ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE PITT RIVERS MUSEUM 1985-1986
The Committee met three times during the year, once in each term. Most of the Committee's business concerned final preparations for the opening to the public of the new galleries on the Banbury Road site.
On September 30th, 1985 Mr B.A.L. Cranstone, who had been curator for nine years, retired and was replaced by Dr Schuyler Jones. Mr Cranstone's energy, enterprise, and devotion to the needs of the museum are greatly appreciated and will be long remembered. Much has been accomplished during his years as Curator. Everyone is pleased that he will be staying in Oxford and grateful that he has consented to continue teaching in the department for the time being.
The appointment of the new Curator created a staff vacancy in the Department which was filled by the appointment of Dr Howard Morphy of the Australian National University, Canberra. Dr Morphy took up his duties as Assistant Curator and University Lecturer in Ethnology on the first of January, 1986.
The Museum
In 1982 it was decided that the buildings on the Banbury Road site which had been built with money bequeathed by Mr Lewis Balfour, son of the first Curator, should contain part of the museum's collection of musical instruments and a gallery devoted to hunter-gatherer peoples, past and present. Because Mr Lewis Balfour had provided the money and because his father, Henry Balfour, had systematically built up the museum's collection of musical instruments from 300 to 4,000, it was decided to call this Phase I development of the new museum The Balfour Building.
During the twelve month period covered by this report the mounting of specimens and photographs, the writing of labels, and the installation of audio-visual equipment in the Balfour Building took precedence over other museum activities. With the balance of our technical staff working full time on this project, Mr Ken Walters, Head Technician, held the fort alone at the main museum, occupied with a succession of electrical and other jobs. Our goal was to open The Balfour Building to the public on June 26th, 1986. The Chancellor, Lord Stockton, had agreed to preside over the opening ceremonies but was unfortunately unable to attend due to illness. The Committee wishes to record its thanks to the Vice-Chancellor Sir Patrick Neill, Q.C. who took his place at very short notice.
The hunter-gatherer gallery was designed and planned by Mr Ray Inskeep and mounted by Mr Ivor Morris, Mr John Simmons, and Mr Andy Munsch. It deals with the nature and extent of the archaeological evidence for man's hunting and gathering activities in various parts of the world from the earliest known periods down to the present day. The planning of the ethnographic displays dealing with the more recent period was carried out by Mr Ray Inskeep and Dr Donald Tayler and the displays were mounted by Mr Bob Rivers and Mr Ivor Morris.
The music gallery was planned by Dr. Helene La Rue not only to show various types of musical instruments from all over the world, but to enable visitors to hear selected instruments being played by means of a sophisticated audio system. The exhibition was designed so as to put on view approximately one thousand instruments, which represent one-fifth of the total music collection. A major display of musical instruments, complementing and supplementing those in the Balfour Building, will remain in the main museum. The design and mounting of the displays in the new music gallery was carried out by John Todd and Bob Rivers, assisted by Andre Bovington. Dr La Rue's research assistant was Mrs Ruth Barnes. We record our grateful thanks to Nicholas Gray, Nicola Swann, and Sian Rule for the valuable voluntary assistance they provided throughout. Others generously giving technical assistance were members of the Musical Box Society of Great Britain who checked and cleaned several of the musical boxes. Special thanks are due to Mr J. Colley in this regard and to Mr A. Wyatt for devoting time and skill in putting the street piano back into excellent working condition.
The museum shop in the Balfour Building was planned and designed by Julia Cousins and John Todd. The racks and fittings for books and postcards, and other merchandise were supplied by a commercial firm but the attendant's desk and sales point had to be specially designed and made. This was done by The Area Museums Services of South East England which also gave grant aid totalling 50% of the cost.
The museum gratefully acknowledges the very generous financial assistance from various trust funds which contributed so positively to the successful opening and to the facilities which visitors to the Balfour Building can now enjoy.
