Ipswich Museum Research Articles

Masquerade Mosaic: Charles Partridge's Collection from Eastern Nigeria 1903–1913, by David Jones. Colchester: Ipswich Museum Service and London: British Museum, 2011. 192 pp., color and black/white Photographs, 4 maps, bibliography. 10, paper.

<b>Masquerade Mosaic: Charles Partridge's Collection from Eastern Nigeria 1903–1913</b>, by David Jones. Colchester: Ipswich Museum Service and London: British Museum, 2011. 192 pp., color and black/white Photographs, 4 maps, bibliography. 10, paper.

22nd Annual General Meeting

22nd Annual General Meeting 29th November 1995 at the Assembly Rooms, Ludlow. 1. Apologies for absence Received from Chris Collins, John Cooper, Tony Cross, Diana Hawkes, Mike Jones, Rosemary Roden, Mick Stanley, Don Steward, and Patrick Wyse Jackson. 2. Minutes of the 21st Annual General Meeting 1994 The minutes were approved as a true record of the meeting. They were approved on the "general aye" and signed by the Chairman. 3. Matters arising There were none. 4. Chairman's Report from Paul Ensom During 1995, support for museums and collections has remained an important element of our work. We have been in correspondence with, or about, the following: Ipswich Museum, Museum of Isle of Wight Geology, Ludlow Museum, the Ulster...

Microtine remains from the Norwich Crag (Lower Pleistocene) of Easton Bavents, Suffolk

A small series of Microtine teeth from the Lower Pleistocene Norwich Crag of Easton Bavents, Suffolk, preserved in Ipswich Museum, is described and assigned to the vole Mimomys, some, if not all, being of M. pliocaenicus (ForsythMajor), a new record for this locality. Selected specimens are figured. The stratigraphical and geographical distribution of the species in Britain and on the Continent are discussed in relation to its presence at this site, and the local environment in which it lived is considered.

Percy George Hamnall Boswell, 1886-1960

It was at Woodbridge in East Suffolk, on 7 August 1886 that Percy George Hamnall Boswell was born to George James Boswell Jr. and Mary Elizabeth Boswell, nee Marshall, of Hobart, Tasmania, the daughter of an emigrant Yorkshire farmer. He was the third of four children, of whom an elder brother and sister died young and a younger brother was three years his junior. The family carried on a printing business in Ipswich, which his younger brother entered in due course, and Boswell relates that he was brought up strictly in a Victorian household on English grammar and punctuation, Charles Dickens and the Bible. His grandfather, a Tory of the old school, did the Party printing in a gorgeous ultramarine and was a stalwart of the Pickwick Club. As Boswell was somewhat delicate in health, owing to bronchitis and asthma, he was nearly seven years of age before he entered St Matthew’s Church of England School, whence in 1896 he gained an Ipswich Scholarship to the Higher Grade School at Ipswich, where he remained until 1901. He noted that discipline was very severe, but the teaching very good and to his delight the pupils were ‘soaked in the Bible and Prayer Book English’ and in ‘beautifully phrased collects, psalms and gems of Bible literature, songs and laments’ many of which he remembered, and used, to the end of his life. In 1899 the school moved to new buildings which were excellent, with splendid laboratories. The Headmaster, Pollard Wilkinson, was a scholar and a man of broad views. His son, George, became Boswell’s best friend and the latter much appreciated the access which this brought him to Pollard Wilkinson’s fine library and home. George Wilkinson later became a recognized expert on aero-engines. At school, as an alternative to sport, the boys were taken for country excursions, when they were taught elementary surveying and practical trigonometry; they also visited chalk pits to collect fossils, which they later identified in the Ipswich museum.

The Cromer Forest Bed: Preglacial or Interglacial?

Now that the detailed palaeobotanical account of the interglacial deposits at Bobbitshole, Ipswich, by Dr. R. G. West1, of the University Sub-department of Quaternary Research, Cambridge, has appeared we are better able to appreciate the magnitude of our debt to him and to their finder, Mr. H. E. P. Spencer, of the Ipswich Museum. Correlation of East Anglian and Continental late Pleistocene events has been thereby substantially aided, but in the concluding section of the paper a statement re-appears about the correlation of an older phase which is difficult to reconcile with our records of East Anglian stratigraphy. The statement is that, in the opinion of the well-known authority, Prof. P. Woldstedt2, the palynology of the Cromer Forest Bed series shows that it “was formed in the oldest (Cromerian) interglacial period in East Anglia”. Dr. West has, apparently independently, reached the same conclusion. It therefore becomes desirable to direct attention to some of the geological difficulties that arise from this interpretation.

