Virginia Randolph Grace (1901–1994) was an American

archaeologist 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 ...

, known for her lifelong work into

amphoras An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...

and their stamped handles. As a result of this work, amphoras and their stamped handles are now useful as a tool for closely dating archaeological contexts and serve as a primary indicator for tracing and understanding ancient trade in the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

. Her research files are the foundation of a unique archive of stamped handles (totaling some 150,000 records) from across the ancient world and to which scholars continue to add.

Personal life and education

Virginia Grace was born in 1901 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to Lee Ashley and Virginia Fitz-Randolph Grace, a comfortably-off family with her father involved in importing cotton. She attended

Brearley School The Brearley School is an all-girls private school in New York City, located on the Upper East Side neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan. The school is divided into lower (kindergarten – grade 4), middle (grades 5–8) and upper (grades 9 ...

. She 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 St ...

, graduating in 1922, after which she taught English and mathematics to secondary-school students for several years. In 1927 she returned to Bryn Mawr interpolating her studies with a year at the

American School of Classical Studies at Athens , native_name_lang = Greek , image = American School of Classical Studies at Athens.jpg , image_size = , image_alt = , caption = The ASCSA main building as seen from Mount Lykavittos , latin_name = , other_name = , former_name = , mo ...

and earning her PhD in 1934, working with stamped

amphora An amphora (; grc, ἀμφορεύς, ''amphoreús''; English plural: amphorae or amphoras) is a type of container with a pointed bottom and characteristic shape and size which fit tightly (and therefore safely) against each other in storag ...

handles. While at Bryn Mawr she became engaged to a fellow student, although they did not marry before his death (a few years before 1940). She died in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

on 22 May 1994.Medwid, L. M. (2000) 'Virginia R(andolph) Grace', in The makers of classical archaeology, Prometheus Books, New York. pp. 127-128

Archaeological work

Grace's work has included excavating

Pergamon Pergamon or Pergamum ( or ; grc-gre, Πέργαμον), also referred to by its modern Greek form Pergamos (), was a rich and powerful ancient Greece, ancient Greek city in Mysia. It is located from the modern coastline of the Aegean Sea on a ...

, Halai and tombs at

Lapithos Lapithos or Lapethos ( el, Λάπηθος; tr, Lapta) is a town in Cyprus. ''De facto'', it is under the control of Northern Cyprus. Archeologists claim that Lapithos was founded by the Achean brothers Praxandros and Cepheus. According to Stra ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

, and a lifelong affiliation with the Agora Excavations, starting in 1932. In 1935, she worked on the Bryn Mawr Tarsus excavations. She was a visiting scholar at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholar ...

Princeton Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ni ...

and received two

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

s to advance her research, the first in 1938. She worked with the U.S. State Department, the O.S.S. Greek Affairs offices in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

İzmir İzmir ( , ; ), also spelled Izmir, is a metropolitan city in the western extremity of Anatolia, capital of the province of the same name. It is the third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara and the second largest urban agglo ...

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metro ...

, and at Athens National Museum. In 1989, she was awarded the

Gold Medal of the Archaeological Institute of America The Gold Medal Award for Distinguished Archaeological Achievement is awarded by the Archaeological Institute of America in "recognition of a scholar who has made distinguished contributions to archaeology through his or her fieldwork, publications ...

References

External links

A Study of the Database and the Definition of Matrices of Stamped Amphora Handles in Alexandria
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grace, Virginia Randolph 1901 births 1994 deaths American School of Classical Studies at Athens Bryn Mawr College alumni Scientists from New York City American women archaeologists 20th-century American archaeologists 20th-century American women Historians from New York (state) American expatriates in Greece Fulbright alumni