'THAT TERRIBLE WOMAN': THE LIFE, WORK AND LEGACY OF MAUD CUNNINGTON 



49 



in 1907 the Cunningtons began a series of 

 excavations that were to define local prehistoric 

 archaeology and give valuable assistance to the 

 interpretation of the Neolithic and Iron Age in 

 Britain. These excavations included work at Manton 

 Barrow, Oliver's Camp, Knap Hill, All Cannings 

 Cross, Woodhenge, the Sanctuary and Yarnbury. 

 Aside from the excavation reports Maud 

 Cunnington wrote more general articles in 

 WANHM, Antiquity, the Archaeological Journal 

 and Archaeologia Cambrensis. She also published 

 several books, such as The Pottery from the Long 

 Barrow at West Kennet, Wilts. (1927a) and An 

 Introduction to the Archaeology of Wiltshire 

 (1933a). This substantial body of work led to her 

 being recognised as one of the foremost 

 archaeologists of her day (Wheeler 1923, 150), and 

 resulted in her election to Vice-President and then 

 President of the WANHS. She was awarded a CBE 

 in 1948, and in 1931 was elected as an honorary 

 fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 

 This was an exceptional honour. Maud Cunnington 

 was only the second woman to be elected and she 

 was in extremely illustrious company, other 

 honorary fellows including Montellius, Petrie, John 

 Evans, and l'Abbe Breuil. 



Of Maud Cunnington's life outside archaeology 

 we know very little. In 1890 Edward, Ben and 

 Maud's only child, was born. He was killed in action 

 in 1917. Ben Cunnington died in 1950 followed by 

 Maud, after a long illness, in 1 9 5 1 . Part of the reason 

 for this lacuna is that the memoirs of the 

 Cunnington family have been written by 

 Cunningtons more interested in documenting the 

 archaeological achievements of the family rather 

 than a general view of their lives (R.H. Cunnington 

 1954; E. Cunnington n.d.). It can also be suggested 

 that this lack of information stems from women's 

 lives having been traditionally seen as unimportant. 

 None of the information that we have for Maud's 

 life mentions anything other than her work or 

 motherhood. A prime example of this gap can be 

 seen in the way we are told that during the First 

 World War Ben was sent to France as a Provost 

 Marshall, Edward volunteered as a military doctor, 

 yet Maud went to London and did unspecified 'war 

 work' (Anon 1917, 152, 474). We have no 

 information about her private thoughts, how she 

 felt about her son's death, or why her archaeological 

 work intensified through the 1910s and '20s. We 

 only have the personal reminiscences of a later 

 generation and a substantial body of archaeological 

 work to draw upon. Maud Cunnington dominated 



the Wiltshire Society at a time when there were few 

 women members or contributors to the magazine. 

 Although she was not the first woman to publish 

 an article in WANHM, no other woman before or 

 since has been so prolific. 



That she achieved so much is particularly 

 surprising when we consider that she lived and 

 worked at a time when women had little legal status 

 and were debarred from many forms of 

 employment. When Maud Cunnington was born 

 women had few rights. They could legally be 

 incarcerated against their will or beaten by their 

 husbands or fathers. Women were not allowed to 

 vote, or to attend university. If married they could 

 not own property, if divorced they could not retain 

 custody of their children. Throughout Maud's life 

 there were incremental gains in the status of women 

 in this country, but it was a long and slow process 

 to combat the entrenched attitudes of British 

 society. Archaeology was not immune from these 

 attitudes; although the county societies, including 

 Wiltshire, accepted women members, the criteria 

 for their election were not always the same as for 

 men. 1 However, the national antiquarian societies 

 prohibited women from becoming fellows and, 

 although papers by women might be published in 

 their proceedings, they were not allowed to address 

 the meetings. It was not until 1920 that the Society 

 of Antiquaries of London submitted to the Sex 

 Disqualification (Removal) Act, and finally 

 admitted women fellows.- Although these points 

 may seem irrelevant to a discussion of the work of 

 Maud Cunnington, it cannot be over-emphasised 

 that she worked in a predominantly male world and 

 while women may have been tolerated, they were 

 not always welcomed; an attitude of which Maud 

 Cunnington seems to have been aware (see below). 



WORK 



Before discussing how Maud's work was viewed by 

 her contemporaries and later archaeologists, some 

 description of that work is needed. Although 

 interested in all aspects of archaeology the 

 Cunningtons only excavated in Wiltshire. Their 

 partnership was so closely melded that in her 

 obituary the writer stated: 



To disentangle Mrs Cunnington's contribution from 

 that of her husband's would be a difficult and, indeed, 

 a thankless task; their work was too closely associated 

 for either's part alone to present an intelligible picture. 

 (Anon 1952, 104) 