From Public Bodies
Museums and Galleries Commission £7.550
Museums Service for South Eastern England £2,451
Thames and Chiltern Tourist Board £3,393
From Trusts
Pilgrim Trust £5,000
Rhodes Trust £20,000
Hulme Fund £20,000
Radcliffe Trust £18,400
Cohen Trust £10,000
Gulbenkian Foundation £15,000
From Other Sources
The General Public £1,389
The Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum £110
Mr John Swire £100
Concerts £126
Total £103,519
It was hoped that the problem of the museum opening hours, long a matter of concern to museum staff and members of the public, would be resolved during the year. At present, as for many years past, the museum is open to the general public from 2-4 each afternoon (except Sundays when it is not open at all), making a total of 12 hours each week. In order to open both the main museum and The Balfour Building from 12 noon to 5 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays, making a total of 30 hours per week, two additional warding and cleaning staff are required. For this we need an additional £9,500 each year. We will continue to try to find the money to achieve these longer opening hours. At present we continue to be so short staffed in this regard that the absence of a single warder would mean the closure of the top gallery to the public were it not for the generous assistance of volunteers.
Without the release of substantial funds from the residue of the Balfour Bequest, work on the new Balfour Building could not have been completed. The University's financial outlook continues to be bleak and it is depressingly apparent that, far from activities being able to develop as they should in both museums, we are faced with the need to plan for reductions in almost every aspect of our total operation.
The on-going programme of refurbishing some of the older displays in the Court of the main museum was again taken up as soon as the design and display technicians had completed their work in the new Balfour Building. The last major new display in the main museum was the textile exhibit in the wall cases on the north side of the Court, planned and supervised by Dr Donald Tayler, and completed by Bob Rivers and Andy Munsch in 1983. Work is now going ahead on displays in a major portion of the wall cases on the South side of the Court under the supervision of Dr Howard Morphy. Electric lighting, adjusted to achieve suitably low U.V. levels, is being systematically installed by Ken Walters in all wall cases as part of the general plan to improve displays. The new exhibits are being designed and mounted by John Todd and Ivor Morris.
We are pleased to record our grateful thanks to the University's Research and Equipment Committee which made a grant of £3,100 towards the cost of two IBM microcomputers. One of these is being used for cataloguing library and archive materials and the other is being used to provide a data retrieval system for the museum collections.
Publications
The museum published two new books during the year: Dr Kenneth Oakley's Decorative and Symbolic Uses of Fossils, Occasional Paper No. 13, and Birds and Animals, a children's colouring book illustrated by Francis Turner with text by the artist and Julia Cousins.
The year saw a number of innovations. The colouring book and greeting cards (with original designs by Margaret Rees, purchased with funds generously made available by the Friends of the Museum) were both new departures. The new shop area in the Balfour Building has allowed us, for the first time, to sell a wider range of books and to stock cassettes and records related to the music displays.
Visitors
Museum attendance for the year totalled 34,756. Of this total, 3,378 were children who came by arrangement with teachers and schools and 689 were members of adult groups. The number of school bookings were adversely affected by the teachers' dispute and cuts in education grants. In the first ninety days following the opening of the Balfour Building approximately 900 visitors saw the exhibits on the new site.
The number of research visitors and academic enquiries continues to increase year by year. In documentation and museum records alone, Linda Cheetham dealt with more than 80 research visitors and a large number of postal enquiries. In the photographic and manuscript archives Elizabeth Edwards made research materials and facilities available to 5I visiting scholars and dealt with a great many enquiries. The Donald Baden-Powell Quaternary Research Centre in the Department's building at 60 Banbury Road welcomed approximately 130 academic visitors during the year.
Staff and students attended several seminars given by visiting academics, among them: H.P. Blankholm of the University of Aarhus, Denmark; Martin Street and Elaine Turner of the University of Cologne; Dr L. Jacobson of the State Museum of Windhoek, Namibia; and Prof. E. Trinkhaus of the University of New Mexico. Dr Paula Richardson Fleming, Assistant Director of the National Anthropological Archives at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., gave a lecture on the photographs of Indian delegations to Washington in the 19th century.
The museum staff were pleased to welcome the Japanese philosopher, teacher, and master calligrapher Kampo Harada who came to Oxford to see our collections and to give a public demonstration of Shodo (calligraphy) at the Holywell Music Room. Kampo Harada's visit was arranged by Dr. La Rue in collaboration with Miss Iwanaga, Director of the Euro-Japanese Foundation.
