land of Midian (revisited) (Burton 1879b), Burton appears to
describe collecting this assemblage of stone tools at the site of Maghair
Shu’ayb:
‘The principal ruins of ancient settlements, and the
ateliers, all of them showing vestiges of metal-working, numbered eight: these
are, beginning from the south, Tiryam, Sharma, ‘Aynunah, the Jebel el-Abyaz,
Maghair Shu’ayb, Makna’, Tayyib Ism, and El- ‘Akabah. Maghair Hhu’ayb, the
Madiama of Ptolemy, is evidently the ancient capital of the district. It was
the only place which supplied Midianitish (Nabathaan) coins. Moreover, it
yielded graffiti from the catacombs, fragments of bronze which it will be
interesting to compare by assay with the metal of the European prehistoric age,
and, finally, stone implements, worked as well as rude’ (Burton 1879b: 267).
Indeed, Burton records that
‘The little “find” of stone implements, rude and
worked, and the instruments illustrating the mining industry of the country,
appeared before the Anthropological Section of the British Association, which
met at Dublin (August 1878), and again before the Anthropological Institute of
London, December 10 1878’ (Burton 1879b: xv).
These two exhibitions would have provided Pitt-Rivers
with the opportunity of obtaining the stone tools. A further collection of c. 13 stone tools and c. 110
fragments of copper alloy objects and specimens of copper ore were given
directly to the PRM by Burton in September 1886 (1886.10.1–6), and probably
derive from the same expedition. This may include items described by Burton in 1879 as
‘my private collection of mineralogical specimens [which] was deposited with
Professor M.H.N. Story-Maskelyne’ (Burton 1879b: xv). There are also some plant
specimens from the same site (1886.10.13). All of these assemblages of material
collected by Burton in Saudi Arabia remains unstudied, undated and
unquantified.
The remaining 3 objects from Saudi Arabia are 3 ceramic clay pipe bowls
collected by E.H. Brown and purchased from J. Thornton & Sons of Broad
Street, Oxford in 1960 (1960.4.5–7 B).
21.2.4 Syria
The PRM holds c.
132 archaeological objects from Syria. This figure is only a rough
estimate, however, since most of the collection is made up of an unquantified
and unsorted assemblage of c. 100
Neolithic artefacts from excavations at Abu Hureyra, collected by during
fieldwork by Andrew Moore in 1973 (1973.17.1). The artefacts from the project
were divided between the Aleppo Museum (around 50%), and ten British museums
that contributed to the project (Moore et
al. 2000: 457). According to the
excavation report (Moore et al. 2000:
548, table A7.1), the PRM assemblage derives from the 1973 excavations of
Trench E3 (‘levels 58–94’), and from a collection from surface of the site
(1971 season) (Moore et al. 2000:
221–241). In total there are 11 4-litre boxes of lithic material, all noted
with context data, and a box of obsidian pieces from Trench E3.
The remaining material comprises 3
objects from the PRMF. Two of these are specimens of human hair recorded as
from a mummy at Palmyra (Tadmur), collected by Richard Burton (1884.106.40–41).
This appears to have been collected by Burton during his expedition to the Holy
Land in 1870–1871 (Burton 1872: 105; Carter
Blake 1872). Mummified human remains and specimens of hair are among those
items listed in Burton’s a ‘Catalogue Raisonné of an Anthropological Collection
made in Syria and Palestine between Apr. 15 1870 and Aug. 6 1871’ (Burton and
Carter Blake 1872: 303). The other item from the PRM founding collection is a
Roman copper alloy fibula recorded as ‘possibly Syrian’ (1884.79.48). An object
recorded as a ‘fragment of bone breccia’ from Nahr el Kelb was donated by Henry
Balfour in 1898 (1898.20.60). Four flints recorded as from Aleppo, and
interpreted as being from a tribulum (threshing tool), were obtained by
exchange with Edward Lovett in 1903 (1903.42.3–6). Two further chert blades, interpreted as part of a
tribulum were purchased from Archibald Colquhoun Bell in 1920 (1921.91.112–113).
An undated ceramic lamp from Palmyra was purchased from ‘Miss K.M.
