Stuart Piggott

Stuart Ernest Piggott, (28 May 1910 – 23 September 1996) was a British archaeologist, best known for his work on prehistoric Wessex.

Early life Piggott was born in Petersfield, Hampshire, the son of G. H. O. Piggott, and was educated there at Churcher's College.

Career On leaving school in 1927 Piggott took up a post as assistant at Reading Museum, where he developed an expertise in Neolithic pottery.

In 1928 he joined the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales and spent the next five years producing a revolutionary study of the site of Butser Hill, near Petersfield. He also worked with Eliot Cecil Curwen on their excavations at The Trundle causewayed enclosure in Sussex.

In the 1930s he began working for Alexander Keiller, an amateur archaeologist who funded his work from the profits of his Dundee Marmalade business. The two dug numerous sites in Wessex including Avebury and Kennet Avenue. In 1933, he joined his friend Grahame Clark in writing the highly significant paper, "The age of the British flint mines" (Antiquity, 1933): the resultant controversy led to the foundation of the Prehistoric Society. Still without any formal archaeological qualification, Piggott enrolled at Mortimer Wheeler's Institute of Archaeology, London, taking his diploma in 1936. It was also here that he met his wife, Peggy (Margaret Guido). In 1937 he published another seminal paper, "The early Bronze Age in Wessex".

With Peggy, he went on in June 1939 to join the burial chamber excavations at Sutton Hoo at the invitation of Charles Phillips.

During the Second World War Piggott worked as an air photo interpreter. He was posted to India, where he spent time studying the archaeology of the sub-continent, eventually leading him to write the books Some Ancient Cities of India (1946) and Prehistoric India (1950). These experiences provided him with a valuable external view of European prehistory, which was to prove useful on his return to Britain.

After the war he went to Oxford to study the work of William Stukeley, but in 1946 was offered the Abercromby Chair of Archaeology at Edinburgh University (now part of the School of History, Classics and Archaeology), in succession to Gordon Childe. Piggott succeeded in making Edinburgh an archaeology department of international standing. He continued to publish widely. His book Neolithic Cultures of the British Isles (1954) was highly influential, until radiocarbon dating tests exposed flaws in its chronology. Piggott considered that radiocarbon dating was "archaeologically unacceptable", because every other shred of evidence pointed towards his dates being correct. Ancient Europe (1965) remained a popular survey of Old World prehistory for more than twenty years, demonstrating his view of the solidarity and continuity of the past in Europe. In 1956 his childless marriage ended.

In 1958 Piggott published a survey of Scottish prehistory, Scotland before History, and in 1959 a popular introductory volume, Approach to Archaeology. He was president of the Prehistoric Society from 1960 to 1963, president of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland from 1963 to 1967, president of the Council for British Archaeology from 1967 to 1970, and a trustee of the British Museum between 1968 and 1974). In 1963, he produced a thorough analysis of the Beaker culture in Britain, published as part of a Festschrift dedicated to Cyril Fox. Piggott's interest in the early history of the practice of archaeology led to him writing The Druids in 1968; other books included Prehistoric Societies (with Grahame Clark), The Earliest Wheeled Transport (1983), followed by its sequel, Wagon, Chariot and Carriage (1992). His final book was Ancient Britain and the Antiquarian Imagination (1989).

He died of a heart attack at his home near Wantage in Oxfordshire on 23 September 1996. His remains were cremated on 30 September at Oxford crematorium.

Family

On 12 November 1936, he married Cecily Margaret Preston, an archaeologist and finds specialist; they had met while students at the Institute of Archaeology in London. By 1954, their relationship was over, and they divorced in 1956.

Publications

Marjorie Robertson compiled a list of Piggott's books up to 1975 for his festschrift.

Year of publication Title Co-author(s) Publisher 1935 The Progress of Early Man – A. and C. Black (London) 1944 Some Ancient Cities of India – Oxford University Press (Bombay) 1948 Fire Among the Ruins Oxford University Press (London) 1949 British Prehistory Oxford University Press (London) 1950 Prehistoric India to 1000 BC Penguin (Harmondsworth) 1950 William Stukeley: An Eighteenth Century Antiquary Clarendon Press (Oxford) 1951 Cairnpapple Hill, West Lothian HMSO (Edinburgh) 1951 A Picture Book of Ancient British Art Glyn Daniel Cambridge University Press (Cambridge) 1953 William Camden and the Britannia Oxford University Press (London) 1954 The Neolithic Cultures of the British Isles Cambridge University Press (Cambridge) 1958 Inventaria Archaeologica GB 25-34: Early and Middle Bronze Age Grave-Groups and Hoards from Scotland (edited volume) Margaret Stewart (editors) Garraway (London) 1958 Scotland Before History Nelson (London) 1959 Approach to Archaeology A. and C. Black (London) 1961 The Dawn of Civilization (edited volume) Thames and Hudson (London) 1962 The Prehistoric Peoples of Scotland (edited volume) Routledge and Kegan Paul (London) 1962 The West Kennet Long Barrow: Excavations 1955–56 HMSO (London) 1963 West Kennet Long Barrow: Wiltshire HMSO (London) 1965 Ancient Europe from the Beginnings of Agriculture to Classical Antiquity: A Survey Edinburgh University Press (Edinburgh) 1965 Prehistoric Societies (The History of Human Society series) Grahame Clark Hutchinson (London) 1967 Celts, Saxons and the Early Antiquaries Edinburgh University Press (Edinburgh) 1968 The Druids (= Ancient Peoples and Places. 63) Thames and Hudson (London) 1970 Early Celtic Art Derek Allen Edinburgh University Press for the Arts Council of Great Britain (Edinburgh)

Further publications include:

1970 Scotland: Illustrated Guide to Ancient Monuments W. Douglas Simpson HMSO (Edinburgh) 1978 Antiquity Depicted: Aspects of Archaeological Illustrations (W.Neurath Memorial Lecture) Thames and Hudson (London) 1983 The Earliest Wheeled Transport. From the Atlantic Coast to the Caspian Sea Thames and Hudson (London) 1989 Ancient Britons and the Antiquarian Imagination. Ideas from the Renaissance to the Regency Thames and Hudson (London) 1992 Wagon, Chariot and Carriage. Symbol and Status in the History of Transport Thames and Hudson (London) 1995 The Celtic World (edited volume, contributed one chapter: 18. Wood and the Wheelwright) Miranda J. Green (editor) Routledge (London)