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.
Besides Mrs. Hawes, three other American women have achieved marked
distinction by their archaeological researches. These are Mrs. Sarah
Yorke Stevenson, Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Mrs. Zelia Nuttall.
Mrs. Stevenson has long been identified with the progress of
archaeological research, especially with that in Egypt and the
Mediterranean. A prominent member of many learned societies, she is
likewise a writer and lecturer of note. She enjoys the distinction of
being the first woman whose name appears as a lecturer on the calendar
of the University of Harvard. In acknowledgment of her scholarly ability
and eminent services in the development of its Department of Archaeology,
the University of Pennsylvania has conferred upon her the honorary
degree of Doctor of Science.
That American women have not been behind their sisters in Europe in
their enthusiasm for archaeological investigation is evinced by the
researches and writings of Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Mrs. Zelia
Nuttall, both of whom enjoy an international reputation in the learned
world.
Miss Fletcher's chosen field of labor has been in ethnology and
anthropology. Her studies of the folk lore and the manners and customs
of various tribes of North American Indians have a distinct and
permanent value, while those of her contributions which have been
published by the Smithsonian Institution and the Bureau of
Ethnology--contributions based on personal knowledge of a long residence
among the tribes she writes about--show that she has exceptional talent
for the branches of archaeology to which she has devoted many years of
earnest and successful study.
Mrs. Nuttall is the daughter of an American mother and an English
father. Thanks to the care that was bestowed on her education by her
parents and to her long residence in the different countries of Europe,
she is proficient in seven languages. This knowledge of tongues has been
of inestimable advantage to her in her researches in European libraries
and in those historical and archaeological investigations which have
rendered her famous. She has devoted special attention to the early
history, languages, religions and calendar systems of the primitive
inhabitants of Mexico and Central America, in all of which she is a
recognized authority.
When, some years ago, the mysterious ruins of Mexico began to attract
the special attention of archaeologists, Mrs. Nuttall was selected by the
University of California as the field director of the commission which
it sent to pursue archaeological researches in this Egypt of the New
World. A more competent or a more enthusiastic director could not have
been chosen. Her finds in the Pyramids of the Sun and Moon at
Teotihuacan and elsewhere in our sister republic were especially
important. In recognition of her achievements President Porfirio Diaz
nominated Mrs. Nuttall honorary professor in the Mexican National
Museum. She was also offered the position of curator of the
archaeological Museum of Mexico; but this office she declined. She holds
membership in a large number of learned societies in America and Europe
and is a frequent contributor to numerous magazines on historical and
archaeological subjects. She has had the good fortune to discover a
number of important manuscripts illustrating the early history of
Mexico. Chief among these are a Hispano-American manuscript which she
dug out of one of the libraries of Madrid and another which was found in
a private collection in England and reproduced in facsimile in this
country. In honor of its fair discoverer it is now known as the Codex
Nuttall, and is regarded by experts as one of the most precious records
of ancient Mexico.
What is probably Mrs. Nuttall's most valuable contribution to
archaeological science is her erudite work entitled _The Fundamental
Principles of Old and New World Civilizations_. It is a comparative
research based on a study of the ancient Mexican, religious,
sociological and calendar systems, and represents thirteen years of
assiduous labor. It is a worthy monument to the scientific ability of
this gifted Americanist, and one which brilliantly illumines some of the
most controverted points of comparative archaeology.
The Nestor of women archaeologists is Donna Ersilia
Caetani-Bovatelli--the daughter of the famous Dante scholar, the late
Duke Don Michel Angelo Caetani-Sermonetta. Since the days of Boniface
VIII, whom Dante scornfully denounced as _lo principe de' Pharisei_, the
family of the Caetani has been one of the most illustrious of the Roman
nobility, and is to-day ranked with those of the Colonna and Orsini.
Besides his thorough knowledge of Dante, whose _Divina Commedia_ he
regarded as the great artistic production of the human mind--a work
which he knew by heart--the Duke of Sermonetta was deeply versed in
philology and archaeology. No one was more familiar with the history and
antiquities of Rome than he was, nor a greater friend and patron of
scholars of every nationality. The Palazzo Caetani was the resort of not
only the savants of Rome, but also and especially of those who gathered
from all quarters of the world to study the rich collections of
antiquities for which the Eternal City is so famous. Here the ablest
authorities in history and archaeology discussed the latest discoveries
among the ruins of Greece and Asia Minor, and the most recent finds in
the Forum or amidst the crumbling ruins of the palaces of the Caesars.
