Woman in Science — Women in Archæology, Part 1

WOMEN IN ARCHAEOLOGY

Archaeology, in its broadest sense, is one of the most recent of the sciences, and may be said to be a creation of the nineteenth century.

In its restricted sense, however, it dates back to the beginning of the Italian Renaissance.

For it was at this period that the collector's zeal began to manifest itself, and that were brought together those priceless treasures of ancient art which are to-day the pride of the museums of Rome and Florence.

It was then that Pope Sixtus IV and Julius II, his nephew, laid the foundations of the great museums of the Capitol and the Vatican, and enriched them with such famous masterpieces as the Ariadne, the Nile, the Tiber, the Laocoon and the Apollo Belvidere.

Their example was quickly followed by such cardinals as Ippolito d'Este, Fernando de' Medici, and by representatives of the leading princely houses of the Italian peninsula.

In rapid succession the palaces of the Borghese, Chigi, Pamphili, Ludovisi, Barbarini and Aldobrandini became filled with the choicest Greek and Roman antiques.

In the course of time many of these treasures found their way to the museums of Venice, Madrid, Paris, Munich and Dresden, while still others were purchased by wealthy art connoisseurs in various parts of Europe and Great Britain.

In the beginning these antiques in marble and bronze were used chiefly for decorative purposes.

"Courts, stairs, fountains, galleries and palaces were adorned with statues, busts, reliefs and sarcophagi applied in such a manner as to become incorporated in contemporary art and thereby to gain fresh life."

[215] These treasures of antiquity, statues, bas-reliefs, mosaics, coins, medals, busts, sarcophagi, and productions of ceramic art, although at first used almost exclusively for decorating palaces and villas and enriching museums, were eventually to become of inestimable value in the study of the history of art and the civilization of Greece and Rome, as well as of the various nations of antiquity with which they had come into contact.

Besides this, they supplied the necessary raw material not only for classical archaeology, but also for that more comprehensive science of archaeology which deals with the art, the architecture, the language, the literature, the inscriptions, the manners, customs and development of our race from prehistoric times until the present day.

Among the women who took a prominent part in collecting material toward the advancement of archaeologic science were those illustrious ladies--as celebrated for their knowledge and culture as for their noble lineage and their patronage of men of letters--who presided over the brilliant courts of Urbino, Mantua, Milan and Ferrara.

Preeminent among these were Elizabetta Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino, and Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua.

The palace of the former--"that peerless lady who excelled all others in excellence"--was famous for its precious antiques in bronze and marble, but above all for its superb collection of rare old books and manuscripts in Greek, Latin and Hebrew.

Isabella d'Este, who was through life the most intimate friend of Elizabetta Gonzaga, was acclaimed by her contemporaries as "the first lady in the world."

She was a true daughter of the Renaissance, in the heart of which she was brought up; and "the small, passing incidents of her everyday life are to us memorials of the classic age when the gods of Parnassus walked with men."

[216] She was an even more enthusiastic collector than the Duchess of Urbino, and her magnificent palace in Mantua was filled with the choicest works of Greek and Roman art that were then procurable.

She has been described as one who secured everything to which she took a fancy.

She had but to hear of the discovery of a beautiful antique, a rare work in bronze or marble uncovered by the spade of the excavator, when she forthwith made an effort to procure it for her priceless collection.

If that was not possible, she would not rest until she could secure something else even more precious.

She aimed at supremacy in everything artistic and intellectual, and would be content with nothing short of perfection.

Hence it is that her collection of antiques, like those of her friend, the Duchess of Urbino, is rightly regarded as having been of singular value in preparing the way for the foundation of scientific archaeology--a foundation that was laid by the eminent German scholar, Winckelmann, in the eighteenth century by the publication of his masterly work--_History of the Art of Antiquity_.

The first woman of eminence to take an active part in archaeologic excavation was the youngest sister of Napoleon Bonaparte, "the beautiful, clever and ambitious Caroline."

