The Institute of Archaeology, 1937-97 David R. Harris
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ARCHAEOLOGY INTERNATIONAL ology were started. The Institute remained Sixty years on: essentially a small research community somewhat isolated from the heart of the the Institute of Archaeology, 1937-97 University in Bloomsbury, in the pleasant surroundings of Regent's Park. David R. Harris It had long been intended that the Insti Th e editor looks back over th e historyof th e In stitute tute should eventually move to Blooms bury, an event that was hastened by the ith the launching of Second World War. Kathleen Kenyan be expiry of the lease on St John's Lodge in ArchaeologyIn ternational came Acting Director while Wheeler was 1 951.Z The University offered space in some we reach another mile serving in the North African and Italian existing houses on the north side ofGordon stone in the eventful life campaigns. He had been expected to return Square, and when adjacent space was of W fered to the Institute of Classical Studies it of the Institute. Since the as Director after the war, but instead formal opening of its first home - St John's accepted the post of Director General of was decided to demolish the houses (in ret Lodge in Regent's Park - on 29 April 1 93 7, Archaeology for India. This led to the ap rospect, an act of vandalism) and erect the the Institute has grown from a small, if pointment ofGordon Childe, who resigned building that the Institute occupies today capaciously housed, research institution the Abercromby Chair of Archaeology at (Fig. 2). Gordon Childe retired in 19563 to to become the largest (in terms of staff Edinburgh to become the Institute's first return to his native Australia (where he and students) university "department" of full-time Director in 1946 - an event that ended his life in October 1957), and W. F. archaeology in Europe. It has done so by a had been preceded in October 1945 by the ("Peter") Grimes moved from the Museum series of steps, some planned, others more appointment of Frederick Zeuner, who of London to succeed Childe as Director. fortuitous, that have led from a staff com was already an Honorary Lecturer in Geo As a member ofthe Institute's Management plement of five or six in the 1930s, with chronology at the Institute, to a part-time Committee, Grimes had already been in even fewer registered students, to today's Chair in Environmental Archaeology. volved in planning the Institute's part of totals of 70 academic staff, 291 undergrad In the "Childe decade", from 1946 to the new building,' which was formally uates and 252 registered postgraduates 1956, the Institute became firmly estab opened by the Queen Mother, Chancellor (138 master's-degree and 114 research stu lished as a research, and to a lesser extent of the University, on 29 April1958, exactly dents). But despite this prodigious growth, a teaching, institution, and its interna 21 years after the original opening of the In some ofthe characteristics of today's Insti tional reputation grew. During the decade stitute had taken place at St John's Lodge. tute - e.g. our commitment to archaeology several more academic staff appointments The move to Gordon Square, and the overseas as well as in Britain, to field were made, notably Max Mallowan to a beginning of Professor Grimes' Director archaeology, to environmental archaeol (part-time) Chair in Western Asiatic Archae ship, ushered in a radically new phase in ogy and to professional training in conser ology, Kathleen Kenyan to a Lectureship in the development of the Institute. During vation - can trace their roots to the then Palestinian Archaeology, and I an Cornwall the 1 960s the number of academic staff and visionary ideas of the Institute's founder to a Lectureship in Environmental Archae their range of expertise were increased, and first (Honorary) Director, Dr (later Sir) ology. But, although some teaching was while existing strengths, as in field archae Mortimer Wheeler. 1 provided for University of London under ology and conservation, were reinforced. The Institute enjoyed little more than graduates in ancient history and anthro But the most significant change was the two years in its elegant home in Regent's pology, and several diploma courses were introduction, in 1968, of undergraduate Park (Fig. 1) before research and teaching offered to students registered at the Insti BA (and shortly thereafter BSC) degrees in was interrupted by the outbreak of the tute, no undergraduate degrees in archae- archaeology,5 which, although delayed by opposition from thosein the University who regarded archaeology as unsuitable as an undergraduate subject,6 soon replaced the by then outmoded postgraduate diplomas. The numbers of students admitted and the range of courses offered increased fur ther during the Directorship of Professor John Evans, who, from holding the Chair of Prehistoric Archaeology at the Institute, succeeded Professor Grimes on his retire ment in 1973. During his time as Director, Professor Evans established, as part of