Having such a father and brought up in such an environment it is not
surprising that Donna Ersilia acquired at an early age that taste for
archaeology which was, as events proved, to constitute the chief
occupation of her long and busy life. Having enjoyed and studied
literature and the languages under the best masters in Rome, she was
thoroughly prepared for the work of deciphering Greek and Latin
inscriptions and for an intelligent study of the ancient monuments of
Italy and Hellas.
Her learned countryman, A. de Gubernatis, assures us that she has such a
thorough knowledge of Latin and Greek that she writes both with ease and
elegance, and that she is endowed with an admirable memory for philology
and archaeology. Besides being a mistress of several modern languages,
she is also familiar with Sanscrit.
Since the death of her husband, in 1879, she has devoted all her time,
outside of that given to the care and education of her children, to the
pursuit of classical archaeology, in which she has long been regarded as
an authority of the first order. Her salon, unlike those of the
frivolous leaders of high life, has for many years been the favorite
rendezvous in Rome of learned men and women from every clime. Here were
seen the noted historians Gregorovius, Theodore Mommsen, and Giovanni
Battista de Rossi, the illustrious founder of Christian archaeology. Here
the representatives of the French, German and American schools of
archaeology meet to exchange views on their favorite science and to find
inspiration in the knowledge and enthusiasm of their gifted hostess, who
always takes an active part in their recondite discussions, and never
fails to contribute her share to these meetings, which have contributed
so much toward the advancement of science and the history of antiquity.
Whether the discussion turn on the deciphering of an ancient text, the
inscription of a monument or a recently excavated sarcophagus, Donna
Ersilia's opinion is eagerly sought, and her judgment is generally
unerring.
This cultured and erudite daughter of sunny Italy has been a prolific
writer on her favorite branch of research. Besides contributing to such
publications as the _Nuova Antologia_ and the bulletins of the
archaeological commissions in Rome, she has found time to prepare for the
press a number of volumes of the highest value on divers questions of
Roman and Greek archaeology.
It is interesting, in this connection, to note the fact that, after Mme.
Curie had been refused admittance into the French Academy, one of the
members of this institution, who had voted against her on the ground
that she was a woman, had occasion to attend a meeting of the Academy of
the Lincei in Rome, an association which plays the same role in Italy as
does the French Academy in France, and found, to his astonishment, that
the dean of the department of archaeology, as well as the presiding
officer of some of the most important meetings of the academy, was a
woman. She was no other than Donna Ersilia Caetani-Bovatelli, the
learned and gracious scion of an honored race. So taken aback was the
Gallic opponent of _feminisme_ that he could but exclaim: "_Diable!_
they order things differently in Italy from what we do in _la belle
France_."
Considering their attainments and achievements, the two women who occupy
the highest place as archaeologists in the English-speaking world are
Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson. They are the twin
daughters of the Rev. John Smith, an English clergyman, and have long
enjoyed an enviable reputation among Scriptural scholars and
Orientalists.
During their youth they had the advantage of instruction under the best
masters, and, among other things, acquired a wide knowledge of the
modern and classical languages. Subsequent study and frequent visits to
Greece and the Orient made them proficient in modern Greek, Arabic,
Hebrew and Syriac. Becoming interested in the search for ancient
manuscripts, they resolved to make the long and arduous journey to the
Greek convent of St. Catherine on Mt. Sinai.
In the latter part of January, 1892, these two brave and enterprising
women left Suez for their destination in the heart of the Arabian
desert. They were accompanied only by their dragoman and Bedouin
servants. Eleven camels carried the two travelers, their baggage, tents
and provisions for fifty days. They had laid in supplies not only for
the two or three weeks they were to spend on the way to and from Sinai,
but also for the month they expected to remain at the Convent of St.
Catherine.
Arriving at the end of their journey, they were most cordially received
by the monks, who afforded them every facility for examining the
treasures of their unique and venerable library. They immediately set to
work, and before they left the room in which the manuscripts were
preserved they had made one of the most remarkable finds of the century.
For, in closely inspecting a dirty, forbidding old manuscript whose
leaves had probably not been turned for centuries, they discovered a
palimpsest, of which the upper writing contained the biographies of
women saints, while that beneath proved to be one of the earliest copies
of the Syriac Gospels, if not the very earliest in existence.
