Abstract
THE Archaeological Department of the Indian Government has suffered a heavy loss by the death at Agra on January 30 of Dr. David B. Spooner, who had been Deputy Director-General of Archaeology in India since 1919 and had acted on one occasion as head of the Survey during Sir John Marshall's absence on leave. Dr. Spooner's connexion with the Department commenced at the opening of the present century, and there can be no doubt that by his own efforts and achievements he did much towards giving practical effect to the policy of conservation and research inaugurated by Lord Curzon in 1902. Up to that date, official efforts to preserve the monuments of past ages and to investigate the hidden remains of antiquity were “spasmodic, desultory, unscientific and planned on a penurious scale.” With the appointment of a Director-General of Archaeology and a staff of able assistants, among whom Dr. Spooner was deservedly considered one of the most capable, there began that enormous development of historical and archaeological study which has been one of the most striking features of the twentieth century in India.
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E., S. Dr. David B. Spooner. Nature 115, 238–239 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/115238b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/115238b0