A Tale of Two Collectors: The Lithic Collections of Geoffrey Taylor and David Heys (with particular reference to the county of Yorkshire)

Keith Boughey (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

142 Seiten

2023
Archaeopress Archaeology (Verlag)
978-1-80327-642-7 (ISBN)

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Geoffrey Taylor and David Heys, over a 25 year period, amassed a huge amount of prehistoric material in flint, jet, stone, glass and metal, gathered mostly off the North York Moors. The present book aims to introduce the collections to the archaeological world and to give the reader a clear impression of their contents.

Geoffrey Taylor and David Heys together and separately over a 25 year period amassed a huge amount of prehistoric material (almost 20,000 worked pieces and some 250,000 pieces of waste) in flint, jet, stone, glass and metal, gathered mostly off the North York Moors. The present book aims to introduce the collections to the archaeological world and to give the reader a clear impression of their contents.

The book begins with brief biographies of the two collectors and outlines the areas in which they collected, principally the North York Moors, and their method of working, before attempting to set their work into its wider prehistoric context. It then explains how the over 18,000 worked pieces in the combined collections are each individually identified, and presents illustrations of selected groups of pieces, such as arrowheads, knives, axeheads, and so on. This is followed up with a more detailed look at some of the more notable classes of artefacts, such as discoidal knives, Iron Age glass bangles, and jet pieces, including a superb undamaged Early Bronze Age jet wristguard (bracer), of which only one other example is known in Britain. To correct the impression that Taylor and Heys only ever collected casual finds off the surface of the moors and farmland, details of several excavations, most never before published, are given. These included pioneering work on the Early Mesolithic of the North York Moors, and the discovery of an Early Bronze Age grave with cremated human remains complete with a Collared Urn and a perforated battle-axehead. At long last, the hitherto unheralded work of these two remarkable individuals is given the credit it undoubtedly deserves.

Keith Boughey is a member of the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society Prehistory Research Section and has been the editor of its journal, Prehistoric Yorkshire, since 2005. From 2008 to 2013 he directed the Stanbury Hill Project and is co-author of The Stanbury Hill Project: Archaeological Investigation of a Rock Art Site (2012). Other publications include Prehistoric Rock Art of the West Riding (with E.A. Vickerman, 2003), Prehistoric Bingley (2013), and Life and Death in Prehistoric Craven (2015).

Preface

Chapter 1: The Geoffrey Taylor and David Heys Collections

Introduction

Geoffrey Taylor

David Heys

Archive Access

Collecting Areas

South and West North York Moors – Prehistoric Setting

Locations of sites

Identification of sites

Maps

Recording and Illustration

Chapter 2: Databases and Identification

Databases

Identification of individual lithics

Analysis of the Taylor and Heys Collections

Chapter 3: Featured Artefacts and Artefact Groups

Discoidal knives (Keith Boughey and Alison Sheridan)

Arran pitchstone

Haematite

Bronze axehead/axehead ingot

Coins

Glass

Jet/Jet-like artefacts

Chapter 4: Excavations

South and West Region (Early Bronze Age Excavations 1–3)

Excavation 1 (Low Paradise Wood, Boltby)

Excavation 2 (Dialstone Farm)

Excavation 3 (Murton Common)

Central Region (Mesolithic Excavations)

‘Pointed Stone’ and Money Howe

Nidderdale

South Haw, Masham Moor and Round Hill, Blubberhouses Moor

Summary

Appendices

Appendix 1: Databases

Appendix 2: Database of jet and jet-like items

Appendix 3: Locations of Sites

Appendix 4: Figures & Photographs

Appendix 5: Taylor Diaries 1–4 (1983–1997)

Appendix 6: Battle-axeheads from Yorkshire

Appendix 7: Lincolnshire

Bibliography

Erscheinungsdatum	11.11.2023
Co-Autor	Alison Sheridan, Fraser Hunter
Zusatzinfo	135 figures, 15 tables (colour throughout)
Verlagsort	Oxford
Sprache	englisch
Maße	174 x 245 mm
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Archäologie
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte
ISBN-10	1-80327-642-8 / 1803276428
ISBN-13	978-1-80327-642-7 / 9781803276427
Zustand	Neuware