The Balfour Library and Archives
During the year the library accessioned 275 volumes, 66 pamphlets, 20 microform publications, and 354 journal parts (current journals total 191). One hundred and fifty-seven new readers were registered and the total active readership continues to be about 300. A total of 2,358 loans were recorded.
It has been an extremely difficult year financially. The library has been forced to cancel long-standing subscriptions to journals in order to create the flexibility required to develop the library holding so that developments in the subject and the demands of readers in this specialist field are met. Similar problems have been experienced with monographs; the amount of good, relevant material published and the demand for it have increased, but present funding constraints mean that the library cannot hope to maintain a balanced and useful collection. This is serious not only for the Department and Museum but for Oxford library provision as a whole because a number of fields such as Material Culture and African or American archaeology are not provided for elsewhere.
The reclassification programme (Bliss Bibliographic Classification 2) continues and a considerable proportion of the library's holding have been worked through in the course of the year. The framework of the whole system is now well established so progress is much faster than in previous years. General and theoretical anthropology, religion, mythology, music, and Europe are now finished and a substantial part of Asia has been completed.
The library wishes to thank the following who kindly donated material in the course of the year: The Ashmolean Museum Library, Dr A. Barnard, Mrs E. Chilver, Dr M. Colchester, Dr A. Colson, Mr B.A.L. Cranstone, Dr L. Dziegiel, Mrs E. Ettlinger, The Indian Institute Library, Dr Schuyler Jones, Mr D.J. McCulloch, Dr H. Morphy, The Museum of the History of Science, Prof. R. Needham, and Mrs L. Rogers.
The Archives accessioned about 3,000 historical photographs and assorted miscellaneous manuscripts of anthropological interest during the year. The major accession has been a large collection of excellent and well documented photographs of Yugoslavia taken after World War I by Miss Fanny Foster. The collection was kindly donated by Miss Foster's estate, via the Slavonic Studies Library of the Taylorian Institute, Oxford.
The collections remain in high demand. The photographic archive storage project instigated in 1982-83 continues to attract nationwide attention among those working in museums and archives. Elizabeth Edwards has lectured widely on the subject and representatives of many museums have come to Oxford to see the project for themselves.
A considerable amount of work was carried out during the year with a view to setting up a computerized database for the photographic collections. A pilot project involving the documentation, catalologuing, and indexing of over 3,000 photographs from Beatrice Blackwood’s North American fieldwork (1925-27) has been completed and the results are extremely encouraging. It is hoped that the system will be in operation in the coming year.
Paula Richardson Fleming, Deputy Director of the National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institute, Washington D.C., worked on our North American photographic collections for two weeks and produced a handlist linking them with identifications and research on National Anthropological Archives collections.
The Archivist would like to thank the following people who have kindly donated material to the collection during the past year: Mr A. Barrett, Mrs U. Betts, Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Mr J. Honey, and Miss J. Morris. Miss Sian Rule gave generously of her time to collate and catalogue the Foster Collection.
Museum Documentation and Records
The accessioning of incoming artefacts was kept up to date, with the exception of the Wellcome amulet collection which is so large (17,000 items) that it requires a temporary research appointment to enable a suitably qualified graduate to work on it full time for an estimated three years. Various possibilities for obtaining money for this special project are being investigated. A total of thirty-four new collections were accessioned during the year.
Computer hardware and software purchased with the aid of a grant of £3,100 from the University's Research and Equipment Committee was installed in the department during the summer of 1986 and various documentation projects were initiated, some of which are described above. All new accessions are now put directly into an electronic data retrieval system, a computerized location index has been started, and gradual computerization of the manual card index has begun. The new system has excellent indexing facilities and information can be printed out very quickly. Eventually a great deal of staff time will be saved in dealing with information retrieval, although the initial process of data entry is very time consuming. The computer is also being used as a word processor to prepare catalogues and reports.
