Augustus Pitt Rivers
Encyclopedia
Lieutenant-General Augustus Henry Lane-Fox Pitt Rivers (14 April 1827 – 4 May 1900) was an English
army
officer, ethnologist
, and archaeologist
. He was noted for his innovations in archaeological methods, and in the museum display of archaeological and ethnological collections.
, Wetherby
, Yorkshire
, he was the son of William Lane-Fox and Lady Caroline Douglas, a sister of George Douglas, 17th Earl of Morton
. George Lane-Fox
and Sackville Lane-Fox
were his uncles. Educated at the Royal Military College Sandhurst
and commissioned into the Grenadier Guards
, Lane-Fox had a long and successful military career, primarily as a staff officer; he served in the Crimea
as a lieutenant. He retired in 1882 as a Lieutenant-General. Two years before retirement, Lane-Fox inherited the estates of a cousin: Henry Pitt-Rivers, 6th Baron Rivers
and consequently the remainder of the Richard Rigby
fortune. He thereafter adopted the surname Pitt Rivers in honour of his benefactor. Three notable descendants of Augustus are his grandson, the anthropologist and eugenicist, George Pitt-Rivers, his great-grandson, the anthropologist and ethnographer, Julian A. Pitt-Rivers
, and his great-great-grandson, William Fox-Pitt
, the equestrian
. Another grandson was Michael Pitt-Rivers
who gained notoriety in Britain
in the 1950s when he was put on trial charged with buggery
.
Pitt Rivers' interests in archaeology and ethnology began in the 1850s, during postings overseas, and he became a noted scientist while he was still a serving military officer. He was elected, in the space of five years, to the Ethnological Society of London
(1861), the Society of Antiquaries of London
(1864) and the Anthropological Society of London
(1865). By the time he retired he had amassed ethnographic collections numbering tens of thousands of items from all over the world. Influenced by the evolutionary writings of Charles Darwin
and Herbert Spencer
, he arranged them typologically and (within types) chronologically. This style of arrangement, designed to highlight the evolutionary trends in human artefacts, was a revolutionary innovation in museum design. Pitt Rivers' ethnological collections today form the basis of the Pitt Rivers Museum
which is still one of Oxford
's leading attractions.
The estates that Pitt Rivers inherited in 1880 contained a wealth of archaeological material from the Roman
and Saxon periods. He excavated these over seventeen seasons, beginning in the mid-1880s and ending with his death. His approach was highly methodical by the standards of the time, and he is widely regarded as the first scientific archaeologist to work in Britain. His most important methodological innovation was his insistence that all artefacts, not just beautiful or unique ones, be collected and catalogued. This focus on everyday objects as the key to understanding the past broke decisively with past archaeological practice, which had often verged on treasure hunting. It is Pitt Rivers' most important, and most lasting scientific legacy. Moreover his work inspired Mortimer Wheeler
among others to add to the scientific approach of archaeological excavation techniques.
Pitt Rivers created the Larmer Tree Gardens
, a public pleasure garden, on the Rushmore estate near Tollard Royal
in Wiltshire
.
From 1882 Pitt Rivers served as Britain's first Inspector of Ancient Monuments: a post created by anthropologist and parliamentarian John Lubbock
who was married to Pitt Rivers' daughter, Alice. Charged with cataloguing archaeological sites and protecting them from destruction, he worked with his customary methodical zeal but was hampered by the limitations of the law, which gave him little real power over the landowners on whose property the sites stood.
In 1884 he served as High Sheriff of Dorset
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
officer, ethnologist
Ethnology
Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that compares and analyzes the origins, distribution, technology, religion, language, and social structure of the ethnic, racial, and/or national divisions of humanity.-Scientific discipline:Compared to ethnography, the study of single groups through direct...
, and archaeologist
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
. He was noted for his innovations in archaeological methods, and in the museum display of archaeological and ethnological collections.
