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Women in archaeology

Aspect of the history of archaeology

  • 7 min read
  • 4 chapters

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Through World War I, Eastern Europe and New Deal

History

As a professional field of study, archaeology was initially established as an academic discipline in the nineteenth century and typically developed from people engaged in the study of antiquities. Prior to the Victorian era, women in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States were rarely engaged in professional archaeology (though at this time, archaeology was not so much a profession as the practice of wealthy individuals, with workers paid to undertake the digging). Participation by women in the field was discouraged, both by men and societal pressure, as the occupation masculinized the accepted view of women as homemakers and nurturers. Even after they began to enter the field, the reluctance of male colleagues to accept them in fieldwork, led many women to choose roles outside of academia, seeking positions in museums or in cultural preservation associations. In Europe, women often entered the discipline as research partners with their husbands or to learn about the cultures when their spouses were posted to Colonial outposts or missionary fields.

From the mid-1850s women's higher education facilities began offering separate courses for women and in the 1870s several European countries opened university curricula to women. Though women were accepted into the study of archaeology, they were rarely considered equals and often were not admitted to prestigious societies, or allowed to complete training in the field. Swedish archaeologist Hanna Rydh was one exception, as was French archaeologist Madeleine Colani, but more typical were the hard-fought battles of women such as Edith Hall, Harriet Boyd Hawes, Eugénie Sellers Strong, and Blanche E. Wheeler to undertake excavation projects. More typically, women such as German archaeologist Johanna Mestorf, who worked as a museum curator and academic; writers such as British Egyptologist Amelia Edwards and Persianist Gertrude Bell, and French Persianist Jean Dieulafoy, who traveled and wrote about excavations during their travels; and women like Tessa Wheeler, who assisted her husband by compiling reports and raising money, were the pioneers of women archaeologists.

At the turn of the twentieth century, British women such as Eugénie Sellers Strong, who taught at the Archaeological Institute of America and British School at Rome and Margaret Murray, who lectured at University College London, began to join the ranks of university staff. By the time of World War I, the majority of women working in the archaeology were employed in museums. Noted women archaeological curators or museum directors include Dane Maria Mogensen, Greek Semni Karouzou and Spaniards Concepción Blanco Mínguez and Ursicina Martínez Gallego To carve out their own niches, women typically focused on research close to where they lived or from their native cultures, or undertook studies researching household items typically ignored by men. For example, Marija Gimbutas focused on Eastern European topics even after relocating to the United States; Lanier Simmons, who wanted to study Maya culture, ended up researching closer to home because of family obligations; and Harriet Boyd focused on domestic objects and utensils. Greek Anna Apostolaki, Dane Margrethe Hald, Spaniard Felipa Niño Mas and Swede Agnes Geijer became experts on textiles; Dane Elisabeth Munksgaard focused on clothing, while Norwegian Charlotte Blindheim studied Viking costumes and jewelry. Pottery and art were also topics on which women focused.

Prior to the 1970s, even women like Gertrude Caton-Thompson, Hilda Petrie, and Elizabeth Riefstahl, pioneers in Egyptology who had made distinguished contributions to the field, were omitted from compilations of experts working in the field. If women were mentioned at all, their roles were trivialized. During the New Deal, the Works Progress Administration sponsored excavations at mound sites in Alabama, Georgia and North Carolina, which allowed women of color and working-class women to participate in archaeological work; however, class- and race-based definitions of femininity curtailed broad participation by white women, who tended to focus on participating in amateur organizations.

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