Educational Services
In addition to providing our usual services to scholars through the museum, the photographic studio, the archives, and the Balfour Library, we have greatly expanded our services to education in Oxfordshire. Dr. Helene La Rue has worked closely with Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum to organize a group of guides who conduct school parties round the museum by arrangement. The guides are Mrs Jean Fleming, Mrs Sally Owen, Mrs Annelie Rookwood, and Mrs Joan Shaw. Our education service was established with advice and support from Michelle Sykes and the education service at the Ashmolean Museum. Written and illustrated Trails have been introduced to highlight topics studied by the children in school. These Trails serve as a guide to relevant collections in the museum. School parties using the Trails are welcomed by a Guide and given a short talk in the lecture room. Then the party is divided into smaller groups to find their own way round the museum with the help of the Trail, the guide staying to give help and answer questions. The Trails are not just work sheets, they are made up of drawings and explanatory text and enable children to embark on their own exploration of the collections. We gratefully acknowledge the valuable support given to this project by the Local Education Authority in printing copies of the Trails for the use of school children in the Oxfordshire area. A special Trail called 'Deadman's Trail' has been produced for sale in the museum shop. It is the first of a series for young visitors and serves to guide them independently to some of the exhibits which children find most fascinating. Our volunteer guides have done much to strengthen ties between the museum and schools in the area and we are grateful for their initiative, enthusiasm, and willing help.
The museum played an active part in the establishment of the Oxford Museums Club which quickly came to be called 'Oxmus'. This is a club for children aged 8-14 which plans and conducts activities in all the Oxford University and City museums. The first event was a joint meeting held in the University and Pitt Rivers Museums. The Honorary President of this club is Dr Schuyler Jones and the joint Treasurer/Secretary is Dr Helene La Rue.
During the year groups of students and staff members from 117 educational institutions visited the museum by special arrangement. Of these, 85 visits were from primary and middle schools, two were from institutions of Higher Education, four from institutions of Further Education, three from Polytechnics, nine from colleges of Art and Design, and ten were from other institutions, ranging from a borstal to a museum club.
Temporary Exhibitions
Thanks to the energy, enthusiasm, and initiative of staff members who are willing to take on an increased work load and to assume responsibilities above and beyond their normal duties, we have been able to inaugurate and maintain a programme of regular temporary exhibitions. Elizabeth Edwards and Linda Cheetham joined forces to put on the ‘Images of China, 1908-1912 exhibition which featured archive photographs taken by Capt. Henry Laver of the China Navigation Company, but which also included objects from the museum collections. Mr. Peter Narracott made the black and white enlargements from Laver's original glass plate negatives. This exhibition was open to the public for a year and was then closed at the end of 1985. It was replaced in January 1986 by On Top of the World exhibition of hats and headgear from various parts of the world. This was planned and mounted by Linda Cheetham in conjunction with Elizabeth Edwards with the assistance of Sian Rule and Helen Bond. Fiona Neale worked as a volunteer on documentation projects during the summer of 1986. We are pleased to have this opportunity to thank these three volunteers for the very valuable help they gave, not only for the temporary exhibition, but in many other ways during the year.
Conservation Laboratory
For the Conservation lab the year's work was dominated by the need to clean and conserve musical instruments and other objects for display in the new Balfour Building. A visiting museum conservation student from Canada spent three months working in the lab under the supervision of Sue Walker and made a very useful contribution during this particularly hectic period. Despite the urgent requirements of displays in the Balfour Building, the lab also carried out work on objects required for the temporary exhibition On Top of the World.
The museum's fumigation chamber, which has never been fully operational due to a series of technical faults, was again worked on during the year. The interior fittings were removed and the chamber sealed with a special compound to ensure that no gas can escape through the walls. The door seal was also replaced. The only remaining problem is that the electric pump which is designed to evacuate the chamber, and which has scarcely ever been used, is still not working. The firm that produced it is no longer in business and the pump cannot be repaired. Thus the fumigation chamber is still not working. The University Surveyor is looking into this matter and we hope that the chamber will be put in working order in 1987.
