Joan Crowfoot Payne (16 January 1912 – 4 October 2002) was a British archaeologist specialising in the study of

lithics Lithic may refer to: *Relating to stone tools **Lithic analysis, the analysis of stone tools and other chipped stone artifacts **Lithic core, the part of a stone which has had flakes removed from it **Lithic flake, the portion of a rock removed to ...

(stone tools and chipped stone) from the

Ancient Near East The ancient Near East was the home of early civilizations within a region roughly corresponding to the modern Middle East: Mesopotamia (modern Iraq, southeast Turkey, southwest Iran and northeastern Syria), ancient Egypt, ancient Iran ( Elam, ...

and worked as Cataloguer of the Ancient Egyptian collection at the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street, Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University of ...

in Oxford.

Early life and education

The second of four sisters, Joan Crowfoot was born in 1912 in

Giza Giza (; sometimes spelled ''Gizah'' arz, الجيزة ' ) is the second-largest city in Egypt after Cairo and fourth-largest city in Africa after Kinshasa, Lagos and Cairo. It is the capital of Giza Governorate with a total population of 9.2 ...

(Egypt) to the educationalist and archaeologist

John Winter Crowfoot John Winter Crowfoot CBE (28 July 1873 – 6 December 1959) was a British educational administrator and archaeologist. He worked for 25 years in Egypt and Sudan, serving from 1914 to 1926 as Director of Education in the Sudan, before accepting an ...

(1873–1959) and Molly Crowfoot (nee Hood) (1877–1957). She and her older sister, the future Nobel-prize-winning chemist

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (née Crowfoot; 12 May 1910 – 29 July 1994) was a Nobel Prize-winning British chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, which became essential fo ...

, attended the Sir John Leman Grammar School in

Beccles Beccles ( ) is a market town and civil parish in the English county of Suffolk.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . The town is shown on the milestone as from London via the A145 and A12 roads, north-east of London as the crow fli ...

, Suffolk. From 1929 to 1932 Crowfoot Payne studied at the

London School of Medicine for Women The London School of Medicine for Women (LSMW) established in 1874 was the first medical school in Britain to train women as doctors. The patrons, vice-presidents, and members of the committee that supported and helped found the London School of Me ...

but was unable to complete her medical training due to an eye condition. The following year, in 1932–1933, she attended the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

as a Research Student on the Diploma Course in

Archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

. Her lack of Latin meant she could not sit the qualifying exam for the course. (Her sister

Dorothy Dorothy may refer to: *Dorothy (given name), a list of people with that name. Arts and entertainment Characters *Dorothy Gale, protagonist of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'' by L. Frank Baum * Ace (''Doctor Who'') or Dorothy, a character playe ...

had to cram Latin in order to take up a place at

Somerville College Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, ...

in Oxford.)

Career

Joan Crowfoot Payne participated in archaeological excavations in the

U.K. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...

, and

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

studying

(chipped stone), and working with her father

Dorothy Garrod Dorothy Annie Elizabeth Garrod, CBE, FBA (5 May 1892 – 18 December 1968) was an English archaeologist who specialised in the Palaeolithic period. She held the position of Disney Professor of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge from 1 ...

John Garstang John Garstang (5 May 1876 – 12 September 1956) was a British archaeologist of the Ancient Near East, especially Egypt, Sudan, Anatolia and the southern Levant. He was the younger brother of Professor Walter Garstang, FRS, a marine bi ...

Mortimer Wheeler Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler CH CIE MC TD (10 September 1890 – 22 July 1976) was a British archaeologist and officer in the British Army. Over the course of his career, he served as Director of both the National Museum of Wales an ...

, and

Kathleen Kenyon Dame Kathleen Mary Kenyon, (5 January 1906 – 24 August 1978) was a British archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent. She led excavations of Tell es-Sultan, the site of ancient Jericho, from 1952 to 1958, and has been called ...

among other archaeologists. In 1957 Crowfoot Payne was appointed to the post of Cataloguer in the

in Oxford, with responsibility for cataloguing the Egyptian and Nubian collections, resulting in her 1993 publication of the ''Catalogue of the Predynastic Egyptian Collection in the Ashmolean Museum''; she was also involved in creating displays of lithic material in the Egyptian and Near Eastern galleries. Crowfoot Payne collaborated with

Elise Jenny Baumgartel Elise Jenny Baumgartel (, 5 October 1892 – 28 October 1975) was a German Egyptologist and prehistorian who pioneered the study of the archaeology of predynastic Egypt. Early career Elise Jenny Goldschmidt was born in Berlin on 5 October 1 ...

on the publication of

Flinders Petrie Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie ( – ), commonly known as simply Flinders Petrie, was a British Egyptologist and a pioneer of systematic methodology in archaeology and the preservation of artefacts. He held the first chair of Egypt ...

's excavations at

Naqada Naqada (Egyptian Arabic: ; Coptic language: ; Ancient Greek: ) is a town on the west bank of the Nile in Qena Governorate, Egypt, situated ca. 20 km north of Luxor. It includes the villages of Tukh, Khatara, Danfiq, and Zawayda. Acco ...

, publishing an update to Baumgartel's ''Petrie's Naqada Excavations: A supplement'' (1970). In 1965 she was promoted to a Departmental Assistantship at the Ashmolean. She retired in 1979 and a year later was awarded an Honorary

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

degree by the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. Her papers are in the Griffith Institute Archive in Oxford.

Personal life

Joan Crowfoot married Denis Payne in 1938; they had five children, four girls and a boy. Crowfoot Payne died in 2002, aged 90, and is buried with her parents and sister Elisabeth next to the church tower in Geldeston, the village in Norfolk where the family had its English base from 1921 onwards.

Selected publications

* 'An Early Amethyst Vase', ''Journal of Egyptian Archaeology.'' 60. pp. 79–81 (1974) *''An Early Dynastic 3. Flint Industry from Abu Salabikh'' (London, 1980) *' Appendix to Naqada Excavations Supplement', ''

Journal of Egyptian Archaeology The ''Journal of Egyptian Archaeology (JEA)'' is a bi-annual peer-reviewed international academic journal published by the Egypt Exploration Society. Covering Egyptological research, the JEA publishes scholarly articles, fieldwork reports, and r ...

'' 73:1, pp. 181–9 (1987) *''Catalogue of the Predynastic Egyptian Collection in the Ashmolean Museum'' (Oxford, 1993) *'Lapis Lazuli in Early Egypt', ''Iraq'' 30:1, pp. 58–61 (1968) *'The Chronology of Predynastic Egyptian Decorated Ware', ''Eretz-Israel. Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies.'' 21 pp. 77–82 (1990) *'Tomb 100: The Decorated Tomb at Hierakonpolis Confirmed', ''Journal of Egyptian Archaeolog''y. 59, pp. 31–35 (1973)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Payne, Joan Crowfoot British archaeologists British women archaeologists Archaeologists of the Near East British Egyptologists British curators British women curators People associated with the Ashmolean Museum 1912 births 2002 deaths 20th-century archaeologists