Margaret Crosby

Last updated

Margaret Crosby (1902 - 1972) was an American archaeologist and historian. Crosby graduated from Bryn Mawr College in 1922, and subsequently became involved in archaeology and ancient history, especially epigraphy and metrology, earning her PhD at Yale University. During World War II, Crosby joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and worked as a cryptographer for the OSS' Greek Desk, deciphering reports and materials for the Allied Forces.

Contents

Early life and education

Margaret Crosby was born in Minnesota on August 14, 1901. [1] Margaret's father John Crosby was a friend of US Secretary of State Henry L. Stimson. [2]

Archaeological career

Dura-Europos

After graduating Bryn Mawr, Crosby studied in Europe for two years before beginning graduate work at Yale University. Crosby joined the Yale dig at Dura-Europos, and was the first female archaeologist to work at the site. [3] Unlike the male archaeologists at Dura-Europos, Crosby did not receive a salary and had to pay her own travel expenses. [4]

Athenian Agora

Crosby supervised fieldwork at the Athenian Agora with the American School of Classical Studies at Athens from 1935 to 1939, and was present at every digging season in those years, although digging seasons often lasted as long as five months. Crosby published numerous works on inscriptions and other findings from the Agora. [5]

WWII and the OSS (1940-1945)

Crosby joined the Greek Desk of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during the Second World War. The Greek Desk of the OSS had been created by Rodney Young and was staffed by a large number of archaeologists. She primarily worked as a cryptographer, a skill which she developed while deciphering weathered Greek texts. [6] She was a reports officer for the OSS in Cairo from June to November 1944, and accompanied Gerard Else when he led the move from Cairo to Caserta, where they could be better overseen by the Allied Forces Headquarters. She later moved to Athens with the Greek Desk in November 1944 and continued working there until May 1945. [7]

Return to the Athenian Agora (1946-1955)

After leaving the OSS at the end of the war, Crosby returned to supervise fieldwork at the Athenian Agora from 1946 to 1945. [5]

Later life

Crosby retired in 1962 and lived in Barnard, Vermont with her life partner, the child psychologist Ruth Wendell Washburn. She died on July 30, 1972, in a nursing home in Hanover, New Hampshire. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dura-Europos</span> Ancient Syrian city

Dura-Europos was a Hellenistic, Parthian, and Roman border city built on an escarpment 90 metres above the southwestern bank of the Euphrates river. It is located near the village of Salhiyé, in present-day Syria. Dura-Europos was founded around 300 BC by Seleucus I Nicator, who founded the Seleucid Empire as one of the Diadochi of Alexander the Great. In 113 BC, Parthians conquered the city, and held it, with one brief Roman intermission, until 165 AD. Under Parthian rule, it became an important provincial administrative centre. The Romans decisively captured Dura-Europos in 165 AD and greatly enlarged it as their easternmost stronghold in Mesopotamia, until it was captured by the Sasanian Empire after a siege in 256–257 AD. Its population was deported, and the abandoned city eventually became covered by sand and mud and disappeared from sight.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mabel Lang</span> American archaeologist and classical scholar (1917–2010)

Mabel Louise Lang was an American archaeologist and scholar of Classical Greek and Mycenaean culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothy Burr Thompson</span> Archaeologist and art historian

Dorothy Burr Thompson was an American classical archaeologist and art historian at Bryn Mawr College and a leading authority on Hellenistic terracotta figurines.

Susan Irene Rotroff is an American classical archaeologist, classicist, and academic, specialising in the art, archaeology, and pottery of Ancient Greece. She was Jarvis Thurston and Mona Van Duyn Professor in the Humanities, at Washington University in St. Louis.

Count Robert du Mesnil du Buisson was a French historian, soldier, and archeologist. He was noted for his early use of geophysical survey for archaeology. He was the son of Auguste, comte du Mesnil du Buisson and Berthe Roussel de Courcy, and married Jeanne Leclerc de Pulligny on 26 June 1923. He was the nephew of the geologist Geoffroy d'Ault du Mesnil. He named one of his daughters Ita after the Sphinx found at Ita.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia Grace</span> American archaeologist (1901–1994)

Virginia Randolph Grace (1901–1994) was an American archaeologist, known for her lifelong work into amphoras and their stamped handles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alison Frantz</span> American academic (1903–1995)

Mary Alison Frantz was an American archaeological photographer and a Byzantine scholar. She is best known for her work as the official photographer of the excavations of the Agora of Athens, and for her photographs of ancient Greek sculpture, including the Parthenon frieze and works from the Temple of Zeus at Olympia.

Ann Wheeler Ashmead is an American archaeologist who has co-authored comprehensive catalogues with archaeologist and Etruscologist Kyle Meredith Phillips, Jr. about the Greek Vase Painting collections of Bryn Mawr College (1971) and the Rhode Island School of Design (1976). She has also written the main published catalogue for the Antiquities Collection of Haverford College (1999). and many articles on Greek Vases.