No find since the celebrated discovery by Tischendorf of the Sinaitic
Codex, in the same convent nearly fifty years before, ever excited such
interest among Scriptural scholars or was hailed with greater
rejoicings. It was by all Biblical students regarded as an invaluable
contribution to Scriptural literature, and as a find which "has doubled
our sources of knowledge of the darkest corner of New Testament
criticism." To distinguish it from the _Codex Sinaiticus_, the precious
manuscript brought to light by Mrs. Lewis has been very appropriately
named after the fortunate discoverer, and will hereafter be known as the
Codex Ludovicus.[223]
Another find of rare importance made by the gifted twin sisters was a
Palestinian Syriac lectionary similar to the hitherto unique copy in the
Library of the Vatican. A special interest attaches to this lectionary
from the fact that it is written in the language that was most probably
spoken by our Lord.
Among other notable discoveries of Mrs. Lewis and her sister during the
four visits[224] which they made to Mt. Sinai and Palestine between the
years 1892 and 1897 were a number of manuscripts in Arabic and a portion
of the original Hebrew manuscript of Ecclesiastes which was written
about 200 B.C. Previously the oldest copies of this book of the Old
Testament were the Greek and Syriac versions.
What is specially remarkable about the discoveries made by Mrs. Lewis
and Mrs. Gibson is that they were able to make so many valuable finds
after the convent library at Mt. Sinai had been so frequently examined
by previous scholars. The indefatigable Tischendorf made three visits to
this library and had but one phenomenal success. But neither "he nor any
of the other wandering scholars who have visited the convent attained,"
as has been well said, "to a tithe of the acquaintance with its
treasures which these energetic ladies possess."
But more remarkable than the mere discovery of so many invaluable
manuscripts, which was, of course, an extraordinary achievement, is the
fact that these manuscripts, whether in Syriac, Arabic or Hebrew, have
been translated, annotated and edited by these same scholarly women.
Already more than a score of volumes have come from their prolific pens,
all evincing the keenest critical acumen and the highest order of
Biblical and archaeological scholarship. The reader who desires a popular
account of their famous discoveries should by all means read Mrs.
Gibson's entertaining volume, _How the Codex Was Found_, and Mrs. Lewis'
charming little work entitled, _In the Shadow of Sinai_. As to those
men--and the species is yet far from extinct--who still doubt the
capacity of women for the higher kinds of intellectual effort, let them
glance at the pages of the numerous volumes given to the press by these
richly dowered women under the captions of _Studia Sinaitica_ and _Horae
Semiticae_; and, if they are able to comprehend the evidence before them,
they will be forced to admit that the long-imagined difference between
the intellectual powers of men and women is one of fancy and not one of
reality.[225]
And yet, strange to relate, while Mrs. Lewis and Mrs. Gibson were
electrifying the learned world by their achievements in the highest
form of scholarship, the slow-moving University of Cambridge was gravely
debating "whether it was a proper thing to confer degrees upon women,"
and preparing to answer the question in the negative. The fact that
there were "representatives of the unenfranchised sex at their gates who
had gathered more laurels in the field of scholarship than most of those
who belong to the privileged sex" did not appeal to the university dons
or prevent them from putting themselves on record as favoring a
condition of things which, at this late age of the world, should be
expected only among the women-enslaving followers of Mohammed.
The saying that "a prophet hath no honor in his own country" was
fulfilled to the letter in the case of the two women who had shed such
luster on the land of their birth. While foreign institutions were vying
with one another in showering honors on the two brilliant Englishwomen,
with whose praises the whole world was resounding, the University of
Cambridge was silent. The University of St. Andrews conferred on them
the degree of LL.D., while conservative old Heidelberg, casting aside
its age-old traditions, made haste to honor them with the degree of
Doctor of Divinity. In addition to this, Halle made Mrs. Lewis a Doctor
of Philosophy. One would have thought that sheer shame, if not patriotic
spirit, would have compelled the university in whose shadows the two
women had their home, and in which Mrs. Lewis' husband had held for
years an official appointment, to show itself equally appreciative of
superlative merit and equally ready to reward rare scholarship,
regardless of the sex of the beneficiaries. But no. The illustrious
archaeologists and Biblical scholars were women, and this fact alone was
in the estimation of the Cambridge authorities enough to withhold from
them that recognition which was so spontaneously accorded them by the
great universities of the Continent.
Nor was this the only instance of the kind. While the celebrated twin
sisters just referred to were so materially contributing to our
knowledge of Biblical lore, another Englishwoman, Jane E. Harrison, who
lived within hearing of the church bells of Cambridge, was lecturing to
delighted audiences in Newnham College on the history, mythology and
monuments of ancient Athens, and writing those learned works on the
religion and antiquities of Greece which have given her so conspicuous a
place among modern archaeologists.[226] But, as in the case of her
distinguished neighbors, the discoverers of the _Codex Ludovicus_, the
degrees she was honored with came not from Cambridge, with which,
through her fellowship in Newnham, she was so closely connected.
