Archibald Campbell Carlleyle

Archibald Campbell Carlleyle (Carlyle) was First Assistant to the Archaeological Survey of India from 1871 until his retirement in 1885. Carlleyle went to India to seek his fortune, initially as a tutor. He worked in the Indian Museum in Calcutta, the Riddell Museum in Agra, before joining the Archaeological Survey of India. He was appointed by Alexander Cunningham (1814-1893), Director General of the Survey.

Before his appointment, in 1867–68, Carlleyle discovered paintings on the walls and ceilings of rock shelters in Sohagighat, in the Mirzapur district. He was the first to claim a Stone Age antiquity for these. He was in eastern Rajasthan in 1871-3, the Vindhya Hills and then northwards into the plains with seasons in Gorakhpur, Saran and Ghazipur during the 1870s. He excavated a site at Joharganj in 1879. In the early 1880s he worked in the Vindhya Hills again.

When the Archaeological Survey was disbanded, Carlleyle lost his job and came back to Britain in 1885. He was 54. Living in straitened circumstances in London, Carlleyle disposed of his archaeological collection by sale or by donation to a number of museums and individuals.