Stuart Piggott

For the British wine writer, see Stuart Pigott.
Stuart Piggott
Born 28 May 1910
Petersfield, Hampshire
Died 23 September 1996(1996-09-23) (aged 86)
Citizenship British
Nationality British
Fields Archaeology
Influences Mortimer Wheeler

Stuart Ernest Piggott CBE (28 May 1910 – 23 September 1996) was a British archaeologist best known for his work on prehistoric Wessex.

Born in Petersfield, Hampshire, Piggott was educated at Churcher's College and on leaving school in 1927 took up a post as assistant at Reading Museum where he developed an expertise in Neolithic pottery.

In 1928 he joined the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales and spent the next 5 years producing a revolutionary study of the site of Butser Hill, near Petersfield. He also worked with Eliot and Cecil Curwen on their excavations at The Trundle causewayed enclosure in Sussex.

In the 1930s he began working for Alexander Keiller, an amateur archaeologist who funded his work from the profits of his Dundee marmalade business. The two dug numerous sites in Wessex including Avebury and Kennet Avenue. In 1933, he joined his friend Grahame Clark in writing the highly significant, ‘The age of the British flint mines’, (Antiquity,1933); the resultant controversy brought about the founding of the Prehistoric Society. Still without any formal archaeological qualification, Piggott enrolled at Mortimer Wheeler's Institute of Archaeology, taking his diploma in 1936 and where he also met his wife, Peggy (Margaret Guido). In 1937 he published another seminal paper, The early Bronze Age in Wessex and with his wife went on in June 1939 to join the burial chamber excavations at Sutton Hoo at the invitation of Charles Phillips.

During the Second World War Piggott worked as an air photo interpreter and was posted to India where he spent time studying the archaeology of the sub-continent, eventually leading him to write the books Some Ancient Cities of India (1946) and Prehistoric India (1950). These experiences provided him with a valuable external view of European prehistory, which was to prove useful on his return to Britain.

After the war he went to Oxford studying the work of William Stukeley but in 1946 was soon offered the Abercromby Chair in archaeology at Edinburgh University (now part of the School of History, Classics and Archaeology) succeeding Vere Gordon Childe. Piggott succeeded in making Edinburgh an archaeology department of international standing. He continued to publish widely including Neolithic Cultures of the British Isles (1954) which was considered highly influential until radiocarbon dating tests did not match its chronology. Piggott said that radiocarbon dating was "archaeologically unacceptable", because every other shred of evidence pointed towards his dates being correct. Ancient Europe (1965), however remained a popular survey of Old World prehistory for more than twenty years, demonstrating his view of the solidarity and continuity of the past in Europe. In 1956 his childless marriage ended.

In 1958 Piggott published a survey of Scottish prehistory, Scotland before History and, in 1959 one of a popular introductory volume, Approach to Archaeology. He was president of the Prehistoric Society from 1960 to 1963, then president of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland from 1963 to 1967, then president of the Council for British Archaeology from 1967 to 1970, and a trustee of the British Museum between 1968 and 1974). In 1963, he produced a thorough analysis of the Beaker culture in Britain, published as part of a Festschrift dedicated to Cyril Fox. Piggott's interest in the early history of the practice of archaeology led to him writing The Druids in 1968 whilst other books included Prehistoric Societies (with Grahame Clark), The Earliest Wheeled Transport (1983), followed by its sequel Wagon, Chariot and Carriage (1992) . His final book was Ancient Britain and the Antiquarian Imagination (1989).

He died of a heart attack at his home near Wantage in Berkshire on 23 September 1996 and his remains were cremated on 30 September at Oxford crematorium

Sites he excavated (often with Richard Atkinson) included:

Honours

He received the CBE in 1972, and was awarded numerous academic awards from scholarly institutions in Britain and abroad. He retired from the Abercrombie Chair in 1977 and awarded the gold medal of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1983 and the Grahame Clark medal of the British Academy in 1992.

Reception and legacy

Megaw noted that "as he himself has said, although he has done his fair share of field work and excavation, his prime concern has been to produce works of synthesis and interpretation".[1] Megaw noted that Piggott viewed "archaeology as an oyster to be savoured whole and not simply to be subjected to the minutiae of macrofaunal and calorific analyses."[1]

In 1968 a number of Piggott's former pupils and colleagues assembled a collection of essays in dedication to him, titled Studies in Ancient Europe.[1] In 1976 Megaw then published a second festschrift which brought in consideration of Piggott's work on the archaeology of Asia and the Americas too.[2]

Bibliography

Marjorie Robertson compiled a list of Piggott's publications up to 1975 for his festschrift.[3]

Year of publication Title Co-author(s) Publisher
1935 The Progress of Early Man  – A. and C. Black (London)
1944 Some Ancient Cities of India  – Oxford University Press (Bombay)
1948 Fire Among the Ruins Oxford University Press (London)
1949 British Prehistory Oxford University Press (London)
1950 Prehistoric India to 1000 BC Penguin (Harmondsworth)
1950 William Stukeley: An Eighteenth Century Antiquary Clarendon Press (Oxford)
1951 Cairnpapple Hill, West Lothian HMSO (Edinburgh)
1951 A Picture Book of Ancient British Art Glyn Daniel Cambridge University Press (Cambridge)
1953 William Camden and the Britannia Oxford University Press (London)
1954 The Neolithic Cultures of the British Isles Cambridge University Press (Cambridge)
1958 Inventaria Archaeologica GB 25-34: Early and Middle Bronze Age Grave-Groups and Hoards from Scotland (edited volume) Margaret Stewart (editors) Garraway (London)
1958 Scotland Before History Nelson (London)
1959 Approach to Archaeology A. and C. Black (London)
1961 The Dawn of Civilization (edited volume) Thames and Hudson (London)
1962 The Prehistoric Peoples of Scotland (edited volume) Routledge and Kegan Paul (London)
1962 The West Kennet Long Barrow: Excavations 1955–56 HMSO (London)
1963 West Kennet Long Barrow: Wiltshire HMSO (London)
1965 Ancient Europe from the Beginnings of Agriculture to Classical Antiquity: A Survey Edinburgh University Press (Edinburgh)
1965 Prehistoric Societies Grahame Clark Hutchinson (London)
1967 Celts, Saxons and the Early Antiquaries Edinburgh University Press (Edinburgh)
1968 The Druids Thames and Hudson (London)
1970 Early Celtic Art Derek Allen Edinburgh University Press for the Arts Council of Great Britain (Edinburgh)

References

  1. 1 2 3 Megaw 1976, p. 9.
  2. ↑ Megaw 1976, pp. 9–10.
  3. ↑ Robertson 1976, pp. 320–331.

Bibliography

Megaw, Vincent (1976). "Editorial Preface". In J. V. S. Megaw (eds). To Illustrate the Monuments: Essays on Archaeology Presented to Stuart Piggott. London: Thames and Hudson. pp. 9–10. 
Robertson, Marjorie (1976). "Bibliography of Stuart Piggott's Publications". In J. V. S. Megaw (eds). To Illustrate the Monuments: Essays on Archaeology Presented to Stuart Piggott. London: Thames and Hudson. pp. 320–331. 
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