Reynolds’ (1909.68.19), along with an object recorded as a Neolithic stone axe
used as a healing stone (1910.71.3). Other undated objects comprise a polished
stone axe mounted in silver as a pendant, collected by David George Hogarth at
Jarabulus (1912.22.1), and c. 14
chert and obsidian blades, flakes and scrapers recovered during ‘amateur
wartime excavations by French troops’ at Antioch, donated by Herbert Vander
Vord Noone (1947.9.69–71). A sherd of Neolithic pottery from the site of
Chargar Bazar was transferred from the Ashmolean Museum in 1950 (1950.5.21). A
carburized steel socketed spear-head from Deve Hüyük was also transferred from
the Ashmolean Museum, for metallurgical analysis, in 1953 (1953.1.32). Finally,
a ceramic jug from Al Mina (1966.32.32) and a string of stone beads from
northern Syria (1966.32.59) were donated from the estate of Denis Buxton in
1966 (1966.32.59).
21.2.5 Lebanon
The PRM holds c. 92 ‘archaeological’ artefacts from Lebanon. The first
accessioned material was an unaquantified assemblage (estimated as 10 objects)
of stone cores and flakes from Ras Beirut, donated by John Evans in 1892 (1892.25.7).
Also from John Evans’ collection, donated from his estate in 1928, are two
‘fragments of implentiferous breccia from the Pass of Nahr-el-Kelb’ (1928.68.486–487).
A collection of c. 11 undated stone
tools from Byblos, Nahr el Kelb and the Beqaa Valley was donated by R.B.
Heidenstrom in 1931 (1931.40.1–11). Two Classical Greek ceramic lekthoi (5th–4th centuries BCE),
recorded as from a tomb in Tyre, were donated by William Brown Keer in October
1897 (1897.47.1–2). There are also
5 undated glass phials, a stone tesserae and a ceramic lamp ‘from the site of
ancient Tyre’, collected by Eustace Fulcrand Bosanquet (1934.32.1–7); and a
murex shell ‘from the ruins of a Roman villa in the sands south of Beirut’
collected by Dorothy Mary Mackay (1952.1.7).
The largest component of the Lebanese material comprises an assemblage
of c. 11 glass scent bottles ‘taken
from tombs near Tyre and Sidon’, and c. 50
fragments of glass from multiple sites (1967.29.63, 1967.29.122), were among a
collection of objects ‘brought back from Palestine, 1885-1887’, donated to
Ipswich Museum by Mercy Watson, and purchased by the PRM with a large
collection of other material from Ipswich Museum in 1966 (cf. 21.2.1 above).
21.2.6 Iran
There are c. 19 ‘archaeological’ objects that are
recorded as from Iran. Four of these are undated stone thumb-rings: 3 from the
Tradescant collection, transferred from the Ashmolean Museum in 1886 (1886.1.54–56), and one from the collection of E.B. Tylor (1917.53.263).
There are 4 undated ceramic lamps: 3 from the collection of Henry Balfour (1932.88.479–481),
and one from the collection of Frederick William Rollins (1966.3.107). There
are also 2 undated (‘ancient’) iron padlocks, purchased from the Church
Missionary Society in 1965 (1965.12.40A, 1965.12.40B).
There is also a collection of 8 Bronze Age ceramic jars from Giyan Tepe
(‘Giyan
IV–III’), that were received from the estate of Denis
Alfred Jex Buxton in 1966 (1966.32.64–67, 1966.32.70–71, 1966.32.73, 1966.32.75).
One of the vessels (1966.32.70) has the note ‘Tepe Gigyan (Louvre) Ghirshman or
Contenain’ written on its side: a reference to the excavators of Giyan Tepe
from 1931–1932 (Contenau and Ghirshman 1933). There is also an object, from the
Adrien de Mortillet collection of amulets, which came to the PRM through the
Wellcome Collection in 1985, which is described as ‘a crescent of tin, found in
a tumulus near Damagan’ [Damghan] (1985.52.179).
21.2.7 Yemen
The PRM holds just 5 artefacts from Yemen that are currently defined as
‘archaeological’. There are 2 leather synagogue rolls containing the
Pentateuch, of 12th-, 13th- or 14th-century CE date, from the PRM founding
collection (1884.98.7–8). The other artefacts are 3 unidentified wooden objects
from the island of Socotra, collected on 10 January 1897 ‘from a limestone cave
together with a great accumulation of human bones from which the flesh had
decomposed previous to interment, near Ras Momi’ by Mabel Bent and James
Theodore Bent, and passed to the PRM from the estate of E.B. Tylor in 1917 (1917.53.670–672).