When Joachim Murat became king of Naples, after his brother-in-law, Joseph Bonaparte, had in 1808 been transferred to the throne of Spain, his wife, Queen Caroline, gave at once a new impetus to the work of the excavation of Pompeii along the lines planned a few years before by the eminent Neapolitan scholar, Michele Arditi.

She exhibited the keenest interest in the work, and the notable discoveries which were made under her inspiring supervision of this important undertaking show how much classical archaeology owes to her intelligent and munificent patronage.

Queen Caroline proved her interest in the excavations that were to contribute so much to our knowledge of antiquity "by appearing frequently at Pompeii and stimulating the workmen to greater efforts.

She frequently spent entire days, during the great heat of summer, at the excavations, to encourage the lazy workmen and to reward them in the event of success.

The funds were increased so as to make the employment of six hundred men possible.

The Street of Tombs was next uncovered, forming a complete and solemn picture, greatly impressing the beholder even to-day.

For the first time a complete outline of an ancient marketplace and its surroundings could be obtained.

The market, closed and inaccessible to wheeled traffic, was surrounded by a colonnade filled with monuments, with the great temple in the background, and beyond the arcades were other temples or public buildings, among the principal being the stately Basilica.

Constant and increased efforts were thus crowned by important results.

The Queen did not withhold generous assistance.

The French architect, Fr.

Mazois, received from her fifteen hundred francs while preparing his monumental work at Pompeii."

[217] It is not too much to say that Queen Caroline's archaeological work at Pompeii was as far-reaching in its results as was that of her illustrious brother in the land of the Pharaohs.

It drew in the most impressive manner the attention of the world to the vast treasures of art which lay concealed under the earth-covered ruins of the once noted cities of the ancient world, and stimulated scholars and learned societies to undertake similar researches in Sicily, Greece, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and the almost forgotten islands of the Aegean Seas.

While this energetic sister of the great Napoleon was occupied in bringing to light those priceless treasures of art which had for seventeen centuries lain beneath the ashes of Vesuvius, a bright, refined, _spirituelle_ young girl, born in Dublin and bred in England, was unconsciously preparing herself for a brilliant career in the branch of archaeology known as Christian iconography.

Her name was Anna Murphy, better known to the world as Mrs. Jameson.

At an early age she gave evidence of unusual intelligence, and she had hardly attained to womanhood when she was noted for her knowledge of languages and for her remarkable attainments in art and literature.

Numerous journeys to France, Italy and Germany and a systematic study in the great museums and art galleries of these countries, but, above all, her association with the most distinguished scholars of Europe, completed her education and prepared her for those splendid works on Christian art which have made her name a household word throughout the world.

Mrs. Jameson was a prolific writer, but those of her works on which her fame chiefly rests are the ones which are classed under the general title, _Sacred and Legendary Art_.

They treat of God the Father and Son, of the Madonna and the Saints, as illustrated in art from the earliest ages to modern times.

So masterly and exhaustive was her treatment of the difficult subjects discussed in this _chef d'oeuvre_ of hers that no less an authority than the eminent German archaeologist, F. X.

Kraus, writes of this elaborate production as follows: "Neither before nor since has the subject matter of this work been handled with such skill and thoroughness.

The older iconographic works were mere dilettanteism.

For the first time since classical archaeology had applied the principles of modern criticism to Greek and Roman iconography, and had presented an example of scientific treatment free from such reproach, was a serious iconography of our early Christian monuments possible.

Mrs. Jameson was the first to attempt this on a large scale.

It was clear to her--and here lay the advance which her work reveals--that in order to accomplish her colossal task two things must be realized.

She must not build on a foundation of material that is imperfect or brought together in a haphazard way.

She must not only see and test everything available in the way of monuments, but she must likewise place the productions of literature and poetry beside those of the plastic arts.

