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Thomas Hearne, Richard Richardson, and the Osmondthick Hoard
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 November 2011
Summary
The discovery in 1709, at Osmondthick, West Riding of Yorkshire, of a hoard of socketed axes, is described from contemporary sources. The contents of the hoard, its site of discovery, and ultimate fate are considered, as well as its archaeological significance. Contemporary views on prehistoric socketed axes, most particularly those of Thomas Hearne and Richard Richardson, are contrasted, and it is concluded that Richardson's observations mark him as an important but neglected contributor to contemporary antiquarian thought.
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- Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1978
References
NOTES
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49 According to the Advertisement (p. 5 but unnumbered) of the 1742 and 1770 editions ‘the Undertakers’ had ‘possession of the original plates’. It is therefore a little surprising that the block should have needed so much subsequent reworking after an initial printing of only 120 copies.
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59 Indubitably the find from Brough on Humber (Soc. Ants. Minutes, 1719)Google Scholar. A reappraisal of the documentation of its discovery is forthcoming by the writer in collaboration with Mr. K. Leahy.
60 I am indebted to Dr. I. Longworth, Mrs. G. Varndell, Mr. S. Needham, and Mrs. A. Hopley for assistance in searching the collections and documentation of the Museum. History has been less respectful to Sloane's antiquities than to his botanical specimens. Richardson's handwriting is still to be recognized on specimens preserved in Sloane's herbarium (see Dandy, J. E., The Sloane Herbarium (London, 1958), pp. 194–5)Google Scholar.
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