The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology

• The Concise Oxford Dictionary of...
• About
• Get help in the History Group

Keiller, Alexander

Keiller, Alexander (1890–1955) [Bi].
British archaeologist best known for his excavations at Windmill and Avebury and his pioneer flights recording the archaeology of Wessex from the air. Born in Dundee, Scotland, he was a member of the wealthy Keiller family, well known amongst other things for their marmalade and preserves. Educated at Eton, at the age of nine he became sole heir to the company and his family's fortune, and devoted the rest of his life to spending it. He became interested in aircraft and went flying intermittently from 1909 onwards, becoming a pilot in the Royal Naval Air Service in WW1. After meeting and becoming firm friends with O. G. S. Crawford, the two undertook what have become historic flights across the Wessex landscape recording archaeological sites using a captured German Service Type F.KI camera purchased from the Disposals Board and a De Havilland Company DH9 aeroplane. The work was published in 1924 as Wessex from the...

[The entire page is 402 words long]

Oxford University Press Titles

• The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology
• The Oxford Dictionary of Economics
• The Oxford Companion to American Literature
• The Oxford Companion to American Military History
• The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization
• The Oxford Companion to English Literature
• The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales
• The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare
• The Oxford Dictionary of Plays
• The Oxford Dictionary of Art
• Oxford Dictionary of Sociology
• Oxford Dictionary of World History
• Oxford Dictionary of World Mythology