Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler

Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler FRS FBA
Born	1890
Died	1976
Residence	National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
Occupation	archaeologist museum work
Society Membership membership ordinary fellow elected_AI 1921.05.31 societies Royal Society

Notes

House Notes

1921.04.26 proposed by H.J. Fleure, seconded by H.J.E. Peake
Prof. of History, British Academy, Director, Institute of Archaeology, University of London, Director General of Archaeology, India, Trustee of the British Museum

Notes From Elsewhere

Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler (10 September 1890 – 22 July 1976) was a British archaeologist and officer in the British Army. Over the course of his career, he served as Director of both the National Museum of Wales and London Museum, Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India, and the founder and Honorary Director of the Institute of Archaeology in London, in addition to writing twenty-four books on archaeological subjects.
Born in Glasgow to a middle-class family, Wheeler was raised largely in Yorkshire before relocating to London in his teenage years. After studying Classics at University College London (UCL), he began working professionally in archaeology, specializing in the Romano-British period. During World War I he volunteered for service in the Royal Artillery, being stationed on the Western Front, where he rose to the rank of major and was awarded the Military Cross. Returning to Britain, he obtained his doctorate from UCL before taking on a position at the National Museum of Wales, first as Keeper of Archaeology and then as Director, during which time he oversaw excavation at the Roman forts of Segontium, Y Gaer, and Isca Augusta with the aid of his first wife, Tessa Wheeler. Influenced by the archaeologist Augustus Pitt Rivers, Wheeler argued that excavation and the recording of stratigraphic context required an increasingly scientific and methodical approach, developing the "Wheeler Method". In 1926, he was appointed Keeper of the London Museum; there, he oversaw a reorganisation of the collection, successfully lobbied for increased funding, and began lecturing at UCL.
In 1934, he established the Institute of Archaeology as part of the federal University of London, adopting the position of Honorary Director. In this period, he oversaw excavations of the Roman sites at Lydney Park and Verulamium and the Iron Age hill fort of Maiden Castle. During World War II, he re-joined the Armed Forces and rose to the rank of brigadier, serving in the North African Campaign and then the Allied invasion of Italy. In 1944 he was appointed Director-General of the Archaeological Survey of India, through which he oversaw excavations of sites at Harappa, Arikamedu, and Brahmagiri, and implemented reforms to the subcontinent's archaeological establishment. Returning to Britain in 1948, he divided his time between lecturing for the Institute of Archaeology and acting as archaeological adviser to Pakistan's government. In later life, his popular books, cruise ship lectures, and appearances on radio and television, particularly the BBC series Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?, helped to bring archaeology to a mass audience. Appointed Honorary Secretary of the British Academy, he raised large sums of money for archaeological projects, and was appointed British representative for several UNESCO projects.
Wheeler is recognised as one of the most important British archaeologists of the twentieth century, responsible for successfully encouraging British public interest in the discipline and advancing methodologies of excavation and recording. Furthermore, he is widely acclaimed as a major figure in the establishment of South Asian archaeology. However, many of his specific interpretations of archaeological sites have been discredited or reinterpreted and he was often criticised for bullying colleagues and sexually harassing young women.

Publications

External Publications

1923 Segontium and the Roman Occupation of Wales – The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (London)

1925 Prehistoric and Roman Wales – Clarendon Press (Oxford)

1926 The Roman Fort Near Brecon – The Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion (London)

1927 London and the Vikings – London Museum (London)

1930 London in Roman Times – London Museum (London)

1932 Report on the Excavations of the Prehistoric, Roman and Post-Roman Site in Lydney Park, Gloucestershire Tessa Wheeler Oxford University Press for the Society of Antiquaries (London)

1935 London and the Saxons – London Museum (London)

1936 Verulamium: A Belgic and Two Roman Cities Tessa Wheeler Society of Antiquaries (London)

1943 Maiden Castle, Dorset – Society of Antiquaries (London)

1950 Five Thousand Years of Pakistan – Christopher Johnson (London)

1953 The Indus Civilization – Cambridge University Press (Cambridge)

1954 The Stanwick Fortifications, North Riding of Yorkshire – Society of Antiquaries (London)

1954 Archaeology From the Earth – Oxford University Press (Oxford)

1954 Rome Beyond the Imperial Frontiers – G. Bell and Sons (London)

1955 Still Digging: Adventures in Archaeology – Michael Joseph (London)

1957 Hill Forts of Northern France Katherine M. Richardson; M. Aylwin Cotton Society of Antiquaries (London)

1959 Early India and Pakistan: To Ashoka – Thames and Hudson (London)

1962 Charsada: A Metropolis of the North-West Frontier – Government of Pakistan and the British Academy (London)

1964 Roman Art and Architecture – Thames and Hudson (London)

1966 Alms for Oblivion: An Antiquary's Notebook – Weidenfeld and Nicolson (London)

1968 Flames Over Persepolis – Weidenfeld and Nicolson (London)

1970 The British Academy, 1949–1968 – Oxford University Press for the British Academy (London)

1976 My Archaeological Mission to India and Pakistan