Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology (639 page)

Small silver coin minted during the period ad 690 until ad 790 in southern English and Frisian kingdoms. They are distinctive in being made from pellets hammered between a pair of dies. The earliest sceattas are those from Frisia in the last decades of the 7th century
ad
; these were imitated from about ad 690 by the kings of Kent and issued in a series of designs collectively known as the primary series. A secondary series came slightly later during the middle Saxon period and were issued by a number of kings and bishops. Secondary-series sceattas are found widely over England southeast of a notional line between the Humber and the Exe.

 
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See
SUBJECT COMMITTEE FOR ARCHAEOLOGY
.

 
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In the British Isles the legal protection of archaeological sites involves the selection of nationally important examples which are then added to an official list or Schedule. The process is known as Scheduling; monuments protected in this way are known as Scheduled Monuments or, incorrectly, Scheduled Ancient Monuments (SAMs). To be protected in this way a monument must be judged to be of national importance according to the following criteria: period; rarity; documentation; group value; survival/condition; fragility/vulnerability; diversity; and potential. There is no appeal against the Scheduling process which defines an area of land containing the archaeological site known as the Scheduled Area. Protection takes the form of controlling works within the Scheduled Area; before any works are carried out within a Scheduled Area, Scheduled Monument Consent (SMC) from the Secretary of State is required. Damaging a Scheduled Monument or undertaking works without consent is a criminal offence.

 
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Schliemann , Heinrich
(1822–90)
[Bi].

Businessman turned archaeologist who set out to unravel the reality behind Homer's epic poetry. Born the son of a Protestant clergyman in Neubucklow, Mecklenburg-Schwerin , Germany, Schliemann attended the
Realschule
in Neustrelitz. After a five-year apprenticeship in a small grocer's shop he set sail for Columbia in November 1841, but was shipwrecked off the coast of Holland. He worked as a clerk in the office of the consul-general of Prussia in Amsterdam where he learnt numerous languages. In 1846 he was sent to St Petersburg where he became a remarkably successful dealer in commodities. He applied his business skills and ability with languages, eventually amassing a considerable personal fortune that allowed him to retire at the age of 46 in order to devote himself to the archaeology of the eastern Mediterranean. In 1868 a trip to Italy, Greece, and the Troas changed his life. He published an account of his observations and it earned him a doctorate in 1869. He became convinced by the authenticity of the places described by Homer , and set out to find them. He excavated at Troy over a series of four campaigns between 1871 and 1890; in 1874–6 he excavated at Mycenae where he discovered the shaft graves and revealed the wealth of the Aegean Bronze Age; in 1880 he dug at Orchomenos in Boetia, and in 1884–5 he worked at Tiryns. His discovery of ‘King Priam’s treasure' at Troy in May 1873 caused a sensation, helped perhaps by pictures of his second wife, Sophia , wearing some of the ornaments and jewellery. Subsequent studies have shown that some of Schliemann's claims are contaminated by untruths and that the ‘treasure’ was in fact a composite of finds from several spots. Nonetheless, his achievement is considerable, not least in attracting media attention and making archaeology a subject of public interest.
[Bio.: D. Traill , 1995,
Schliemann of Troy
. London: John Murray]

 
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Schlumberger , Daniel
(1905–72)
[Bi].

French archaeologist specializing in the ancient Near East. Born in Mulhouse, he attended university in Strasbourg and Paris. Between 1929 and 1941 he was first Assistant Inspector and then Inspector of Antiquities for the French High Commission in the Levant. During this time he carried out excavations at Qasr-al-Khayr-al-Gharbi in the Syrian desert, and established an international reputation. In 1945 he went to Kabul as Director of the Délégation Archéologique Française in Afghanistan, where again he carried out a great deal of fieldwork, including the discovery of a Greek city dating back to the time of Alexander the Great at Ay Khanum on the River Oxus close to the Russian border. In 1963 he returned to France to take up a Chair in Strasbourg University, but in 1969 he went back to the Near East to take charge of the Institut Français d'Archéologie in Beirut. At the time of his death he was on study leave at the University of Princeton, New Jersey.
[Obit.:
The Times
, 25 October 1972]

 
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