For several years the museum has had the benefit of assistance from volunteers from the National Association of Decorative and Fine Arts Societies. These volunteers have contributed much to helping with work in our understaffed conservation laboratory and we are grateful to them. This year those who have helped in this way are the Countess of Buckinghamshire, Mrs Peggy Cooper, Miss Sheila Lockett, Mrs Jean Marshall, Mrs Millburn, Mrs Doreen Ollett, Mrs Jill Whitehouse, Mrs Moza Williams, Mrs Elsbeth Woolcott, and Mrs Zoe Verney. We are grateful to them for the very substantial and practical help they have provided.
Pbotographic Studio
The demands for our photographic services both from within the museum and department and from outside sources continues to increase. In addition to on-going projects such as the copying of items from the photographic archives which are on nitrate stock or copying faded prints, all the museum's collection of musical instruments has been photographed as part of a programme of museum documentation and in preparation for a catalogue. The photographer, Mr Peter Narracott, continued to provide enlargements for museum displays, both permanent and temporary, as required. During the year 645 slides were produced for teaching purposes and 3,746 prints were made.
Friends of the Pitt Rivers Museum
The Annual General Meeting took place at the Pauling Human Science Centre on May 23rd, 1986. The new President, Professor Barry Cunliffe, spoke of his pleasure at being associated with the Friends at this period of the expansion of the Museum's services to the general public, in which the activities of the Friends provided an essential link. After the meeting, Friends were joined by members of the Museum staff and their families for refreshments and for a preview of the new Balfour Building.
Mention has been made elsewhere in this report of the team of enthusiastic volunteers who are working with Dr. Helene La Rue to produce 'Trails for Schools' and act as guides for various visiting groups. They were also involved in the establishment of a rota of Duty Friends—a move which has been welcomed by the museum staff, as it enables all the museum to be kept open in a time of staff shortages. This rota means that Duty Friends are also available to answer questions from members of the public and to give information about joining the Friends. Duty Friends lent a very welcome hand in dismantling the temporary exhibition Images of China in December. The museum wishes to thank all those Friends who have volunteered both time and effort to the museum during the year.
Two tours were organized for Friends during the year: a visit to the Caribbean Music Village in Holland Park in July and one to the Horniman Museum in November.
The following lectures were given at the museum under the auspices of the Friends:
Dr V. Reynolds: Life in the Garhwal Himalayas
Dr M. Bound: The Giglio Islands Wreck
Dr S. Hunt: Recent Excavations in Bath
Mr M. Horton: Traders and Tribesmen in East Africa
Dr H. Morphy: Art, Myth, and Land in Arnhem Land
We are particularly grateful to the Friends for the financial help which paid for the design of two new greeting cards to be sold in the museum shop, and also for the magnificent plaque of beautifully engraved Welsh slate which commemorates the opening of the Balfour Building by the Vice-Chancellor of the University.
Specimens acquired by purchase during tbe year
Mrs Acworth: A Cree Indian beaded saddle, two pairs of moccasins, one pair of gauntlets, and a knife sheath from Saskatchewan, Canada. Miss A. Betts: Ninety-one flint tools from surface collections made for the Black Desert Survey in Jordan. Dr H. La Rue: A guitar tuning kit for the new music displays in the Balfour Building. Mr H.P. Reiner: a Yugoslav peasant's wedding dress. Mr S. Randafison: a cow horn trumpet and a Valiha (cylindrical zither from Madagascar, both made by the vendor.
Loans Received
Mrs L.M.S.R. Jones: A silver police officer's whistle from Kabul, Afghanistan, loaned for the permanent music displays in the Balfour Building.