These objects were described by the Bents as follows ‘carved wooden objects which
looked as it they had originally served as crosses to mark the tombs, in which
the corpses had been permitted to decay prior to their removal to the
charnel-house’ (Bent and Bent 1900: 356), although in a review of the objects
Peter Shinnie (1960: 110, note 2) suggested that they ‘look much more like
wooden clubs’. These wooden objects remain unstudied and undated.
21.3 South Asia
21.3.1 India and
Sri Lanka
The PRM
holds c. 5,449 ‘archaeological’
objects from India, and c. 1,580 from
Sri Lanka. These c. 7,029 objects are
discussed in detail in Chapter 23. There are some 180 ‘archaeological’ objects
from the PRM founding collection from India, and none from Sri Lanka. The Indian
archaeological collections mainly comprise prehistoric stone tools – very many
of which are Palaeolithic in date – although there are also some significant
collections from historical periods. The collections were largely formed
through the collecting activities of a small number of key individuals in the
history of South Asian archaeology and ethnography, including Robert Bruce
Foote, Frederick John Richards, John Henry Hutton, James Philip Mills, Walter
Seton-Karr, Charles and Zara Seligman, Charles Hartley, and K.R.U. Todd. The
enormous Todd collection – which comprises c.
2,157 stone tools from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, India – is a major unstudied
assemblage of Palaeolithic material (see sections 23.2.2 and 23.2.5). The
historical material includes an assemblage from the PRM founding collection
excavated by Edward Horace Man from a kitchen midden at Port Blair harbour in
the Andaman Islands (see section 23.2.15), and a collection of Buddhist clay
models (chatyas) collected in Sri
Lanka in the 1850s (see section 23.3)
21.3.2 Pakistan
There are c. 235
‘archaeological’ artefacts from Pakista4n. Some 40 of these are from the PRM
founding collection: c. 38 stone cores and flakes from the Rohri
Hills (1884.131.34–35, 1884.131.39, 1884.131.46–60, 1884.131.119–121,
1884.131.185–201), and 2 stone flakes from the bank of the River Indus, one of
which is recorded as from Sukkur, Sindh Province (1884.131.36, 1884.131.122).
Later
acquisitions include c. 8 stone cores from the Rohri Hills from the
collection of John Lubbock (Lord Avebury), which were transferred from the
Ashmolean Museum in 1886 (1886.1.250), and 3 more stone flakes from the Rohri
Hills donated by Thomas Humfrey Vines in 1919 (1919.49.1–3). These stone tools are
currently unexamined and therefore undated, but since the Rohri Hills are a
significant region in the Palaeolithic of India – an area in which ‘the first
Palaeolithic sites… were discovered by Allchin in 1975’ (Biagi and Cremaschi
1988: 421) – the nature of the early fieldwork and collecting activity
reflected in these objects clearly requires further investigation. Another
chert core, recorded as from the Indus River, is recorded as collected by
‘Twemlow in 1866’, and was donated from the John Evans collection in 1928 (1928.68.241).
In October 1866, John Evans published in Geological Magazine a letter by
George Twemlow. The letter described the discovery of 3 chert cores ‘three feet
below the rock in the bed of the river (Indus)’ by Twemlow’s son, Edward D’Oyly
Twemlow, who was a Lieutenant in the Royal Bombay Engineers). The letter was
reproduced with a plate showing the stone cores (Evans 1866: plate XVI), and a
commentary by Evans, which suggested that they were Neolithic (rather than
Palaeolithic) in date (Evans 1866). Twemlow published a drawn section of the
location of the find-spot, provided by his son (Twemlow 1867), and used the
stone cores as a central part of his argument in his book Facts and Fossils
adduced to prove the Deluge of Noah, and modify the transmutation system of
Darwin, with some notices regarding Indus flint cores (Twemlow 1866). It is
possible that 2 two stone cores recorded as from the River Indus in the PRM
founding collection, mentioned above, were also collected by Twemlow, but a
number of other early publications also describe stone cores and flakes
collected from this region (e.g. Blanford 1875). There is also a single chert
core, from the collection of G.F. Lawrence and recorded as from Sindh Province,
that was purchased at Stevens Auction Rooms in May 1922 (1922.61.3),
There are c.