the Institute, the Sussex (now the Field) Ar chaeology Unit and introduced postgrad uate training in museum studies. Despite increasing financial difficulties, as the In stitute's core funding fromthe University began to suffer successive cuts in the 1980s, he also succeeded in adding some new academic posts to the Institute's rep ertoire, notably a "New Blood" Lecture ship in African Archaeology and others in Archaeobotany, Ceramic Technology and Quantitative Techniques. By far the most significant development Figure 1 Th e first home of the In stitute ofArchae ology: St John's Lodge, Regent's Park, at this time was, however, the incorpora in 1937. tion of the Institute into University College 3 ARCHAEOLOGY INTERNATIONAL Figure 2 Th e building occupied by the Institute of Archaeology today, seen from Cordon Square. London (UCL), its nearest academic neigh the integration ofthe Institute and the Col eval archaeologists (then members of the bour and the largest multifaculty school of lege was "deferred" for over 50 years. Department of History) and of the UCL the University. This took place in 1986, One important outcome of the negotia Departments of Classical Archaeology and while Sir James Lighthill was Provost of tions that led to the Institute becoming part Egyptology.8 These changes were accom UCL, and was preceded by complex nego of UCL was the creation in the College of an plished by 1993, with the transfer of nine tiations on the academic, financial and ad Archaeology and Ancient World Studies members of staff and the concomitant ministrative implications of the "merger" Committee, which brought together repre extension ofthe Institute's academic exper -a rather mechanistic term for what was in sentatives from 20 UCL arts and science tise to encompass the medieval archaeology reality the long-delayed realization of part departments and helped to coordinate teach of northwestern Europe, Greek archaeology of Mortimer Wheeler's original vision for ing and stimulate research across conven (Roman archaeology already being estab his Institute.7 During the protracted dis tional academic boundaries. For its firstfour lished in the Institute), and Egyptology. cussions that followed Wheeler's original years the "AAW S" Committee was chaired These additions could not be accommodated approach to the University in 1927, Uni by the author, who became Director of the within the already overcrowded confines versity College had appointed him to a part Institute in 1989 following Professor Evans' of the Institute building in Gordon Square, time Lectureship in Prehistoric Archaeol retirement, while continuing to hold the and so the Provost agreed to a request for ogy and had agreed to transfer its Egyptol chair first held by Zeuner at the Institute additional space in three of the early nine ogy and Classical Archaeology Collections and later renamed the Chair of Human Envi teenth-century houses owned by the Col to the proposed new Institute of Archaeol ronment. lege on the west side of the Square. ogy. In 1934 the College even offered space During the early 1990s further major Another important, and more enduring, for the Institute at a nominal rent in a developments took place at the Institute. space-related development took place in former stable it had acquired in Foster Student enrolment more than doubled (to the early 1990s: the creation of the Wolfson Court (where the Petrie Museum of Egyp totals of c. 300 undergraduates and c. 150 Archaeological Science Laboratories in the tian Archaeology is now housed); an offer postgraduates) and additional Lecture basement of the Institute. This achieve that was, however, soon eclipsed by the ships were secured in Anthropological ment was the result of several years of un more alluring prospect of much more spa Archaeology, Classical Art and Archaeol remitting fund-raising which, thanks largely cious accommodation in St John's Lodge. ogy, Latin American Archaeology, and to the efforts of our then Development So, the Egyptology and Classical Archae Museum Studies. At the same time, nego Director, Cathy Giangrande (a former Insti ology collections remained at UCL (where tiations took place, following initiatives tute graduate in conservation), succeeded chairs in both subjects had been estab taken by the new Provost of UCL, Dr (now in raising over £400,000 to convert much of lished in the late nineteenth century) and Sir) Derek Roberts, which led to the inte the basement into a suite of state-of-the-art gration into the Institute of the UCL medi- laboratories and a large secure artefact 4 ARCHAEOLOGY INTERNATIONAL Laser particle analysis Sedimentology Scanning electron Research students Library store laboratory microscopy AC plant Sectioning Instrumental laboratory analysis Collections and artefact store c____ --l The Robert Kiln room: sample sorting and Sectioning demonstration laboratory Entrance lobby Wet chemistry laboratory Library store Figure 3 Plan of the Wolfson Archaeological Science Laboratories in the basement of the Institute, opened in 1991.