23. Report of the Curator of the Pitt Rivers Museum (Department of Ethnology and Prehistory) for the year ending 31 July 1971
The Fund Raising Committee which was appointed to try to raise £6 1/2 million for the endowment and maintenance of new buildings for the Pitt Rivers Museum and related departments designed by Professor Pier Luigi Nervi of Rome and Messrs. Powell and Moya of London, was dissolved on 1 October 1970 when its three-year time limit expired. The Curator served as secretary and executive officer of the Fund Raising Committee. Instead the University instructed the Curator to collaborate with the University Surveyor's department in devising a more economical plan.
Staff Changes
The vacancy for a Lecturer in Ethnology caused by the appointment of Mr. P. W. Gathercole to the curatorship of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology in Cambridge was advertised as a Lecturership in Ethnology and Assistant Curatorship, and from an impressive field of candidates, Dr. Schuyler Jones, first Assistant Curator of the Pitt Rivers Museum, was appointed.
Dr. Schuyler Jones is a specialist in the ethnology of South Central Asia and retains some curatorial responsibilities in addition to his teaching duties for the Diploma in Ethnology, and Honour School of Human Sciences and the Honour Moderations in Geography.
The resultant vacancy was advertised together with a second assistant curatorship which was approved as part of the supplementary provision for new academic posts in the quinquennium 1966-71 and appointments are expected to be made early in the next academic year.
Exhibitions
Plans were made for a third special exhibition (in the exhibition gallery) on the material culture and ecology of Nuristan, to be entitled 'Nuristan—the Land of Light', under the direction of Dr. Schuyler Jones.
The plans to re-display the Cook-Forster exhibition as a permanent display on the lower gallery were well advanced by the end of the year.
Teaching, Research, and External Academic Activities
Mr. D.F.W. Baden-Powell has continued his correlation of European Stone Age implements with those of Africa and in addition has conducted a detailed analysis of the Palaeolithic implements from the Wolvercote Channel, near Oxford, with special reference to the environmental conditions at the site.
Miss B. M. Blackwood continued her indispensable maintenance and partial reorganization of the card indexes of the collections, as well as assisting visiting scholars and helping to cope with the growing volume of research by correspondence from abroad. She continued to serve on the Committee of the Folklore Society and on the General Committee of the Field Studies Council.
Mr. D. Britton, Fellow of St. Cross College, was on sabbatical leave during the year 1970-1. During his leave he read a paper 'Late Bronze Age Metalwork: Problems of Association and Context' at the conference on Pottery and Settlements 1000-500 B.C., held at the University of Newcastle.
Mr. J. B. Campbell completed his field and laboratory studies for the British Upper Palaeolithic Research Project, and participated in the new major research programme directed by Dr. Roe and Dr. G. Sampson, with special responsibility for the pollen analyses.
Dr. Audrey J. Colson: In addition to her teaching duties, Dr. Colson was a member of the Exploration Committee of the Royal Geographical Society and was external examiner for the Board of Archaeology and Anthropology at Cambridge.
The Curator served on the Council of the British School of Archaeology and History in Eastern Africa, and the Advisory Committee of the Horniman Museum, and was elected to the Council of the Historical Metallurgy Group.
Dr. Schuyler Jones: In addition to his curatorial duties and some teaching activities, Dr. Schuyler Jones spent six weeks in further field work in Afghanistan and read a paper at the International Hindu Kush Conference at Moesgaard, Denmark.
Mr. J.G. Rhodes continued his work on redesigning and redisplaying some of the exhibit cases in addition to research on the collections.
Mrs. E. Sandford Gunn continued her invaluable voluntary work on the documentation of the museum's collections, in collaboration with Miss Blackwood.
Dr. D.A. Roe, Fellow of St. Cross College: In addition to his teaching duties in Oxford, Dr. Roe was an examiner for the Archaeology and Anthropology Tripos at the University of Cambridge and gave public lectures at Oxford, Devizes and Bristol. He continued as Secretary of the Council for British Archaeology's Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Research Committee, was executive editor of the journal World Archaeology, and number editor of the Subsistence number, published in February. He continued research into British hand axe groups, and was co-director of a major research programme on the Acheulian Culture in Britain, and attended the International Conference of Geologists and Archaeologists at Calico Hills, California.
Publications
Blackwood, Beatrice. 'Museum News.' Folklore, Vol. 82. Spring 1971.
Britton, D. (with I.M. Allen and H.H. Coghlan). Metallurgical Reports on British and Irish Bronze Age Implements and Weapons in the Pitt Rivers Museum. Pitt Rivers Museum: Occasional Papers on Technology, No. 10.
Britton, D. 'The Heathery Burn Cave Revisited.' British Museum Quarterly, XXXV, 1971, pp. 20-38.
Campbell, J.B. (with E.K. Tratman and D.T. Donovan). 'The Hyaena Den (Wookey Hole), Mendip Hills, Somerset.' Proceedings of the University of Bristol Spelaeological Society, Vol. 12, 1971, pp. 245-79.
Colson, Audrey J. 'Comparative Studies of the Social Structure of Guiana Indians and the Problem of Acculturation.' Chap. 4, The Ongoing Evolution of Latin American Populations, ed. by F. M. Salzano. Published by Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, 1971.
Jones, Schuyler. 'Demuta, folk hero of Nisheigrom: myth and social structure.' Acta Orientalia, Vol. 34 (Copenhagen), 1971.
Roe, D.A. Review of Bordaz, J., Tools of the Old and New Stone Age.
Roe, D.A. Prehistory: An Introduction. First published by Macmillan 1970, Paladin edition published 1971.
Museum Publications
Occasional Papers on Technology, No. 10, Metallurgical Reports on British and Irish Bronze Age Implements and Weapons in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford (£2-50).
Accessions
The collections have once again been enriched by purchases made possible by matching grants from the Victoria and Albert Museum Purchase Fund. These include a diary for 1869 written and illustrated by Colonel R.G. Woodthorpe of his travels in Southern Asia, which is a welcome addition to our collection of his writings and other material. The grant scheme also enabled us to purchase a comprehensive collection of Asmat art. Among other valuable accessions the following gifts are most gratefully acknowledged. Misses E. and C. Adkin: a collection of Chinese costume obtained during the period 1890-1900. Mr. J. H. Barrett: a young woman's skirt from China. Mrs. C. H. Collie: small ethnographical collection including specimens from India and Afghanistan. Reverend V.A. Demant: a collection of Neolithic flint implements from Denmark. Miss G. Eades: two-stringed S.E. Asian fiddle. Professor E.E. Evans-Pritchard: a further collection of photographs and negatives of Nuer and Azande subjects. Mrs. D.H. Hunt: Chinese razor purchased 1854. The Trustees of the late Mrs. H.R. Marshall: a collection of stone implements from South and East Africa. Dr. K.P. Oakley: a collection of artefacts from various areas of Africa. Miss G. Plummer: a collection of documented drawings of Yoruba women's head-dresses and a drawing of the marriage pattern painted on the bodies of women of the Aro tribe, E. Nigeria. Major R.T. Sebold: an officer's •22 Colt revolver. Institute of Social Anthropology, Oxford: a collection of photographs taken by Professor Radcliffe-Brown and an early type of slide projection lantern used in that department. Miss C. Vulliamy: a varied collection, including votive offerings from Portugal and the Canary Islands and a charm scroll from Ethiopia.
BERNARD FAGG
