UNSUNG PIONEER WOMEN IN THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF GREECE ABSTRACTS JEFFREY BANKS (UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI & AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CLASSICAL STUDIES AT ATHENS) – ALICE LESLIE WALKER KOSMOPOULOS: A PIONEER AGAINST ALL ODDS This presentation illuminates the archaeologist Alice Leslie Walker Kosmopoulos and her considerable, underacknowledged, contributions to the 20th century archaeology of Greece. Kosmopoulos navigated obstacles throughout her career, many of which male colleagues under similar circumstances were not subjected. She was overshadowed by male colleagues, her contributions to studies and articles often were not (and are not) recognised. She was discriminated against, mocked, or bullied for her disability of hearing loss, her weight, and for negative social perceptions about her marriage to a ‘local’ Greek. Eventually, her position was terminated as male superiors attempted to bring her under their control or else drive her from the field: “Mrs. Kosmopoulos was subjected to arbitrary measures on the part of the responsible administration of the American School, which…deprived her in some measure of her rights to the first fruits of her own studies and her own discoveries resulting from excavations that she herself conducted at her own considerable expense” (Blegen C.W., 1950. Review of Kosmopoulos 1948, in The Classical Weekly 44.3, p. 40). Against such obstacles, it is remarkable how much Kosmopoulos achieved as a pioneer in the field; and all the more remarkable that she remains relatively unknown. Born Alice Leslie Walker (1885), she completed AB (1906) and AM (1908) degrees at Vassar College. She earned the archaeology fellowship (1909) at ASCSA and remained a student there through 1914. She was assigned the publication of the pottery from the Corinth Excavations (1910), a task then so monumental that multiple scholars, including the director who reassigned it to her, had deemed the task hopeless. As part of the study, she conducted independent excavations at Corinth (1911-1935). Her work was pioneering, especially for the Neolithic period as she discovered and defined the first Early Neolithic material in Greece and first demonstrated connections between northern and southern Greek Neolithic material cultures. Some of the terminology she coined is still in use. Parallel to her work at Corinth, Kosmopoulos earned a PhD at Berkeley (1917). Her dissertation on The Pottery of the Necropolis of Locrian Halae (1916, unpublished) was based on excavations she co-directed with Hetty Goldman (1911-1914). These were the first excavations directed exclusively by female archaeologists on Mainland Greece. The differential treatment afforded to Goldman, who remains well-regarded, is illustrative. Unlike Kosmopoulos, Goldman was not residing and working in Greece almost continuously for three decades. When Kosmopoulos noticed the appropriation or lack of acknowledgement of her work, she pushed back, fiercely, and was able, in some cases, to force rectification. Kosmopoulos’ continuous presence and strong will resulted in her male superiors labelling her a “nuisance” and eventually celebrating the “considerable effort in removing [such] nuisances from the [American] School” (ASCSA Archives, Administrative Records). In this presentation, I discuss Kosmopoulos’ formative work, crucial for understanding aspects of Aegean prehistory, and her place in the historiography of female contributions to the archaeology of Greece. Alice Leslie Walker Kosmopoulos not only walked with male archaeologists whom we now consider giants in the field but was herself a giant on whose shoulders we now stand. She deserves to be recognised as such. ISABELLA BOSSOLINO (UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI PAVIA) – “MANCA COMPLETAMENTE IL SENSO DELLA DISCIPLINA”: MARIA LUIGIA MARELLA, AN INDEPENDENT ARCHAEOLOGIST IN FASCIST DODECANESE The history of archaeology is studded with outstanding personalities: scholars and adventurers who discovered the greatest and most fascinating civilisations of the ancient world. But when archaeology meets the epochal events of history, it is not only in the academia that some archaeologists prove their extraordinary qualities. The aim of this paper is thus to present the meaningful, though unfortunately unrecognised story of Maria Luigia Marella, an Italian archaeologist who found herself to face the most important and tragic times of contemporary history. Through the letters kept in the SAIA archives in Athens, this paper will first outline Maria Luigia Marella’s figure as a young archaeology student in 1934 Greece: her temperament, already strong and independent, collided several times with that, disciplined and almost martial, of then director Alessandro Della Seta – a committed fascist, who was later tragically removed from the ministry because he was Jew. With the help of Maria Luigia Marella’s son, who shared his mother’s story with me, this paper will then recount her actions against the fascist regime and its unjust measures: above all, the racial laws of 1938. From fraternising with her Jew pupils and then resigning when teaching in Rhodes to passing antifascist periodicals along back in Italy, Maria Luigia Marella’s biography is quintessential of the lives of women and men who took position against the fascism, driven by the feelings of humanity and solidarity that should always accompany the minds of those who love and preserve culture. GÖRKEM CIMEN (FREELANCE ARCHAEOLOGIST) – ELSA SEGERDAHL AT THE LABRAUNDA EXCAVATIONS FROM 1948 TO 1951 More than 50 local workers participated in the excavations at Labraunda from 1948 to 1960. For such an extensive team