Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (546 page)

Name originally given to early hominid fossils from Java but now reclassified as the remains of
HOMO ERECTUS
.

 
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pithos
(pl.
pithoi
)
[Ar].

A large ancient Greek storage jar used for containing oil, wine, grain, olives, and other kinds of produce.

 
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A dwelling in which the floor level is below the surrounding ground level. In an archaeological context all that remains to be detected of such houses is a large scooped-out hollow. See also
GRUBENHAUS
.

 
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Pitt Rivers , General Augustus Henry Lane Fox
(1827–1900)
[Bi].

British soldier, anthropologist, and archaeologist often regarded as the ‘father of scientific archaeology’. Born on 14 April 1827 at Hope Hall near Bramham Park, North Yorkshire, little is known of his childhood. He was known by his father's surname of Lane Fox until 1880 when he assumed the name of Pitt Rivers. In 1841 he entered the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, followed by a commission in the Grenadier Guards where he developed a special interest in musketry. He married Alice Stanley in February 1853, by whom he had six sons and three daughters. In February 1854 he went to the Crimea where his efforts resulted in decorations and mention in dispatches. In May 1857 he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel by purchase; in October 1877 he was promoted to major-general, retiring in 1882 with the honorary rank of lieutenant-general. During his army career he developed an interest in archaeology and ethnography. After reading
The origin of species
on its publication in 1859, he developed a parallel theory of the evolution of culture. He was elected an FRS in 1876. The inheritance from his great-uncle (George Pitt , second Baron Rivers) of large estates in Dorset and Wiltshire in 1880 enabled him to expand the scope of his archaeological work and he spent the last twenty years of his life devoted to large-scale excavations of prehistoric and Romano-British sites. This work was done with a measure of technical competence unknown among his contemporaries. The results were published privately in a series of major volumes,
Excavations in Cranborne Chase
(1887–98). In 1882 he was appointed the first Inspector of Ancient Monuments for England to administer the recently passed Ancient Monuments Protection Act, 1882. He died at the family home of Rushmore on 4 May 1900.
[Bio.: M. Bowden , 1991,
Pitt Rivers
. Cambridge: CUP]

 
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The local name given to a particular location, topographic feature, settlement, or region. Studies of these names reveal a great deal about the early history and settlement of an area, as the form of the name will often indicate, for example, a Celtic, Latin, Germanic, or Norse origin. Place-names can also help identify features in the landscape that no longer exist, for example deserted settlements, abandoned burial grounds, or former industrial sites.

 
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A large hole dug for the rapid disposal of human or animal corpses when the number requiring burial outstrips the capacity of normal procedures, as happens especially when populations are hit by plagues.

 
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