Wheeler, (Robert Eric) Mortimer

English archaeologist. After a number of distinguished excavations in Britain, he was director general of archaeology in India 1944–48, and later adviser to the government of Pakistan. He excavated sites of the forgotten Indus Valley civilization, which flourished in the later 3rd millennium, and helped to popularize archaeology by appearances on television, even on entertainment programmes such as Animal, Vegetable or Mineral.

Wheeler adhered to the rules for stratigraphic excavation set down by the English archaeologist Augustus Pitt-Rivers, despite the sometimes less than scientific methodology pursued by his contemporaries.

Two major cities were excavated in the Indus Valley, Mohenjo Daro and Harappa, revealing a society that was advanced enough to produce ceremonial and state architecture and a complex water, drainage, and waste-disposal system. Other excavations were carried out at Charsada and Taxila in northwestern India, and at Arikamedu (the Roman-Indian trading post of Poduca) in southern India after identifying Roman pottery in the government museum.

Among Wheeler's many excavation reports and books are Maiden Castle, Dorset 1943 and The Indus Civilization 1968.