Harold St George Gray

Harold St George Gray (15 January 1872 – 28 February 1963) was a British archaeologist. He was involved in the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford and later was the librarian-curator of the Museum for the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society.

Harold St George Gray
Born15 January 1872
Lichfield, England
Died28 February 1963(1963-02-28) (aged 91)[1]
NationalityBritish
Known forExcavation of Avebury, Cadbury Camp, Glastonbury Lake Village and Meare Lake Village
Scientific career
FieldsArchaeology

Gray was born in 1872 in Lichfield. In 1888 he started working for the archaeologist Augustus Pitt Rivers and trained in archaeological techniques and later took over as his secretary.[2] In 1899 he became assistant to Henry Balfour at the Pitt Rivers Museum before leaving to become curator at the museum in Taunton, which later became the Museum of Somerset, where he stayed until 1949 and wrote frequent papers for their journal.[1][3] During this time he was involved in the dismissal of Frederick Bligh Bond as archaeologist at Glastonbury Abbey when he claimed that much of his work was helped by the "spirits of Glastonbury monks".[4]

After leaving Pitt-Rivers he led the excavations at Arbor Low in 1901 and 1902,[5] and then worked on the rings on Bodmin Moor.[6]

In 1904 he was involved with Arthur Bulleid in the excavation of Glastonbury Lake Village and later at Meare Lake Village. One of Gray's contributions to archaeology was the scale of the excavations undertaken and the detailed records kept following the teaching of his mentor Pitt-Rivers.[7] He also developed techniques of making three dimensional models of the sites.[8]

From 1908 to 1913 he was responsible for excavations at Maumbury Rings,[9] and from 1908 to 1923 at Avebury.[10][11] His discovery of over forty antler picks at or near the bottom of the henge ditch at Avebury proved that it had been dug out of solid chalk to a depth of 11 m (36 ft) using red deer antlers as picks.[12][13] In 1922 he excavated Cadbury Camp,[14] and from 1926 to 1929 he was at Windmill Hill, Avebury with Alexander Keiller.

In 1943 he bought the Treasurer's House in Martock to preserve it. His wife bequeathed it to the National Trust in 1970.[15][16] Gray was president of the Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society from 1951 to 1952 and died in 1963.[1]

References
  1. "Rethinking Pitt-Rivers". Oxford University. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  2. Minnitt, Stephen; Coles, John (2006). The Lake Villages of Somerset. Glastonbury Antiquarian Society. pp. 3–5. ISBN 978-0950712239.
  3. "GRAY, H St George". British and Irish archaeological bibliography. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  4. "About Us". Somerset Archaeological and Natural History Society. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  5. Burl, Aubrey (2002). Prehistoric Avebury. Yale University Press. p. 66. ISBN 9780300090871.
  6. Pitts, Michael (2011). Hengeworld. Random House. pp. 181–182. ISBN 9781446441350.
  7. Barker, Philip (2003). Techniques of Archaeological Excavation. Routledge. ISBN 9781134745883.
  8. de Chadarevian, Soraya; Hopwood, Nick (2004). Models: The Third Dimension of Science. Stanford University Press. pp. 124–125. ISBN 9780804739726.
  9. Historic England. "Maumbury Rings (451843)". PastScape. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  10. "The Ditch and Bank of the Henge". Avebury. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  11. "The History of the Avebury Monuments" (PDF). English Heritage. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
  12. Smith, I. (1965). Windmill Hill and Avebury: Excavations by Alexander Keiller 1925–1939. Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 218.
  13. Pitts, Michael W.; Whittle, A. (1992). "Development and date of Avebury". Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society. 58: 203–212. doi:10.1017/s0079497x00004151.
  14. Historic England. "Cadbury Camp (195367)". PastScape. Retrieved 21 December 2013.
  15. Historic England. "The Treasurer's House (1225764)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  16. R.W. Dunning (editor), A.P. Baggs, R.J.E. Bush (1978). "Parishes: Martock". A History of the County of Somerset: Volume 4. Institute of Historical Research. Retrieved 14 December 2013.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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