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M E M B E R S
OBITUARY
John Wymer MA, DSc, FBA, FSA, MIFA 129, who
died in February aged 78, was a world renowned
expert on Lower Palaeolithic archaeology. During a
lifetime dedicated to the study of the earliest human
traces, he made innumerable important discoveries
in England and abroad. Equally at home with
academics or those with little knowledge of the
subject, he generated a huge interest in the most
remote episodes of human history. His interest
began when he accompanied his parents on visits to
gravel pits where, amongst the Quaternary
sediments, flint implements and the bones of extinct
animals were found. At the age of 27, at
Swanscombe, he found part of the skull of a fossil
hominin, a discovery which remains the oldest
human cranium from Britain. In 1956 he was
appointed to the staff of Reading Museum,
continuing his search for Palaeolithic implements in
the Quarternary sediments of the Thames. The
research led to Lower Palaeolithic Archaeology in
Britain as represented by the Thames Valley, 1968. In
1965, he was recruited to direct excavations in South
Africa, including Klasies River Mouth, where a
stratigraphic sequence more than 25m thick
spanned the entire Middle and Late Stone Age.
Amongst more than 250,000 stone tools there were
human bones. One of these, 100,000 years old, was
at the time the World’s oldest specimen of Homo
sapiens sapiens.
John returned to England in 1968 to excavate key
Palaeolithic sites, including Clacton, Hoxne and
Ipswich. In 1979–80, as Senior Research Associate at
the University of East Anglia, a brief period allowed
for research resulted in The Palaeolithic Age (1982)
and another monumental regional survey,
Palaeolithic Sites in East Anglia (1985). As funding for
the university posts finished John turned to digging
sites of later periods in Essex and then Norfolk,
working for Norfolk Archaeological Unit until 1990.
From 1991 he began a hugely ambitious project to
relate every Palaeolithic discovery in Britain to its
relevant geological deposit, and on the basis of
these relationships to interpret the early presence of
people in Britain. The project was sponsored by
English Heritage and organised through Wessex
Archaeology. In six years John amassed the requisite
details and with help from Wessex Archaeology,
notably Phil Harding, visited almost every site and
significant museum collection in the country. The
John Wymer and a hand axe,
during his country-wide study of
Palaeolithic sites and collections.
Photograph: Elaine Wakefield,
Wessex Archaeology
output comprised detailed regional reports which
could be used by mineral operators and planning
authorities to tell them of the potential importance
for Palaeolithic archaeology of different Quaternary
sediments. In 1998 the work was distilled into The
Lower Palaeolithic Occupation of Britain.
Well past retirement age John was actively involved
in fieldwork and its publication, with examples of
his work appearing in Current Archaeology and
British Archaeology even in the month he died.
Throughout his career he was also a lecturer,
secretary or editor for many archaeological
societies. He had been President of the Quaternary
Research Association, Chairman of the Lithic
Studies Society, Vice-President and President of the
Prehistoric Society. He was one of the great
archaeologists who will be much missed.
Andrew Lawson
Members news
David Jordan MIFA 1995 has now joined the staff
of the Institute of Archaeology at the University of
Bern to develop research and teaching in
geoarchaeology. He
hopes to maintain the
core of his research in
Britain while helping
the Institute develop a
new focus on
archaeological science.
David has been a
David Jordan
Paul Wheelhouse MIFA 2553 has recently joined
Golder Associates (UK), specialist in ground
engineering and environmental services, as their
Senior Archaeologist. He will be responsible for
co-ordination and project management of
archaeological work, principally in the UK and
Europe. Before joining Golder, Paul worked for
twelve years for Archaeological Services WYAS
(Senior Manager), co-ordinating projects
RAO News
IFA’s latest Registered Archaeological Organisation
is WSP Environmental, part of the WSP Group, one
of the world’s leading environmental consultancies.
The archaeology team, led by Sally Randell in the
Basingstoke office, is involved in projects
throughout the UK and internationally. A current
and major project is Northstowe New Town at the
former RAF Oakington in Cambridgeshire. WSP
Environmental prepared the Environmental
Statement in support of a planning application and
has been managing the phases of geophysical
survey (Oxford Archaeotechnics) and trial trenching
(Cambridge Archaeological Unit) since 2004. The
2005 evaluation revealed a significant number of
archaeological sites largely dating from the Iron
Age/Romano-British period. Another phase of
evaluation is planned for this year.
geoarchaeology consultant for more than twenty
years, including three years peering down holes
in Scotland and six working on geophysics and
radiocarbon dating at English Heritage. He is
looking forward to getting to grips with some of
the key questions which commercial practice
kept on throwing up but never allowed the time
to address. He will be delighted to collaborate in
research with colleagues in Britain where the
opportunity arises and can still be contacted
through terra@terra.plus.com
throughout the UK. He was
co-director of archaeological
excavations at the A1(M)
Holmfield Interchange at
Ferrybrridge and co-author of
the recently published
monograph.
Paul Wheelhouse
For further information contact
Sally Randell, Principal Consultant,
WSP Environmental Ltd, Mountbatten House,
Basing View, Basingstoke, Hants RG21 4HJ
sally.randell@wspgroup.com.
Sally Randell
M E M B E R S
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The Archaeologist
Summer 2006 Number 60
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