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Edward Lhuyd and the Origins of Early Medieval Celtic Archaeology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Nancy Edwards
Nancy Edwards
Affiliation:
School of History, Welsh History and Archaeology, University of Wales, Bangor LL57 2DG, UK. E-mail: .
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Abstract

The Welshman Edward Lhuyd (?1659/60–1709), Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum, was a naturalist, philologist and antiquarian. He wrote the Welsh additions to Camden's Britannia (1695) and undertook extensive research for an Archaeologia Britannica. He was part of the scientific revolution centred on the Royal Society and was influenced by the flowering of Anglo-Saxon studies in late seventeenth-century Oxford. Although many of his papers were destroyed, sufficient evidence survives to assess his methodology for recording early medieval antiquities – particularly inscribed stones and stone sculpture in Wales and other Celtic areas – as well as his analysis of them. His legacy is of considerable importance and he may be regarded as the founding father of early medieval Celtic archaeology.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 87 , September 2007 , pp. 165 - 196
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2007

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References

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