Mabel Louise Lang (November 12, 1917 – July 21, 2010) was an American

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

and scholar of

Classical Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archa ...

and

Mycenae Mycenae ( ; ; or , ''Mykē̂nai'' or ''Mykḗnē'') is an archaeological site near Mykines, Greece, Mykines in Argolis, north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece. It is located about south-west of Athens; north of Argos, Peloponnese, Argos; and sou ...

an culture.

Biography

Lang took her first degree at

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

in 1939 and was awarded her

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh language, Welsh: ) is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as a ...

in 1943, when she also joined the faculty of the college. She was a faculty member there until 1991 and professor emerita until her death. She was appointed as

Paul Shorey Paul Shorey (August 3, 1857 – April 24, 1934) was an American classical scholar. Biography Shorey was born at Davenport, Iowa. After graduating from Harvard University, Harvard in 1878, he studied in Europe at University of Leipzig, Leip ...

Professor of Greek in 1971. That same year, she was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

. In 1981 she was elected a Fellow of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

. She was the author of several books on Classical Greek law and culture, and was a contributor to the deciphering of the

Linear B Linear B is a syllabary, syllabic script that was used for writing in Mycenaean Greek, the earliest Attested language, attested form of the Greek language. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries, the earliest known examp ...

inscriptions found at

Pylos Pylos (, ; ), historically also known as Navarino, is a town and a former Communities and Municipalities of Greece, municipality in Messenia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform, it has been part of ...

. She was also the first, in 1969, to attempt to interpret the patterns on the painted floors of the

megaron The ''megaron'' (; , , : ''megara'' ) was the great hall in very early Mycenae, Mycenean and Ancient Greece, ancient Greek palace complexes. Architecturally, it was a rectangular hall that was supported by four columns, fronted by an open, two- ...

at Pylos, suggesting that the designs represented different types of stone. As well as her publications on the

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

frescoes and Linear B tablets at Pylos, she also wrote works on the Greek

historiographers Historiography is the study of the methods used by historians in developing history as an academic discipline. By extension, the term "historiography" is any body of historical work on a particular subject. The historiography of a specific to ...

Herodotus Herodotus (; BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus (now Bodrum, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He wrote the '' Histori ...

and

Thucydides Thucydides ( ; ; BC) was an Classical Athens, Athenian historian and general. His ''History of the Peloponnesian War'' recounts Peloponnesian War, the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been d ...

, and on the excavations of the Athenian

Agora The agora (; , romanized: ', meaning "market" in Modern Greek) was a central public space in ancient Ancient Greece, Greek polis, city-states. The literal meaning of the word "agora" is "gathering place" or "assembly". The agora was the center ...

with the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, on which she worked as an archaeologist. In 1982 she delivered the Martin Classical Lectures at

Oberlin College Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio, United States. Founded in 1833, it is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational lib ...

, and these were later published as ''Herodotean Narrative and Discourse''. The body of unfinished work which she left at her death was published posthumously by her colleagues in 2011 as ''Thucydidean Narrative and Discourse''. A memorial for her was held at Bryn Mawr College on April 3, 2011.

Selected works

*
The Athenian Citizen
' (1960, revised 2004 by John McK. Camp II). Princeton, N.J.: American School of Classical Studies at Athens. *''The Athenian Agora Volume x: Athenian Weights, Measures, and Tokens'' (1964, with Margaret Crosby) Princeton, N.J.: American School of Classical Studies at Athens. *''The Palace of Nestor at Pylos in Western Messenia: Vol. II, The Frescoes'' (1966). Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press for the University of Cincinnati. *
Waterworks in the Athenian Agora
' (1968). American School of Classical Studies at Athens. *
Graffiti in the Athenian Agora
' (1974, revised 1988). Oxford: Oxbow Books. *''The Athenian Agora Volume xxi: Graffiti and Dipinti'' (1975). American School of Classical Studies at Athens. *
Cure and Cult in Ancient Corinth : A Guide to the Asklepieion
' (1977) Meriden, Conn: Meriden Gravure. *
Socrates in the Agora
' (1978). Princeton, N.J.: American School of Classical Studies at Athens. *''Herodotean Narrative and Discourse'' (1984). Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. *''The Athenian Agora Volume xxv: Ostraka'' (1990). American School of Classical Studies at Athens. *
Life, Death and Litigation in the Athenian Agora
' (1994). Oxford: Oxbow Books. *''Thucydidean Narrative and Discourse'' (2011). (Mabel Lang, edited by Jeffrey S. Rusten and Richard Hamilton) Ann Arbor: Michigan Classical Press.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lang, Mabel 1917 births 2010 deaths American women classical scholars Bryn Mawr College alumni Columbia University alumni Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Classical scholars of Bryn Mawr College American classical archaeologists American women archaeologists 21st-century American women academics 21st-century American academics Members of the American Philosophical Society