Specimens acquired by Donation
Mrs U.G.V. Betts: two Naga shields. Ms L. Cheetham: three bowls, two pots, a lime gourd, and three miniature hats from Colombia. Mrs B.K. Tarplett: an English guitar. Dr H. La Rue: various musical instruments for the new displays in the Balfour Building. Mrs J.M. La Rue: a Metropolitan Police Special Constable's cap and whistle, and various musical instruments for the new displays in the Balfour Building. Mrs P. Bradford: a ceremonial knife from Uganda, a coconut sieve and a carved bird from Kenya, a Norwegian hand mangle, a Tibetan brass and copper trumpet, a Welsh loving-spoon, some English kitchen utensils, a Spanish leather wine bottle, seven sperm whales’ teeth, some samples of Venetian glass, a West African staff, a quilled box, and two examples of early ecclesiastical music from Italy. Dr M. Aris: a steatite figure from Sierra Leone. Dr R. Barnes: a German whistle in the form of a bird. Mrs R.P. Edwards (via the Ashmolean Museum) a composite bow, probably from China, and two pottery vessels from Ethiopia. Mr S. Randafison: a pair of clappers and a gourd rattle from Madagascar, both made by the donor. Also two cow horns used for storing medicines, and a metal tool for scraping these horns. Mrs H.M. Pelter: a small basketry container from Uganda used in beer making. Tbames Valley Police: seven firearms from the USA, Belgium, Poland, Germany, and England, including a rifle made by Holland and Holland of London. Mrs Y. Shibata: twenty-one Japanese Shinto charms. Mr C. Paine: Forty-seven flutes from various parts of the world, collected by the donor's late wife. Miss S. Darvill: a bolas from Argentina.
Leicestershire Museum (transfer): an Arab bird trap from Bahrain, a painted shield from Sarawak, a shield, boomerang and spear from Australia, a Fijian throwing club, and spears from New Caledonia, the Solomon Islands, and various other parts of Melanesia.
Lady Waterhouse: a red deer antler beam from Grimes Graves, Norfolk, probably used as a pick in the neolithic flint mines. Mrs E.E. and Mr H.J. Amery: a World War I German flare pistol that had been presented to Major G. Douglas Amery, M.C. by his regiment for gallantry in 1917. Mrs E. Edwards: two music cassettes, two temple candles, and a sample of herbal medicine from China. Ms H. Vanslova: a wooden tobacco pipe from Russia. Headington Quarry Dancers: six Morris Dancing sticks and a pair of bell pads.
British Telecom, Oxford: a dial telephone. Mr R.G. Whitrod: a loom, eight arrows, and three spears from Luzon, Philippines. Miss D.B. Cole: a woman's silk apron from Tibet.
Teaching
Plans were drawn up for two new graduate courses: the M.St. (Master of Studies) in Ethnology and Museum Ethnography, and an M.Phil. (Master of Philosophy) in the same field. The first is to be a one-year taught course for graduate students. For those wishing to go on to a second year of graduate research the M.Phil. enables them to concentrate on some special aspect of their first year's work and requires the writing of a thesis under supervision. These new courses will provide opportunities for suitably qualified students to gain instruction in cultural anthropology with special reference to the history and development of Ethnology, as well as the study of art, material culture, and aesthetic anthropology. In addition to the practical study of ethnographic collections in the museum, students can choose the optional subjects ranging from ethnomusicology and museum studies to the ways in which other cultures have been depicted in anthropological films. It is expected that the new courses will begin in Michaelmas Term, 1987.
The Department continues to offer two optional courses to undergraduates reading for degrees in Geography: one entitled Man, Environment, and Culture and the other in Palaeolithic and Mesollithic Archaeology. The first of these is taught by Dr Donald Tayler, Dr Howard Morphy, and Dr Schuyler Jones. The second is taught by Dr Derek Roe. The Department also continues to lecture and teach undergraduates reading for the Human Science Degree.
Two of our graduate students continued to carry out research, a North America and the other in South America, dividing their time between Oxford and the field, one working in the Andes and the other on the Pacific Northwest Coast.
One candidate sat the M.St. in Prehistoric Archaeology and M.St. in Anthropological Archaeology. Both candidates were successful. At the doctoral level, Ms J.A. Tyldesley submitted a thesis on The Latest Handaxe Industries of the British Palaeolithic, with Reference to their Affinities in North West Europe and was awarded the degree. In Ethnology Ms S.A. Wright submitted her thesis Identities and Influence:Political Organlzation in Doshman Ziari, Mamasani, Iran and was awarded the degree, and Mr Leonidas Sotiropoulos was equally successful with his thesis Social Institutions of a Greek Village, with Special Reference to Economic Relationships.
