Lucy Talcott

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Lucy Talcott (born April 10, 1899 in Connecticut , † April 6, 1970 in Princeton ) was an American classical archaeologist . From 1931 to 1958 she was the director of the secretary of the Agora excavation of the US excavations at the Athens Agora .

life and career

Lucy Talcott was educated at Radcliffe College . After obtaining her bachelor's degree , she moved to Columbia University in 1921 , where she did her master's degree . After graduation, she went to the American School of Classical Studies at Athens . There she took part in the excavations in Corinth until 1931 . After she realized that her organizational work was more important than field archeology , she switched to finding processing. From 1931 to 1940 she worked for more than ten years in the newly started US excavation on the Athens Agora. The work, directed by Theodore Leslie Shear , was one of the most significant excavations of its time. Within a short time they produced a multitude of finds and new findings and, in addition to Talcott, also gave various other young archaeologists such as Homer A. Thompson , Eugene Vanderpool , Benjamin Dean Meritt , Dorothy Burr , Virginia Grace , Alison Frantz (for some time Tacotts Assistant in finding processing), Margaret Crosby , Piet de Jong and Ioannis "John" Travlos the opportunity to prove themselves. Talcott was responsible for recording finds and developed a new recording system specifically for this purpose, which she also published widely in the journal Archeology . In retrospect, their system with cross-references applies to both the finds and the photographs as one of the elements that made the agora excavation so successful, and it was also a style-defining feature for other excavations. The Second World War interrupted the work and Talcott was only able to participate in the US excavations on the Agora again in 1947. For 1946 she represented Margaret Crosby in the discovery of the find. Until 1958 she was responsible for taking the finds, but also took on other tasks such as the practical management of the newly built Agora Museum , the reconstruction of the ancient Stoa of Attalus and the management of the excavation house . Under their supervision, the finds scattered in various other places were brought from the Agora to the Agora Museum. In 1958 she ended her activity in order to be able to devote herself more to her studies in vase painting, followed by Poly Demoulini . Talcott died after an extended period of cancer.

A comparatively large number of women participated in the excavations on the Athens agora from an early age. As early as 1932, i.e. in the second year of the excavation, half of the scientific team consisted of women. In this way, they were able to earn an extraordinary respect for a long time in comparison, at times one even spoke of a “despinocracy”, a rule of the “male women”. Younger up-and-coming archaeologists in particular initially reacted with irritation to Talcott's self-confident demeanor, in particular, who was quite strict at work and always upheld scientific standards in her area of ​​research.

Talcott was a specialist in painted Greek ceramics , on which she published in several articles, especially in the magazine Hesperia . Here she submitted several photos of various types of material and was also able to identify the handwriting of some vase painters, such as that of the painter from Bologna 433 . She was also the author of an illustrated book This is Greece with Alison Frantz in 1941 . When the work areas for the planned processing of the excavation, for which 20 volumes were planned, were divided up, Talcott dropped the red-figure ceramics of the classical period and together with Brian Sparkes , with whom she had also written a widespread introduction to the forms of Attic utility ceramics ( Pots and Pans of Classical Athens ), the processing of black varnish ceramics . Her most important scientific contribution was then also the two half-volumes Volume XII of the Agora series , written with Sparkes , in which the results of the American Agora excavations were presented. This double volume Black and Plain Pottery of the 6th, 5th, and 4th Centuries BC is still considered a standard work for Attic household ceramics from archaic and classical times. In 1956 Talcott was honored for her achievements by King Paul of Greece. In honor of Talcott, Brian Sparks named the Talcott class , a class in the manner of bulbous lekyths with a wide mouth rim.

Fonts

  • Editor with Alison Frantz : This is Greece. Hastings House, New York 1941.
  • Lucy Talcott, Barbara Philippaki, G. Roger Edwards, and Virginia R. Grace: Small Objects from the Pnyx. Volume II. (= Hesperia Supplementary, Volume 10), The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton 1956. [Talcott worked the parts into painted ceramics]
  • with Brian Sparkes : Pots and Pans of Classical Athens. (= Agora Picture Book , Volume 1) The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton 1959.
  • with Brian Sparkes: Black and Plain Pottery of the 6th, 5th and 4th Centuries BC [2 volumes] (= Agora , Volume XII), The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton 1970.

literature

  • Susan I. Rotroff and Robert Lamberton: Women in the Athenian Agora. (= Agora Picture Book , Volume 26), American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton 2006, ISBN 0876616449 , pp. 46-48, 50, 53.
  • Lucy Shoe Meritt : A History of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 1939–1980. American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Princeton 1984, p. 192 ( digital copy ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Brian Sparks: Quintain and the Talcott class. In: Antike Kunst 20, 1977, pp. 8–25
personal data
SURNAME Talcott, Lucy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Classical Archaeologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 10, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Connecticut
DATE OF DEATH April 6, 1970
Place of death Princeton