Josephine Lesley Fitton (born 1953) is a British

classical archaeologist Classical archaeology is the archaeological investigation of the Mediterranean civilizations of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Nineteenth-century archaeologists such as Heinrich Schliemann were drawn to study the societies they had read about i ...

and the Keeper of the Department of Greece and Rome at the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

. She is particularly known for her work on the Minoans, the

Cyclades The Cyclades (; el, Κυκλάδες, ) are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The nam ...

, and the Greek

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

Education and career

Fitton was born in

Rochdale Rochdale ( ) is a large town in Greater Manchester, England, at the foothills of the South Pennines in the dale on the River Roch, northwest of Oldham and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough ...

in 1953 and attended Bury Grammar School for Girls where she was friends with

Victoria Wood Victoria Wood (19 May 1953 – 20 April 2016) was an English comedian, actress, lyricist, singer, composer, pianist, screenwriter, producer and director. Wood wrote and starred in dozens of sketches, plays, musicals, films and sitcoms over se ...

. Fitton has spent her career working at the

. She started as a research assistant in the Department of Greece and Rome, and then progressed to become the Assistant Keeper responsible for the Greek Bronze Age collections. Since 2007, Fitton has been the Keeper (Head of Department). She was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 29 April 1999. Fitton's current work includes the digitisation of the collection of Cypriot antiquities at the

. She also works on Troy. Fitton has written a number of books to make her subject matter accessible to undergraduates and general readers. Her 2002 book ''Minoans'' was pitched to make the latest archaeological information accessible and affordable to students. She was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE) in the

2021 New Year Honours The 2021 New Year Honours are appointments by some of the 16 Commonwealth realms to various orders and honours to recognise and reward good works by citizens of those countries. The New Year Honours are awarded as part of the New Year celebration ...

for services to museums and the arts.

Television and film

Fitton has appeared or consulted on several television series:

Appearances

*''Troy: From Ruins to Reality'' (2005) *''Attacking Troy'' (2007)

Consultant

*''The Minoans'' (2004) *''Helen of Troy'' (2005)

Troy

Fitton also gave advice on historical accuracy to the producers and cast of

Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...

in 2004. Fitton reflected on her experience in a 2009 volume on the film, where she considered whether the film should have adhered more closely to historical facts. While Fitton believed that the film could have done more to reflect historical and archaeological realities, she concluded that:

Yet my personal view is that the story is not history, that Homer was not a historian, and that something of Homer would certainly have been lost in a purist archaeological approach. Ultimately, dramatic success matters more than the archaeological accuracy of Helen’s hairpins. It matters more for modern audiences to feel for Achilles in his progress from war machine to man, to sympathize with Hector in his efforts to defend all that was dear to him, and in the end to mourn for Priam and for Troy.

Selected publications

*J.L. Fitto
'Veronica Tatton-Brown, Cyprus, and the British Museum'
in ed. T Kiely ''Ancient Cyprus in the British Museum. Essays in honour of Veronica Tatton-Brown'' (British Museum Press, 2009) pp. v-viii. *J.L. Fitton 'Troy and the Role of the Historical Advisor' in ed. Martin M Winckler ''Troy: From Homer's Iliad to Hollywood Epic'' (John Wiley & Sons, 2009) pp. 99–106. *J.L. Fitton (ed.), ''The Aigina Treasure. Aegean Bronze Age jewelry and a mystery revealed'' (London, British Museum Press, 2009). *J.L. Fitton, N. Meeks and L. Joyner, 'The Aigina Treasure: Catalogue and Technical Report', in Fitton (ed.) 2009, pp. 17–31. *J.L.Fitton, 'Links in a chain: Aigina, Dahshur and Tod’, in Fitton (ed.) 2009, pp. 61–6. *J.L. Fitton, Contributions to, J. Aruz, K. Benzel and J. Evans (eds.), ''Beyond Babylon. Art, trade and diplomacy in the Second Millennium B.C.'' (Metropolitan Museum, New York, 2008). *J. L. Fitton, ''Minoans'' (London, British Museum Press, 2002). *J. L. Fitton, ''Cycladic Art'' (London, British Museum Press (2nd ed.), 1999). *J. L. Fitton, ''The Discovery of the Greek Bronze Age'' (London, British Museum Press, 1995). *J. L. Fitton
'Charles Newton and the Discovery of the Greek Bronze Age'
''Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. Supplement,'' (63), 1995 73-78 *J. L. Fitton, ''Heinrich Schliemann and the British Museum'' (British Museum Occasional Paper 83, London, British Museum, 1991). *J. L. Fitton (ed.), ''Cycladica: Studies in Memory of N. P. Goulandris'' (London, British Museum Press, 1984).

References

External links

*
Reading from ''Minoans'' (2002)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fitton, Lesley 1953 births Employees of the British Museum Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London Classical archaeologists Living people British archaeologists British women archaeologists British curators British women historians Officers of the Order of the British Empire