Pitt Rivers Museum - University of Oxford

PADMAC is a multi-disciplinary, geo-archaeological unit specializing in geology,
sedimentology, pedology, Palaeolithic artefact technology, landscape archaeology, spatial
analysis, and geophysics. The unit offers students and researchers an opportunity to
investigate geo-archaeological processes implicated in the retention, over geological time, of
high-level in situ Palaeolithic sites on Karstic landforms, particularly the chalk downlands of
southern England, and the genesis, variability and distribution of the associated (English)
deposits mapped as clay-with-flints. Also investigated by the PADMAC unit are Palaeolithic
sites found in similar high-level contexts in both continental Europe and the Middle East. In
many instances, these high-level sites represent the earliest evidence of human occupation—
in Britain from around 600,000 to 40,000 years ago, and in the Middle East from
considerably earlier.
Included in the field investigations undertaken by the unit are geophysical surveys
employing resistivity, magnetometry, and magnetic susceptibility techniques. GPS, microtopographic,
and photogrammetry survey techniques are also developed and deployed in
order to identify and map subtle landscape features for inclusion in the unit’s GIS databases.
Where appropriate, this geophysical data is made available to local archaeological groups.
This year, the unit expanded its research in the Middle East (United Arab Emirates), in
collaboration with the antiquities directorates of Sharjah, Ras al Khaimah, and Abu Dhabi.
The focus of the unit’s work is the continued investigations of the Upper Pleistocene (Middle
Palaeolithic) stone-tool manufacturing site discovered in Sharjah and other associated sites.
An interim report was presented at the Seminar for Arabian Studies held at the British
Museum in July 2007. This included analysis of the artefacts by Dr Sarah Milliken
(PADMAC unit associate). The Sharjah site represents the first clear evidence of Upper
Pleistocene (Middle Palaeolithic) presence in the United Arab Emirates and is of great
importance in clarifying early man’s ‘southern route’ between Africa and the Far East. The
unit also continued its investigations in southern England with fieldwalking at Dummer
Clump, near Basingstoke, Hampshire, in preparation for excavation in late 2007.
FINANCIAL SUCCESS
The Museum continued to enjoy success in obtaining the external project and research grant
funding so crucial to its financial health.
Project Grants
As noted above, in June 2007 the Museum was awarded £1,000,000 by the Heritage Lottery
Fund (HLF) for the entrance redevelopment project. A further £25,000 was awarded by the
HLF for the Museum’s ‘Young Roots’ film-making project. The PADMAC Unit received
full funding for its annual costs from Oxford Strategic Consulting Ltd.
Research Grants
The following grants were obtained during the year. Laura Peers was awarded $2,000 by the
Government of Canada for research on the nineteenth-century artist Peter Rindisbacher. She
also received a grant of £7,500 from the British Academy for the pilot project ‘Digital Access
for First Nations Heritage in UK Museums’. The Museum is also grateful to the Latin
American Centre and Dr Malcolm Deas for the award of £500 from the Roger Brew
Memorial Fund towards the costs of conserving the Brian Moser / Donald Tayler collection.
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