Where did Wheeler run an archaeological training course?
Wheeler spent three months in the Dominion of Pakistan during early 1949, where he was engaged in organising the fledgling Pakistani Archaeological Department with the aid of former members of the Archaeological Survey and new students whom he recruited. The Minister of Education, Fazlur Rahman, was sympathetic to Wheeler's plans, and the government agreed to establish a National Museum of Pakistan in Karachi, which opened in April 1950. Wheeler himself was appointed the first President of the Pakistani Museums Association, and found himself as a mediator in the arguments between India and Pakistan over the redistribution of archaeological and historic artefacts following the partition. He also wrote a work of archaeological propaganda for the newly formed state, Five Thousand Years of Pakistan (1950).To instruct new Pakistani students in the methods of archaeology, in early 1950 Wheeler ran a training excavation at Mohenjo-daro; there, he was joined by the British student Leslie Alcock, who spoke both Punjabi and Urdu and who was appointed a site supervisor by Wheeler. This excavation proved to be the only one for which Wheeler would not write and publish a full excavation report. Instead, he made reference to its findings in his book The Indus Civilization, published as part of the series The Cambridge History of India. His relationship with the Pakistani government had become strained, and so he declined to return to work for them for a third year.Wheeler had been keen to return to excavation in Britain. Based on the one he had organised in India, Wheeler developed an archaeological training course, which he ran at Verulamium in the summer of 1949 to instruct British students in the methodologies of excavation. In summer 1950, he was invited by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments to direct a trial excavation at Bindon Hill in Dorset. It was a leisurely project which he treated as a seaside holiday. He was invited by the Ancient Monuments Department of the Ministry of Works to excavate the Stanwick Iron Age Fortifications in North Riding, Yorkshire, which he proceeded to do over the summers of 1951 and 1952. Aided by many old friends and colleagues from within the British archaeological scene, he was joined by Alcock and Alcock's wife, among others. Wheeler published his report on the site in 1954.In 1949 Wheeler was appointed Honorary Secretary of the British Academy after Frederic G. Kenyon stepped down from the position. According to Piggott, the institution had "unhappily drifted into senility without the excuse of being venerable", and Wheeler devoted much time attempting to revitalise the organisation and ensured that Charles Webster was appointed President. Together, Wheeler and Webster sought to increase the number of younger members of the Academy, increasing the number of Fellows who were permitted to join and proposing that those over 75 years of age not be permitted to serve on the organisation's council; this latter measure was highly controversial, and though defeated in 1951, Wheeler and Webster were able to push it through in 1952. In doing so, Piggott stated, Wheeler helped rid the society of its "self-perpetuating gerontocracy". To aid him in these projects, Wheeler employed a personal assistant, Molly Myers, who remained with him for the rest of his life.
at Verulamium