The first thing to note about both collections is that the founding collection has a very high number of objects from one country (UK and Ireland, as it was at the time) whilst the second collection has a larger number of large-sized country collections and less of a single peak collection from the UK (although it is still four times the size of the next largest collection).

How many countries are represented in each collection?

140 countries are represented in the founding collection. 129 countries are represented in the second collection. The founding collection has representation from 11 more countries than the second collection.

A. No objects from countries in second collection, but represented in founding collection:

Botswana, Cambodia, Cape Verde, Costa Rica, East Timor, Easter Island Rapa Nui, Equatorial Guinea, Gambier Islands French Polynesia, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Libya, Madagascar, Mali, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Federated States of, Namibia, Nicaragua, Pitcairn Islands, Singapore, Society Islands French Polynesia, Taiwan, Tokelau Islands, Tuamotu Archipelago French Polynesia, Tubuai Islands French Polynesia,  Tunisia, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, Vietnam, Yemen.

B. Objects from countries in second collection, but not represented in founding collection:

Antiqua, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bosnia, Central African Republic,  Dominica,  Grenada,  Haiti,  Kazakhstan, Lebanon,  Luxembourg, Malawi, Maldives, Montserrat, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Slovakia, St Kitts Nevis,  Turkmenistan, Venezuela.

C. No objects from these countries in second or founding collection:

Andorra, Anguilla, Aruba, Bahrain, Belarus, Belize, Bermuda, Brunei, Burkino Faso, Burundi, Cayman Islands, Chad, Chechnya, Comoros, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Eritrea, Estonia, Falkland Islands, French Guiana, Galapagos Islands, Georgia, Gibraltar, Guadeloupe, Guam, Heard & McDonald Islands, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Latvia, Lietchenstein, Lithuania, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mayotte, Melilla, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nauru, Netherlands Antilles, Northern Mariana Islands, Oman, Puerto Rica, Qatar, Reunion, Ross Dependency, Rwanda, San Marino, Sao Tome & Principe, Seychelles, South Georgia, South Sandwich Islands, St Helena, Sta Pierre & Miquelon, Swaziland, Tajikistan, Togo, Tristan de Cunha, Turks & Caicos Islands, United Arab Emirates, Uruquay, Uzbekistan, Vatican City, Virgin Islands, Wallis & Futuna Islands, Western Sahara, Western Samoa, Windward Islands, Wrangel Island.

Top 10 countries from both collections

The Top 10 rankings for both collections confirm the importance of the UK (and Ireland) collections to Pitt-Rivers being a factor of nearly 6 / 4 times larger than the next biggest collection. However the size of collections from each of the top 10 countries from the two collections is much larger for the second collection. The importance of archaeological collections is also confirmed by the rankings (particularly for the second collection), as the Top 10 countries collections from the two collections -- such as France and Denmark in the founding collection and Egypt, Cyprus, and Switzerland in the second -- are all dominated by archaeological artefacts. In the founding collection some ethnographic collections are very important numerically, for example the North American (USA and Canada), Indian and Andaman Islands collections. In the second collection it is only at No. 5 in the ranking that the first ethnographic collection of any size (apart from that from the UK) appears, from New Guinea.

 

Ranking

Founding collection

Name of country

Number of objects

Second collection

Name of Country

Number of objects

1

UK and Republic of Ireland

7603

 

UK and Republic of Ireland

4360

2

France

1383

Egypt

1435

3

USA [1]

681

Cyprus

1053

4

India [2]

631

Switzerland

834

5

Canada [1]

573

New Guinea

821

6

Andaman Ids.

477

Japan

735

7

Australia

418

India [2]

694

 

8

Denmark

389

Israel/ Palestine

675

9

Italy

80

Germany

626

10

Japan

367

USA [1]

553

         

 

Top 20 rankings for both collections

The first thing that seems obvious when you look at the Top 20s for both collections is that the same countries mostly appear on the list, but in very different rankings. For example, France is No. 2 in the founding collection, but No. 16 in the second collection with a fifth as many objects. Equally Egypt which is at No. 2 in the second collection only appears at No. 17 in the founding collection with less than a sixth of the size of collection. The countries that appear on both lists are (with respective rankings afterwards in parenthesis): UK and Ireland [1], France [2/ 16], USA [3/ 10], India [4/ 7], Italy [9/ 11], Japan [10/ 6], China [11, 17], Switzerland [12/ 4], New Guinea [14/ 5], Egypt [17/ 2], South Africa [18/ 13], Cyprus [20/ 3]. France, Cyprus, Egypt and the USA show the most divergent rankings for countries that appear on both lists. There are some countries that only appear in one collection's Top 20. For the founding collection these are: Canada, Andaman Islands, Australia, Denmark, Gabon, Argentina, Nicobar Islands, and the Solomon Islands. For the second collection these are: Israel / Palestine, Germany, Greece, Nigeria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Turkey and Fiji.

 

Ranking

Founding collection

Name of country

Number of objects

Second collection

Name of Country

Number of objects

1

UK and Republic of Ireland

7603

 

UK and Republic of Ireland

4360

2

France

1383

Egypt

1435

3

USA [1]

681

Cyprus

1053

4

India [2]

631

Switzerland

834

5

Canada [1]

573

New Guinea

821

6

Andaman Ids.

477

Japan

735

7

Australia

418

India [2]

694

8

Denmark

389

Israel/ Palestine

675

9

Italy

380

Germany

626

10

Japan

367

USA [1]

553

11

China [3]

366

Italy

467

12

Switzerland

351

Greece

456

13

Gabon

316

South Africa

387

14

New Guinea

273

Nigeria

364

15

Argentina

261

Czech Repub.

363

16

Nicobar ids

251

France

338

17

Egypt

229

China

272

18

South Africa

227

Hungary

225

19 / 18

Solomon Ids

222

Turkey

225

20

Cyprus

204

Fiji

220

 

AP, 26 May 2010

Notes

[1] There are a lot of items which might be from either USA or Canada and are therefore double-counted, this obviously would affect their rankings if the items could be reliably provenanced.

[2] 'India' includes Bangladesh, Bhutan and Pakistan but excludes Andaman and Nicobars

[3] China includes Taiwan

prm logo

leverhulmelogo

oxunilogo