Breaking Ground: Pioneering Women Archaeologists

by Getzel M. Cohen (editor), Martha Sharp Joukowsky (Editor)

"At the close of the Victorian era, two generations of intrepid women abandoned Grand Tour travel for the rigors of archaeological expeditions, shining the light of scientific exploration on Old World antiquity. Breaking Ground highlights the remarkable careers of twelve pioneers-a compelling narrative of personal, social, intellectual, and historical achievement."
-Claire Lyons, The Getty Museum


"Behind these pioneering women lie a wide range of fascinating and inspiring life stories. Though each of their tales is unique, they were all formidable scholars whose important contributions changed the field of archaeology. Kudos to the authors for making their stories and accomplishments known to us all!"
-Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill


This book presents twelve fascinating women whose contributions to the development and progress of Old World archaeology---in an area ranging from Italy to Mesopotamia---have been immeasurable. Each essay in this collection examines the life of a pioneer archaeologist in the early days of the discipline, tracing her path from education in the classics to travel and exploration and eventual international recognition in the field of archaeology. The lives of these women may serve as models both for those interested in gender studies and the history of archaeology because in fact, they broke ground both as women and as archaeologists.

The interest inherent in these biographies will reach well beyond defined disciplines and subdisciplines, for the life of each of these exciting and accomplished individuals is an adventure story in itself

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, History, Archaeology

615 pages, Paperback

First published June 2, 2004

Reviews

[Tami · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book Breaking Ground: Pioneering Women Archaeologists contains the biographies of twelve female archaeologists who worked and achieved great success in the field of archaeology before, during or after World Wars I and II. Although this book examines only female archaeologists, these women were not just the top female archaeologists of their time. Instead, these people (who just happened to be female) were among the top, pioneering archaeologists (male or female) in their fields and their knowledge, research, excavations, and methods have added significantly to modern archaeology.

This book is multileveled. The contributing author's describe in various amounts of detail important contributions, excavations, and personal research undertaken by these archaeologists before, during, and after the war years. Since, much of this work is either unpublished or underpublished, such information is a fascinating slice of little known archaeological history.

Furthermore, this book also examines how women of the time felt and dealt with important life changing events and issues such as the tragedies of war, suffrage, marriage, and family. Many of these views and answers are entertaining, somewhat shocking, and extremely enlightening.

Moreover, this book also gives insight into the way archaeologists lived, worked, and died during the early years of this field. In these days, when many complain about the poor wages and working conditions of archaeology or the needless destruction of archaeological sites, it is interesting to note how far the field of archaeology has really come in the last one hundred years.

[Alma Fierro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book. Very interesting to learn about all these daring women that stopped at nothing to pursue their passion for Archaeology. Only criticism they could do out with all the citations posted at the end of each story. Book very enlightening about Greek history.