Celebrating Hampshire Historians

Stone, John Frederick Smerdon (‘Marcus’)

1899 – 12 May 1957

J F S ‘Marcus’ Stone worked at the Chemical Warfare Defence Experimental Station (Porton Down) from 1925 to 1957. His nickname derived from a well-known artist who illustrated many Dickens novels.

Born in Bath, he first worked as a school master before a spell in the Royal Garrison Artillery.  In 1920 he went up to Oxford (Wadham College) where he read chemistry. After completing his PhD he obtained a post at the CWDES and it was there, on the Hampshire -Wiltshire border, that the opportunity to get involved in archaeology first arose.

He began with the excavation of a barrow near the Pheasant Hotel and followed this with the discovery of flint mines and a Beaker settlement on Easton Down and the examination of an ‘execution cemetery’ at Lopcombe Corner.  In 1935, with Dr Gray Hill, he investigated a similar cemetery site on Stockbridge Down. He returned to Stockbridge in 1938 and 1948 to examine two Bronze Age burials.  He also discovered a further set of flint mines at Martin’s Clump, Over Wallop.

His scientific knowledge made him an authority on early glass and faience, and he collaborated on many excavations, notably with Atkinson and Piggott at Stonehenge and it was Piggott who ensured that his book, Wessex before the Celts, in manuscript at the time of his death, reached the publishers.

Sources

• Ride, D (2006) In Defence of Landscape – An Archaeology of Porton Down.

Portrait

Contribution to county’s history

Stone did much to advance the study of archaeology along the western fringes of the county. He was a keen advocate of aerial photography.

Relevant published works

• Stone, JFS (1934) A flint mine at Martin’s Clump, Over Wallop, Proc Hants Field Club 12, 177-80

• Stone, JFS (1948) A Beaker interment on Stockbridge Down, Hampshire, and its cultural connections. Antiq Journ 28, 149-56

• Stone, JFS & Hill, NG (1940) A Middle Bronze Age site at Stockbridge, Hampshire, Proc Prehist Soc 4, 249-57

• Stone, JFS & Hill, NG (1940) A round barrow on Stockbridge Down, Antiq Journ 20, 39-51.

• Stone (1958) Wessex before the Celts, Thames & Hudson.

Critical Comments

Other Comments

Contributor

Dave Allen, November 2021

Key Words

Porton Down, archaeology of western Hampshire

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