Bridget Allchin

Bridget Allchin, who has died at the age of 90, was a pioneer in the field of South Asian archaeology. During her career, she made some of the most important discoveries of South Asian prehistory, and laid the foundations for (now standard) interdisciplinary approaches to its study. She also played a pivotal role in promoting and facilitating South Asian studies across Europe. Born Bridget Gordon on 10 February 1927 in Oxford, the daughter of Major Stephen Gordon of the Indian Army Medical Service and Elsie (née Cox), Bridget spent her childhood in Scotland. During World War II, she helped her mother run the family farm, which at that time also involved looking after evacuees and even a German prisoner of war. It was here, inspired by the works of William Sollas, that she resolved to study prehistory at university. However, archaeology was not taught as a degree in Britain at the time. So she enrolled for a Bachelor’s degree at University College London that included Ancient History, and spent her Easter holidays excavating a prehistoric site in Oxford. Her studies were interrupted when her parents moved to South Africa, and Bridget was compelled to follow them. She planned to return to Britain as soon as possible to resume her studies, but soon found that she could read for a degree in African Studies, including Anthropology and Archaeology, at Cape Town University. Here, she studied under Astley Goodwin, who instilled in her the necessity of strictly scientific methods of fieldwork; and in her free time, learned to fly in a Piper Cub. In the summer of 1950, armed with her degree and all of her savings, Bridget returned to Britain on her own to study for a PhD. After being told by the London School of Economics that her ‘colonial degree’ was not considered adequate preparation for a research degree, she resolved to go to UCL instead. Demanding to meet the then director of the Institute of Archaeology, Vere Gordon Childe, without an appointment – and in what she herself described as a ‘somewhat belligerent mood’ – she managed to convince the Institute to admit her in less than ten minutes. She began her PhD that autumn, under the supervision of Frederick Zeuner, with every intention of working on later African prehistory and ethnoarchaeology. It was there, at a lecture, that Bridget met her future husband and lifelong colleague, Raymond Allchin. The couple were married in March 1951, and spent their honeymoon in the Dordogne visiting the Palaeolithic cave paintings in the Vallée de la Vézère. Raymond, who had just won a PhD scholarship to study the archaeology of the Deccan, was due to spend a year in South Asia, and so Bridget made arrangements to spend a year’s study leave with him. Raymond’s supervisor, Kenneth Codrington, was very supportive of this plan, not least because Bridget was the only one among them who had a driving licence. While preparing to go, Bridget found out that she was pregnant. Hiding the news from both of their families, Bridget checked their itinerary, and with characteristic pragmatism, arranged to give birth in Bangalore (now Bengaluru). They spent the next six months travelling throughout South Asia, and when they finally made their way to South India, Bridget was eight months pregnant. It was during this period that Bridget fell in love with South Asia, thereby sealing a personal and professional relationship that would endure for the rest of her life. She was awed by the richness of South Asian archaeology, astonished by the beauty of its artistic heritage, and developed a passion for its land and culture. Bridget wrote her first professional paper during this time, on the Palaeolithic stone tools in the collections of the University of Mysore, before heading back into the field with a two-month-old infant – her daughter, Sushila. It was also during this period that Bridget and Raymond embarked on what was to become a remarkable academic partnership. Their pioneering excavations at the prehistoric site of Piklihal resulted in the identification of its famous ash mounds as Neolithic sites associated with cattle. Bridget returned to London, and after giving birth to her second child, William, was awarded her PhD (later published, in 1966, as The Stone-Tipped Arrow: Late Stone Age Hunters of the Tropical Old World). In doing so, Bridget became one of the few people in post-War Britain to attain a PhD – a feat that was South Asian Studies, 2020 Vol. 36, No. 1, 118–120, https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2017.1382044