Lably
Skip to content

UCL Institute of Archaeology

Academic department at UCL

  • 6 min read
  • 7 chapters

Related on Lably

Through Archaeology, Cultural heritage and World War II

Lab · Class 6–12Archaeology & DiscoveryLab · Class 8–12Archaeology of DelhiLab · Class 6–7Map ExplorerLab · Class 8–10India's Freedom Struggle

History

The Institute of Archaeology had its origins in Mortimer Wheeler's vision of a centre for archaeological training in the United Kingdom, which he conceived in the 1920s. Wheeler and Tessa Verney Wheeler, his wife and an archaeologist in her own right, lobbied colleagues and gathered funds to open the institute. The Wheeler's ambitions were realised when the institute was officially opened in 1937, with Mortimer Wheeler as its first director. Among its early members of staff were some of the founding ancestors of archaeology in Britain. Foremost among these, apart from Wheeler himself, was V. Gordon Childe, director from 1946 to 1957, but there were many others, including Kathleen Kenyon, excavator of Jericho, initially secretary then the institute's acting director during World War II; F. E. Zeuner, one of the founders of quaternary studies and of zooarchaeology; Joan du Plat Taylor, the institute's librarian for many years, who was a pioneer of underwater archaeology; Max Mallowan, Professor of Western Asiatic Archaeology (and second husband of Agatha Christie) and Vera Conlon, archaeological photographer and publisher of the textbook Camera Techniques in Archaeology.

Mortimer Wheeler formally resigned as honorary director in 1944 when he became director-general of the Archaeological Survey of India and, at the end of the Second World War, the directorship was awarded to V. Gordon Childe. Following Childe's retirement, this role passed to W. F. Grimes, like Wheeler a former director of the London Museum, and best known today for his 1954 excavation of the London Mithraeum. Following Grimes, the directorship has been held by the Mediterranean prehistorian John Davies Evans; the geographer David R. Harris; Peter Ucko, founder of the World Archaeological Congress; the prehistorian and evolutionary theorist Stephen Shennan and the prehistorian Sue Hamilton. It is currently held by Professor of African Archaeology, Kevin MacDonald. Until 1958, the institute was based at St John's Lodge, Regent's Park, London subsequently moving to purpose-built premises on Gordon Square designed by Booth, Ledeboer, and Pinckheard. The institute taught a diploma until the first BA degree was offered in 1968, followed shortly thereafter by a BSc. The year 2012 marked the institute's 75th anniversary, and a number of events and activities were held to mark this occasion.

Sign in to keep reading

6 more chapters are free with a Lably account.

More in Archaeology

National Register of Historic PlacesFederal list of historic sites in the USArmeniansEthnic group native to the Caucasus and the Armenian HighlandsDioceseChristian district governed by a bishopListed buildingProtected historic structure in the United KingdomSteleStone or wooden slab erected as a markerAnthropologistPerson with an extensive knowledge of anthropology