working under challenging conditions in the mountains far from the villages, some medical support was essential in case any health problems arose during the fieldwork. Elsa Segerdahl-Persson (1894-1975) was a Swedish chief physician. During World War II, she went to Tripolis with her archaeologist husband, to participate in the humanitarian aid operations in Greece provided by the Swedish Red Cross when famine broke out in the country. A few years later, she went to southwestern Turkey and contributed to the excavations at the sanctuary of Labraunda during four field seasons from 1948 to 1951. She did not excavate herself, but offered her services as a doctor from her medical tent at the archaeological site. At the same time, she actively followed the fieldwork as several buildings from the Hecatomnid period and numerous Greek inscriptions were being uncovered one after another. She was married to the director of the excavations, Professor Axel W. Persson (1888-1951) who had begun the Swedish excavations at Labraunda in 1948. Elsa Segerdahl’s social status at Labraunda was however not only attributed to her husband. The interviews that I have conducted with local people who were at Labraunda during the early excavations show that she played a significant role, practicing as a doctor in the late 1940s and early 1950s. She was not overshadowed by her husband, although he was a great name in classical archaeology of Greece and Turkey. Living memories from the Labraunda excavations indicate that Elsa Segerdahl was and still is primarily associated with her role as a doctor and remembered for her passion for helping the workers and locals who lived their daily lives in small villages under challenging conditions. In this talk, my focus is on how Elsa Segerdahl was perceived and appreciated by the locals who worked at the excavations of Labraunda and lived in the neighbouring areas. As a doctor and woman, she has a remarkable place in local memories and she deserves wider recognition. MASSIMO CULTRARO (NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL (CNR) & UNIVERSITY OF PALERMO) – A LOOK AT AEGEAN PREHISTORY FROM ITALY: PIA LAVIOSA ZAMBOTTI, A PIONEER WOMAN IN EXPLORING NETWORKS IN MEDITERRANEAN ARCHAEOLOGY Pia Laviosa Zambotti (1898-1965) gave a significative and fresh impulse to the progress of the Prehistoric studies in Italy during the early to mid-20th century. After a long period of cooperation with different Archaeological Superintendencies of North Italy, in 1938 she was appointed lecturer in Prehistory in the University of Milan, where she worked until her tragic death in 1965. Pia Laviosa played an important role in the reassessment of the Eneolithic and Bronze Age in Mainland Italy, in terms of cultural processes and chronological framework. Her studies carried out at the University of Vienna, Austria, contributed to introducing a new perspective in the field of the Italian Prehistory, focusing on the relationships between the Aegean World and the Central Mediterranean since the Neolithic period. Preceding the more systematic studies by V. Goldon Childe, P. Laviosa Zambotti was the first scholar to investigate the Neolithic in Greece according to a new model of diffusionism. Accepting Childe’s proposal on the beginning of this process in the Middle East, Laviosa Zambotti, however, introduced the route from the Balkans and the Carpathian Basin to explain the degree of change to communities adopting agricultural practices. She argued that the ‘Neolithic Revolution’originated in the Fertil Crescent, before spreading in different areas of Mediterranean. In the case of Mainland Greece, Laviosa Zambotti supposed a direct origin of Neolithic stream through North Macedonia and Thrace, where she identified close affinities in terms of pottery assemblage and technologies. The book Le più antiche culture agricole europee. L’Italia, I Balcani e l’Europa centrale durante il neo-eneolitico (Milan 1943) is the summa of the methodological perspective and archaeological investigation by Laviosa, although it was published during World War II and recognized only years later. In this book, she considered the impact of a network perspective on the long-range connectivity in the Mediterranean and European Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, focusing on the complexities of cultural and social interactions involved. She demonstrated extensive knowledge of the main bibliography on the Neolithic archaeology in Greece. After World War II, Laviosa travelled in different places in Greece and the Archive in Trento, still unpublished, stores travel diaries containing many descriptions of archaeological sites and museums, as well as a precious photographic documentation. The epistolary archive stored in Trento also testifies to her personal correspondence with many scholars working in the prehistoric Aegean. Pia Laviosa Zambotti played a relevant role in the knowledge of the Aegean later Prehistory in the academic context of Italy during the period between the two World Wars. Her innovative and interdisciplinary research programme in the study of Prehistory opened the path for the anthropology and history of religion and for the history of technologies. She perceived the Neolithic period as the first cultural phenomenon to build the roots of a new human history, where Mainland Europe and Mediterranean both formed an integral part of the same way to a New World. SYLVIANE DÉDERIX (ÉCOLE FRANÇAISE D’ATHÈNES) – MARTHE OULIÉ AND THE 1923-1925 EXCAVATIONS OF THE ÉCOLE FRANÇAISE D’ATHÈNES AT MALIA Marthe Oulié (1901-1941) joined the excavations of the École française d’Athènes (EFA) in the palace of Malia, for a couple of weeks in September and October 1923. After the campaign she