Richard Nicklin Hall
| Richard Nicklin Hall FRGS | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| File:Hall, Richard Nicklin.jpg | |||||||||
| Born | 1853 | ||||||||
| Died | 1914 | ||||||||
| Residence |
Harilah Camp, Great Zimbabwe, Rhodesia Newport, Salop [1905] | ||||||||
| Occupation |
editor journalist | ||||||||
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Contents
Notes
Office Notes
House Notes
Proposed by T.A. Joyce; seconded by William Gowland 1904.05.24
1907.01.05 It was resolved that the following who are more than three years in arrears should be struck off the list of Members: Mr A.M. Broacha, Mr R.N. Hall, Mr H. Raynbird jr.
Notes From Elsewhere
HALL, Richard Nicklin was born in 1853. Son of Joseph Hall, Justice of the Peace, Dudley, Worcestershire, and y.-son of Joseph Hall, ironmaster, Bloomfield Ironworks, Staffordshire, and of Richard Nicklin, Onchan, Isle of Manitoba (Canada).
Education. Birmingham; Kinver, Staffs. A Solicitor of the High Court of Judicature.
Career. Formerly political agent. Acted as Secretary to Rhodesia Landowners and Farmers Association, and Bulawayo Chamber of Commerce, 1897. Also as editor Matabele Times, and as representative in Rhodesia of several leading London papers.
Commissioner for Rhodesia at the Greater Britain Exhibition in London, 1899, and also filled a similar position on behalf of the Rhodesian Government at the Glasgow Exhibition, 1901. Was engaged at Mr. Rhodes’ desire in exploring the ancient ruins of the Great Zimbabwe on behalf of the Rhodesian Government, 1902. Travelled for five months alone down the Sabi and Lundi Rivers collecting ethnological information, 1909.
Editor of the Rhodesia Journal, 1910. A Fellow of several European and South African scientific societies.
[bad archaeology]: ... Finally, in 1902, the new legislative council of Southern Rhodesia passed a law protecting the sites and a curator, the journalist Richard Nicklin Hall (1853-1914), was appointed to oversee Great Zimbabwe itself. Hall spent two years excavating the great enclosure, which he published in detail. He believed that he could distinguish two occupations – one sun-worshipping Semitic (perhaps Himyarite Arabs), the other medieval Arab – separated by a long period of abandonment. Hall avowedly wished to free the site “from the filth and decadence of the Kaffir occupation”, deliberately removing anything that might link the site with local African peoples and clearing some twelve feet (1.8 m) of deposits in an operation that was described by a visiting archaeologist as “reckless blundering… worse than anything I have ever seen”. As a result, Hall was dismissed from his post.
However, the site was far from exhausted and further excavations were conducted by David Randall-MacIver (1873-1945) in 1905. Randall-MacIver’s conclusions were startling to the colonial administration. During his excavation campaign of 1905, he had found nothing but indigenous African artefacts and imported medieval goods (including Persian beads, glass and Chinese porcelains), all of fourteenth-century and later date. His criticism of Richard Nicklin Hall pulled no punches, sparking off a bitter debate that lasted for years.
Publications
External Publications
The Ancient Ruins of Rhodesia, 1902; Great Zimbabwe, Mashonaland, Rhodesia, 1905; Prehistoric Rhodesia, 1909