28 artefacts from the site of Harappa (Sahiwal District, Punjab Province): c.
11 ceramic, bone and stone objects donated by John Henry Hutton in 1928 (1928.7.2),
and c. 17 faience, ceramic and stone objects collected by Stuart Piggott
(1953.1.9–14, 1956.12.37, 1957.5.10) obtained from Newbury Museum in an
exchange in 1953. Also collected by Piggott and obtained from Newbury Museum
are 3 ceramic sherds and c. 24 stone tools from the Tharro Hills (1956.12.24,
1956.12.38), and 9 ceramic sherds from Mohenjo-daro (1956.12.25). Further
artefacts transferred from Newbury Museum, per Herbert Henery Coghlan, comprise
a Bronze Age ceramic cup and 2 ceramic sherds from the site of Nal, Balochistan
Province (1953.1.15–17); a ceramic sherd from Armi (Dadu District, Sindh
Province) (1953.1.8); 6 ceramic sherds from the site of Mohenjo-Daro (Larkana
Province, Sindh Province) (1953.1.3–6, 1957.5.9), and a ceramic sherd from the
site of Chanu-daro (Nawabshah District, Sindh Province) (1953.1.7). There are also further
donations of Bronze Age objects from Mohenjo-Daro and Chanu-daro. From the
Chanu-daro there is an unquantified assemblage of c. 58 steatite and carnelian beads and perforated stone discs
donated by Ernest John Henry Mackay in 1936 (1936.51.1, 1950.9.4–11); and
another assemblage of perhaps 10 very small ceramic beads collected by John
Arkell (1971.15.1213). From
Mohenjo-daro there are 9 casts of Bronze Age seals, donated by Maharaja
Mayurdwajsinhji Meghrajji III (1955.12.1–9).
From the site
of Gandhara (Peshawar District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province), there is a carved stone panel ‘from
an Indian temple’ donated by Oliver H. Wild in December 1933 (1933.20.7), and a
limestone frieze purchased from Ipswich Museum in 1966 (1966.1.1452). Also from
Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa Province is an unquantified assemblage of c. 10 ceramic sherds from
Bedali (Hazara Province) donated from the estate of Marc Aurel Stein (1944.5.13);
2 carved stone figures from the Vale of Peshawar donated by E. Joseph (1946.5.61–62);
a bronze spear-head from the Swat Valley donated by W. Ryder (1946.2.41); 2 coins collected
by A.R. Nye from Charsadda (1956.8.4–5); and 2 agate beads – one from Swat District and Ganhara, acquired Schuyler
Jones (Curator of the PRM) in the 1980s and 1990s (1989.22.35, 1995.46.1).
21.3.3 The Rest of South Asia
There are 2
‘archaeological’ objects from Nepal: an undated stone figure of Kali from the PRM
founding collection (1884.59.29), and an agate bead ‘from a prehistoric grave’
donated by John Henry Hutton in 1928 (1928.7.1). There are also just 2 objects
from Afghanistan: 2 forged gold coins of Pixodaros of Caria, donated by Richard
Carnac Temple in 1892 (1892.41.535–536). Elsewhere in South Asia, there are no
‘archaeological’ objects from the Maldives, Bangladesh or Bhutan.
21.4 South-East Asia
21.4.1 Malaysia
and Myanmar
The PRM holds c. 355 ‘archaeological’ objects from
Malaysia, and c. 246 from Myanmar
(Burma). These are discussed in detail by Huw Barton in Chapter 26. There are c. 15 ‘archaeological’ objects from the PRM
founding collection that are recorded as from Myanmar, and just one from
Malaysia, all of which are stone tools. The archaeological materials from this
region are virtually unstudied (cf. Dudley 1996), but include a number of significant
collections, including copper or bronze objects (see section 26.3.4), and a
collection of Buddhist votive offerings excavated by Richard Carnac Temple (see
section 26.3.5), as well a stone tools, charms and touchstones (sections 26.3.1–2).
