This Guy Sucked George Pitt-Rivers with Dan Hicks
Oct 2, 2025
Professor Dan Hicks, a contemporary archaeology expert at Oxford and curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, dives deep into the troubling legacies of museums and colonialism. He discusses the ethics of centering historical figures like George Pitt Rivers, revealing his ties to fascism and eugenics. Hicks argues for the need to address violent provenance in museum collections while advocating for transparency about ancestral remains. He also highlights movements for restitution and how we can reshape memory culture through informed action.
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Archaeology As The Science Of Duration
- Archaeology digs from the present down and studies what endures to reveal hidden pasts.
- Dan Hicks calls archaeology the science of human duration and contrasts it with history's forward narrative.
The Four A's Of Cultural Power
- Archaeology, anthropology, art and architecture form a linked set of disciplines shaping how cultures are represented.
- Hicks highlights their entanglement with empire and cultural racism in museum and monument creation.
The Skull Goblet Donated After Incarceration
- George "Joe" Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers was a eugenicist and fascist jailed as a Mosleyite Nazi and later returned to Oxford.
- After the war he donated his inherited grandfather's skull goblet to Worcester College where it was used at high table for decades.