And while this gifted lady was deserving so well of science and
literature, the undergraduate students of Cambridge, following the cue
given by the twenty-four hundred graduates who had just rejected the
proposal to give honorary degrees to women who could pass the required
examinations, were giving an exhibition of rowdyism which far surpassed
that which, a few years before, had so disgraced the University of
Edinburgh, when the same question of degrees for women was under
consideration.
According to the report of an eye witness of the turbulent scene at
Cambridge, "The undergraduate students appeared to be, as a body,
viciously opposed to the proposal to give degrees to women, and became
fairly riotous. They hooted those who supported the reform and fired
crackers even in the Senate House and made the night lurid with bonfires
and powder. They put up insulting effigies of girl students, and such
mottoes as 'Get you to Girton, Beatrice. Get you to Newnham. Here is no
place for maids!'"
Verily, when such scenes are possible in one of the world's great
intellectual centers--a place where, above all others, women should
receive due recognition for their contributions toward the progress of
knowledge--one is constrained to declare that what we call civilization
is still far from the ideal. And, when one witnesses the total
indifference of institutions like Cambridge and the French Academy to
the splendid achievements of women like Mrs. Lewis, Mrs. Gibson and Mme.
Curie, one cannot but exclaim in words Apocalyptic: "How long, O Lord,
holy and true," is this iniquitous discrimination against one-half of
our race to endure? O Lord, how long?
FOOTNOTES:
[215] A. Michaelis, _A Century of Archaeological Discoveries_, p. 6, New
York, 1908.
[216] _The Most Illustrious Ladies of the Renaissance_, p. 152, by
Christopher Hare, London, 1904.
[217] Michaelis, Op. cit., p. 20, Cf. also Fiorelli's _Pompeinarum
Antiquitatum Historia_, Vol. I, Pars. III, Naples, 1860. Arditi
characterized Queen Caroline's interest in the excavations as
"_entusiasmo veramente ammirabile_."
[218] _Frauenarbeit in der Archaeologie in Deutsche Rundschau_, March,
1890, page 396.
[219] _Memoirs of the Life of Anna Jameson_, pp. 296-297, by her niece,
Geraldine Macpherson, London, 1878.
[220] _Ilios, the City and Country of the Trojans_, pp. 657-658, by Dr.
Henry Schliemann, New York, 1881.
As an illustration of Mrs. Schliemann's devotion to the work which has
rendered her, as well as her husband, immortal, a single passage from
the volume just quoted, p. 261, is pertinent. Referring to the
sufferings and privations which they endured during their third year's
work at Hissarlik, Dr. Schliemann writes as follows:
"My poor wife and myself, therefore, suffered very much since the icy
north wind, which recalls Homer's frequent mention of the blasts of
Boreas, blew with such violence through the chinks of our house-walls,
which were made of planks, that we were not even able to light our lamps
in the evening, while the water which stood near the hearth froze into
solid masses. During the day we could, to some degree, bear the cold by
working in the excavations; but, in the evenings, we had nothing to keep
us warm except our enthusiasm for the great work of discovering Troy."
So high was Dr. Schliemann's opinion of his wife's ability as an
archaeologist that he entrusted to her--as well as to their daughter,
Andromache, and son, Agamemnon--the continuation of the work which death
prevented him from completing.
[221] See Mme. Dieulafoy's graphic account of the expedition in a work
which has been translated into English under the title, _At Susa, the
Ancient Capital of the Kings of Persia, Narrative of Travel Through
Western Persia and Excavations Made at the Site of the Lost City of the
Lilies, 1884-1886_, Philadelphia, 1890.
See also her other related work--crowned by the French
Academy--entitled, _La Perse, La Chaldee et la Susiane_, Paris, 1887.
[222] Among the specimens secured were two of extraordinary beauty and
interest. One of them is a beautiful enameled frieze of a lion and the
other, likewise a work in enamel, represents a number of polychrome
figures of the Immortals--the name given to the guards of the Great
Kings of Persia. Both are truly magnificent specimens of ceramic art,
and compare favorably with anything of the kind which antiquity has
bequeathed to us. Commenting on the pictures of the Persian guards, Mme.
Dieulafoy writes: "Whatever their race may be, our Immortals appear fine
in line, fine in form, fine in color and constitute a ceramic work
infinitely superior to the bas-reliefs, so justly celebrated, of Lucca
della Robbia." Op. cit., p. 222.