21.4.2 Thailand
The PRM holds c. 80 ‘archaeological’ objects from
Thailand. The first object to be accessioned was a bronze figure of Buddha,
collected by biologist Richard Evans on the Skeat expedition to the Malay
Peninsula in 1899–1900, and recorded as ‘found below the Great Statue of Buddha
at Ayuthia, Siam’ [Ayutthaya] (1900.52.9). There is also an undated assemblage
of c. 60 Buddhist votive artefacts
excavated from 2 caves by W.G. Steffen, and purchased by the PRM from Thomas
Nelson Annandale: one at Kao Wat Han rock, 6 miles east of Huai Yot (Trang
Province), and one on ‘Kao Sai mountain’. These comprise c. 42 stamped clay tablets (1902.88.535–554, 2004.68.1–12), c. 14 engraved copper tablets (1902.88.555–567,
1902.88.574), 2 bronze Buddha figures (1902.88.568–569), a wooden Buddha figure
(1902.88.570), and a fragment of a ceramic bowl (1902.88.575). The ceramic
tablets were published by Steffen and Annandale in 1902 (Steffen and Annandale
1902; cf. Annandale et al. 1907).
There are also c. 19 ceramic sherds
donated by H.G. Quarich Wales from his 1956 excavations at early Buddhist sites
at Thamen Chai and Muang Pet [Phret], Nakhon Ratchasima Province (Wales 1957) (1956.5.1–19).
21.4.3 The Rest
of South–East Asia
There are 5 archaeological
objects from Vietnam. There is a single stone adze, donated by William Sollas
in 1912 (1912.2.1). There are also 4 objects loaned by the Musée de l'Homme in
the 1950s, probably for the PRM’s programme of metallurgical analysis: 2 bronze
axes dating from c. 40–50 CE,
collected by Paul Lévy, from the Vayson de Preadenne collection (1954.9.01–02),
and 2 casts of bronze axes (1957.1.3–4).
There are 6 ‘archaeological’ objects
from Indonesia, all of which are stone tools. These comprise 5 axes, collected
by V.J. Allard, recorded as Lower Palaeolithic in date, from North Sumatra (1932.38.1–5),
and a possibly natural stone collected by V.A. Stein Callenfels, and donated
from the collection of Charles and Brenda Seligman (1940.12.855).
Elsewhere in South-East Asia, there is a single ‘archaeological’ object from
Cambodia: an undated perforated shell pendant from the Adrien de Mortillet
collection of amulets, which came to the PRM through the Wellcome Collection in
1985 (1985.52.144). There are no
‘archaeological’ objects from Tibet, the
Philippines, or Laos.
21.5 East Asia
21.5.1 Japan
The PRM holds c. 510 ‘archaeological’
objects from Japan, which are discussed in some detail in Chapter 24. However,
that review – and the current PRM catalogue definitions – do not include any
Edo-Period material within the ‘archaeological’ collections, so this number of
Japanese archaeological artefacts may (as with other parts of the world) omit
other significant collections. Some 13 of these objects are from the PRM
founding collection. While the documentation is very minimal for these objects
at present, Pitt-Rivers attended the International Congress of Prehistoric
Archaeology in Norwich in 1868, at which A.W. Franks gave a paper titled ‘Notes
on the discovery of stone implements in Japan’ (Franks 1869), which indicates
one possible source for these objects. Most of the material acquired after 1883 comprises a
collection of c. 292 stone tools and
ceramics collected by Basil Hall Chamberlain, and donated to the PRM between
1892 and 1908 (cf. Chamberlain 1895).
21.5.2 China
The PRM holds c. 253
‘archaeological’ objects from China, which are discussed in detail in Chapter 25
by Lucas Nickel. As well as c. 20
objects from the PRM founding collection, there is a rare collection of organic materials made by Aurel
Stein, donated to the PRM in 1944 (see section 25.3.1), a significant
numismatic collection, and a rubbing of the Nestorian stele (sections 25.3.2–3).
21.5.3 North
Korea and South Korea
There are c. 51
‘archaeological’ objects from North Korea and South Korea. There are 3 Korai
Dynasty ceramic bowls and a bronze vessel (broken into two parts) ‘from a tomb
near Seoul’ purchased from S. Wakefield in November 1907 (1907.80.2–4,
2005.36.1). There are also c. 37
objects – c. 6 stone slabs, c. 7 sections of bronze armour and c. 24 bronze vessels, tweezers, and
other bronze objects – ‘found in ancient tombs in Korea’ that were purchased at
Stevens Auction Rooms in March 1913 (1913.67.2–37). The remaining 9 objects comprise 2 stone arrow-heads,
a bronze arrow-head and 2 bronze ear-scoops from Korea donated by Louis
Colville Gray Clarke in 1921 (1921.7.23–25, 1938.1.23–24); 3 bronze spoons ‘excavated
at the Royal Tombs, Kang-Hwa, River Han’ by ‘Mrs Sprott’ in 1910 were donated
by Harry Geoffrey Beasley in September 1923 (1923.38.1–3); and an undated iron
figure of an animal from Korea from the collection of A.S. Hewlett in was
purchased from Sydney Gerald Hewlett in 1934 (1934.63.16).
