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1884.54.40.2

Animal skull (horse), attached to wooden boat [1884.54.40.1]

On display

1884.54.40.2

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Collection type
Object
Description
Animal skull (horse), attached to wooden boat [1884.54.40.1]
Long description
Horse's skull [.2] found inside a wooden dug out boat [see entry 1884.54.40.1] [SM (Verve) 22/04/2013]
Geographical reference
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
England Surrey Elmbridge East Molesey Confluence of the River Mole and River Thames [opposite Hampton Court Palace]
Cultural groups
English
Date
Date collected
1877 June 29
Acquisition information
Donated: 1884
Materials and processes
Material Horse Bone Animal, Material Animal Skull
Dimensions
Height: max 130 mm, Width: max 220 mm, Length: max 610 mm
Object numbers
Accession number: 1884.54.40.2 Other numbers: S 1351 PR Cat other PR nos: 6955
Research and responses

For Pitt-Rivers's own account of his acquisition of this object, see ‘Discovery of a Dug-Out Canoe in the Thames at Hampton Court [Anthropological Miscellanea]’, by A. Lane Fox, in The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 7, pp. 102–3 [published with the proceedings of the meeting held on February 13th, 1877]: 'Towards the commencement of the present month, June, 1877 a boatman of the name of Walford fishing in the river just opposite Hampton Court Palace discovered a large block of wood, as it appeared to him, embedded in the river bottom, near the bank on the side opposite to the palace.... On bringing it to the surface it was found to be part of a canoe of oak dug out of a solid tree, and in an advanced state of decay... Having heard of the discovery through the kindness of Lord Arthur Russell, M.P., I went to see it on the 29th of the month.... It is flat-bottomed, the bottom rising slightly towards the front and stern, the bow is rounded, the stern has evidently been square, but the backpiece is wanting; the sides are perpendicular, 15 inches in height, interior measurement, and the top has been level from end to end, not rising at the bow or the stern; the greatest width, interior measurement, taken along the flat-bottom, is 2 feet 6 inches.... The total length of the vessel from stem to stern is 14 feet and the whole is carved out of one piece....' [AP Leverhulme project on founding collection 1995-1998; JC 12 5 2011, 23 5 2011]

For an account of this object produced as part of the Museum project 'The Other Within: An Anthropology of Englishness (2006-9), go to http://england.prm.ox.ac.uk/englishness-Hampton-Court-canoe.html. [JC 23 5 2011]

This find spot is now located within Surrey. It was formerly listed as being within the London Borough of Richmond. [MJD 07/01/2013]

Associated publications
Lane Fox A.H. 1878 On the discovery of a dug-out canoe in the Thames at Hampton Court. Journal of the Anthropological Institute 7: 102-103. [Dan Hicks 17/12/2012]

Search terms: Animalia, Navigation, Animal Part, Bone, Canoe, Boat

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