It was clear to her, also, that, in this case, one would throw light on the other, and that the investigator who would lay claim to the name of archaeologist must, moreover, study the spirit of a people in all its monumental and literary manifestations.

"Mrs. Jameson strove to learn the mind and the mode of early Christian times from the works of the Fathers.

She saw in the hymns of the Middle Ages and in the writings of the mystics the sources of the art ideas which disclose themselves in the wall and glass paintings of our cathedrals and in the entrancing creation of a Fiesole.

She had also the special advantage of being thoroughly imbued with Dante's ideas of the plastic arts of the Middle Ages.

"And all this is evidenced in a form which exhibits neither dry dissertation nor wearisome nomenclature.

Each of her articles is a little essay.

It teaches us what place the Madonna, or St. Catherine, or some other saint has held in the memory and in the imagination of past centuries.

We behold the sainted forms flitting before our eyes in all the charm of poetic perfection which was given them by the childlike phantasy of the Middle Ages, and in all the power which they exercised over men's minds, and which, however we may view the religious side of the question, certainly had the effect of creating forms of infinite beauty and pictures of unspeakable reality."

[218] When we recollect that Mrs. Jameson achieved so much before the foundations of Christian archaeology had been fully laid; before de Rossi's monumental publications had supplied the means of interpreting early Christian sculpture; before critics and archaeologists were at one regarding the significance of early Christian and Middle Age symbolism, or agreed on the principles that were to guide to a correct understanding of the pictures of Roman and Gothic art, and while students were yet in ignorance as to the real influence of Byzantine art on that of western Europe, we cannot but wonder at the courage and the energy of this gifted woman in undertaking and in bringing to a happy issue a work which, even to-day, with all our increased facilities and greater array of facts, would be considered a herculean task.

As we read her admirable volumes on _Sacred and Legendary Art_ we can, as did a close friend of hers, see the enraptured author "kindle into enthusiasm amidst the gorgeous natural beauty, the antique memorials and the sacred Christian relics of Italy," and we are prepared to believe, with the same friend, that there was not "a cypress on the Roman hills, or a sunny vine overhanging the southern gardens, or a picture in those vast somber galleries of foreign palaces, or a catacomb spread out, vast and dark, under the martyr churches of the City of the Seven Hills, which was not associated with some vivid flashes of her intellect and imagination."

And we can also understand how "the strange, mystic symbolism of the early mosaics was a familiar language to her," and why she should experience special delight when she found herself "on the polished marble of the Lateran floor or under the gorgeously somber tribune of the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, reading off the quaint emblems or expounding the pious thoughts of more than a thousand years ago."

[219] It is gratifying to know that Queen Victoria recognized the surpassing merits of this noble woman by placing her on the civil list, and that our own Longfellow was able to say of her masterpiece, _Sacred and Legendary Art_, "It most amply supplies the cravings of the religious sentiment of the spiritual nature within."

A countrywoman of Mrs. Jameson and her contemporary, who also deserves an honorable place in the literature of archaeology, is Louise Twining.

Although inferior in intellectual attainments and literary activity to the accomplished author of _Sacred and Legendary Art_, her two works on _Types and Figures of the Bible Illustrated by Art_ and _Symbols and Emblems of Early Mediaeval Christian Art_ have given her a well-deserved reputation on the Continent as well as in the British Isles.

The latter volume Mrs. Jameson herself declares in her _Legends of the Madonna_ to be "certainly the most complete and useful book of the kind which I know of."

A third woman who has won fame for her sex in the island kingdom in the domain of archeology is Miss Margaret Stotes.

Her activities, however, have been chiefly confined to the antiquities of Ireland, on which she is a recognized authority.

The notable part she took in editing Lord Dunraven's great work, _Notes on Irish Architecture_, established her reputation on a firm basis.

Among her other important works are _Early Christian Art in Ireland_ and _Christian Inscriptions in the Irish Language_, chiefly collected and drawn by George Petrie, one of the annual volumes of the Royal Historical and Archaeological Association of Ireland.