travelled back to Athens, where she met Hermine de Saussure, her former classmate. Together, they spent a year sailing on their own across the Aegean Sea and fulfilling their dream of visiting Greece. They interrupted their sailing trip between late July and early September 1924, to participate in the campaign of EFA at Malia and to excavate in Quartier Gamma. Marthe Oulié travelled once more to Malia in 1925, together with Hermine de Saussure and two of their female friends with whom they had sailed all the way from Marseille to Piraeus. They continued excavating in Quartier Gamma and opened trial trenches on the islet of Afendis Christos, where they discovered Middle Minoan pithos burials. To this day Marthe Oulié remains generally regarded as an amateur (if not an illegitimate intruder) in the early history of excavations at Malia. Yet, by the time she joined the project, she had already graduated, she was continuing her studies at Sorbonne University and at the École du Louvre, and she was preparing a thesis on animal iconography in pre-Hellenic Crete. She was also enthusiastic, daring, devoted and meticulous in her archaeological work. But in spite of her qualifications and qualities, she suffered from ‘major flaws’: she was a young woman and she was not affiliated with EFA – which did not recruit its first French female member until 1956. The archives of EFA give a glimpse into the condescension and misogyny faced by Marthe Oulié. In their correspondence, the director of EFA and the excavators of Malia did not refer to Marthe Oulié by name; instead, they used patronising terms such as “jeune fille” (i.e. “young lady”) or even “petite fille” (i.e. “little girl”). Furthermore, she was given the task of investigating Quartier Gamma, an area which they (wrongly) considered as unimportant, and the director was reluctant to contribute funding for her excavation. For unknown reasons, Marthe Oulié did not return to Malia afterwards and she did not publish the results of her 1924 and 1925 excavations – even though she had expressed her intention to do so. Nevertheless, her clear fieldnotes enabled others to publish Quartier Gamma and the islet of Afendis Christos, while she continued to travel the world. She died aged 39, having lived a short but full life and leaving us wondering what she could have achieved as an archaeologist if she had benefited from the consideration that she deserved. DIMITRA DOUSKOS (CENTRE D’ÉTUDES TURQUES, OTTOMANES, BALKANIQUES ET CENTREASIATIQUES, EHESS/CNRS) – THE PROBLEM OF ELUSIVE FIGURES: LOUISE BURNOUF AND CONTRIBUTIONS TO ARCHAEOLOGY Trying to elicit Louise Burnouf’s contribution to Greek archaeology is a challenge that most reasonable students would avoid: we hardly know anything about her except for the fact that she was the daughter of Émile Burnouf (1821-1907), once upon a time director of the École française d’Athènes and professor at Nancy, mostly a hellenist and a sanscritist. Her presence at his side is documented beyond doubt only twice. First during Schliemann’s first digs at Mycenae, where she was meant to be present (without any certainty that she did indeed get there more than once) and where she drew and painted several mobile finds in February 1874 – later exhibited in Athens, at the École’s museum. And then in 1923, as the person who, under the name Louise Thérèse de Rouvre, handed her father’s manuscripts and correspondence to the Université de Nancy for them to be archived. Not even her date of birth or death are known, not to mention anything more than the fact that her drawing skills were strongly desirable by her father, Rudolph Virchow (1821-1902) or Heinrich Schliemann (1822-1890) who worked together during our period of interest. To understand her contribution, if this word is adapted at all, one has to put up a specific methodology, to ‘difference the canon’ as Griselda Pollock famously put it. In this presentation, we will need to focus or, rather, defocus from close biographical or but-scientific historiographies, in order to discern and extract her presence, first from what her father and his colleagues said of her – in their private correspondence of course, as there was no chance for her to ever be acknowledged in public, not to mention speak. They were the ones in charge of scientific discourse, and some of them notorious for their arrogance even towards male colleagues. And then to study her drawings of the first Mycenaean artefacts to come to light, in order to compare them to both other archaeological drawing at the time and to distinguish them from those of her father whose ‘trait’ commentors claim they can tell. And lastly to carry out as much of archive research as possible, some policing indeed, in erstwhile publications to localise possible publications of her work in her father’s and his colleagues’ works as well as in larger private correspondence. The figure of Louise Burnouf-de Rouvre will most probably remain elusive in the light of the historiographical canon, but circumscribing the contour of the knowable will maybe help us reinterrogate the very notion of contribution to science. ASPASIA EFSTATHIOU (AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CLASSICAL STUDIES AT ATHENS) – LUCY TALCOTT (1899-1970): THE GREAT DESPINA OF THE AGORA EXCAVATIONS No woman has ever served as the director of the Agora Excavations of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens. However, it is one of the few excavations that has presented overtime a gender balance with a roughly equal number of men and women in its archaeological workforce. In addition, the Agora has always been famous for its ‘despinocratic status’ (ruled by despinae/maiden ladies) because many highly qualified women have taken the lead on a