Elsie Clifford Explained

Elsie Margaret Clifford (1885 – 1976) was a British archaeologist.

Life

Born into a farming family at Little Witcombe, Clifford became interested in archaeology after making finds in her father’s fields, and in the 1920s was invited by M.C. Burkitt to attend his archaeology lectures at the University of Cambridge for a year.^{[1] [2]} Though prolific, she maintained her status as an amateur archaeologist.^[3]

Her archaeological work often consisted of re-excavating existing sites, such as the Neolithic barrows at Notgrove (1934 – 6), Nympsfield and Rodmarton, and Roman villas at Hucclecote, Barnwood and Witcombe. She identified a Late Iron Age settlement at Minchindon.^[4]

In the 1930s, she discovered Belgic pottery in a gravel quarry near Bagendon. She returned in 1961 to direct a dig at the previously unexcavated Iron Age settlement there.^{[5] [6]}  

She received an OBE for services to archaeology in 1968, as well as serving on the council of the Society of Antiquaries, as President of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club (1936 – 8), and as the first woman president of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society (1949).^[7]

External links

• Elsie M Clifford at Archaeology Data Service
• Elsie Margaret Clifford at Roman Inscriptions of Britain
• Mrs Elsie M Clifford at the British Museum

Notes and References

1. 1977 . Mrs E. M. Clifford . Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Transactions . 95 . 121-3.
2. 1977 . Proceedings and Obituaries . The Antiquaries Journal . en . 57 . 2 . 443–455 . 10.1017/S0003581500031838 . 1758-5309.
3. Book: Saville, Alan . Archaeology in Gloucestershire: From the Earliest Hunters to the Industrial Age : Essays Dedicated to Helen O'Neil and the Late Elsie Clifford . 1984 . Jointly published by Cheltenham Art Gallery and Musuems, and the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society . 978-0-905157-09-2 . 19 . en.
4. Web site: Two women archaeologists of Gloucestershire – The Wilson – Cheltenham Art Gallery & Museum . 2024-08-08 . www.cheltenhammuseum.org.uk.
5. Rivet . A. L. F. . 1962 . Bagendon: A Belgic Oppidum. By Elsie M. Clifford, F.S.A., with contributions by friends and colleagues. 1961. W. Heffer & Sons Ltd., Cambridge, pp. 287, 31 plates and 71 line drawings. Price £3 3s. . Antiquity . en . 36 . 142 . 145–147 . 10.1017/S0003598X00029793 . 0003-598X.
6. Book: Moore, Tom . A Biography of Power: Research and Excavations at the Iron Age 'oppidum' of Bagendon, Gloucestershire (1979-2017) . 2020-07-30 . Archaeopress Publishing Ltd . 978-1-78969-535-9 . 9-11 . en.
7. Web site: A fairly brief history . 2024-08-08 . Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society . en.