Life and career
Born Augustus Henry Lane-Fox at Bramham cum OglethorpeBramham Park
Bramham Park is a country house between Leeds and Wetherby, West Yorkshire, England. The Baroque mansion was built in 1698 by Robert Benson, 1st Baron Bingley. It has remained in the ownership of Benson's descendents since its completion in 1710...
, Wetherby
Wetherby
Wetherby is a market town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Wharfe, and has been for centuries a crossing place and staging post on the Great North Road, being mid-way between London and Edinburgh...
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, he was the son of William Lane-Fox and Lady Caroline Douglas, a sister of George Douglas, 17th Earl of Morton
George Douglas, 17th Earl of Morton
George Sholto Douglas, 17th Earl of Morton , known as George Douglas until 1827, was a Scottish Tory politician....
. George Lane-Fox
George Lane-Fox (MP)
George Lane-Fox , of Bramham Park, Yorkshire, was a British landowner and Tory politician.Lane-Fox was the son of James Fox-Lane, of Bramham Park, Yorkshire, by the Honourable Mary Lucy, daughter of George Pitt, 1st Baron Rivers...
and Sackville Lane-Fox
Sackville Lane-Fox
Sackville Walter Lane-Fox , was a British Conservative Party politician.-Background:Lane-Fox was the son of James Fox-Lane, of Bramham Park, Yorkshire, by the Honourable Mary Lucy, daughter of George Pitt, 1st Baron Rivers...
were his uncles. Educated at the Royal Military College Sandhurst
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst , commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is a British Army officer initial training centre located in Sandhurst, Berkshire, England...
and commissioned into the Grenadier Guards
Grenadier Guards
The Grenadier Guards is an infantry regiment of the British Army. It is the most senior regiment of the Guards Division and, as such, is the most senior regiment of infantry. It is not, however, the most senior regiment of the Army, this position being attributed to the Life Guards...
, Lane-Fox had a long and successful military career, primarily as a staff officer; he served in the Crimea
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
as a lieutenant. He retired in 1882 as a Lieutenant-General. Two years before retirement, Lane-Fox inherited the estates of a cousin: Henry Pitt-Rivers, 6th Baron Rivers
Baron Rivers
Baron Rivers was a title that was created four times in British history, twice in the Peerage of England, once in the Peerage of Great Britain and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first creation came in 1299 when John Rivers was summoned to Parliament as Baron Rivers. The title became...
and consequently the remainder of the Richard Rigby
Richard Rigby
Richard Rigby , was an English civil servant and politician. He served as Secretary of Ireland and Paymaster of the Forces...
fortune. He thereafter adopted the surname Pitt Rivers in honour of his benefactor. Three notable descendants of Augustus are his grandson, the anthropologist and eugenicist, George Pitt-Rivers, his great-grandson, the anthropologist and ethnographer, Julian A. Pitt-Rivers
Julian A. Pitt-Rivers
Julian Alfred Pitt-Rivers , was a British social anthropologist, ethnographer, and a professor at universities in three countries.Pitt-Rivers was a great-grandson of the archeologist Augustus Pitt Rivers...
, and his great-great-grandson, William Fox-Pitt
William Fox-Pitt
William Speed Lane Fox-Pitt , known as William Fox-Pitt, is an English equestrian. He has had notable successes at the Burghley, Badminton, Blenheim and Bramham Horse Trials...
, the equestrian
Equestrianism
Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...
. Another grandson was Michael Pitt-Rivers
Michael Pitt-Rivers
Major Michael Augustus Lane-Fox Pitt-Rivers was a West Country landowner who gained notoriety in Britain in the 1950s when he was put on trial charged with buggery...
who gained notoriety in Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in the 1950s when he was put on trial charged with buggery
Buggery
The British English term buggery is very close in meaning to the term sodomy, and is often used interchangeably in law and popular speech. It may be, also, a specific common law offence, encompassing both sodomy and bestiality.-In law:...
.
