Paul Ashbee
Born(1918-06-23)23 June 1918
Bearsted, near Maidstone, Kent
Died19 August 2009(2009-08-19) (aged 91)
CitizenshipBritish
Alma materUniversity of London
Known forLeading authority on Neolithic and Bronze Age barrows
Scientific career
FieldsArchaeology

Paul Ashbee (23 June 1918 – 19 August 2009) was a leading British archaeologist, noted for his many excavations of barrows, or burial mounds, and for co-directing the Sutton Hoo digs (with Rupert Bruce-Mitford) from 1964 to 1972. He was also president of the Just William Society. He died of cancer on 19 August 2009, aged 91.[1]

Personal life

The only child of cabinet maker Lewis Ashbee and Hannah Mary Elisabeth, daughter of house decorator William Edward Birch Brett, of Thanet, Kent,[2] Paul Ashbee was born in Bearsted, near Maidstone, Kent. He made national headlines when he uncovered the remains of a Roman villa on a farm at Thurnham when still a teenager.[1] He joined the Royal West Kent Regiment for the duration of the war, followed by the Control Commission for Germany. Although without any qualifications he studied for a diploma in European prehistoric archaeology at the University of London in 1952, followed by a diploma in education at Bristol University and a MA at Leicester University. He became an assistant history master at Britain's first comprehensive school, Forest Hill School, Forest Hill, London where he stayed until 1966.[1] He married Richmal Disher in 1952; the niece and literary executor of Richmal Crompton,[3][4][5] she was a history student and they met at a dig at Verulamium, St Albans in 1949. She died in 2005,[1] after which Ashbee became president of the Just William Society.[4]

Archaeology

Ashbee went into archaeology (during school holidays) after service in the army through the Second World War. He excavated widely across southern Britain and is best known as a leading authority on Neolithic and Bronze Age barrows.[6] From 1976 to 1980 he was the President of the Cornwall Archaeology Society,[7] and was also a commissioner of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England for 10 years.[1]

Excavations

Selected works

  • Ashbee, Paul (October–November 1954). "Excavation of the Great Barrow at Bishop's Waltham: Possible Burial of a Chief". The Archaeological News Letter. Linden Publicity. 5 (6): 109–110.
  • Ashbee, Paul; Ashbee, Richmal C. L. (December 1954). "Excavation of a Barrow at Hindlow". The Archaeological News Letter. Linden Publicity. 5 (7): 134–135.
  • 1960 The Bronze Age Round Barrow in Britain, Littlehampton Book Services Ltd, ISBN 978-0460076173
  • 1970 The Earthen Long Barrow in Britain, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 978-0802015723
  • 1974 Ancient Scilly, David & Charles, ISBN 978-0715365687
  • 1978 The Ancient British, Geo Abstracts, ISBN 978-0860940142
  • 1996 Halangy Down, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, Excavations 1964–1977, Cornish Archaeology No 35
  • 2005 Kent in Prehistoric Times, The History Press, ISBN 978-0752431369

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Paul Ashbee". The Telegraph. No. 9 October 2009. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  2. ↑ The Strange Story of Sarah Kelly, Vera Hughes, 1997, p. 67, 193
  3. ↑ "Paul Ashbee". 9 October 2009 – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  4. 1 2 Quinnell, Henrietta (5 October 2009). "Obituary – Paul Ashbee, archaeologist". The Guardian.
  5. ↑ "Letter: Paul Ashbee obituary". The Guardian. 20 October 2009.
  6. ↑ Quinnell, Henrietta (February 2010). "Paul Ashbee 1918–2009" (PDF). Cornish Archaeological Society Newsletter (122): 2. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 July 2014. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  7. ↑ Cornish Archaeological Society (October 2009). "Paul Ashbee 1918–2009". Cornish Archaeological Society. 48–49: 325.
Ward, Anthony; Lawson, Terence (2010). "Paul Ashbee, M.A., D.Litt., F.S.A." (PDF). Archaeologia Cantiana. 130: 435–438.
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