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Humphrey Case 1918 – 2009

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Humphrey John Case

Humphrey Case, who has died aged 91, was a prehistorian and archaeologist whose pursuit of the subject, in the field and at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford – where he was keeper of antiquities from 1973 to 1982 – set a pattern for a generation. An authority on the Beaker culture – the Neolithic people characterised by their bell-shaped ceramic vessels – he was insistent on the nature of archaeological evidence and often critical of the many who impose their sometimes-perverse notions on it.

Case was born in Frome, Somerset, and educated at Charterhouse and St John’s College, Cambridge, where he read history. At the outbreak of the second world war, he was commissioned into the Somerset Light Infantry. Although reticent about his war experiences, he told me that he was stationed in Gibraltar, where he patrolled the frontier with Spain and tried to catch Italian mini submarines creeping in to attack shipping.

After demobilisation in 1946, he took the postgraduate diploma of prehistoric archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology, London University, where I met him in 1949. That year, Mortimer Wheeler, fresh from India, organised a summer excavation school at St Albans, Hertfordshire, with his Maiden Castle team. Here, Humphrey and I found ourselves digging together and, later, we graduated to site planners. A friendship evolved and, across the years, we met and discussed our activities and ideas.

In September 1949, Humphrey was appointed assistant keeper of antiquities at the Ashmolean. He progressed to deputy keeper and then keeper. Visitors to Oxford never found him in an office but always in the galleries working in cases, notably the many Palaeolithic hand-axes from the classic gravel exposures of the 19th century. He was tireless in his collation and presentation of the collections and became a revered personality.

At the same time, he directed significant, often intricate, excavations, principally of Neolithic sites in England, Ireland and France. He was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1954 and was vice-president of the Prehistoric Society from 1969 to 1973. Here, he was criticised for securing the cancellation of a planned conference of the society in Cork because of his perceptions of the political troubles in Northern Ireland.

Down the years, Humphrey was asked to write books on his areas of specialist knowledge such as the Neolithic Beakers and the late Neolithic, but he remained adamant that journals were the place for detailed undertakings. His remarkable series of papers began with the narrative Abingdon Ware (1955) and he then reconsidered the Neolithic Causewayed Camp at Abingdon, Berkshire (1956), which had previously been only partially published. This was followed by Neolithic Explanations (1969).

The Beakers were a great interest as they may have been the initial metallurgists in the British Isles. In 1954 he considered Irish and British early copper artefacts and, in 1965, tin-bronze with Bell-Beaker associations. This work was a prelude for his notion that the Beakers had introduced metallurgy to Ireland from other parts of Europe.

His work in Northern Ireland would make a handsome monograph. How Humphrey’s almost fervid interest in Ireland came about is far from clear, although an under-populated countryside and the many ancient land-patterns may have interested him. He defined Neolithic Settlement Patterns in the North Irish Neolithic (1969) and, with others including GW Dimbleby and GF Mitchell, determined patterns from Neolithic times until today. He also wrote the papers Irish Neolithic Pottery: Distribution and Sequence (1961) and Foreign Connections in the Irish Neolithic (1963).

His publication activities lessened as his responsibilities at the Ashmolean increased, although he was still able to write numerous notes and reviews. Many felt that he should have been the president of the Prehistoric Society but, after his earlier experiences with the society, he adroitly avoided such offices.

Humphrey had a happy home life. His first marriage, which took place in 1942, went the way of many wartime liaisons. He found great happiness with Jean Orr, whom he married in 1949 and with whom he had two sons, and, after their divorce, with Jocelyn Herickx, whom he married in 1979.

In later life he did not lose touch with the details of European prehistory, and continued to write papers, including Beakers: Deconstruction and After (1993), and a contribution to the 1998 colloquium Bell Beakers. He remained a more than competent draughtsman, an omnivorous reader, and was fond of music, gardening and plant propagation.

He is survived by Jocelyn and his two sons, and by a stepson and two stepdaughters.

 Humphrey John Case, archaeologist, and museum curator, born 26 May 1918; died 13 June 2009

This obituary which first appeared in the Guardian is published with the permission of Jo Case & Annabel, his stepdaughter.