364 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— G, H. 



Report of Committee on Earth Pressures. (See p. 264.) 

 Report of Committee on Stresses in Overstrained Materials. (See p. 264.) 



SECTION H.— ANTHROPOLOGY. 



Thursday, September 4. 



Presidential Address by Dr. H. S. Harrison, on Evolution in Material 

 Culture. (See p. 137.) 



Discussion on^ Proposed National Folk Museum (Sir Henry A. Miers, 

 F.R.S., Dr. R. E. Mortimer Wheeler, Prof. J. L. Mybes, Miss 

 Barnard). 



Sir Henry A. Miees, F.R.S. — A distinction is made between (1) Open Air Museums, 

 in which are re-erected old furnished dwellings, &c. ; (2) Folk Museums, which contain 

 collections of materials illustrating bygone life : (3) Period Museum, generally an old 

 house, filled with contemporary exhibits ; (4) Period House or Period Cottage, which 

 is simply an old house without museum exhibits ; and (5) Period Room, either original 

 or a facsimile, reproducing the conditions of life and forming a separate exhibit in an 

 ordinary museum. 



It is pointed out that this country has nothing corresponding to (1) and (2), though 

 examples may be found of all the other types, and there are in addition many Folk 

 Museum exhibits gathered together in various museums as local '■ bygones,' or con- 

 tained in ethnographical collections. 



There is, therefore, a vast amount of material from which a Folk Museum might 

 be equipped, and there are many dwellings and other old structures in different parts 

 of the country which are in danger of destruction and might be saved if an Open Air 

 Museum were instituted. 



A joint Committee of the Royal Anthropological Institute with representatives of 

 the British Association and other bodies has reported unanimously in favour of utilising 

 the Botanic Gardens in Regent's Park as a National Open Air Museum, with the adja- 

 cent St. John's Lodge as an associated Folk Museum. 



A list is given of the most prominent Open Air Museums in Sweden, Norway, 

 Denmark, Finland, Holland and Roumania ; and of Folk Museums in Sweden, 

 Esthonia, and Switzerland ; together with a large number of Period and Memorial 

 Houses in Sweden ; sufficient to indicate how widespread is the desire in these countries 

 to preserve such national and historic relics in contrast to the almost complete apathy 

 which has prevailed in the British Isles. 



The author believes that if a national Open Air and Folk Museum can be 

 established in London, even on a comparatively small scale, efforts will be made in 

 many other districts to preserve houses and materials which are rapidly disappearing 

 and are in danger of total extinction. 



Afternoon. 



Mrs. D. PoRTWAY DoBSON. — General Survey of pre-Roman Sites in the 

 Bristol District. 



Fauna of the early palaeolithic period has been found in the Bristol district in the 

 Durdham Down fissure, in Wookey Hole and other limestone caves. Implements of 

 this period have recently been discovered in the gravels of the Severn and Avon 

 rivers. Upper Palseolithic times are also well represented in the caves of Mendip, 

 notably Gough's Cave at Cheddar and AveUne's Hole in Burrington Coombe. These 

 sites have yielded both implements and fauna of the Aurignacian period, while the 

 gravels at Clevedon are rich in bones of horse and other animals belonging to the close 

 of the same period. The district is well provided with remains of the megalithic age, 

 including the fine chambered tumulus of Stoney Littleton and many more long barrows. 



