George Macdonald (archaeologist)

The grave of Sir George Macdonald, Dean Cemetery

Sir George Macdonald KCB (b. Elgin 30 January 1862; d. 9 August Edinburgh 1940) was an eminent archaeologist and numismatist who studied the building methodology of the Antonine wall.

Life

He was educated at Ayr Academy where his father was rector, and at Edinburgh University.

He became a civil servant and classical scholar, and was awarded the medal of the Royal Numismatic Society in 1913.^[1] He was Secretary of the Scottish Education Department from 1922-8. He was knighted in 1927.

As commented upon in his obituary: “scholarship is not incompatible with administrative ability”.

He catalogued the collection of Greek coins in the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow. He employed “scientific method and equipment” in his fieldwork and excavations, resulting in new discoveries in the discipline of Romano-British history.

He was chairman of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland from 1934 until his death.

He is buried in the 20th century extension to Dean Cemetery on Queensferry Road in western Edinburgh with his wife Margaret Tannahill (1857-1951), daughter Isobel Margaret Macdonald (1900-1927) and infant son, George (1899-1899).

References

External links

• Obituary by James Russell.

Publications

• ‘The Roman Wall in Scotland’ (1911)
• MacDonald, G. (1921). The building of the Antonine Wall: a fresh study of the inscriptions. Journal of Roman Studies 11:1–24.
• Catalogue of Greek Coins in the Hunterian Collection, University of Glasgow, 3 vols (Glasgow, 1899-1905)
• Coin Types: Their Origin and Development [the Rhind Lectures in 1904] (Glasgow, 1905).
• [with Alexander Park], The Roman Forts on the Bar Hill, Dumbartonshire (Glasgow, 1906).
• The Roman Wall in Scotland (Glasgow, 1911; 2nd edn, Oxford, 1934).
• ‘Ancient Persian Coins in India’, ‘Ancient Greek Coins in India’ and ‘The Hellenic Kingdoms of Syria, Bactria and Parthia’, in The Cambridge Ancient History of India, vol. 1 (1922), pp. 342–4, 386-90, 427-66.
• The Roman Occupation of Britain [Ford Lectures delivered by F. Haverfield and revised by G. Macdonald] (Oxford 1924).

Further reading

• Bibliography up to 1931 in JRS, vol 22 (1932), pp. 3–8, for 1932-40, compiled by
• J.G.C. Anderson, JRS, vol. 30 (1940), pp. 129–32.
• Curle, A.O., PBA, vol. 27 (1941), pp. 433–51.
• Curle, A.O., ‘Sir George Macdonald, K.C.B., 1862-1940: A Memoir’, Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. 74 (1939–40), pp. 123–32.
• Graham, A., ‘In Piam Veterum Memoriam’, in A.S. Bell, ed., The Scottish Antiquarian Tradition: Essays to Mark the Bicentenary if the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and its Museum, 1780-1980 (Edinburgh, 1981), pp. 212–26.

External links

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