John Pull
John Henry Pull (25 June 1899 – 10 November 1960) was an amateur archaeologist. After service as a soldier in
World War I, where he learnt surveying skills, he worked as a gramophone salesman, a postman, and later a security guard, but his main interest was always
archaeology. He was a key member of the [https://www.worthingarchaeological.org/ Worthing Archaeological Society]. He was responsible for the finding and excavation of some of the most important
neolithic sites in Southern
Britain including the flint mines at
Blackpatch,
Harrow Hill,
Church Hill,
Cissbury in
Sussex,
England, in 1922. Because he was not a professional archaeologist, he was unpopular with some of the experts in the field at the time, who constantly shrugged off Pull's work as amateur and unimportant.
In the end, much of Pull's work and findings were given to
Worthing Museum and Art Gallery which holds a large archive. The main results of the Pull's excavations at Blackpatch, Church Hill and Cissbury between 1922 and 1956 housed in the archive were finally published in 2001 by Miles Russell of
Bournemouth University. The earthworks comprising his first investigated site at
Blackpatch were bulldozed over in the 1950s. Fifty years later, a ''
Time Team'' episode focused on the area of Pull's work and was able to confirm some of his presumptions about the site.
Pull was killed and his work cut short when he was shot during a bank robbery while working as a bank guard at Lloyds Bank, Durrington, Worthing.
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