tour 15 of 15
Enlightenment: The Birth of Archaeology
The Stockbridge urn
This collared urn was found turned upside down
covering a human cremation and other objects in a round barrow at
Stockbridge in Hampshire. It is similar to material discovered on
Salisbury Plain by Sir Richard Colt Hoare (1758-1838) of Stourhead
and William Cunnington (1754-1810), a wool merchant from
Devizes.
Hoare and
Cunnington have been called 'the fathers of archaeological
excavation in England'. For over a decade they surveyed,
excavated and classified the finds from ancient barrows and
earthworks and Roman sites around Salisbury
Plain.
They published their
findings in a book entitled Ancient
Witshire (1812-21). The old-fashioned
spelling of 'Auncient' on the title page of this
book suggested a romantic view of the past, but the Preface justly
declared that 'We speak from facts not theories'.
The book set a new standard in the publication of antiquities. It
presented accurate surveys of monuments such as Stonehenge and
Avebury with maps showing the distribution of different types of
site. The artefacts were also carefully illustrated in the
groupings in which they had been found.
Hoare dedicated the volume
to Cunnington who had developed the methods of excavation and
supervised most of the digging. Cunnington had taken to archaeology
after his doctor told him he must 'ride out or die'
but he did not live to see his work in print. The material Hoare
and Cunnington discovered is now in Devizes
Museum.