Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (416 page)

Marshall , Sir John Hubert
(1876–1958)
[Bi].

British archaeologist known for his work in India as Director-General of Archaeological Survey in India. Born in Chester and educated at Dulwich and King's College, Cambridge, Marshall received an excellent training in classical archaeology. Between 1898 and 1901 he was based at the British School in Athens, taking part in excavations at Knossos and various other sites on Crete. In 1902 he was appointed Director-General of Archaeology in India and from then until 1934 he set about reorganizing the department, recruiting Indians to work for the Survey, creating scholarship and training programmes, listing and recording ancient remains, and expanding the provision of museums. In addition he excavated many sites, notably Mohenjodaro, reported in a three-volume work entitled
Mohenjodaro and the Indus civilization
(1931, London: A Probsthain); Sanchi in central India with its fascinating group of Buddhist monuments; and Taxila in the Punjab which is closely associated with Alexander the Great's campaigns in the east, the Buddhist emperor Asoka, the Parthian king Gondofares, and Apolonius of Tyana. He was knighted in 1914 and was awarded many honorary degrees, medals, and prizes. In 1936 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy.
[Obit.:
The Times
, 18 August 1958]

 
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Excavation tool with a short flat metal blade fixed to a wooden handle by a cranked tang. In North America, Marshalltown trowels are widely regarded as the finest quality for archaeological use.

 
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A type of gun tower designed solely as a defence against ships armed with guns attacking the southeast coast of England during the Napoleonic Wars. Built in the period 1805 to 1812, the 105 freestanding towers are set at intervals along the coast from Seaford, Sussex, to Aldeburgh, Suffolk. The towers are squat, built of stone or rendered brick, circular in form, with two floors and a roof-top gun platform designed to carry a single large cannon capable of all-round traversing. A moat was sometimes constructed around the tower for additional protection from land forces.

 
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Roman historian from Spain where he was born about ad 40. He spent much of his time in Rome where he published twelve books of epigrams before returning to die in Spain in about ad 104.

 
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A type of later Bronze Age ditched enclosure found in southern Britain and dating to the early 1st millennium
bc
. Characteristically rectangular in plan and generally less than 0.3ha in extent, these enclosures are often situated on valley sides and low-lying ground where they are associated with settlement and animal husbandry. The example at Martin Down in Cranborne Chase, Dorset, provides the type-site.

 
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A traditional calendar festival in northern Europe celebrated in recent times on 11 November. Martinmas or All Hallows marked the time when stock were excluded from the fields in tillage and when the sowing of winter corn was expected to be complete.

 
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