This work has justly been described as an epoch-making contribution to Christian epigraphy and to our rapidly developing knowledge of Keltic language and literature.

The learned Dr. Krauss, than whom there is no more competent judge, in referring to this splendid performance, does not hesitate to affirm, "No man could have done better than this brave college girl, whom I would wish to greet across the Channel with a cordial _Macte virtute_."

The women archaeologists so far mentioned, with the exception of Queen Caroline Murat, were conspicuous as writers rather than active investigators in the field.

There have been, however, quite a number who have won distinction as "archaeologists of the spade"--women who, either alone or with their husbands, have superintended excavations in different lands, which have yielded results of untold scientific value.

Among the most conspicuous of these are Mme.

Sophia Schliemann, Mme.

Dieulafoy and the enterprising Yankee girl, Miss Harriet A. Boyd.

Of these the first named is the wife of the late Dr. Henry Schliemann, who immortalized himself by his famous excavations at Troy, Tiryns and Mycenae--enterprises which solved for us the great problem of nearly thirty centuries and demonstrated in the most startling manner "the truth of the foundations on which was framed the poetical conception that has for thousands of years called forth the enchanted delight of the educated world."

During his meteoric career as an archaeologist, Schliemann was able to realize the dreams of his youth, and succeeded in unveiling the mystery that had so long hung over Sacred Ilios, and to give the heroes of the Iliad a local habitation on the rediscovered Plain of Troy.

And his glorious achievements we must credit largely to that brave and devoted woman--his wife--who was ever at his side to share in his trials and labors and to raise his drooping spirits in hours of depression, or when hostile criticism treated him as a visionary in the pursuit of a chimera.

Mrs. Schliemann is a Greek lady who was born and bred under the shadow of the Acropolis and a worthy descendant of those proud Athenian women who wore the golden grasshopper in their hair as a sign that they were natives of the City of the Violet Crown.

She was not only dowered with intellectual gifts of a high order, but she was also her husband's most congenial companion and sympathetic friend in all his literary work, while she was his very right hand in those glorious enterprises at Hissarlik and Mycenae, which secured for both of them undying fame.

Dr. Schliemann was the first to attest the never-failing assistance which he received from this noble woman who, as he informs us, was "a warm admirer of Homer" and "with glad enthusiasm" joined her husband in executing the great work which he had conceived in his early boyhood.

Usually they worked together, but at times Mrs. Schliemann superintended a gang of laborers at one spot while the Doctor was occupied at another in the immediate vicinity.

Thus it was she who excavated the heroic tumulus of Batieia in the Troad--that Batieia who, according to Homer, was a queen of the Amazons and undertook a campaign against Troy.

[220] Mme.

Jane Dieulafoy is noted as the collaborator of her husband, Marcel Dieulafoy, in the important archaeological mission to Persia that was entrusted to him by the French government.

The results of this mission, in which Mme.

Dieulafoy had a conspicuous part, were published in Paris in 1884 in five octavo volumes.

It was during this expedition to the ancient empire of Cyrus and Artaxerxes that this indefatigable couple became interested in the ruins of Susa, the ancient capital of the Persian kings.

On their return to France they succeeded in securing money and supplies for conducting excavations among these ruins which, in the end, yielded results which were, in some respects, as important as those which rewarded the labors of the Schliemanns in Greece and Asia Minor.

So completely had Susa--the City of the Lilies--been buried and forgotten for nearly two thousand years that even its site was almost as much a matter of dispute as was that of ancient Troy.

And yet it was one of the greatest and richest cities of antiquity--the city of Esther and Daniel, the city of the mighty Assuerus who reigned from India even unto Ethiopia, over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces--the city where the great Alexander celebrated his nuptials with Statira, the daughter of Darius, with a magnificent festival at which, according to Plutarch, "there were no fewer than nine thousand guests, to each of which he gave a golden cup for the libations."

