Esther Boise Van Deman

Esther Boise Van Deman (born October 1, 1862 in South Salem , Ohio , USA ; † May 3, 1937 in Rome , Italy ) was an American archaeologist and the first woman to specialize in the archeology of the Roman Empire .

Life

Van Deman went to the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and received the AB in 1891 and the AM in 1892. She then taught Latin at Wellesley College ( Massachusetts ) and the Bryn Mawr School ( Baltimore , Maryland ). In 1898 she received her PhD from the University of Chicago . From 1898 to 1901 she continued teaching Latin at Mount Holyoke College ( South Hadley , Massachusetts) and from 1903 to 1906 archeology at Goucher College ( Towson , Maryland). From 1906 to 1910 she lived in Rome as a federal brother of the Carnegie Institution. From 1910 to 1925 she was then a member of the Carnegie Institution in Washington, DC From 1925 to 1930 she taught Roman archeology at the University of Michigan.

While listening to a lecture in the Atrium Vestae in Rome in 1907, Van Deman noticed that the stones that led to a door were different from those in the rest of the building. She showed that such differences provide a key to identifying the chronology of ancient structures. The Carnegie Institution published its preliminary results in 1909 in The Atrium Vestae . Van Deman expanded her research and in 1912 published Methods of Determining the Date of Roman Concrete Monuments in the American Journal of Archeology . Their approach, with slight modifications, became the standard in the study of Roman architecture. In doing so, she decisively advanced the study of Roman architecture .

In 1934, already living in retirement, she published her main work The Building of the Roman Aquaducts .

Esther Van Deman is buried in the Protestant cemetery in Rome.

Web links

• Esther Boise Van Deman at britannica.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Nicholas Stanley-Price: The Non-Catholic Cemetery in Rome . Ed .: Non-Catholic cemetery in Rome. Rome 2014, ISBN 978-88-909168-1-6 , pp. 157 .