Appendix 4. The Hoxne mammalian remains

The mammalian remains from Hoxne are few in number and variety. Of the fossils which have been collected only a part have been preserved. Most of these are in the collections at Ipswich Museum and are from Moir’s (1926, 1935) excavations, and these are listed below. The stratigraphical horizon is given where known.Trogontheriumsp. Femur and eight molars from stratum E. Provisionally determined by Dr T. M. Stout as T.lydekkeriSchlosser.Cervus elaphusL. Limb bones, antler fragments and a vertebra. These remains represent at least six animals. A radius and a metacarpal were found together in stratum F lying on the Lowestoft Till; these were the only finds during the recent investigations. Their position in the stratigraphy was verified by pollen analysis (no. 10, table 5) of sediment from the bone surface.BosorBisonsp. Tooth and a limb bone.Equus caballusL. Teeth and limb bones. These belong to at least eight beasts. Several of the teeth are known to have come from stratum A 2.Elephassp. Ilium.

Richard Owen and William Clift

The life of Richard Owen by his grandson1 contains on page 258 the JL following letter from Faraday. Owen’s reply to it I found among some letters which Faraday had kept in a volume of lithograph portraits of the Honorary Members of the Ipswich Museum. ‘ Dear Owen, ‘ Who cares for bipeds or quadrupeds ? They are as common as discontent, but I think even you may be interested in a triped which I happen to possess just now, and which, if you care for it, is at your service. The fact is that in sending for some frogs for my lectures, one of them, a fine fellow, proved to have but one hind leg. The leg is very powerful, and when on earth, or when resistance is afforded to its hold, it is astonishing to , see how far this frog jumps by its aid. In fact, as to locomotion, the leg does the ordinary duty of two very well. I do not see any mark of a former wound, and I thought you might be pleased to observe first the frog’s action and afterwards its structure. If so, drop me a note and I will send it to you. Ever truly yours, M. Faraday.’

The Ipswich Man

THE skeletal remains known as the Ipswich man, which have been housed at the Royal College of Surgeons, London, since they were discovered in Bolton and Co's brickfield, Ipswich, in 1911, have now, through the instrumentality of Mr. Reid Moir, and the kindness of the president and Council of the College, been presented to the Ipswich Museum. Since 1911 a great deal has been discovered regarding the age of these remains, which were thought originally to be older than the Upper Chalky Boulder Clay-a deposit of one of the major glaciations of East Anglia. It now seems clear that the skeleton is referable to one of the prehistoric floors situated in the slopes of the adjacent valley, and examples of flint implements, etc., found in these floors are exhibited with the human bones in the entrance hall of the Ipswich Museum. Though all the geological and archaeological aspects of this matter are not yet completely understood, it is highly probable that the Ipswich man lived in the earlier part of Upper Palæolithic times, and is of considerable antiquity.

Anglo-Saxon Ship Burial

Ship burials are of sufficient rarity, even on the Continent, for the discovery of an Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo, near Ipswich (The Times, July 26, July 31) to be regarded as a memorable and, indeed, remarkable event. This is, in fact, only the second of the kind to be found in England, a previous discovery, though of a rather less impressive character, having been made at Snape, two miles away. In the present instance, the vessel in which the interment had taken place was a rowing galley 82 ft. long. The quantity and character of the jewellery and other personal objects associated with the burial were such as to justify the assumption that a chief lay buried here. The personal relics were found collected together in the centre of the ship, and included a handsome gold buckle, clasps and fastenings of the garments, gold studs from a belt, and small plaques of gold bearing figures of human beings and animals. The sword had been laid by the side of the body; but it has almost entirely perished, with the exception of the richly ornamented gold and jewelled pommel. the deceased had also been provided with money, the remains of a purse being found beside some coins. Other articles found with the burial were iron pots and spearheads, and an object which has the appearance of a sceptre, having faces carved at either end. A metal cup may, it is thought, have contained some articles of symbolic significance. The grave is situated on the estate of Mrs. E. M. Pretty, and has been excavated by the authorities of the Ipswich Museum, under the field direction of Mr. Guy Maynard, with the co-operation of H.M. Office of Works and the British Museum.

