Keiller Collection Letters 24 Oct 1937. 24th October, 1937. Alexander Keiller (age 47) to Vere Gordon Childe (age 45).

Dear Childe,

Very many thanks indeed for your letter of the 10th which I would have answered before but, when it arrived, I was up with Influenza. I got up sooner than I should in order to return to the site of excavations in the north—weetern sector which are still in procreee and, not unnaturally, caugnt another chill and retired to bed again.

I do hope that we meet soon for I fear that your experiences as the guest of the Gazi will have laid a mantle of amnesia over your transatlantic [?].

Raymond Firth must have misunderstood my letter completely if, as you say, he though that I was irritated with R.A.I. becauoe J. Foster called himself a "Fellow" thereof. Why I wrote to Firth on the matter at all was that Foster Forbes (age 48) consistently advertised the fact that he was "F.R.A.I., F.S.A." that it would be an excellent thing both these organisations forwarded a protest to the B.B.C., lest that consumately complacent body considered that these two learned Societies concurred with J.F.F.s fantastic statements, and that their silence might be taken to weigh the scales against the more articulate objctions of The Prehistoric Society, The Wilts Archaeological Society, The Hampshire Field Club and others. The Prehistorlc Society are discussing the matter on Wednesdat and will certainly send a strongly worded protest. Equally naturally, the Society of Antiquaries of London propose to do nothing about the matter at save that. "the President wili probably speak to Reith about it if he a chance when he next sees him". The Society of London have for so many yeare adopted the methods towards prehistory of the Duke of Plaza Toro that one would hardly expect them to do anything else than, actually nothing at all.

Reverting again to Firth and the R.A.I. believe no one realises better than I that such initials after one'e nane mean nothing beyond the fact that one hae been interested enouch to pay a couple of guineas or so annually for the right to use the library of the Institution. Personally I never put any letters after my name if I can avoid it, unless F.G.S. if I happen to be writing on geological subjects iun a vain hope that I may convey to my readers I that I am justified in doing so. I was going to say that, having resigned from The Royal Philatelic Society I cannot now utilise the initials "F.R.P.S." which used to give the impression that I had a commercial if not technical knowledge of Chemistry.

Needless to say I agree with everything you say concerning J. Foster Forbes (age 48). Kendrick wrote to me the other day and suggested that two reputable arehaeologists should broadcast talks contraverting Foster Forbe's fantastic statements. I have since heard from the B.B.C. concerning Kendrick's suggestion that I should be one of those selected but, owing to illness, as I say, I have not yet had an opportunity of answering either Kendrick of the B.B.C. The most important this was that the B.B.C. told me they had writted to you to ask you to undertake the frist broadcast. I do most sincerely hope that you will see your way to consent for, when I first got Kendrick's letter your name naturally sprang to my mind as being the most suitable person to undertake the task. Why I should have asked to be the second I cannot imagine, for i could, as I am sure that you could too, instantly name half-a-dozen men very much more competent to undertake the job than I.

After all I but an archaeological surveyor and excavator when all is said and done. I do not lay and never have laid claim to being a "savant" as regards comparative archaeology. I can contravert Foster Forbes' (age 48) statements concerning Avebury, or the megalithic monuments in the north—east of Scotland, but so can plenty of other people who can hold the publie interest better than could I on wider aspects of the subjecty so unsatisfactorily traversed by J. Foster Forbes (age 48).

I am writing to the B.B.C. to suggesting to them that, apart altogether frocu these two immediate talks, a series of talks should be given, say once a fortnight, beginning shortly after the New Yeur and dealing respectively with various periods of British prehistory. In this case, unless more suitable names ware suggested something on the following lines might be adopted:

Palaeolithic (Burkitt).

Mesolithic (Clarke).

Neolithic (Myself, or anyone else who is preferred).

Bronze Age (Piggott or Stone).

Early Iron Age (Hawkes).

Roman (Collingwood).

Saxon and Dark Agee (Kendrick) .

With a summary of the whole to round up the course by O.G.S. Crawford. Alternatively, instead of dividing prehistory into the above hidebound compartments, certain of the talks might represent the transitionary period of one into the next,

Mesolithic — Neolithic (Clarke)

Neolithic — Early Bronze Ace ( Pit.•gott).

Bronze Age — Early Iron Ace (Hawkes).

and so on. Whnt do you think of the Idea?

Anyhow I do hope that you consent to the B.B.C's invitation, and that when you do you will give J. Foster Forbes the sheer undiluted hell that he so richly deserves and for which with sucg unparallel verbosity he has demonstrably asked.

Best wishes to you from all of us here,

Yours sincerely

John Foster Forbes: In 1889 he was born at Rothiemay Castle, Aberdeenshire. In Jul 1958 he died in the Brighton General Hospital after complications following an operation for peritonitis.

03 Dec 1955. Nature. Obituaries. Source

Mr. Alexander Keiller.

ALEXANDER KEILLER, who died at the end of September at the age of sixty-five, was one of the long line of distinguished amateur British archæologists which goes back to Aubrey and Stukeley. Of these perhaps the greatest was Pitt-Rivers, on whom Keiller, like him with leisure and abundant means at his disposal, admittedly modelled his own work.

While still in his early thirties, Keiller carried out a systematic survey of stone circles and allied morm ments in north-east Scotland, making accurate plans and detailed descriptions of each site. A summary account of this work was presented as a paper to the British Association at its Aberdeen meeting in 1934.

In 1925, however, he embarked on the programme of excavation and field-work with which his name will be inseparably associated. He acquired and began excavations on Windmill Hill, near Avebury in north Wiltshire, and continued these annually until 1929, revealing in detail the first extensive Neolithic settlement to be explored in Britain. The material was housed in a museum in his London house, where it was at the disposal of students, and as a result the earliest Neolithic culture of southern Britain, taking its name from the type-site, was defined and clarified.

From Windmill Hill to tho Avebury monuments themselves was an inevitable step, and in 1933 Keiller began a systematic excavation programme with the oxarnination of the northern part of the West Kennet Circle itself. Avenue, continuing until 1938 within the Great Circle itself. He moved his residence to Avebury Manor, and re-housed his museum within its grounds, making it and the excavated portions of the monument available to the public. He adopted a policy of imaginative but judicious conservation and, restoration of the Avebury monuments, and system atically purchased land to preserve these and their surroundings; as a result it was eventually possible for the whole area to be acquired by the National Trust and the Ancient Monuments Department of the Ministry of Works.

Keiller's outstanding contribution to contemporary British archreology was his insistence on high standards of discipline and accuracy in excavation and field-work, and his realization from the first of the value of scientific techniques as applied to archreo logical material. He early appreciated the potential ities of air photography, collaborating with Crawford in the "Wessex from the Air'' survey, and even discussing with Eckener the possibility of using the Graf Zeppelin for a similar but even more ambitious scheme. At Windmill Hill he insisted on a full study of the faunal and floral remains in their archreological context. But above all it is to Keiller that we owe the inception of the systematic study of British prehistoric stone artefacts by petrographical means, which, following his lead, is now yielding information of the highest importance on manufacture and trade in the early second millennium B.C. Alec Keiller was an enthusiast in the best sense; full of ideas, stimulating and highly individual. Archæology, like other academic disciplines, can only benefit from the impact of such men.

STUART PIGGOTT (age 45)