series of activities proved to be vital for the purpose and the continuation of the excavations. We know with absolute certainty that Lucy Talcott was one of them. Miss Talcott, a despina of noble descent, and member of one of the most socially prominent families of Connecticut, graduated from Redcliff College, and from Columbia University where she was awarded a MA in archaeology under the guidance of W.B. Dinsmoor. Her association with the Agora as the secretary of the excavations is widely known. In addition, her scholarly writings have always been considered as the bible of Classical pottery for archaeologists, remaining generally unquestioned even after 50-70 years after their initial publication. On the other hand, the herculean tasks she undertook such as the keeping of the records of thousands of objects, their accessibility to the scholars, and the removal of the collections from the Old Excavation Lucy Talcott invented and developed a recording system (the card catalogue system) for all the finds of the excavations with emphasis on contextual and storage information, cross-references in notebooks, images, drawings, and bibliographical notes. It was the epitome of cataloguing and cross-referencing systems for organising and retrieving data, the envy of other expeditions, a manual dataset of its time, perfect for digitisation and computers once they were invented. Nowadays, Talcott’s model system is the cornerstone of the new digital era of the Agora, still being expanded and remarkably efficient for the staff members who are heavily dependent on the old and new legacy data. Lucy Talcott was a true team player, a modest and generous person who was always willing to assist others. She looked beyond the objects and the records, and focused on the individual, either the visiting scholars for the accessibility to the material or the archaeologists from different excavations sites who wanted to consult with her about unidentified pottery pieces. Untold stories of friendship and work from archaeologists who met her in person, and her unknown correspondence from the Archives of the Agora Excavations are witnesses of her amazing personality and her excellent professionalism, the definition of the romantic archaeologist, truly dedicated to her science and her colleagues. DESPOINA EVGENIDOU (EMERITUS DIRECTOR OF THE NUMISMATIC MUSEUM OF ATHENS) EIRINI VAROUCHA-CHRISTODOULOPOULOU: PAROS-CAIRO-ATHENS-BERLIN-ATHENS, THE LIFE'S JOURNEY OF THE FIRST GREEK WOMAN NUMISMATIST Eirene Varoucha-Christodoulopoulou, one of the first female archaeologists, worked at the Archaeological Service since 1921 and served as curator and director of the Numismatic Museum. She studied at the School of Philosophy of the University of Athens, flirted with the idea of becoming an actress, but in the end, she pursued a career in archaeology. After her appointment at the Numismatic Museum, she undertook postgraduate studies in Berlin, following the example of the majority of Greek archaeologists of the time – a tendency that affected the orientation of the Greek Archaeological Service in the early years of its setup. She actively participated in the Athenian social life and was involved with circles of the Generation of the ‘30s. Her career was influenced by society’s gendered perceptions of the time, particularly in the early years of the diffusion of National Socialism. During World War II, she managed to protect the coins by moving the Collection from the Academy of Athens, where the Museum was housed, to the vaults of the Bank of Greece. After the war, she transferred the Numismatic Museum to the premises of the National Archaeological Museum, where it remained until 2003, and completed the redisplay of the Collection in its new building. She kept up with the development of numismatics, maintained contact with internationally acclaimed academic institutions, collaborated with and supported the Archaeological Ephorates in matters pertaining to the field of numismatics. ELIZABETH FOLEY (BRITISH SCHOOL AT ATHENS) – VRONWY HANKEY IN AND BEYOND GREECE Vronwy Hankey (née Fisher) (1916-1998) pioneered the importance of Aegean interconnections beyond the traditional paradigm through her innovative and evidence lead approach to ceramic studies combined with depth of experience of Near Eastern and Aegean archaeology. In spite of her vast archaeological and research experience she remains relatively unsung beyond the fields of her expertise. Following her first-class honours degree at Cambridge she came as a student to the British School at Athens in 1938 and thus began her long career of excavation involving Crete, Euboea and Mycenae while working with Richard Hutchinson, Alan Wace, and Helen Waterhouse. Her career in Greek archaeology was impacted by her marriage to a diplomat, Henry Hankey while she accompanied him to the different oversees postings of his career. In spite of this busy life she continued to publish and conduct research, before returning again to excavate on Crete in 1970. I will explore the life of this pioneering woman through her own words, that is to say the letters, notebooks, drawings, proofs and transcripts of lectures held in the Vronwy Hankey archive at the BSA. These personal and professional documents will greater inform the appreciation of her contributions to the study of prehistoric archaeology in Greece and the Near East as well as highlight her ability to conduct research and make and maintain networks regardless of her own geographical position; how with realities of marriage to an oversees diplomat of that time, she became a pioneer in the archaeology of Aegean contacts beyond the region and enhanced her area of expertise to include the Near East. These documents and the academic