Pencil and dust

The history of archaeology – particularly Classical archaeology – has long been written as a men’s story, obscuring the crucial role played by women. Focusing on Greece and the wider Greek world, Pencil and dust restores women’s place in historiography by highlighting their contributions to excavations, the study of finds, and the development of methods and theory.
The professionalisation of archaeology in the late nineteenth century brought about the marginalisation of women, who were relegated to the role of skilled but invisibilised – and unpaid – assistants. Yet pencil in hand, they recorded, drew, corrected, and refined archaeological knowledge. As their access to education expanded, women gradually claimed new spaces, from storerooms and museums to the field itself. Hands in the dust, these pioneers challenged gender norms while facing resistance and institutional barriers.
Through biographical and thematic case studies, this volume brings their fragile, often erased legacy back into view and contributes to a more inclusive history of archaeology.

Sylviane Déderix, a former Belgian member of the École française d’Athènes, holds a PhD in History, Art and Archaeology from UCLouvain and is currently based at the University of Warsaw. She directs the prehistoric team of the Thorikos Archaeological Research Project (EBSA) and oversees the study of legacy data from the Bronze Age necropolises of Malia (EFA).
Maguelone Bastide holds a PhD in History and Archaeology of the Ancient Worlds (Université Paris Nanterre). A former member of the École française d’Athènes, she is currently an associate member of the team Archaeology of the Greek Worlds (UMR 7041 ArScAn). She directs the study of Early Iron Age ceramics in Thasos and contributes to research projects in Bulgaria.

Longtemps, l’histoire de l’archéologie – en particulier de l’archéologie classique – s’est écrite au masculin, reléguant dans l’ombre le rôle essentiel des femmes. Centré sur la Grèce et le monde grec ancien, Pencil and dust restitue leur place dans l’historiographie en mettant en lumière leurs contributions aux fouilles, à l’étude des vestiges et à l’élaboration des méthodes et des cadres théoriques de la discipline.
La professionnalisation de l’archéologie à la fin du xixe siècle a renforcé la marginalisation des femmes, les cantonnant à des fonctions d’assistantes qualifiées mais invisibilisées – et souvent non rémunérées. Crayon à la main, elles ont pourtant participé activement à la production du savoir. Peu à peu, elles ont investi les réserves, les musées, puis le terrain. Les mains dans la poussière, ces pionnières ont défié les normes de genre en affrontant la résistance et les obstacles institutionnels.
À travers des études de cas biographiques et thématiques, cet ouvrage redonne visibilité à ces trajectoires longtemps effacées et contribue à une histoire plus inclusive de l’archéologie.

Foreword

Preface

Dossier 1 – Unsung Pioneer Women in the Archaeology of Greece

Introduction: Towards an archaeology of women pioneers in Greece and the Greek world, par Sylviane Déderix

et Maguelone Bastide

Elusive pioneer figures: Louise Burnouf-de Rouvre, early archaeological drawing, and the meaning of “contributions to archaeology”, par Dimitra Douskos

Alice Leslie Walker Kosmopoulos: A pioneer against all odds, par Jeffrey Banks

Eirene Varoucha-Christodoulopoulou: The life’s journey of the first Greek woman numismatist, par Despoina Evgenidou

Becoming visible at work: Semni Papaspyridi-Karouzou at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens (1921–1939), par Sofia Fragoulopoulou

Hazel D. Hansen: A forgotten American prehistorian, par Natalia Vogeikoff-Brogan

et Leda Costaki

Marthe Oulié and the 1923–1925 excavations of the École française d’Athènes at Malia, par Sylviane Déderix

Lucy Talcott (1899–1970): The great “despina” of the Agora excavations, par Aspasia Efstathiou

“Manca completamente il senso della disciplina”: Maria Luigia Marella, an independent archaeologist in Fascist Dodecanese, par Isabella Bossolino

Anna M. Farnsworth (1895–1991): A pioneer in archaeological science and materials analysis, par Eleni Nodarou

et Eleftheria Daleziou

The first post-World War II generation of female archaeologists at the University of Warsaw: Ludwika Press and the gendered and non-gendered challenges to becoming an Aegeanist within the confines of Marxist ideology and the Iron Curtain, par Agata Ulanowska

et Kazimierz Lewartowski

Elsa Segerdahl at the Labraunda excavations from 1948 to 1951: A doctor for archaeologists and local people, par Görkem Çimen

