Joan du Plat Taylor

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Joan Mabel Frederica du Plat Taylor (born June 26, 1906 in Glasgow , Scotland , † May 21, 1983 probably in London ) was a British archaeologist and pioneer of underwater archeology .

Life

It came from the French noble family du Plat , whose first representative in Germany was Pierre Joseph du Plat (1657–1709), the progenitor of the Hanoverian line. Members of this German line again entered royal Danish and British services. Joan was the granddaughter of John Lowther du Plat Taylor (1829-1904), British Colonel and founder of the Army Post Office Corps and the only child of Lieutenant Colonel St. John Louis Hyde du Plat Taylor DSO (1865-1936) and the Alice Home Purves (1878-1965).

Plat Taylor was born in the Glasgow Barracks , where her father was stationed . She grew up on the Scottish border in Berwick-upon-Tweed . Her mother denied her proper state education, but her father had a handsome library. Since 1926, her parents regularly spent the winter months in Cyprus . In Nicosia , at that time still a rural town, the family built a small house with a stable, and Joan spent her time horse riding and the dogs, tennis and golf. During these years - during the First World War , archaeological research on Cyprus was stopped - excavations began again there.

In 1927 Plat Taylor met the Swedish archaeologist Einar Gjerstad (1897–1988), was introduced to archeology by him and began to volunteer at the Cyprus Museum . She was employed in the museum shop and as a local tour guide. So Plat Taylor came by chance to archeology, but formed in the following years, a self-taught one of the first marine archaeologists. From 1932 to 1939 she was Assistant Curator of the Cyprus Museum.

From 1945 until her retirement in 1970 she was a full-time librarian at the Institute of Archeology at the University of London , which first turned to underwater archeology through Plat Taylor and whose library she founded. With her research work and her excavations, she made marine archeology a science in its own right.

Plat Taylor founded the Council for Nautical Archeology in 1964 , led excavations in Gravina di Puglia (Botromagno) for the British School at Rome since 1967 , and was the founding editor of The International Journal of Nautical Archeology (IJNA) from 1972 to 1980 . She recognized that amateurs can also make significant contributions to archeology and laid the foundations for their incentive and training. She was the first president of the Nautical Archeology Society . In addition, Plat Taylor established a foundation to promote publications of marine archaeological research results, sponsored many marine archaeologists and their research projects. Since her death, the Nautical Archeology Society has presented the Joan du Plat Taylor Award, named after her . In 1976 she received an honorary doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania .

Plat Taylor was considered to be “an extremely well organized person with the special ability to inspire and use other people for their purposes” . She died of liver cancer unmarried in 1983 .

To mark the 75th anniversary of the London Institute of Archeology in 2012, Joe Flatman and Katie Meheux jointly explore the life and work of Joan du Plat.

literature

  • Nicolle Hirschfeld: Joan Mabel Frederica du Plat Taylor, 1906–1983 , detailed biography with catalog raisonné ( PDF file )
  • Barbara Kling, James David Muhly: Joan du Plat Taylor's excavations at the Late Bronze Age mining settlement at Apliki Karamallos , Studies in Mediterranean Archeology, Paul Åströms Förlag, 2007, ISBN 9170812268 and ISBN 9789170812262

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Alastair Small (ed.): An Iron Age and Roman Republican settlement on Botromagno, Gravina di Puglia. Excavations of 1965-1974 , Volume 1, British School at Rome Archaeological Monographs, 1992, pp. VIIf. ( Excerpt )
  2. Alastair Small (ed.): An Iron Age and Roman Republican settlement on Botromagno , 1992, page IX
  3. Joan du Plat Taylor Project  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.ucl.ac.uk