Catherine Downes
{{Short description|English antiquarian and archaeologist}}
{{About|the English antiquarian|the New Zealand playwright and director|Cathy Downes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
File:Pit_Mead_Roman_villa_mosaic,_illustration_by_Catherine_Downes.jpg]]Catherine Downes ({{fl.|1786}}) was an English antiquarian and archaeologist, who excavated a Roman villa near Warminster, Wiltshire, in 1786.{{Cite book|last=Hingley|first=Richard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=36gSDAAAQBAJ&q=The+Recovery+of+Roman+Britain+1586-1906|title=The Recovery of Roman Britain 1586–1906: A Colony So Fertile|date=2008-06-26|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-923702-9|pages=15|language=en}} Downes is a significant figure in the early history of archaeology, since she was one of the first women antiquarians to excavate a Roman site; the other was Frances Stackhouse Acton. Downes is also one of the earliest recorded women who contributed to the work of the Society of Antiquaries of London.
Pit Mead Roman villa
Downes initially learnt of the find by a farmworker through an article in the Salisbury Journal, she then employed an assistant and gained permission to excavate. The site was located at a place called Pit Mead, just outside Warminster, on land owned by Lord Weymouth. The investigations revealed four mosaics, a bath house and a range of finds. The finds included pottery, coins, bone and metal objects and an ivory bodkin. The mosaic illustrated by Downes and Basire was removed from the site and taken to Longleat, as of 2021 its location was unknown.{{Cite web|title=Heritage Gateway – Results|url=https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=211416&resourceID=19191|access-date=2021-09-22|website=www.heritagegateway.org.uk}}
She reported on the results of her excavation to the Society of Antiquaries of London in a letter they received on 10 March 1788.{{Cite book|last=Sweet|first=Rosemary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SAKvf9eagicC&dq=catherine+downes&pg=PA76|title=Antiquaries: The Discovery of the Past in Eighteenth-Century Britain|date=2004-05-28|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-1-85285-309-9|pages=76|language=en}} The letter was read to the society by Daines Barrington.{{Cite web|title=Vetusta Monumenta: Plate 2.43: Roman Pavements Found Near Warminster|url=https://scalar.missouri.edu/vm/vol2plate43-roman-pavements-warminster|access-date=2021-09-22|website=Vetusta Monumenta: Ancient Monuments, a Digital Edition|language=en}} It was accompanied by her illustrations of pavements and finds from the villa, which were later engraved by James Basire and published in Vetusta Monumenta.{{Cite web|date=2021-09-22|title=Collections Online {{!}} British Museum|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG246444|access-date=2021-09-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210922190036/https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG246444|archive-date=2021-09-22}}
Whilst her descriptions of the finds show that she was not familiar with Latin literature, they do demonstrate that she was familiar with the principles of archaeological enquiry (then in its very infancy) and how to describe and record finds in detail.
References
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External links
- [https://scalar.missouri.edu/vm/vol2plate43-account Plate 2.43: Roman Pavements Found Near Warminster] (Original Explanatory Account)
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Category:Year of birth unknown
Category:Year of death unknown
Category:English women archaeologists
Category:People from Warminster
Category:British women illustrators
Category:Society of Antiquaries of London