Richard Wyatt Hutchinson (1894-1970)

Richard Wyatt Hutchinson was an archaeologist who worked as lecturer in classical archaeology at the University of Liverpool from 1948 to 1952. He was educated at Birkenhead School and St John’s College, Cambridge, serving as an officer at the end of the First World War. After the war, he was a Foundation Scholar and Craven Student at Athens. He worked as the Curator in Crete for the British School at Athens (BSA) from 1934 to 1947, although he served in the British General Headquarters at Cairo from 1941 to 1945 during the occupation of Crete. The BSA in Crete was based at Knossos Research Centre and during his stewardship there, Hutchinson earned then nickname ‘Squire of Knossos’.[1] His interest in Cretan prehistory led to the publication of his most important monograph in 1962, Prehistoric Crete.[2]

After working at the University of Liverpool, he worked as a lecturer at the University of Cambridge. He gave a large collection of over 1,200 items to the British Museum.[3] Some of his papers, such as an archaeological day book for 1938–40 [KNO 68], are held by the British School at Athens. To the University of Liverpool, he gave a collection of stamp and cylinder seals.

[1] VR Desborough 1970 Richard Wyatt Hutchinson, 1894–1970. Kadmos 9.2

[2] RW Hutchinson 1962 Prehistoric Crete. Baltimore: Penguin, front matter

[3] British Museum n.d. R W Hutchinson. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG62351 Accessed 13 January 2022

You can see 3D models of some of the seals donated by Hutchinson on our sketchfab page here.