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A series of pen portraits of some 40 individuals who helped shape the foundations of English prehistoric study including army officers, reverends, country squires and gentry, bankrupts, suicides, a probable illegitimate royal, a high clergyman, a tradesman and a farmer. As well as portraits, short biographies of each personality are embellished with appropriate illustrations, including digs, artefacts, archaeological sites and some of their more interesting tombs and connected activities. It's an entertaining and instructive who's who of pioneers of English archaeology beginning with John Yonge Akerman (1806-1873) whose investigations focussed mainly on the prehistoric and Anglo-Saxon periods. His unusual method of illustrating a series of Bronze Age urn burials found in a Wiltshire barrow and ring ditches he discovered at Standlake in 1857 are illustrated. With two to four pages per entry depending on the number of illustrations, 128pp in large softback.