Abstract
A QUESTION of considerable interest to archæologists was raised at a meeting of the Thames Conservancy Board on October 10 in connexion with a report by Prof. Elliot Smith on a human skull and bones of late bronze age which had been dredged from the bed of the Thames below Hampton Court Bridge. A letter was presented from the Council of the London and Middlesex Archæological Society asking that articles of archæological interest from the bed of the Thames should be deposited with the museums of the county in which they were found, and suggesting that objects found in Middlesex should be deposited at the Brentford Museum. The decision of the Board was to refuse the request on the ground that it was felt that all relics from the Thames should be together in the possession of the Board. The opinion of a majority of archæologists would probably be in favour of the claims of local museums in this matter; but there is much to be said for the single collection, in view of the character of the Thames as a highway of culture from very early times. This argument, however, loses force when it is remembered how many antiquities from the Thames already lie scattered in various museums and collections. The most cogent consideration is the accessibility of the material for purposes of study. Apart from the suggestion of loans to museums from time to time, Lord Desborough, as chairman, could only hold out the vague hope that the Conservancy might be able to display its collections at some indefinite future time when space might become available. It is very desirable that the collection now in the possession of the Thames Conservancy should be accessible to students. A statement from the Board as to how far this is possible, and if at all, in what conditions and under what regulations, would be welcome.
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Antiquities from the Thames. Nature 130, 576 (1932). https://doi.org/10.1038/130576b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/130576b0