21.6 Central and Northern Asia
21.6.1 Russia
There are c. 42
‘archaeological’ objects from Russia. Some 35 of these were donated by Polish-born
anthropologist Marie Antoinette Czaplicka, having been purchased by her (some directly
from the Minusinsk Museum) during a joint PRM-Pennsylvania University Museum
expedition (with artist Dora Curtis and ornithologist Maud Haviland) to Yenisei
Province, Siberia in 1914, funded by the Committee for Anthropology of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science and a Mary Ewart scholarship from Somerville College,
Oxford. Czaplicka had studied Ethnology at the London
School of Economics, graduating in 1910. She received a
Diploma in Anthropology from the University of Oxford, studying under R.R.
Marrett, in 1912, (Collins and Urry 1997; Kubica 2007), and published
a series of papers on the ethnology of Siberia before her early death in 1921
(Czaplicka 1914a, 1914b, 1915, 1921, 1999). The main body of
material is recorded as found on ‘pasture-land’, ‘dunes’ and other sites near
Minusinsk, and comprises c. 22
objects: 8 iron arrow-heads, a
bronze socketed axe, a bronze stud, 2 bronze pins, 6 bronze knives, a copper
alloy button, 2 ground stone objects, a ceramic spindle-whorl and an
unidentified bronze object – (1915.50.2–23). There is a small range of material
from burial sites: a bronze dagger ‘from a kurgan, Abakan Steppe’ (1915.50.1);
a wooden reindeer-driving pole ‘from a Yurak grave’ (1915.50.128); 2 wooden
figures, of a raven and a fish, ‘from the grave of Nakte, a Tungus shaman of
Yakut origin’ (1915.50.129–130); a bow-drill ‘from a grave on the tundra, N. of
the Arctic Circle, East of the Yenesei River’ (1915.50.55); a reindeer-horn
head-stall ‘from a Samoyed grave, mouth of the Yenesei River’ (1915.50.88); and
‘an ancient [sheathed] Samoyed knife found by the grave of a Samoyed of the
Tharasinskaya Orda near the east bank of the Yenisei at Golchikha July 1st
1914’ (1915.50.52–53). There are also 2 undated soapstone figures (1915.50.148),
and an undated bronze figure ‘found on the bank of a tributary of the Yenesei,
near Golchika’ (1915.50.139).
Apart from the material
donated by Czaplicka, there is also a bronze socketed axe ‘of south Siberian
type’ donated by Louis Colville Gray Clarke (1921.53.19), a single stone flake
simply recorded as from Russia, donated by Alfred Schwartz Barnes (1940.4.24),
and a slate leaf-shaped blade from the Kamchatka Peninsula collected in 1891,
and transferred from the OUMNH in 1953 (1953.6.54). There is also a collection
of 4 bronze figures, in the shapes of animal heads, that are recorded as Iron
Age in date, and perforated for suspension as amulets at a later date, from the
Adrien de Mortillet collection of amulets, which came to the PRM through the
Wellcome Collection in 1985 (1985.52.1011, 1985.52.220, 1985.52.493).
21.7 Conclusions
The
archaeological collections from Asia are as diverse as the continent, and are
dominated by the large stone tool collections from the Indian subcontinent and
the Middle East. Beyond the larger collections, however, smaller archaeological
assemblages also hold much potential: whether the Czaplicka collections from
Russia, the early collections from south-east Asia, Japan and China, or the
unstudied archaeological material from Kish in Iraq. Future research into the
Asian archaeological collections may involve both projects looking at large
assemblages, but also research focused on small bodies of material or
individual items. In each region, as elsewhere, the boundaries between
‘archaeology’, ‘ethnography’, and historical collections are blurred: but in
many different and often challenging ways.
Acknowledgements
I am
grateful to Jacob Dahl for examining the cuneiform tablets and providing
further information about these for this report.
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