Dorothy Garrod
Dorothy Annie Elizabeth Garrod (1892-1968) was a pioneering English archaeologist who specialized in Palaeolithic archaeology and made significant contributions to the field12. She is renowned for her groundbreaking work and for breaking gender barriers in academia.
Garrod conducted several important excavations throughout her career:
Gibraltar (1925-1926): Excavated Devil's Tower cave, discovering Neanderthal child remains in a Mousterian context5.
Mount Carmel, Palestine (1929-1934): Led excavations that established a 500,000-year sequence of human occupation in the Levant12.
Bulgaria (1938): Excavated the Palaeolithic cave of Bacho Kiro2.
Lebanon (1958-1964): Conducted further fieldwork1.
Her publication "The Stone Age of Mount Carmel" (1937) was considered a landmark in the field12.
Garrod's academic career was marked by several notable accomplishments:
First woman to hold a professorship at either Oxford or Cambridge, becoming the Disney Professor of Archaeology at Cambridge in 193924.
Introduced significant changes to the archaeology department at Cambridge, including a module on world prehistory and undergraduate courses in prehistoric archaeology2.
Elected Fellow of the British Academy in 19524.
Awarded the Huxley Memorial Medal of the Royal Anthropological Institute in 19624.
Received the Gold Medal of the Society of Antiquaries in 19684.
Dorothy Garrod's work and achievements have had a lasting impact on the field of archaeology:
Her research on the Natufian culture, dating between 12,000 and 9,500 BC, was groundbreaking1.
She helped transform prehistory and archaeology into more open and accessible fields4.
Her appointment as a professor at Cambridge was seen as a significant step towards gender equality in academia24.
Garrod's success served as an inspiration for other women in science and archaeology4.
Dorothy Garrod's contributions to archaeology and her role in breaking gender barriers in academia have cemented her place as one of the most influential archaeologists of the 20th century6.
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/dorothy-garrod-SbpHLxL7SkWTMm2F.Jyd6w
dorothy garrod devils tower
Dorothy Garrod, a pioneering archaeologist, made a significant discovery at Devil's Tower Cave in Gibraltar between 1925 and 1927. She excavated the site and unearthed the skull of a four-year-old Neanderthal child, which became known as Gibraltar 2135. This find was particularly noteworthy as it was only the second Neanderthal skull ever discovered in the area5.
The excavation at Devil's Tower was Garrod's first independent dig, recommended by her mentor, Abbé Breuil24. Despite being relatively new to field archaeology, Garrod's work at the site was meticulous and scientifically rigorous. She painstakingly reconstructed the skull and wrote a detailed report of her findings, which quickly established her reputation in the field4.
Garrod's excavation of Devil's Tower Cave lasted for three years, during which she uncovered not only the Neanderthal child's remains but also evidence of Mousterian industry and a large collection of fauna6. The cave floor was located on a rocky outcrop just a few meters above sea level3.
This discovery at Devil's Tower was a turning point in Garrod's career, catapulting her to archaeological fame and opening up opportunities for her to study a wider range of sites4. It also contributed significantly to the understanding of Neanderthal presence in Gibraltar and the broader study of human evolution7.
Interestingly, Garrod initially named the Neanderthal child "Abel," showcasing a touch of humor by referencing Adam and Eve's second child3. However, the skull is now officially referred to as Gibraltar 258.
The success of the Devil's Tower excavation helped establish Garrod as an effective prehistorian and paved the way for her future contributions to the field, including her groundbreaking work in the Middle East and her appointment as the first woman to hold a professorship at Cambridge University5.
https://www.perplexity.ai/search/dorothy-garrod-devils-tower-2wYJLFaqQc6QGnfh8zKgtw
Newspaper Archive
A WOMAN'S DISCOVERY
SKULL UNEARTHED AT GIBRALTAR.
The skull of a child who died at least 300 centuries ago lay on one table in a lecture room. Behind it stood Miss Dorothy Garrod, a young and pretty woman, who told the British Association how she had used
dynamite in unearthing the skull at Devil's Tower, Gibraltar. After Miss Garrod had sat down Sir Arthur Keith, the great authority on ancient Man, congratulated her on finding the first complete representative skull of a Neanderthal child.
Miss Garrod said that on the Devil's Tower site she found bones of panthers, hyenas, deer, rabbits, and elephants. She had to use dynamite to blow up the hard strata of rock, and in one of the slabs of stone which were displaced she saw the skull buried.
She brought the skull, still in the stone, back to Oxford, and there the skull was carefully taken out.
Professor Boyd Dawkins told the assembly that the skull was so old that no one could really fix a time limit for it.
Sir Arthur Keith said the people who inhabited Europe during the Neanderthal Age were as different from modern people as white men were from black.
They could not raise themselves into an erect posture. The skull found by Miss Garrod was that of a boy aged about eight or ten.
(Western Mail, Cardiff, South Glamorgan, Wales, 06 August 1926, Page 7.)