During the past few years a trend has developed which has serious implications for future scholarship in various branches of the social sciences. The trend is one in which well qualified graduate students find themselves unable to get grants that will allow them to carry out advanced study and research. Year after year this Department receives between 50 and 100 enquiries, mostly from well-qualified graduates who are interested in pursuing careers either in Cultural Anthropology or Prehistoric Archaeology. Of these, several go on to complete application forms and gain admission to the University only to find that they cannot get the grants that will enable them to embark on graduate studies in their chosen field. In both Prehistoric Archaeology and Ethnology several graduate students were admitted during the year but they failed to get grants in spite of academic performances that were well up to standard. The question that this raises is where we are as a nation, to find suitably qualified persons to look after our museum collections in the decades ahead if today’s students are unable to get financial support for their training and research?
Donald Baden-Powell Quaternary Research Centre
This centre, which is part of the Department of Ethnology and Prehistory, is at 60 Banbury Road next to the new Balfour Building. Although some of the teaching in Prehistory is still carried out in the Department's facilities adjacent to the main museum, 60 Banbury Road has become the main centre for research in Prehistoric Archaeology. Staff and graduate students have made significant contributions to archaeological research, most notably in pioneering the analysis of microwear studies of stone tools.
The Centre's premises remain in constant use and tend to be overcrowded most of the year; they are a focus for much postdoctoral work, as well as a base for current graduate students. The non-academic staff of the Centre remains restricted to one caretaker-cleaner who is on duty from 8.30 a.m.-4.30 p.m. each day. The lack of research support staff continues to give rise to problems on a daily basis. For example, the Centre holds books on Palaeolithic and Quaternary subjects which belong to the Balfour Library, but proper supervision of their use remains impossible to arrange. Their presence however, is greatly valued and indeed essential. The lack of a secretary/receptionist means not only that all in-coming calls are either taken by Dr Roe or Mr Inskeep, but that academic staff and graduate students must interrupt their work many times each day to admit visitors to the building.
The Centre's long-standing request for a word processor has remained unfulfilled during the reporting period. Adjustments to the ageing RML microprocessor, which looked to be a possible solution to the problem, proved unsatisfactory.
After ten years of use some of the Centre's rooms are in need of redecoration. With the efforts of the Department's technical staff quite properly devoted to the completion of the new displays in the Balfour Building during the year even minor work at the Centre, such as additional shelving, has had to wait.
During the year various members of the Centre attended meetings of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Study Group. Informal seminars were given at the Centre by several visiting scholars and graduate students. Post doctoral researchers R.N.L. Barton and S.N. Collcutt undertook a specially commissioned survey of Palaeolithic cave sites in England and Wales for the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission and their report is now being completed. Another post-doctoral research associate of the Centre, W.H. Waldren, organized the International Western Mediterranean Bell Beaker Conference in Oxford in December, 1985.
With the prevailing bleak economic outlook and with no prospect of obtaining additional space the Centre plans to continue its work as best it can. Some research support staff would be extremely desirable if financial circumstances permit. The Centre could also greatly benefit from a recurrent grant to aid research. Abundant opportunities for Quaternary Research exist if we could in practical terms avail ourselves of them.
For some twenty years our most energetic and enthusiastic volunteer has been Mr R.J. McRae of Cassington. Well versed in prehistoric archaeology in general and the archaeology of the Thames Valley in particular, he has put in many long hours sorting our collection stone tools and adding to them by his own finds from up and down the country. There can be but few areas of exposed Thames gravel that he has not explored and we record our grateful thanks to this dedicated and knowledgeable volunteer who has done so much for the museum.
Staff Activities
Linda Cheetham was elected to the Committee of the Museum Ethnographers Group and became Vice-Chairman of the Oxfordshire Museums Panel. In November, 1985 she also planned and organized together with Dr Donald Tayler, a special Colombian Evening at the museum to raise money for victims of the Nevado del Ruiz disaster. This was well-attended and more than £300 was raised.
Elizabeth Edwards read a paper on anthropology and photography in the mid-19th century at the conference Exhibitions of Ourselves held at the British Museum in February, 1986.
