Alexander Ormiston Curle

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Alexander Ormiston Curle (born May 3, 1866 in Melrose ; died January 7, 1955 in Edinburgh ) was a Scottish archaeologist and museum director.

Life

Curle was the son of Alexander Curle of Morriston and Priorwood (* around 1819; † January 5, 1897), a lawyer from Melrose, and his wife Christian (née Anderson; † April 27, 1902). He was the younger brother of James Curle (1862-1944) and had one other brother and four sisters. He first attended Fettes College and then studied law at Trinity Hall in Cambridge . He was tutored by John Philp Wood and William Babbington and graduated in 1892 as "Writer to the Signet". From 1908 to 1913 he was first secretary of the "Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland", which the Minister John Sinclair (1860-1925) had founded. When he started work, he inspected numerous archaeological sites and documented their condition. On May 5, 1913, he was doing fieldwork in Dumfriesshire when he received a letter from the Secretary of State in which he was offered the post of Head of the National Museum of Antiquities . At the time, this position was held by Joseph Anderson, who had headed the museum for 44 years and was already at the advanced age of 81. The museum has been housed in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery building on Queen Street since 1891 . Curle accepted the offer and from 1913 to 1919, as its director, took care of the reorganization and some improvements. From 1916 to 1931 he was director of the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh. He had already met John Anderson, who was co-editor of The Scots Peerage , through his father . Curle also contributed to this work and published several genealogical writings on Scottish noble families.

In 1930 he was appointed Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (CVO) and in 1935 received an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow.

In 1898 he married Katharine Wray Tancred. The couple had only two children, because his wife died in 1906, a son Alexander (Sandy) Clure and a daughter Mary Christian Clure (1904–1970). He married Jocelyn Butler in 1909, who died in 1925.

Curle is buried next to his brother in the grounds of Melrose Abbey .

Archaeological activity

Parts of the silver find from Traprain Law

Curle worked as an archaeologist, among other things, with the investigation of graves from the Viking Age and contributed through his studies to the research of Nordic history in Scotland. He was involved in several important archaeological excavations and in 1919 raised the silver treasure from Traprain Law, East Lothian, which was presented to King George V and Queen Mary in the museum the following year . From 1904 he took part in the investigations at the Trimontium in Newstead , worked in 1916 on Dun Telve , 1920 on Dun Troddan , from 1923 to 1928 on the Roman fort Mumrills on Antonine Wall . From 1931 to 1935 he exposed the Jarlshof on the Shetland Islands . This find was considered to be the first known in Scotland and clearly of Scandinavian origin.

Fonts (selection)

  • Notice of four contracts of bonds of fosterage; with notes on the former prevalence of the custom of fosterage in the Scottish Highlands . In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland . tape 30 . Edinburgh 1895 ( archaeologydataservice.ac.uk [PDF; 729 kB ]).
  • Sir George Macdonald, 1862-1940 . Milford, London 1900, OCLC 977633769 .
  • Account of excavations on Traprain law in the parish of Prestonkirk, County of Haddington, in 1915 . Edinburgh 1916, OCLC 315884043 .
  • The treasure of Traprain a Scottish hoard of Roman silver plate . Maclehose, Jackson, Glasgow 1923.
  • Account of Further Excavations in 1932 of the Prehistoric Township at Jarlshof, Shetland, on behalf of the HM Office of Works. In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Volume 67, 1933, pp. 82-136 ( archaeologydataservice.ac.uk [PDF; 4 MB] or Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  • An Account of the Excavation, on behalf of the HM Office of Works, of another Prehistoric Dwelling (No. V.) at Jarlshof, Sumburgh, Shetland, in the Summer of 1934. In: Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Volume 69, 1935, pp. 85-107 ( archaeologydataservice.ac.uk [PDF; 2 MB]).
  • The Excavations at Jarlshof, Sumburgh, Shetland . In: The Antiquaries Journal . tape 15 , no. 1 , 1935, ISSN  1758-5309 , pp. 26-29 , doi : 10.1017 / S0003581500049544 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Alexander Ormiston Curle from The Gazetteer for Scotland. scottish-places.info, accessed June 26, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Curle, Alexander Ormiston
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Curle, Alexander O.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Scottish archaeologist and museum director
DATE OF BIRTH May 3, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Melrose
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1955
Place of death Edinburgh