Veronica Seton Williams and Joan du Plat Taylor at du Plat TayloLeft to right: Judith (Dobell) Stylianou, Veronica Seton-Williams, Joan duPlat Taylor, and Margaret (Beazley/Sessions) Walker-Brash
Joan Du Plat Taylor in the Cyprus Museum
To R. Du Plat Taylor with Hound

Joan Du Plat Taylor

Joan du Plat Taylor 1906-1983 was born on 26 June 1906 in the Glasgow Barracks, Scotland, and her mother refused to allow her to attend school. In 1926, the family moved to Nicosia, Cyprus. Joan began to volunteer in the Cyprus Museum. After Porphyrios Dikaios became director of the museum, Joan became his assistant and went on to become acting Inspector of Antiquities. Joan participated in Mortimer Wheelers’ excavations at Verulamium (1931-1932) and at Maiden Castle (1935-1936) in England, and thereafter she worked in Cyprus at Neolithic Khirokitia (1934-1946). In addition to her work at the museum she took on numerous projects, including the direction of full-scale excavations at two sites: Ayios Philon, an Early Christian basilica, and Apliki, a Late Bronze Age copper-mining settlement, both of which she published. Along with her colleague, Veronica Seton-Williams she co-authored “Classification of Pottery in the Cyprus Museum.” In 1939 she went to Syria with John Waechter with whom she surveyed 109 sites between Aleppo and the Euphrates River. The 1938-39 excavations at Apliki-Karamallos, in the mining district of the Cypriot Troodos Mountains, was one of the most important projects which she then undertook. In 1945, she assumed the post of Librarian at the Institute of Archaeology, University of London—a position she held until her retirement in 1970. In 1949 she excavated in Turkey at Coba Hüyük (Sakce Gözü), at Myrtou-Pigadhes in Cyprus, and surveyed149 sites in Syria and excavated at Arpad. In 1959 she worked on the Late Bronze Age shipwreck at Gelidonya, and in 1960 she worked at Motya, a small island (near Marsala, Sicily) whose entire extent is covered with the remains of a Phoenician city. In Italy, in 1967, she directed excavations at Gravina di Puglia (Botromagno). Marine Archaeology was published in 1965 under Joan’s editorship and 1970, and she founded and edited what was The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and Underwater Exploration (IJNA). In 1976, in recognition of her tremendous contributions to the field of nautical archaeology, the University of Pennsylvania honored her with a richly deserved doctorate. Joan du Plat Taylor made enormous contributions both to Cypriot archaeology and underwater archaeology. She died of cancer in 1983.



Author of biography: Nicolle Hirshfeld
Includes bibliography? Yes

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Keywords: Aceramic Neolithic Period, A.H.S. (Peter) Megaw, Aleppo, Al Mina (Syria), Al Ubaid, Andreas Stylianou, Apliki, Aramaean, Archaeologist, Arpad, Asia Minor, Assyrian, Australians, Axel Persson, Ayia Irini, Ayios Philon, Baghdad, Barbara Kling, Beirut, Basil Hennessy, Benedikt Isserlin, Blos [Veronica Seton-Williams], Bradano, British Institute of Archaeology in Ankara, British School at Rome, British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, British School at Athens, Buto, Byzantine churches and paintings, cancer, C14, Chalcolithic, Christian basilica, Cesnola, British Museum, Chrysostomos Paraskeva, Cilician plain, Coba Hüyük (Sakce Gözü), Colonel Gallagher, Committee (later the Council) for Nautical Archaeology (CNA), copper, Cozzo Presepe, Cyprus, Cyprus Department of Antiquities, Cyprus Exploration Fund, Cyprus Mines Corporation, Cyprus Museum, Daghdaghli, Damascus, Dame Kathleen Kenyon, Delphi, dendrochronological, Dikaios, dogs, Dura Europos, Egypt, England, Euphrates, Feminism, First World War, Frédéric Dumas, Gelidonya, George F. Bass, Gjerstad, Glasgow Barracks (Scotland), Gordon Childe, Gravina di Puglia (Botromagno), G.R.H. (Mick) Wright, Hector Catling, Honor Frost, IJNA, Illustrated London News, Institute of Archaeology (London), Iraq, Iraq, Jabbul (Syria), Jacques Cousteau, James Mellaart, James Muhly, Jericho, John Garstang, John Waechter, John Ward-Perkins,. Judith Dobell [Stylianou], Iron Age, Italy, Hume, Karpass peninsula, Khirokitia, Lachish, Larnaca, Late Bronze Age, Luigi Palma di Cesnola, Luki Zenon Pierides, Maiden Castle, Margaret Beazley [Walker-Brash], Margaret Munn-Rankin, Marsala, Sicily, medieval pottery, Mediterranean, Megaw, Metaponto, Middle Bronze Age, Ministry of Information, Mortimer Wheeler, Motya, Myrtou-Pigadhes, nautical archaeology, Near East, Nicosia, Peloponnese, Peter Throckmorton, Phoenician, Porphyrios Dikaios, Ptolemaic and Iron Age tombs, rescue excavations, Robert Merrillees, Roman ceramics, Rowena de Marchemund, Rupert Gunnis, Samarra, SCUBA, Sinai, Singer, Sinclair Hood, Sir Charles Peers, Sir Flinders Petrie, Sir George Hill, Skouriotissa, slag, Starkey, Stylianou, Swedish Expedition, Swedish Cyprus Expedition, Syria, Taranto, Tell ed-Duweir (Lachish), Tell el-Fara’, Tell Halaf, Tell Keisan, Tessa Wheeler, The International Journal of Nautical Archaeology and Underwater Exploration, Troodos, Turkey, tuyères, University College London, University of Leeds, University of London, University of Pennsylvania, Veronica Seton-Williams, Verulamium, Wheeler.

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Breaking Ground: Pioneering Women Archaeologists
Published by the University of Michigan Press, 2004