Mr. Ray Inskeep served as a member of the editorial board of World Archaeology and during this reporting period he took sabbatical leave.
Dr Schuyler Jones was invited to serve as a member of Council of the Royal Anthropological Institute in London and paid a working visit to the Hadza and Akiea hunter-gatherers of Tanzania.
Dr Helene La Rue organized a concert of Japanese music (Koto and Shakuhachi) in the Holywell Music Room, Oxford in December 1985. She read a paper on Music Boxes in the Pitt Rivers Museum at the Annual Meeting of the Musical Box Society of Great Britain. As a member of the Board of the Comité International des Musée et Collections d'Instruments de Musique (CIMCIM) she participated in conferences in Washington, D.C. and New York and was part of the International working party on the classification of music instruments at meetings held in Paris and Antwerp. She also served as Editor of CIMCIM Newsletter.
Dr Howard Morphy was a member of the organizing committee of the Fourth International Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies held in London and presented a paper entitled 'Maintaining Cosmic Unity: Ideology and the Reproduction of Yolngu Clans'. He was also a member of the organizing committee of the World Archaeological Congress held in Southampton where he presented a paper on 'Representing Ancestral Beings'. He is at present editing a volume of papers from the Southampton Conference. He prepared a paper entitled 'Resurrecting the Hydra' for the 25th Anniversary Conference of the Institute of Aboriginal Studies. During the year he was appointed to the editorial board of Man, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, was made a corresponding member of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, and received the Stanner Award for his book Journey to the Crocodile Nest.
Dr. Derek Roe served as a member of the editorial board of World Archaeology, as a contributing editor of the Quarterly Review of Archaeology, and as a member of the advisory Board of L’Anthropologie. In January 1986 he was elected Vice-Master of St. Cross College, Oxford.
Publications by Staff Members
Cbeetham, L. 1985 Pre-Columbian Negative Painted Pottery: Some Notes and Observations, Bulletin of the Experimental Firing Group, Vol. 3.
Edwards, E. 1986 The Care and Storage of Photographs: A Self-Help Programme, Area Museums Service for South-East England Information Series, Milton Keynes.
Inskeep, R.R. & J.C. Vogel 1985, Radiocarbon dates from the Holocene Levels at Nelson Bay Cave and an Interim Report on their Associations, South African Archaeological Bulletin, Vol. 40, pp. 103-l05.
Jones, S. 1985 House Types in the Wama Area; Kantar Kot in Waigal Valley & The Ashkun Region; Mosques; etc. (in) Edelberg, L.: Nuristani Buildings, Jutland Archaeological Society Publications XVIII, Moesgaard, Aarhus, Denmark.
Jones, S. 1985 On Nuristani Buildings, Aarsskrift for etnografi, 1984-85, pp. 314-318, Aarhus Universitet, Denmark.
Jones, S. 1986 Pygmies of Central Africa, Wayland Publishers Ltd. Hove, E. Sussex.
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Morphy, H. 1986 Reflections on Representations, Anthropology Today, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 24-25.
Morphy, H. 1986 Australian Aboriginal Iconology (in) Encyclopaedia of Religion, MacMillans, New York.
Morphy, H. 1986 (with others) Religion tn Aboriginal Australia. University of Queensland Press, Brisbane.
Roe, D.A. (ed) 1986 Studies in the Upper Palaeolithic of Britain and Northwest Europe, B.A.R. International Series, No. 296. Volume of Studies from a Conference held at the Donald Baden Quaternary Research Centre).
Roe, D.A. 1986 The Palaeolithic Period in the Oxford Region (in) Briggs, G. et. al. (eds), The Archaeology of the Oxford Oxford University Dept. of External Studies.
Roe, D.A. 1985 Some Recent Research Involving Microwear, Review of Archaeology, Vol. 6, No.3.
Tayler, D.B. 1985 The Hidden Peoples of the Amazon (with E. Cannichael, S. Hugh-Jones, and B. Moser), British Museum Publications.
Tayler, D.B. 1986 The Pitt Rivers Museum: Past and Future, The Ashmolean, No. I1, Oxford.
Dr. SCHUYLER JONES
