Mortimer Wheeler

Sir Mortimer Wheeler was a British archaeologist and army officer who directed the National Museum of Wales and the London Museum and in 1934 established the Institute of Archaeology in London. He argued for a scientific and methodical approach to excavation and the recording of stratigraphic context, developing the 'Wheeler method', and excavated Verulamium and the Iron Age hill fort of Maiden Castle. As director-general of the Archaeological Survey of India from 1944 he oversaw excavations at Harappa, Arikamedu and Brahmagiri. His books and broadcasts brought archaeology to a mass audience, though many of his interpretations have since been discredited or reinterpreted.