Summary
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life and work of the Victorian anthropologist and archaeologist Augustus Pitt-Rivers. Over many years he amassed thousands of ethnographic and archaeological objects, some of which formed the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum at Oxford University. Inspired by the work of Charles Darwin, Pitt-Rivers believed that human technology evolved in the same way as living organisms, and devoted much of his life to exploring this theory. He was also a pioneering archaeologist whose meticulous records of major excavations provided a model for later scholars.
With:
Adam Kuper Visiting Professor of Anthropology at Boston University
Richard Bradley Professor in Archaeology at the University of Reading
Dan Hicks University Lecturer & Curator of Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
| 0:04.7 | My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds. |
| 0:08.5 | As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices. |
| 0:18.0 | What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars, |
| 0:24.6 | poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples. |
| 0:29.7 | If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:36.0 | Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time. |
| 0:38.7 | For more details about in our time and for our terms of use please go to BBC.co. UK slash radio for. I hope you enjoy |
| 0:45.9 | the program. Hello one of the world's most extraordinary museums can be found in a |
| 0:50.4 | grand Victorian building in central Oxford. |
| 0:53.0 | The interior is a delightful clutter of glass cases |
| 0:56.0 | filled with a bewildering variety of objects from totem poles to musical instruments, |
| 1:00.0 | human skulls to Egyptian sakophagi and weapons. This is the pitroofsky. Instruments, |
| 1:03.2 | human skulls, to Egyptian Sacophagi and Weapons. |
| 1:04.4 | This is the Pitt Rivers Museum, founded in 1884 |
| 1:07.2 | by General Augustus Pitt Rivers, who donated |
| 1:09.5 | more than 18,000 objects from his private collection. |
| 1:13.0 | Pitt Rivers was a pioneering archaeologist and anthropologist who dedicated much of his life to the |
| 1:17.0 | study of human technology and its development. |
| 1:19.9 | He excavated many ancient sites and is credited with the development of modern archaeological |
| 1:24.1 | techniques and he was among the first to argue for the preservation of our ancient monuments. |
| 1:29.2 | With me to discuss Augustus Pitt Rivers and his work Adam Cooper, visiting professor of anthropology at Boston University, |
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