[223] One passage in this codex bears so strongly on a leading argument
of this work that I cannot resist the temptation to give it with Mrs.
Lewis' own comment:
"The piece of my work," she writes, _In the Shadow of Sinai_, p. 98 et
seq., "which has given me the greatest satisfaction, consists in the
decipherment of two words in John IV, 27. They were well worth all our
visits to Sinai, for they illustrate an action of our Lord which seems
to be recorded nowhere else, and which has some degree of inherent
probability from what we know of His character. The passage is 'His
disciples came and wondered that with the women he was _standing and
talking_'....
"Why was our Lord standing? He had been sitting on the wall when the
disciples left Him; and, we know that He was tired. Moreover, sitting is
the proper attitude for an Easterner when engaged in teaching. And an
ordinary Oriental would never rise of his own natural free will out of
politeness to a woman. It may be that He rose in His enthusiasm for the
great truths He was uttering; but, I like to think that His great heart,
which embraced the lowest of humanity, lifted Him above the restrictions
of His race and age, and made Him show that courtesy to our sex, even in
the person of a degraded specimen, which is considered among all really
progressive peoples to be a mark of true and noble manhood. To shed even
a faint light upon that wondrous story of His tabernacling amongst us is
an inestimable privilege and worthy of all the trouble we can possibly
take."
[224] Mrs. Gibson, unaccompanied by her sister, has since made two more
visits to Mt. Sinai in order to complete the work so auspiciously begun.
[225] The following partial list of the works of these erudite twins on
subjects connected with Scripture and Oriental literature gives some
idea of their extraordinary attainments and of their prodigious activity
in researches that are usually considered entirely foreign to the tastes
and aptitudes of women.
_Some Pages of the Four Gospels Retranscribed From the Sinaitic
Palimpsest_, with a translation of the whole text by Agnes Smith Lewis.
_An Arabic Version of St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians,
Galatians and part of Ephesians._ Edited from a ninth century MS. by
Margaret Dunlop Gibson.
_Apocrypha Sinaitica._ Containing the Anaphora Pilati in Syriac and
Arabic: the Syriac transcribed by J. Rendel Harris, and the Arabic by
Margaret Dunlop Gibson; also two recensions of the _Recognitions of
Clement_, in Arabic, transcribed and translated by Margaret Dunlop
Gibson.
_An Arabic Version of the Acts of the Apostles and the Seven Catholic
Epistles_, from an eighth or ninth century MS., with a treatise on the
Triune Nature of God and translation. Edited by Margaret Dunlop Gibson.
Apocrypha Arabica, Edited by Margaret D. Gibson, containing 1, _Kitab al
Magall_ or the _Book of the Rolls_; 2, _The Story of the Aphikia Wife of
Jesus Ben Sira_ (Carshuni); 3, _Cyprian and Justa_, in Arabic and Greek.
_Select Narratives of Holy Women_, from the Syro-Antiochene or Sinai
Palimpsest, as written above the Old Syriac Gospels in A. D. 778.
Translation by Agnes Smith Lewis.
_Apocrypha Syriaca Sinaitica_, being the _Protevangelium Jacobi_ and
_Transitus Mariae_, from a Palimpsest of the fifth or sixth century.
Edited by Agnes Smith Lewis.
_Forty-One Facsimiles of Dated Christian Arabic Manuscripts_, with Text
and English Translation, arranged by Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret
Dunlop Gibson, with introductory observations in Arabic calligraphy by
the Rev. David S. Margoliouth.
_The Didascalia Apostolorum in Syriac_, edited from a Mesopotamian MS,
with various readings and collations of other MS, by Margaret Dunlop
Gibson.
_The Arabic Version of the Acta Apocrypha Apostolorum_, edited and
translated by Agnes Smith Lewis, with fifth century fragments of the
Acta Thomae, in Syriac.
_The Gospel of Isbodad in Syriac and English_, by Margaret D. Gibson.
_Acta Mythologica Apostolorum in Arabic_, with translation by Agnes
Smith Lewis.
For an elaborate and sympathetic account of the labors and discoveries
of Mrs. Lewis and her sister, the reader is referred to an article from
the pen of the learned Professor V. Ryssel, in the _Schweizerische
Theologische Zeitschrift_, XVI, Jahrgang, 1899.
[226] For an evidence of this learned lady's competency to deal with the
most recondite stores of history and archaeology, the reader is referred
to two of her later works, viz., _Primitive Athens as Described by
Thucydides_, Cambridge, 1906, and _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek
Religion_, Cambridge University Press, 1903.