Ship-Burial and Treasure Trove in Suffolk

THE verdict of the jury at the coroner's inquest, which took place on Aug. 14, on the Anglo-Saxon ship-burial, or rather on the grave furniture in precious metals found therein, at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk (see Nature of August 5, p. 239), was such as, perhaps, might well have been expected. It would be more than difficult to argue convincingly that a royal burial, in the circumstances indicated here by the character of the relics, could have taken place with that secrecy and intention to resume possession, which have been laid down from time to time in legal pronouncement as the essential principle of ‘treasure trove’. Unless the matter is carried further in the High Court, as Mr. L. H. Vulliamy, the coroner, indicated as a possibility, the Sutton Hoo treasure now becomes legally the property of Mrs. E. M. Pretty, the owner of the land upon which the burial was found by Mr. Guy Maynard of the Ipswich Museum. It may be hoped, however, that arrangements will be made in due course to ensure its display to the public and availability for study, as its historic interest demands. It would now appear, since there has been an opportunity for the articles to be examined and cleaned in the British Museum, that the find is far more valuable than was at first reported. This is shown in the evidence of Mr. C. W. Phillips of Selwyn College, Cambridge, who had been in charge of the opening of the tumulus since July, and also in a supplementary note contributed by The Times museum correspondent in the issue of August 15 which mentions more especially the silver. The objects in this metal include six shapely shallow bowls in almost perfect preservation, about 8 or 9 inches across, and all provincial Byzantine or late Roman. They are decorated with a broad cross, usually of a quatrefoil pattern. A silver dish decorated with a classical woman's head is provincial Byzantine work of the sixth century. A large platter, 28 inches across, was made at Constantinople, and bears marks of the reign of Anastasius I. The gold work, however, is Saxon, and is said to be extremely massive. In association were forty Merovingian coins. It is thought that this may be the burial place of Redwald, the first of the East Anglian royal family to become High King of England.

Excavations at Brundon, Suffolk (1935–37)

For several years prior to 1935, the Ipswich Museum, through the kindness of Mr P. H. Jordan, had been enriched by gifts of fossil mammalian bones and teeth found in a gravel pit at Brundon, near Sudbury, Suffolk. From my occasional visits to this excavation, it was clear that a very rich bone bed existed there, and discoveries from time to time, of flint implements in the gravel, led me to conclude that excavations conducted at this site would yield good results. This was confirmed by the geological features of the section, which appeared to show a stratified gravel resting upon, and overlaid by, glacial deposits, thus affording an opportunity of examining that by no means common phenomenon—a true inter-glacial bed.I communicated with my friend Professor P. G. H. Boswell, F.R.S., who, after an examination of the section, agreed with me that it would repay detailed research. Work was begun by means of a grant from the British Association, which appointed the following as a committee to undertake the research: Professor W. B. R. King, O.B.E. (chairman), Mr Guy Maynard (Secretary), Mr D. F. W. Baden-Powell, Professor P. G. H. Boswell, O.B.E., F.R.S., Mr J. Reid Moir, F.R.S., Mr K. P. Oakley, Mr C. D. Ovey, Dr J. D. Solomon, and Sir Arthur Smith Woodward, F.R.S.

Special Exhibit at Ipswich Museum

IN 1917, Mr. Reid Moir announced the discovery of flint implements, mammalian and human bones, and fragments of rough pottery, in the lower of two superposed ‘floors' in a brickfield of Messrs. Bolton & Co. at Ipswich. These occupation levels occurred in sand, and were overlain by a considerable thickness of hill-wash, while the excavations carried out showed that the now dry valley in which the discoveries were made has been deepened by erosion since the floors were occupied by man. Similar results were obtained, at a later date, by Mr. J. P. T. Burchell, in his researches at Ingress Vale in the lower Thames Valley. Here, at the base of an extensive section of sub-aerial loam, surmounted by a hill-wash containing rafts of Coombe Rock, was found a prolific floor, with flint implements, flakes, and fragments of primitive pottery. The third site, where a similar association of relics occurred, was discovered and investigated by Mr. and Mrs. MacAlpine Woods in a dry valley at Bovey Lane, Beer, Devon. In this case, a hill-wash, some 11 ft. in thickness, contained large numbers of flint artefacts, a few examples of bones and teeth of animals, and some pieces of rough pottery. Through the kindness of the discoverers, the Ipswich Museum now possesses representative series of the specimens mentioned, and is making a special exhibition of them. The matter is of considerable interest to archaeologists as, in each case, the flint implements may be said to resemble, in their forms, those of Lower and Upper Aurignacian times, and are not associated with any microliths. Moreover, there seems good reason to believe that the widespread deposits in which the relics were embedded are of relatively considerable antiquity, and represent the results of geological activity, including an epoch of low temperature, in eastern and southern England.