career of Vronwy Hankey also provides insight as to how women became pioneers in a field in which they did not have paid academic positions. SOFIA FRAGOULOPOULOU (HELLENIC MINISTRY OF CULTURE AND SPORTS/DIRECTORATE FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVE OF MONUMENTS/HISTORICAL ARCHIVE OF ANTIQUITIES AND RESTORATIONS) – BECOMING VISIBLE AT WORK: SEMNI PAPASPYRIDI-KAROUZOU AT THE NATIONAL ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF ATHENS Semni Papaspyridi-Karouzou (1899-1994) was the first female archaeologist to serve the Hellenic Archaeological Service. She was appointed as curator of antiquities at the National Archaeological Museum at Athens in 1921. During the early years of her career as state employee she worked in Crete, in Thessaly and in Argolis, before returning to the National Archaeological Museum as the Ephor of Antiquities, being responsible for the collection of Vases and Small Crafts. Through unpublished archival material kept at the Historical Archive of Antiquities and Restorations (Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports), this paper aims at shedding light on those early years of her career until the World War II. In particular, it elaborates on the approach followed by the ‘wise men’ of the Archaeological Council during its meetings, concerning the most suitable work space for women archaeologists. I argue that the entrance of women archaeologists at the Hellenic Archaeological Service established the already existed dichotomy – i.e. man-excavation, woman-museum work – and I claim that Karouzou took advantage of that condition in order to achieve her aim, which was to become visible in a hitherto male-dominated profession. VALERIA MEIRANO (UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI TORINO) – “C’È DUNQUE, IN ESSA, TUTTA LA STOFFA DELL’ARCHEOLOGO…”: ELISA LISSI CARONNA, FROM TURIN TO SOUTHERN ITALY… VIA ATHENS The role of women in Italian archaeology in the 20th century has been the object of recent speculation and several studies. An exhibition in Rome has further illumined the role some of them played in protecting archaeological sites and collections during the World War II. Reading the biographies of the numerous women who directed Museums, held chairs at universities or important roles in the archaeological Soprintendenze, it is noted that many completed their education at the Italian Archaeological School at Athens. A stay in Greece offered them an extraordinary opportunity to broaden their knowledge and to start their scientific career. But, usually, it also represented two extraordinary ‘first times’: the first time in their life they travelled abroad alone, and the first time they visited that fabulous country – the dreamland studied in books, which nurtured their imagination of young archaeologists. Between 1909 and 1960, the alumnae corresponded only to one third of the members attending the School. Elisa Lissi was admitted together with other two women colleagues in 1959 and during her stay she prepared a dissertation on the Roman monuments of Athens. Born in Turin, she graduated in Ancient Greek Literature and, before moving to Greece, she joined the Archaeological School of Rome. During that period, she took part in several missions at Locri Epizephyrii in southern Italy, under the direction of professor Gaspare Oliverio, and served as trench supervisor since 1952. After the sudden death of Oliverio during the archaeological campaign of 1956, she took over the direction of the site, which was one of the most important and challenging excavations of Magna Graecia. At Locri she contributed to the exploration of the Centocamere – one of the first residential and artisanal areas brought to light in a Greek colony in southern Italy – and, in particular, of the ‘U-shaped’ stoa – a unique building and ritual complex. Aged less than thirty, coming from the northern and industrialised city of Turin and having experienced life in the capital, in Calabria she had to cope with all the difficulties that the direction of such an important mission implied, facing a milieu which was distant from hers. The pioneering adventures of this young and determined woman aroused the interest of journalists at that time (see for example the quotation in the title), but her scientific visibility has not been proportional. Among the aspects that should be emphasised are her ability as field director – at Locri and on other south Italian sites – as well as her interest in excavation techniques and documentation, her attention to the gathering and recording of finds, and her interest in interdisciplinary studies. This paper is a tribute to Elisa Lissi, from her Locrian and Athenian years, to her later roles of funzionaria of the Italian Ministry of Culture and Accademica dei Lincei, with particular regard to the modern, innovative approaches she pursued. MARIANNA NIKOLAIDOU (COTSEN INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AT UCLA) & DIMITRA KOKKINIDOU (HELLENIC OPEN UNIVERSITY) – ANGELIKI PILALI-PAPASTERIOU (19452007): A PIONEER PREHISTORIAN AT THE ARISTOTLE UNIVERSITY OF THESSALONIKI The handful of pioneer women who joined the Greek Archaeological Service before World War II specialised in the ancient and Byzantine periods, and in museum work. Their post-war successors, on the other hand, became active in every past period and in different areas of expertise. These dynamic, committed individuals paved the way for redressing the sex imbalance in the discipline, eventually turning it into a largely female endeavour. Noteworthy is their contribution, for the first time, to the realm of prehistory. In northern Greece, specifically, prehistoric research was gathering momentum in the 1960s and 1970s, after