In December, 1884, the two brave and venturesome explorers were on their way to Susa with high hopes, but not without a full knowledge of the difficulties and dangers that they would have to confront among the fanatical nomads of Arabistan, where the very name of Christian inspires rage and horror.

It meant, as Mme.

Dieulafoy herself tells us, "to cross the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and the deserts of Elam three times in less than a year; to pass whole weeks without undressing; to sleep on the bare ground; to struggle nights and days against robbers and thieves; to cross rivers without a bridge; to suffer heat, rain, cold, mists, fever, fatigue, hunger, thirst, the stings of divers insects; to lead this hard and perilous existence without being guided by any interest other than the glory of one's country."

[221] In spite, however, of all the opposition which they encountered among the fanatical Mussulmans of Arabistan and of the dreadful sufferings incident to living in a desert where it was at times impossible to secure the necessaries of life, their mission was successful, and their account of their finds in the ancient capital of Elam was as thrilling in its way as anything reported of the excavations at Troy or Pompeii.

Their splendid collection of specimens of ancient Persian art and architecture, now on exhibition in the Museum of the Louvre, testifies to the successful issue of their expedition and to their indomitable energy in conducting researches under the most untoward conditions.

[222] So highly did the French government value the part Mme.

Dieulafoy had taken in this arduous enterprise that it conferred on her a distinction rarely awarded to a woman for scientific work--that of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.

As an archaeologist, the gifted and energetic American woman, Miss Harriet Boyd--now Mrs. C. H.

Hawes--has achieved an international reputation for her remarkable excavations in the island of Crete.

She is a frequent contributor to archaeological journals; but it is upon her splendid work in the field that her fame will ultimately rest.

Her first work of importance was undertaken as Fellow of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens.

This was in 1900, and the field of her investigations was the Isthmus of Hierapetra in Crete.

Here she excavated numerous tombs and houses of the early Geometric Period, _circa_ 900 B. C.

, and paved the way for those brilliant discoveries which rewarded her labors during the following three years.

The investigations conducted during these three years under Miss Boyd's directions yielded results of transcendent value.

Assisted by three young American women--the Misses B. E.

Wheeler, Blanche E. Williams, and Edith H. Hall--she superintended the work of more than a hundred native employees whom she had on her payroll.

By good fortune in the choice of a site for excavation and by well-directed efforts she was soon able to unearth one of the oldest of Cretan cities and to expose to view the ruins of what was probably one of the ninety cities which Homer tells us in his Odyssey graced the land of Crete--"a fair land and a rich, in the midst of a wine-dark sea."

So remarkable were the finds in this long-buried Minoan town and so well preserved are its general features that it has justly been called the Cretan Pompeii.

It antedates by long centuries the oldest cities of Greece and was a flourishing center of commerce ages before the heroes of the Iliad battled on the plains of Troy.

It is not too much to say that the extraordinary discoveries made by this enterprising Yankee girl at Gournia, no less than those made by British and Italian archaeologists at Knossos and Phaestos, have completely revolutionized our ideas respecting the state of culture of the inhabitants of Crete during the second and third millenia before the Christian era.

They have thrown a flood of light on the origins of Mediterranean culture, and have, at the same time, supplied material for a study of European civilization that was before entirely wanting.

An enduring monument to Miss Boyd's ability as an archaeologist is her notable volume containing an account of her excavations at Gournia, Vasilike and other prehistoric sites on the Isthmus of Hierapetra.

It will bear comparison with any similar productions by the Schliemanns or the Dieulafoys.

A later work on _Crete, the Forerunner of Greece_, which she wrote in collaboration with her husband, Mr. C. H.

Hawes, is also a production of recognized merit.

As a study on the origin of Greek civilization it opens up many new vistas in pre-history and illumines many questions that were before involved in mystery.