The Prehistoric Society of East Anglia

AT the recent annual meeting of the Prehistoric Society of East Anglia, held at the Norwich Castle Museum, it was resolved that in future the title of the Society shall be “The Prehistoric Society”. Dr. J. G. D. Clark, in proposing the change, directed attention to the fact that the Society is no longer predominantly East Anglian either in membership or scope of work, and emphasised the point that the recognition of the Prehistoric Society as the only society operating on a national basis exclusively in the sphere of prehistoric archaeology will be a contribution towards the much-desired rationalisation of the subject in Great Britain. The Prehistoric Society of East Anglia was founded in 1908 by the late Dr. Alien Sturge and the late W. G. Clark of Norwich. From very small beginnings it has grown until the membership now approaches 400 and includes the leading prehistorians in this and many other countries. Prof. L'Abbe Henri Breuil, the retiring president, is succeeded by Prof. V. Gordon Childe, with Mr. M. C. Burkitt as vice-president, Dr. J. G. D. Clark as editor and Mr. G. Maynard, curator of the Ipswich Museum, as honorary secretary.

Notes on the Beaker Pottery of the Ipswich Museum

There are in Ipswich Museum some 18 beakers, more or less complete, together with fragments of at least four more. As these pots are all from a restricted area of south-east Suffolk, and have, with one exception, never before been described, I have undertaken, with the consent and help of the Secretary, to make a few observations upon them. With tine exception of a group from Brantham, and a single example from Wherstead, all the beakers were recovered loose ın gravel digging or cliff-falls. Near Brantham Hall, near the point where the Stour broadens out into its estuary, three beakers were found by Mr. G. Maynard together in the grave of a woman buried with a child; the pots were discovered near the flexed shin bones of the woman. Just south of this grave, was found another one containing a single beaker. Near these graves, which were discovered in gravel-digging, was a disc barrow, from the central part of which Mr. Maynard recovered 16 fragments of a single beaker, while from the trench, the late Mr. E. T. Lingwood succeeded in obtaining a fragment of a second beaker. Of the group from the woman's grave (Figs. 3, 4, 5, Pl. XXVIII.), Fig 3 has a smooth outline with an everted lip, is decorated over its whole area by seventeen horizontal lines coarsely incised, and has a maximum height of 4.9 inches; Fig. 4 is a crudely formed pot standing no more than 3½ inches high, poorly decorated with faint finger-nail impressions; Fig. 5, standing 6 inches high, is of fine paste with the smooth outline typical of Abercromby's type B, decorated with horizontal lines and linear chevrons arranged over the whole surface.

Ancient Man in the Gipping—Orwell Valley, Suffolk

In the course of my investigations of the district of Ipswich, Suffolk, I have found a large series of flint implements and other remains of man, ranging in date from the pre-Chellean of the Sub-Red Crag horizon of Pliocene times to the period of the Anglo-Saxons. The majority of these discoveries, so far as those relating to the Stone Age are concerned, were made in the beds forming the plateau, or in the sides of now dry valleys tributary to the main valley of the Gipping. Some little time ago, however, I determined to make—if possible—an examination of the deeply-buried deposits of the Gipping, and this research was later on extended to the tidal portion of the river which is known as the Orwell. It is now my purpose to give an account of this work, which has resulted in the getting together of a great quantity of flint implements, flakes, and cores, mammalian bones in considerable numbers, and some fragmentary portions of the human skeleton. I would here record my thanks to the Percy Sladen Fund, the Royal Society, the Ipswich Dock Commission and their Chief Engineer, Mr. Clarke, Messrs. Warren Livingstone, Ltd., Messrs. Alfred Coe, Ltd., Messrs Packard and James Fison (Thetford), Ltd., Miss Nina Layard, Sir Arthur Keith, F.R.S., Dr. Duckworth, Dr. C. Forster Cooper, Mr. Reginald Smith, the Curator and Mr. F. M. Cullum, of Ipswich Museum, Dr. T. W. Woodhead, Mr. A. S. Barnes, and Dr. G. Erdtman, who have each given invaluable help in one way or another to the prosecution of this research.