“C’è dunque in essa tutta la stoffa dell’archeologo…”: Elisa Lissi Caronna, from Turin to Southern Italy… via Athens, par Valeria Meirano

In the “Far West” of the Greek countryside: Spyridoula Konstantinou Alexandropoulou, Special Curator of Antiquities of Aetoloakarnania, par Olga Vassi

Angeliki Pilali-Papasteriou (1945–2007): A pioneer prehistorian at the University of Thessaloniki, par Mariánna Nikolaïdou

et Dimitra Kokkinidou

From the museum to the trench and beyond: Greek women in archaeology since the 1950s, par Dimitra Kokkinidou et Mariánna Nikolaïdou

Dossier 2 – Women and Archaeological Institutions

Introduction: Women and the institutions of archaeology in the Greek world. A history in the making, par Maguelone Bastide

et Sylviane Déderix

Veronika before “Archaeology”: A long voyage towards Greece, par Christina Mitsopoulou

Veronika Mitsopoulos-Leon: The first female director of a foreign archaeological school in Greece, par Birgitta Eder

Women’s universities (Newnham and Girton College): A genuine springboard for future women archaeologists?, par Manon Dupuy

Standing up to the men: The women of the BSA before World War I, par Rebecca J. Sweetman

Christina Mackenzie, Dorothy Lamb and the Managing Committee of the British School at Athens: Financial constraints at the turn of the 19th century, par Rachel Emma Phillips

Caroline Amy Hutton: Greek archaeology in British institutions, par Rosario Rovira Guardiola

Admitting female members at the École française d’Athènes (1846–1969), par Maguelone Bastide

et Marie Stahl

Women archaeologists in Greek universities, par Dimitra Kokkinidou

Violette Verhoogen (1898–2001): A life at the museum, par Natacha Massar

Evangelia Protonotariou-Deilaki, unknown aspects through the archives, par Archontoula Papoulakou

Aimilia Bakourou, a Byzantine archaeologist in the southern and eastern Peloponnese, par Despoina Evgenidou

, Pari Kalamara

, Evangelia Pantou, Danai Charalampous et Constantina Douvi

Women and maritime archaeology in Greece: An overview, par Dimitra Voutyrea

Celebrating the women of the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens, par Tamar Hodos

et Stavros Paspalas

Dossier 3 – The Great Women Behind the Great Men

Introduction: From footnotes to history. The great women behind the great men of archaeology, par Sylviane Déderix

et Maguelone Bastide

Maria Ludwika Bernhard: Marianne of Polish Classical archaeology, par Ewdoksia Papuci-Władyka

Maria Ludwika Bernhard: A developing, yet challenging episode in her academic life in Warsaw, par Hubert Kowalski

et Monika Dunajko-Ceglińska

Caught between Penelope and Helen: Sophia’s role in a (Schlie)mann’s world, par Anthi Balitsari

Sisters, daughter(s) and nieces: The many supportive women behind the great Wilhelm Dörpfeld, par Katharina Brandt

A muse in the field: Sophie Millet from Mistra to art history, par Ioanna Rapti

Byzantine couples and Byzantine wives: Euthalia Lampaki and Maria Soteriou, par Polymnia Synodinou

“The right wife for an archaeologist”: Hilda White Pendlebury (1891–1970), par Samantha Ximeri

Anne-Marie Bon (1907–1997): A Thasian numismatist who pioneered amphora stamps studies, par Maguelone Bastide

et Caroline Carrier

Between recognition and indifference: Jeanne Robert, a woman in the shadow of a legend in Greek epigraphy , par Olga Boubounelle

et Matilde Garré

Drawing the past: Krystyna Michałowska’s work and legacy, par Katarzyna Dudlik et Natalia Skrzypek

Trained as archaeologists, remembered as wives? Legitimacy and gendered careers among women graduates in Classical archaeology at the École du Louvre in the early 20th century, par Raphaëlle Rannou

Pencil and dust

Women who shaped archaeology in Greece and the Greek world

Dans la même collection

Des mêmes auteurs