Some aspects of the contribution to British archaeology of Charles Roach Smith (1806-90)

From around 1838 to 1861, Charles Roach Smith played a central role in the revival and development of British archaeology. Among the first to whom archaeology was no longer subservient to history. Smith adopted and encouraged a strongly positivist approach and, influenced by Douglas and the comte de Caylus, effectively inaugurated the study of minor antiquities within Britain. His comparative artifact research, regional and international in scope, led to the development of Dark Age archaeology as an international field of study. Smith's ideas on the organisation of British archaeology were derived from Northern France, where the democratisation of knowledge was more advanced. His aims were to extend to the middle classes the opportunity for involvement in archaeological research and publication (which was vital in view of the rising scale of archaeological destruction), to obtain government support (since they had little by way of private funds), and to improve standards by emphasising meritocracy rather than aristocracy in the ruling bodies of the discipline. Modelled on the Societe Frangaise pour la Conservation des Monuments Historiques, the British Archaeological Association, which Smith jointly inaugurated, was one tangible result. The campaign to induce the British Museum's aristocratic trustees to purchase his Museum of London Antiquities as the core of the national archaeological collection was another. This thesis comprises an outline of Smith's life and career to 1861, with a detailed discussion of his contributions to the archaeology of Roman and medieval London and Anglo-Saxon England, and the developing institutions of British archaeology. In view of the centrality of Smith's position, it constitutes a logical first step towards a general history of early Victorian archaeology. This may be further advanced by the summary catalogue of Smith's manuscripts (some as yet untraced), which comprise an hitherto unrecognised archive of international importance.