the region had long remained largely unexplored. Local Service professionals, including Aikaterini Romiopoulou and Chaido Koukouli-Chryssanthaki, along with British Cressida Ridley, were among the pioneer prehistorians of that era. By contrast, female representation in academic archaeology – as, indeed, across the academy – remained longer an exception to the male rule, and was mainly confined to the lower ranks. Angeliki (Kiki) Pilali-Papasteriou (1945-2007) was among the first women to enter Greek academic archaeology: initially appointed as assistant to Nikolaos Platon at the University of Thessaloniki in 1970, she rose through the ranks at the same institution and eventually became professor of prehistoric archaeology. Her career paralleled that of her colleague, close friend and life-long collaborator Aikaterini (Katerina) Papaefthimiou-Papanthimou (1945-). Their exemplary synergy echoes the tradition of the female networks developed by the foreign pioneers in southern Greece in the early 20th century. Coming from a strong background in Minoan studies, Kiki and Katerina soon expanded their horizons to include the Neolithic and the Bronze Age of northern Greece, and contributed substantially to all these fields. Pursuing their careers in the (then) male-dominated prehistoric division of the Department of History and Archaeology, the two women succeeded in formulating their own agendas, by grounding their interpretations in the actual material while remaining open to new perspectives. Kiki, in particular, embraced the innovative thinking of New Archaeology, which then held sway in the division, but she remained sceptical to its more dogmatic aspects, and soon moved on to explore post-processualism, while also focusing on the archaeological study of ritual and of gender. Indeed, she was among the very few Greek archaeologists who incorporated gender in their research back in the 1990s, which resulted in her nuanced studies of Minoan anthropomorphic figurines. Together, Kiki and Katerina undertook ground-breaking excavations at the sites of Mandalo (Neolithic and Early Bronze Age) and Archontiko (Early and Middle Bronze Age), thus helping redefine and amplify our understanding of northern Greek prehistory. Last but not least, they taught and mentored successive generations of younger archaeologists, for whom they served as inseparable role models thanks to their shared decency and scientific integrity. The aim of this communication is to sketch a scholarly biography of the former of these two remarkable women, which would undoubtedly have been even richer had her untimely death not decided otherwise. ΕLENI NODAROU (INSTAP STUDY CENTER FOR EAST CRETE) & ΕLEFTHERIA DALEZIOU (AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CLASSICAL STUDIES AT ATHENS) – ANNA MARIE FARNSWORTH (1895-1991): A PIONEER IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL SCIENCE AND MATERIALS ANALYSIS “At the editor's request, Barbara Johnson, Kathleen Slane and Gladys Weinberg, colleagues at the University of Missouri, called upon Marie Farnsworth to elicit her story which does great credit to the ASCSA and perhaps is not widely known” (Newsletter of the ASCSA, spring 1986, p.10; available at: https://www.ascsa.edu.gr/uploads/media/Newsletter_Spring_1986.pdf ). With these words, the three professors from the University of Missouri begin their small contribution on the life of their colleague Marie Farnsworth (then aged 91). Born in Johnson County, Missouri, Anna Marie Farnsworth followed her vocation in science and received her PhD in chemistry in 1922. She got interested in art and in a twist of luck, she found herself as a research chemist at the Agora Excavations in 1938 and 1939. World War ΙΙ put an end to her residency in Athens but not to her scholarly interests. Although she got a job in the chemical industry, for over thirty years Farnsworth kept coming back to Athens, undertaking a range of analytical projects including artifact conservation, archaeometallurgy, analysis of plasters, and, what proved to be her passion, the analysis of pottery, especially Attic black and red figure vases. Farnsworth was a pioneer in archaeological science, not only because she practiced materials analysis at such an early date but, in particular because of her approach. Decades before the advent of New Archaeology, which changed the way of studying and interpreting artifacts, Farnsworth used a multi-disciplinary approach in the study of material culture, involving a combination of analytical techniques. Although a chemist by training, she used petrography and X-Ray Diffraction for the study of pottery from Athens and Corinth, studied clay sources, and sampled other assemblages for comparison. She did replication experiments to corroborate her analytical results, and her synthetic work aimed at a better understanding of ancient pottery technology. This presentation is an homage to Marie Farnsworth; through a brief account of her work and with the aid of archival material from the ASCSA Archives, we attempt to shed light on the life of this extraordinary woman and elicit her story, which is still not widely known. SIMONA TODARO (UNIVERSITÀ DI CATANIA) – WORKING BEHIND SCENES. LUISA BANTI AND ITALIAN RESEARCH IN CRETE BETWEEN 1930 AND 1940: THE ARCHAEOLOGIST YOU DON’T EXPECT Luisa Banti began work with the Italian mission in Crete in 1930 to put in order, classify and study the materials and archaeological monuments uncovered in the excavations carried out at Phaistos and at Haghia Triada in the first years of the 20th century. Preparing the publication of someone else’s excavations requires great courage, especially when many decades have passed between excavation and study. Banti accomplished this task