Skara Brae women archaeologists who were written out of history

[Judi Lynn]

By Huw Williams
BBC Scotland reporter

Published 21 March 2019



ORKNEY LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES
The photographs were taken at Skara Brae, probably in 1929

An "excavation" on social media has provided names for four women shown in pictures of a dig in Orkney.

The women - shown in photographs taken in 1929 - had been assumed to be tourists or visitors.

But since Prof Dan Hicks, from the University of Oxford, tweeted the images they have been named as archaeologists working on the site.

Those behind the search say it shows how women have been written out of the history of archaeology.

More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-47639736?fbclid=IwAR2Zj0AvDQLipn5Swk2Q20s7hEc7UMqgZkTx1V37Wr9MgNs-NQLxqA3QZ0A

[Popcorn 51]

1. I like this -

And now, for the first time, it's been possible to identify the women as archaeologists, and supply names for them.

One is thought to be Margaret Simpson, who gets an acknowledgement in Prof Childe's monograph about Skara Brae. A second is believed to be Margaret Mitchell, who graduated from Edinburgh with a PhD in archaeology. The third woman is probably Mary Kennedy. And it's thought the fourth is Dame Margaret Cole - the only one of the group who didn't go on to be an archaeologist. In fact, she later became a crime writer.

[niyad]

2. Thank you so much for, quite literally, "digging up", the story about these women.