Four Suffolk Flint Implements

The four flint implements described and illustrated in this article have been found at the following places in the county of Suffolk, viz. Southwold, Charsfield, Hoxne, and Nacton. The Southwold specimen (figs, 1, 1A, and 1B) was found lying at the foot of a low cliff bordering the beach at this place by Mrs. Edgar Turner of Walberswick, who has been so good as to lend the implement to the Ipswich Museum. The specimen exhibits the unchanged black colour of the original flint, carries very little ‘gloss’, and is unabraded and unworn. Unfortunately the implement has had, at some time, a piece broken from it and replaced, but the drawings show clearly where this fracturing occurred.

The Stoke Bone-Bed, Ipswich

Some seventy years ago, when the tunnel was cut through the Stoke Hills at Ipswich, animal remains were found at a short distance from the London end of it, on a level with the line. These were examined by Professor Prestwich, and though the collection was scattered, a certain number of the bones and teeth of mammals found their way to the Ipswich Museum, where they may still be seen.In 1908 it struck me that it might be possible to open up some of the sections which were then exposed, and to locate the deposits from which the remains had been taken. This was successfully done, but for fear of the bank above slipping, permission could only be obtained to open a very small portion of the side of the cutting. The researches, however, proved that a varied assortment of animals of the Pleistocene period had either perished on the spot or had been brought down by flood to this position.

Mammalian Remains at the Base of the Chalky Boulder Clay Formation in Suffolk

MR. E. P. RIDLEY, Mr. Frank Woolnough, curator of Ipswich Museum, Mr. Fredk. Canton, and myself have to-day assisted in the removal of a large curved tusk which was found at the base of the chalky boulder clay formation, and on the top of the underlying middle glacial sand, at a depth of 11 ft. 3 in. from the present surface of the ground.

On some New Mammals from the Red and Norwich Crags

Notwithstanding the many additions which within the last few years have been made to our knowledge of the Pliocene Mammalian Fauna, by Mr. Lydekker, in the Quarterly Journal of this Society, in the ‘Geological Magazine,’ and in the British-Museum Catalogues (1885–87), several species new to the British Crags, and others altogether new to science, have come to light during a critical investigation of the Crag Yertebrata, which it has been my official duty to undertake. As it is likely to be some time before the results of this investigation can be published, it is hoped that an account of the new forms will be acceptable to the Fellows of this Society. For several of the specimens here described I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. E. C. Moor, of Great Bealings, Suffolk, who has most courteously placed these and many other fossils at my disposal. Mr. James Reeve, of the Norwich Museum, has likewise been good enough to lend me many specimens, and among them the unique tooth which is now to be named after him. For the opportunity of studying the rostrum of Mesoplodon Floweri * I am under obligation to the genial Curator of the Ipswich Museum, Dr. Taylor. To all these friends of science I tender my best thanks for their kindly assistance. Description of Species. 1. L utra D scubia , Blainville. (P1. XVIII. figs. I a-1 c.) Within the last few years Mr. E. C. Moor, of Great Bealings, has obtained from the nodule-bed of the Red

Note on some Vertebrata from the Red Crag

The examination of certain specimens from the Red Crag in the collection of the British Museum, which have been already described by other writers, and the recent acquisition by the same collection of casts of a small series of remains from these deposits, which were collected by the Rev. Mr. Canham and are now in the Ipswich Museum, have enabled me to make some additions and emendations to our knowledge of the vertebrate fauna of the Red Crag which it appears desirable to notice collectively. Hyæna .—The remains of Hyæna from the Red Crag hitherto described comprise two upper and one lower third premolars, all of which are referred by Lankester to his H. antiqua , which was founded on the specimen first obtained. This so-called species was regarded as closely allied to the existing H. striata , but the specimens are really insufficient for specific diagnosis ; and it may be remarked that it is, primâ facie , exceedingly improbable that the Crag Hyæna should be distinct from all continental forms. The occurrence of H. striata in the caverns of France has been determined by Gervais, while Gaudry § remarks that the so-called H. arvernensis , Cr. &amp; Job., from the Upper Pliocene of the Auvergne and the Val d'Arno appears undistinguishable from the existing species, although the name is still retained by Forsyth-Major∥. In recording a specimen of the maxilla of a Hyæna from the Val d'Arno in the ‘British Museum Catalogue of Fossil Mammalia’¶,I referred it unhesitatingly to H. striata ; but being