by rigorously focusing on the original notes and made her life more difficult by keeping as much of Pernier’s original text as possible. What is perhaps less known is that this work required the interpretation of the notes as well as a hands-on approach to the finds preserved in the museum of Heraklion and in the Pigorini Museum of Rome, but also required the testing of the area with new soundings because too many years had elapsed since the first excavations and the archaeological situation had been altered by internment and erosion. The aim of this contribution is to shed some light on these aspects of Banti's research that she carried out behind the scenes, and to let people know (as remembered by those who had the opportunity to sit in on her lectures), that in her opinion “all that archaeology needed to overturn consolidated traditions was a new fragment of pottery”. ANTHOULA TSAROUCHA, MARILENA-CHRYSOULA TSAKOUMAKI & MARIA VASILEIOU (EPHOREIA OF ANTIQUITIES OF PHOCIS) – IOANNA KONSTANTINOU: HER WORK AND ACTIONS FOR THE PROTECTION OF ANTIQUITIES IN PHOCIS Ioanna Konstantinou was born in Athens in 1907 and studied in Athens and Germany. She was Curator and Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities from 1928 to 1964. She was the fifth woman to be appointed to the Archaeological Service, and served in Attica, Laconia, the National Museum, Chalkida and Delphi, the place where she devoted her best self, according to Vassilis Petrakos. One of the most important moments of her work in Delphi was the organisation of the third exhibition of the Archaeological Museum of Delphi. In the summer of 1954, when she arrived in Delphi, she took over a museum destroyed by the war, while most of the exhibits (except for the replicas of the Siphnian treasure from the first museum in 1903) were still hidden under the ground. In collaboration with the director of the National Archaeological Museum, Christos Karouzos, she completed the re-exhibition of the archaeological museum of Delphi in 1963. At the same time, in an excavation she carried out in the archaeological site of Delphi, the famous white-bottomed Attic goblet (470 BC) was found – which depicts Apollo with his right hand making a libation by pouring wine from a flask, while with his left hand he holds a sevenstringed lyre. She also showed a special interest in the antiquities in Phocis. She established the systematic control of the excavations in Amphissa and carried out a rescue excavation in the city and created the exhibition of the Galaxidi Collection. At the same time, she published several archaeological studies and the guide to the archaeological site and museum of Delphi. AGATA ULANOWSKA & KAZIMIERZ LEWARTOWSKI (UNIVERSITY OF WARSAW) – 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 University of Warsaw, with its troubled 207-year-old history, is a relatively new academic institution in Poland. It has only admitted female students since 1915, when the interim German authorities allowed a new inauguration of the University of Warsaw with Polish as the main teaching language. Between 1915-1939, i.e. until the beginning of World War II, there were only 12 female docents and two professors – three, if we wish to include an honorary title for Maria Skłodowska-Curie – who altogether comprised 3% of the employed teaching staff. Female assistants were more numerous, comprising ca. 20% of the staff in the 1930s; however, strongly gendered perception of social roles apparently prevented women from pursuing academic careers, even if there were no formal obstacles against it. New prospects for female academics, including archaeologists, unfolded after World War II with the communist regime in Poland. In this paper, we would like to discuss these new opportunities, taking Professor Ludwika Press (1922-2006), whom we were both honoured to know personally, as our special case study. While presenting her biography and academic achievements, especially her long-life interest in Aegean archaeology, we would like to advance a few general observations on the first post-war generation of female archaeologists at the University of Warsaw. Ludwika Press, strongly traumatised by her individual war experiences, entered the university after a long break from formal education, similarly to many other Polish students who were born in the 1920s. Due to her intellectual maturity, she was offered an assistant position while still being a student – not unusual in the late 1940s amid the dramatic post-war lack of academics. We would like to argue that, together with her notable personal qualities, the extensively promoted communist concept of gender equality might have facilitated her academic career and those of her female peers in archaeology. However, this declarative equality did not change the underlying patriarchal structure of academic environment, nor did it fully translate into a gender-neutral perception of students by these new, female archaeologistprofessors. Her other challenge we would like to address is the censorship and limitations of free research under the communist regime. With ideologically reinforced restrictions on freedom of speech, archaeologists benefited somehow from the regime’s-imposed focus on material culture, but were clearly hindered by the very limited opportunities for travel and personal contact with countries and colleagues beyond the Iron Curtain. We consider all these circumstances essential for contextualising Ludwika Press’ biography, her scientific choices and the modern visibility of her research, which still resonates today in the archaeology of the Roman provinces and when communicating Bronze Age Aegean cultures to a general audience in Poland, but is quite unsung in Aegean Archaeology itself. OLGA