Talk:UCL Institute of Archaeology

Mortimer Wheeler
Although he was the driving force behind the establishment of the Institute, Mortimer Wheeler, in his autobiographical book Still Digging of 1954, never claims to have been it's director. He was at that time the keeper of the London Museum, and says that "from the beginning for the first decade the administration rested on Kathleen Kenyon's shoulders". Kraxler 17:01, 9 October 2006 (UTC)

Which is interesting but factually incorrect. Here's some evidence: "The origin of the Institute of Archaeology goes back to Mortimer Wheeler’s vision of creating a centre for archaeological training in Britain, which he conceived in the 1920s. Thanks to his efforts and those of his wife, Tessa Verney Wheeler, his ambitions were realised when the Institute was officially opened in 1937, with Mortimer Wheeler as its first director." taken from the IoA's very own website http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/about/history What Wheeler is referring to in his book is most likely to indicate who actually did all the work... but like it or not the fact remains he was the first director. This is further collaborated in the article "The Institute of Archaeology: the first 75 years" by Gabriel Moshenska in which the following is stated: "Wheeler was the first Director of the Institute from 1937, but as the second world war loomed, his itch to return to army life led him to form an anti-aircraft unit which included staff from the London Museum. In 1941 he was posted to north Africa, and by 1943 he was a brigadier involved in the invasion of Italy. Meanwhile in his absence Kathleen Kenyon had been appointed Acting Director in 1942, having been secretary of the Institute since Tessa Wheeler’s death." From these two quotes you can quite obviously see that Wheeler felt the "true" first director to have been Kenyon, but the fact remains that it was Wheeler who held the position first, and incidentally gather the early funds and collections for the institution. --Daniel Cull (talk) 22:33, 27 October 2012 (UTC)