Edith Eccles (born 1910 in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

; died 1977) was a British classical archaeologist who did work at the British School at Athens and worked with Sir

Arthur Evans Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. He is most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete. Based on ...

Knossos Knossos (also Cnossos, both pronounced ; grc, Κνωσός, Knōsós, ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and has been called Europe's oldest city. Settled as early as the Neolithic period, the na ...

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

in the 1930s. She studied at Royal Holloway, University of London.

Career

During the 1930s she was a friend of Mercy Money-Coutts who worked and travelled with her in Greece and beyond.Elizabeth Schofield, Mercy Money-Coutts Seiradaki (1910-1993)
/ref> She remained active after the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis that ultimately ended her life. In 1935, Eccles assisted the archaeologist

Spyridon Marinatos Spyridon Nikolaou Marinatos ( el, Σπυρίδων Νικολάου Μαρινάτος; November 4, 1901 – October 1, 1974) was a Greek archaeologist, best known for leading excavations at Akrotiri on Santorini (1967–74), where he died and i ...

with excavations at the cave sanctuary of

Arkalochori Arkalochori ( el, Αρκαλοχώρι) is a town and a former municipality in the Heraklion regional unit, Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Minoa Pediada, of which it is a municipal unit. The m ...

. She maintained a strong professional relationship with Marinatos throughout her life, which is documented through letters published in 2015. In 1936, Eccles attended

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United ...

as the Mary Paul Collins Fellow in Archaeology. At that time, she worked on illustrations for

's publication of their excavations at Knossos. Eccles studied Greek Archaeology under

Mary Hamilton Swindler Mary Hamilton Swindler (January 2, 1884 – January 16, 1967) was an American archaeologist, classical art scholar, author, and professor of classical archaeology, most notably at Bryn Mawr College, the University of Pennsylvania, and the ...

, whilst researching gems and seal stones of the

Late Minoan The Minoan chronology dating system is a measure of the phases of the Minoan civilization. Initially established as a relative dating system by English archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans between 1900 and 1903 based on his analysis of Minoan pottery ...

and Mycenean periods.

Selected works

*Eccles, Edith. "The Seals and Sealings." ''Annual of the British School at Athens'' vol. 40(1940): 43–49

*Hutchinson, R. W., Edith Eccles and Sylvia Benton. "Unpublished Objects from Palaikastro and Praisos. II." ''The Annual of the British School at Athens'', vol. 40(1939): 38–59

References

Classical archaeologists Academics from Liverpool Alumni of Royal Holloway, University of London Deaths from multiple sclerosis Neurological disease deaths in the United Kingdom 1910 births 1977 deaths Bryn Mawr College alumni English archaeologists Minoan archaeologists 20th-century archaeologists British women archaeologists {{UK-archaeologist-stub