The Royal Society and the Origins of British Archaeology: I M
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ANTIQUITY, LXV, I971 The Royal Society and the origins of British archaeology: I M. C. W. HUNTER Mr Michael Hunter is a third-year undergraduate at Jesus College, Cambridge. This is the first part of his article on the r81e of the Royal Society in the origins and development of archaeology in Britain.* The second part will be published in the next number of ANTIQUITY. ‘The beginning of the modern world’: Lytton interests of men directly connected with the Strachey’s opinion of the foundation of the Royal Society undoubtedly differed greatly Royal Society, the opening remark to his essay from those of Camden and his earlier followers, on John Aubrey (Strachey, 1931, IS), retains an and it is true that the Society’s activities were element of truth. For although the origins of ‘far closer to modern fieldwork‘ (Evans, 1956, modern science (and thus of the modern world) 29). But before this growing resemblance to the go back further than Strachey suspected, the modern discipline of archaeology is attributed Royal Society, with its aim of ‘improving to the Society’s scientific outlook, the anti- natural knowledge by experiments’ zealously quarianism of the period must be evaluated applied over many years, did much to lay the more carefully, defining the study of archaeology foundations of the empirical method of modern and tracing its earliest manifestations. science, and gives English intellectual life of the ‘Archaeology’ is a relatively specialized late 17th century a crucial role in the transition historical science: ‘if we use the phrase to the modern world (see Butterfield, 1957; “historical research” to denote the discipline of Purver, 1967). Strachey went on to contrast the obtaining knowledge of the human past from ‘great age’ of the Royal Society with the written records, we can recognize in “archae- ‘curious twilight period‘ of Hobbes and Aubrey ology” a complementary group of techniques which preceded it; he sensed a vital change in which utilizes material remains for the same men’s outlook in the 1660’s, and yet he dis- ends’, as Professor Piggott has put it (Piggott, cerned the essential continuity underlying it, 1956, 94). And whereas ‘written records’ a continuity symbolized in Aubrey. range from historical narrative to inscriptions or The antiquarian thought of the late 17th even coins, material remains include such century reflects this general dichotomy. It uninscribed and ‘unconscious’ relics of the past inherited earlier traditions, but it was certainly as potsherds, earthworks or even buildings, modified by the Royal Society-as more than which impose upon the archaeologist lines of one writer has pointed out in recent years enquiry quite different from the historian’s. (Piggott, 1950, 1-17 passim; Evans, 1956, 29; For only if they are studied extensively and Piggott, 1956, 112 and passim; Fussner, 1962, compared with similar objects, either modern 105; Piggott, 1965, 169). The extent of this or ancient, can material remains yield proper influence is a problem: the archaeological information about the culture, technology and economy of their period. It is this that concerns * The author is indebted to Professor R. J. C. modern archaeology; mere collation of anti- Atkinson for his kindness in lending photostats of quities with historical sources is almost useless. Books 1-111 of Aubrey’s Monumenta Britannica, and Translated into historical terms, this differ- to his friends, especially Sheridan Gilley, for their sympathetic criticism of this article. ence reflects the gulf between the antiquarian ANTIQUITY research of Camden and his school and that of their intrinsic value. Archaeology in the modern the Royal Society. Camden’s Britannia and his sense did not exist for these men. contemporaries’ and followers’ books on allied The contrast is immediate and striking with subjects, though antiquarian in a broad sense, the Royal Society’s archaeological work in the are certainly not archaeological in these narrow 1680’s.The new tone appears in an article in the terms. Camden’s consciousness was primarily Philosophical Collections (Lister, I 682) about historical, and his materials were almost all Roman antiquities from York, by Martin literary. Though they included written sources Lister, a York doctor who often contributed to from archaeological contexts, such as inscrip- the journal (see Stearns, 1967). Except for a tions and coins, he had little interest in pureiy single inscription quoted as a postscript, Lister archaeological evidence, which appears in his examines only archaeological material and narrative as an afterthought to his account of the interprets it in purely archaeological terms. history of a site, as with Folkestone, ‘a flourish- He divides Roman pottery from York into ing place in times past, as may appeare by the three types, one of them clearly Samian Ware, peeces of Romane coine and Britaine brickes which he discusses in some detail, and the other