Alfred Raymond Bellinger was an American archaeologist and numismatist. He taught at Yale University and took part in the Dura-Europos excavations and published the book: Dura final report, VI, The coins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jennifer Baird</span> British archaeologist and academic

Jennifer Baird, is a British archaeologist and academic. She is Professor in Archaeology at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research focuses on the archaeology of Rome's eastern provinces, particularly the site of Dura-Europos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temple of the Gadde</span>

The Temple of the Gadde is a temple in the modern-day Syrian city of Dura-Europos, located near the agora. It contained reliefs dedicated to the tutelary deities of Dura-Europos and the nearby city of Palmyra, after whom the temple was named by its excavators. The temple was excavated between 1934 and January 1936 by the French/American expedition of Yale University, led by Michael Rostovtzeff.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temple of Bel, Dura-Europos</span> Temple in Dura-Europos

The Temple of Bel, also known as the Temple of the Palmyrene gods, was located in Dura Europos, an ancient city on the Euphrates, in modern Syria. The temple was established in the first century BC and is celebrated primarily for its wall paintings. Despite the modern names of the structure, it is uncertain which gods were worshipped in the structure. Under Roman rule, the temple was dedicated to the Emperor Alexander Severus. In that period, the temple was located within the military camp of the XXth Palmyrene cohort.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Statue of Hercules, Dura-Europos</span>

The Statue of Hercules was discovered in the Temple of Zeus Megistos in Dura-Europos during the 1935–1937 excavations undertaken by Yale University and the French Academy. The statue dates from the period of Roman rule at Dura-Europos. It is now in the possession of the Yale Art Gallery.

Dorothy Hannah Cox (1892-1977) was an American archaeologist and spy known for her work in excavation architecture and numismatics, and for engaging in espionage during World War II.

John Franklin Daniel III was an American archaeologist, known for his work on deciphering the Cypro-Minoan script.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temple of Atargatis</span>

The Temple of Atargatis in Dura-Europos was one of the main temples of the city. The temple was built in the first century AD, when the city was under Parthian rule, and excavated in 1928–1929 under the direction of Maurice Pillet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temple of Zeus Megistos</span> Temple located in block C4 at Dura-Europos

The Temple of Zeus Megistos is in Dura-Europos in the east of the city in a part of the city that is modernly referred to as the Acropolis. It was one of the main temples of the city, the oldest construction phases of which perhaps go back to the time when the city was under Greek rule. The temple is not well preserved and the results of its excavations are not fully published. Several times the temple has been the target of excavations. The first excavations took place in 1928–37. The ceramics have hardly been recorded, which makes dating the older layers more difficult. The excavators presented some reconstructions of the oldest Greek temple. In particular, the more recent excavations from 1992 and 2002 raise doubts about older reconstructions and interpretations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homeric shield from Dura-Europos</span> Roman artifact (3rd century CE)

The Homeric shield is one of three figural painted shields found together in an embankment within a Roman garrison during the excavations of Dura-Europos. Dura-Europos was a border city of various empires throughout antiquity, and in modern archaeology is noteworthy for its large amount of well-preserved artifacts. Having been virtually untouched for centuries, and with favorable soil, an unusual amount of organic material has been preserved at Dura-Europos. This shield and those found alongside it date from the middle of the 3rd century CE, a period in which a large portion of the city was co-opted as a Roman military base. The shields were deliberately discarded unfinished during the Sassanian siege of Dura Europos. It is widely believed to depict two scenes from the Trojan war: the admission of the Trojan horse into Troy, and the subsequent sack of the city. It is one of few examples of Roman painting on wood, and one of very few Roman painted wooden shields to have survived from antiquity. The shield has now deteriorated beyond most detail being discernible to the naked eye. This is due to the unintended adverse effects of a binding agent applied to the shield in the 1930s in the hopes of preserving the pigmentation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">House of Priests</span> Ancient building in Dura-Europos (Syria)

The building that is referred to as the Priests' House, or House of Priests, at Dura-Europos near the village of Salhiyah in eastern present-day Syria, is one of three buildings that was excavated in block H2. It is hypothesized to be the home of priests from the Temple of Atargatis based on its proximity to the two neighboring temples and graffiti found in the third Excavation season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mary Zelia Pease Philippides</span> American archaeologist (1906–2009)

Mary Zelia Pease Philippides was an American archaeologist and librarian. She was librarian at the American School for Classical Studies in Athens from 1958 to 1971.

References

  1. Wilcox, Erice; et al. (Jan 30, 2009). "Margaret Crosby". Find a Grave . Retrieved November 13, 2024.
  2. Baird, Jennifer (2018-06-14). Dura-Europos. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 43. ISBN   978-1-4725-2365-5.
  3. Brody, Lisa R.; Hoffman, Gail L.; McMullen Museum of Art; Yale University. Art Gallery (2011). Dura-Europos : crossroads of antiquity. Boston College. Chestnut Hill, Mass.; Chicago, Ill. : McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College : dist. by the University of Chicago Press. ISBN   9781892850164.
  4. Baird, Jennifer (2018-06-14). Dura-Europos. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN   978-1-4725-2673-1.
  5. 1 2 Allen, Susan H. (2011-10-05). Classical Spies: American Archaeologists with the OSS in World War II Greece. University of Michigan Press. ISBN   978-0-472-02766-8.
  6. Baird, Jennifer (2018-06-14). Dura-Europos. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 44. ISBN   978-1-4725-2365-5.
  7. Allen, Susan H. (2011-10-05). Classical Spies: American Archaeologists with the OSS in World War II Greece. University of Michigan Press. ISBN   978-0-472-02766-8.
  8. "Dr. Margaret Crosby". The New York Times. 1972-08-02. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-01-25.