VASSI (EPHOREIA OF ANTIQUITIES OF CHIOS) – IN THE FAR-WEST OF THE GREEK PROVINCE: SPYRIDOULA K. ALEXANDROPOULOU, NON-PERMANENT CURATOR OF ANTIQUITIES OF AETOLOAKARNANIA An educated, independent, emancipated, multilingual woman who also offered her services as an archaeologist was a rarity in the Greek province of the 1960s. Patriarchal stereotypes and female dependence were prevalent: a woman’s place was at home, her destiny was to raise children, her economic dependence was self-evident, and her gender was often not provided with any sort of education, or the education it deserved. Spyridoula Kon/nou Alexandropoulou, a graduate of the Philosophical School of Athens and a student of Anastasios Orlandos, defied these conventions by being highly cultured, showing other paths and living a different life, beyond the conventions of her time. As the daughter of a doctor from Messolonghi and the niece of a senator, she graduated an ‘Excellent’ grade and was appointed as a philologist in a high school. She was then additionally assigned the duties of a non-permanent curator of Antiquities, an institution to which the Archaeological Service took refuge in the 1960s and until the post-dictatorship period, until the service was properly organised and staffed with archaeologists in all prefectures of Greece. Spyridoula offered her unpaid services and collaborated with all the state archaeologists responsible for the Byzantine monuments of Aetoloakarnania, such as the late Frangiska Kefallonitou and Dimitris Constantios, the current Academic Panagiotis L. Vokotopoulos or the Professors Emeriti of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Efthymios Tsigaridas and Georgios Velenis. She knew all the monuments, archaeological sites and topography of her coastal native Aetolia and mountainous Akarnania or Valtos well, she witnessed the immersion of the Byzantine church of Panagia Preventza in the waters of the artificial lake of Kastraki, she archaeologically explored the region of Aetoloakarnania which at that time did not even have proper driving roads with her famous Citroen 2CV, she dreamed and worked towards creating a great and modern museum for Aetoloakarnania, which she was happy to see come to fruition. A person with scientific interests until the last moment, she had perfect knowledge of the monumental topography of her region of origin, wrote and published monographs dedicated to it, participated in conferences, and clashed with local authorities and interests on archaeological issues during the difficult decades of the 1960s and 1970s, when the official line prioritised a model of ill-conceived ‘development’ in the Greek province, over the destruction of the natural environment and the alteration of the antiquities that stood in its way. This presentation is a tribute to the memory of a great and pioneering woman who recently passed away, after having acted in difficult times in the Greek province, and who had significant impact on the lives of people close to her. NATALIA VOGEIKOFF-BROGAN & LEDA COSTAKI (AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CLASSICAL STUDIES AT ATHENS) – HAZEL D. HANSEN: A FORGOTTEN AMERICAN PREHISTORIAN Hazel Dorothy Hansen (1899-1962) is one of the less known American archaeologists of the early 20th century. Her biography is not included in works such as Breaking Ground: Pioneering Women Archaeologists [Cohen and Joukowsky 2004] or blogs on Women in Archaeology, although she taught in the Classics Department of Stanford University for more than thirty years. However, her story deserves to be told because it appeals to the average archaeologist in the field, and many women may identify with her. From a humble background, she was admitted to Stanford University in 1916, at a time when the institution had severely limited the admission of women. She got her BA degree in 1920 and her MA in 1921. From 1922 to 1925 she continued her graduate studies at the American School of Classical Studies at Athens and earned her PhD degree in 1926, with a thesis titled Early Civilization in Thessaly. Her topic was ground-breaking and required extensive surveying for sites in the Greek periphery. With her work on Thessaly, Hansen ranks among the leading figures of prehistoric archaeology in this area, such as Christos Tsountas, Alan Wace, Maurice Thompson, Vladimir Milojčić, Dimitris Theocharis and George Hourmouziadis – all men. We do not know what triggered Hansen to turn into Thessalian prehistory when her background at Stanford was in Classics. In the preface of her book Early Civilizations in Thessaly published in 1933, based on her dissertation, Hansen stated that her interest in Thessaly “began with an extensive trip made in that region in the spring of 1924 […] followed by three others during the same year.” During her journeys to Thessaly in 1923-24, Hansen reported visiting 65 of the mounds listed in Wace and Thompson’s, Prehistoric Thessaly, and added seven not included in that list. Hazel’s transformation from a classicist into a Thessalian prehistorian must have taken place during her first year in Athens (1922-1923), when she socialised with members of the British School and attended classes at the University of Athens. It was, however, the Greek archaeologist Christos Tsountas (1857-1934) whom she credited for inspiration. It is surprising that a promising scholar such as Hansen was in the 1930s did not produce much after the publication of her book (1933). This may reflect sexist attitudes that prevailed in maledominated academia before the 1970s. To support the research of male professors, universities were systematically assigning higher administrative duties and teaching loads to female faculty, leaving them little time for research.