daily there found’ (Camden, 1610, 349). In two of different sorts of sandy clay. These clays general, his followers inherited his attitude. Lister examined more carefully, thereby dis- Thus Lee writes of Roman remains at Chester covering the sites of the kilns where the pots that ‘the Romans residence in great numbers and were made, one near York and the other in plenty, their arched Vaults, and sweating Lincolnshire; he briefly describes the kilns, houses, their Urns, coins, tesselated Pavements, whilst his further comments on the pots, their do abundantly witnesse’ (King, 1656, 11, 6), lack of glazing and their black surface (the and similar finds were treated in an equally result of the reduction rather than oxidisation of perfunctory way in Burton’s Description of the clay), also illustrate his purely technological Leicestershire (1622). Such descriptions show no concern. So does his denial of Camden’s claim conception of the value of archaeological that certain Roman antiquities in Yorkshire evidence as an autonomous province of histori- were made of artificial stone (Camden, 1610, cal enquiry. 701), for Lister shows that they are in fact of This is made particularly clear by a tendency millstone grit, whose source he traces, as he to quote earlier reports of finds rather than to elsewhere tracks down the jet used for Roman add new ones, as in Harrison’s Description of ornaments in the York district. His single- England (1577), in Burton’s Commentary on minded concern with materials and their sources Antoninus his Itinerary . so far as it concerneth indicates the change coming over antiquarian Britain (1658), and in Philipot’s Villure studies. Cantianum (1659); in Lambarde’s Peram- A succession of archaeological articles in the bulation of Kent (1576) and Erdeswicke’s Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Survey of Staflordshire the sections on anti- for the following years shows the same interest quities are more cursory still. John Norden, in antiquities and their interpretation in their who lacked Camden’s obsession with historical own terms. Lister published two further articles information, collected miscellaneous geogra- on antiquities from York, one of them identify- phical and topographical matter for his County ing the multangular tower as Roman for the first Surveys, to which archaeological evidence was time (Phil. Trans., XIII, 7*4, 237-42). Machell, only incidental, and in this he looks back to the the Westmorland antiquary, submitted a careful less discriminating Leland rather than forward account of his examination of a Roman well at to modern archaeology. Even John Weever, who Kirkby Thore (Phil. Trans., XIII, 555-8); and, copied inscriptions in sitid rather than secondary during the next two decades and beyond, there is historical sources for his Ancient Funeral1 an impressive series of articles on antiquities Monuments (I63 I), seldom recorded archae- from the North of England by Ralph Thoresby, ological finds and had little appreciation of the Leeds antiquary (Phil. Trans., XIX, 319-20, THE ROYAL SOCIETY AND BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGY 663-4; xx, 205-8,310-2; XXII, 1156-8,1285-9; organic materials from Roman sites in London XXIII, 1864-5, 2145-8, 2149-51, 2194-6; XXVI, preoccupied him in this account and elsewhere, 134-7,289-91, 393-4), and Christopher Hunter whilst his other archaeological notes are inter- of Durham (Phil. Trans., XXII,657-8, 1129-30; spersed amongst observations of natural scienti- xxx, 701-4; XLV, 159-60; see Rogan, 1954), fic phenomena in the city and experiments on whose exact records of Roman finds in this area meteorological and other subjects. Conyers was were later to prove so valuable to John Horsley particularly interested in stratigraphy, clearly in the compilation of his Britannia Romana stating its procedure in his account, suggesting (1732). The Transactions also published some of that the relative depths of objects in the ground Edward Lhwyd’s detailed letters on his ‘poynt and show’ the different periods in which archaeological field-work in Ireland and Scot- they were buried and so drawing conclusions land (Phil. Trans., XXVII, 503-6, 524-6; about Roman and medieval finds (Conyers, XXVIII,93-101)*, whilst other archaeological 109r). This use of the context of archaeological contributions dealt with subjects ranging from finds to gauge their significance is another Anglo-Saxon monuments (Phi2. Trans., XIV, aspect of the new archaeology. 1287-95) to Bronze Age metal-hoards (Phil. John Aubrey was also at work in the 1680’s Trans., XXVI, 393-412), and for nearly a century on his Monumenta Britannica (Aubrey, 24-5), important archaeological finds from all over the which in its conception shows the change in country were published in the Transactions.* interest: here, for the first time ever, was a A rich field for archaeological research was great collection of purely archaeological mater- the City of London, being rebuilt at this time ial, without the miscellaneous information of after the Great Fire.