by potsherds and tools of stone, antler, and wood. Informed of the discovery by a schoolteacher, Keller immediately recognized the significance of the find and interpreted the remains as dwellings on pile-supported platforms above the water. Thus, even though pile stumps had been observed a few years before on the shores of Lake Bienne, it was only when Keller got interested in them that research on the Swiss lake dwellings began to get real attention in Europe.

It is with regard to the lake dwellings that Keller’s contribution to archaeological research in Switzerland can best be evaluated. Although his work was always serious and well documented, it was not intrinsically innovative; neither was he a master of archaeological excavation. Even if Keller did observe a three-age division in the remains, he did not attach much importance to it. In fact, he gathered all remains from the Neolithic to the Iron Age together and attributed them to a homogeneous Celtic population.

Keller’s genius lay in his ability to extrapolatematerial from data on lake dwellings and other sites to provide coherent and global interpretations. The force of Keller’s dynamism swept along numbers of specialist naturalists, geologists, botanists, and zoologists. He also managed to interest the public and to keep its interest without entering into or using ethnic customs and religion as explanations. Keller controlled and dominated Swiss archaeology, and his interpretations, however erroneous, remained almost irrefutable and encouraged research instead of blocking it. He can be seen as more of a learned nineteenth-century antiquarian, because of his background in the natural sciences, than as an archaeologist.

Marc-Antoine Kaeser

References

Keller, F. 1837. “Die keltischen Grabhugel im Burgholzli und die Graber auf der Forch.” Mitteilungen der Antiquarischen Gesellschaft in Zurich 1: no pagination.

———. 1854. “Die keltischen Pfahlbauten in den Schweizerseen.” Mitteilungen der Antiquarischen Gesellschaft in Zurich 9: no pagination.

———. 1858–1879. “Pfahlbauberichte 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8. [Lake Dwelling Reports, 2–6, 8.].” Mitteilungen der Antiquarischen Gesellschaft in Zurich 12, 13, 14, 15, 20: no pagination.

Martin-Kilcher, S. 1979. “Ferdinand Keller und die Entdeckung der Pfahlbauten.” Archaologie der Schweiz 2: 3–11.

Meyer von Knonau, G. 1882. “I. Lebensabriss des Stifters der Gesellschaft Dr. Ferdinand Keller.” In Denkschrift zur funfzigjahrigen Stiftungsfeier der Antiquarischen Gesellschaft in Zurich, 1–48. Ed. G. Meyer von Knonau and G. Finsler. Zurich: Burkli.

Schneider, B. 1991. “Ferdinand Keller und die Antiquarische Gesellschaft Zurich.” Archaologie der Schweiz 14: 14–18.

Kendrick, Sir Thomas Downing

(1895–1979)

Kendrick was born in Birmingham, England, and won a scholarship to Oriel College, Oxford, in 1913. He joined the army and survived the fighting in France, although he was severely wounded. He returned to Oriel in 1919 and read anthropology and later studied and published on the prehistoric archaeology of the Channel Islands.

In 1922 he began working at the british museum in the department of British and medieval antiquities. He became assistant keeper in 1928, keeper in 1938, and director and principal librarian from 1950 until his retirement in 1959. Kendrick’s primary interest was in Anglo-Saxon art and he was responsible for the display of the great sutton hoo treasure to the public after the war. He also made the his area of expertise accessible, publishing The Axe Age (1925), The Druids (1927), A History of the Vikings (1930), Anglo-Saxon Art to ad 900 (1938) and Late Saxon and Viking Art (1949). He ensured that the museum was as significant to scholars as it was popular.

Kendrick maintained his interest in archaeology, publishing Archaeology in England and Wales 1914–1931 with christopher hawkes in 1932 and editing several volumes of The County Archaeologies. His greatest contribution to the history of archaeology was his magnificent British Antiquity (1950), which remains essential reading in this field. He was made a fellow of the British Academy in 1941 and was a fellow of the