Pitt Rivers' interests in archaeology and ethnology began in the 1850s, during postings overseas, and he became a noted scientist while he was still a serving military officer. He was elected, in the space of five years, to the Ethnological Society of London
Ethnological Society of London
The Ethnological Society of London was founded in 1843 by a breakaway faction of the Aborigines' Protection Society . It quickly became one of England's leading scientific societies, and a meeting-place not only for students of ethnology but also for archaeologists interested in prehistoric...
(1861), the Society of Antiquaries of London
Society of Antiquaries of London
The Society of Antiquaries of London is a learned society "charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with 'the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries'." It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London , and is...
(1864) and the Anthropological Society of London
Anthropological Society of London
The Anthropological Society of London was founded in 1863 by Richard Francis Burton and Dr. James Hunt. It broke away from the existing Ethnological Society of London, founded in 1843, and defined itself in opposition to the older society...
(1865). By the time he retired he had amassed ethnographic collections numbering tens of thousands of items from all over the world. Influenced by the evolutionary writings of Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
and Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era....
, he arranged them typologically and (within types) chronologically. This style of arrangement, designed to highlight the evolutionary trends in human artefacts, was a revolutionary innovation in museum design. Pitt Rivers' ethnological collections today form the basis of the Pitt Rivers Museum
Pitt Rivers Museum
The Pitt Rivers Museum is a museum displaying the archaeological and anthropological collections of the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. The museum is located to the east of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and can only be accessed through that building.The museum was...
which is still one of Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
's leading attractions.
The estates that Pitt Rivers inherited in 1880 contained a wealth of archaeological material from the Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
and Saxon periods. He excavated these over seventeen seasons, beginning in the mid-1880s and ending with his death. His approach was highly methodical by the standards of the time, and he is widely regarded as the first scientific archaeologist to work in Britain. His most important methodological innovation was his insistence that all artefacts, not just beautiful or unique ones, be collected and catalogued. This focus on everyday objects as the key to understanding the past broke decisively with past archaeological practice, which had often verged on treasure hunting. It is Pitt Rivers' most important, and most lasting scientific legacy. Moreover his work inspired Mortimer Wheeler
Mortimer Wheeler
Brigadier Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler CH, CIE, MC, FBA, FSA , was one of the best-known British archaeologists of the twentieth century.-Education and career:...
among others to add to the scientific approach of archaeological excavation techniques.
Pitt Rivers created the Larmer Tree Gardens
Larmer Tree Gardens
The Larmer Tree Gardens near Tollard Royal in south Wiltshire, England, were created by Lieutenant-General Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers in 1880 as pleasure grounds for "public enlightenment and entertainment". They were the first private gardens opened for public enjoyment in the United...
, a public pleasure garden, on the Rushmore estate near Tollard Royal
Tollard Royal
Tollard Royal is a village and civil parish on Cranborne Chase, Wiltshire, England. The parish is on Wiltshire's southern boundary with Dorset and the village is southeast of the Dorset town of Shaftesbury....
in Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
.
From 1882 Pitt Rivers served as Britain's first Inspector of Ancient Monuments: a post created by anthropologist and parliamentarian John Lubbock
John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury
John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury PC , FRS , known as Sir John Lubbock, 4th Baronet from 1865 until 1900, was a polymath and Liberal Member of Parliament....
who was married to Pitt Rivers' daughter, Alice. Charged with cataloguing archaeological sites and protecting them from destruction, he worked with his customary methodical zeal but was hampered by the limitations of the law, which gave him little real power over the landowners on whose property the sites stood.
In 1884 he served as High Sheriff of Dorset
High Sheriff of Dorset
The High Sheriff of Dorset is an ancient High Sheriff title which has been in existence for over one thousand years. The position was once a powerful position responsible for collecting taxes and enforcing law and order in Dorset. In modern times the sheriff has become a ceremonial role, presiding...
.
External links
- The Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
- The Pitt Rivers Galleries at Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum
- Pitt Rivers Museum biography of Pitt Rivers