Dan Hicks writes: When it was founded in 1884, the collections of the Pitt Rivers Museum comprised some 26,000 archaeological and ethnographic objects: a number that over the course of the twentieth century grew to over 300,000. Within the founding collection are a number of artefacts that relate directly to Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers’ own interests in the archaeology of Britain. These include a set of thirteen models of prehistoric monuments, one of which is illustrated above (Accession Number 1884.140.97). Like the other twelve, this model was made by Alfred Lionel Lewis, a chartered accountant and amateur anthropologist, in the late 1860s, acquired by Pitt-Rivers soon afterwards, and displayed at his exhibitions in Bethnal Green and South Kensington before being brought to Oxford.
The model depicts Wayland’s Smithy, a Neolithic chambered tomb, which lies a short distance along the Ridgeway from Uffington White Horse in south-west Oxfordshire. The site consists of a trapezoidal mound with a stone-lined trancepted chamber, and was constructed some 6,500 years ago in the middle of the fourth millennium BC. It was little explored in the 1880s, but was the focus of excavations conducted in the early 1960s by Richard Atkinson and Stuart Piggott, at the invitation of the Inspectorate of Ancient Monuments of the Ministry of Public Building and Works, after which the site was restored.
The stones, rendered in cork, are surrounded by undergrowth and small trees, depicted by moss. The model’s focus is the sarsen stones of the chamber and the kerb, while the mound is suggested under the vegetation. The cork and the moss are mounted on a square wooden block covered with painted paper.
You can read more about Dan Hicks' work on Pitt-Rivers' collections in the blog Excavating Pitt-Rivers.
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