Paul Ashbee

Paul Ashbee
Born	(1918-06-23)23 June 1918 Bearsted, near Maidstone, Kent
Died	19 August 2009(2009-08-19) (aged 91)
Citizenship	British
Alma mater	University of London
Known for	Leading authority on Neolithic and Bronze Age barrows
Scientific career
Fields	Archaeology

Paul Ashbee (23 June 1918 – 19 August 2009) was a leading British archaeologist, noted for his many excavations of barrows, or burial mounds, and for co-directing the Sutton Hoo digs (with Rupert Bruce-Mitford) from 1964 to 1972. He was also president of the Just William Society. He died of cancer on 19 August 2009, aged 91.^[1]

The only child of cabinet maker Lewis Ashbee and Hannah Mary Elisabeth, daughter of house decorator William Edward Birch Brett, of Thanet, Kent,^[2] Paul Ashbee was born in Bearsted, near Maidstone, Kent. He made national headlines when he uncovered the remains of a Roman villa on a farm at Thurnham when still a teenager.^[1] He joined the Royal West Kent Regiment for the duration of the war, followed by the Control Commission for Germany. Although without any qualifications he studied for a diploma in European prehistoric archaeology at the University of London in 1952, followed by a diploma in education at Bristol University and a MA at Leicester University. He became an assistant history master at Britain's first comprehensive school, Forest Hill School, Forest Hill, London where he stayed until 1966.^[1] He married Richmal Disher in 1952; the niece and literary executor of Richmal Crompton,^[3][4][5] she was a history student and they met at a dig at Verulamium, St Albans in 1949. She died in 2005,^[1] after which Ashbee became president of the Just William Society.^[4]

Ashbee went into archaeology (during school holidays) after service in the army through the Second World War. He excavated widely across southern Britain and is best known as a leading authority on Neolithic and Bronze Age barrows.^[6] From 1976 to 1980 he was the President of the Cornwall Archaeology Society,^[7] and was also a commissioner of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England for 10 years.^[1]

• 1949–50 — cemetery at Porthcressa, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly
• 1950–52 — assistant to Rupert Bruce-Mitford on the early medieval settlement at Mawgan Porth
• 1955 — barrow at Tregulland, north-east of Bodmin Moor
• 1960 — barrow at Wilsford, Normanton Down, Wiltshire
• 1964–71 — co-director with Rupert Bruce-Mitford at Sutton Hoo
• 1970–? — replacement of the capstones of the entrance grave at Bant's Carn and the multi-period settlement at Halangy, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly

Scholia has an author profile for Paul Ashbee.

• Ashbee, Paul (October–November 1954). "Excavation of the Great Barrow at Bishop's Waltham: Possible Burial of a Chief". The Archaeological News Letter. 5 (6). Linden Publicity: 109–110.
• Ashbee, Paul; Ashbee, Richmal C. L. (December 1954). "Excavation of a Barrow at Hindlow". The Archaeological News Letter. 5 (7). Linden Publicity: 134–135.
• 1960 The Bronze Age Round Barrow in Britain, Littlehampton Book Services Ltd, ISBN 978-0460076173
• 1970 The Earthen Long Barrow in Britain, University of Toronto Press, ISBN 978-0802015723
• 1974 Ancient Scilly, David & Charles, ISBN 978-0715365687
• 1978 The Ancient British, Geo Abstracts, ISBN 978-0860940142
• 1996 Halangy Down, St Mary's, Isles of Scilly, Excavations 1964–1977, Cornish Archaeology No 35
• 2005 Kent in Prehistoric Times, The History Press, ISBN 978-0752431369

Ward, Anthony; Lawson, Terence (2010). "Paul Ashbee, M.A., D.Litt., F.S.A." (PDF). Archaeologia Cantiana. 130: 435–438.

• Just William Society