Elinor Wight Gardner

Elinor Wight Gardner
Born(1892-09-24)September 24, 1892
Birmingham
Died1980 (aged 87–88)
NationalityBritish
Academic background
EducationNewnham College
Academic work
DisciplineGeology
Sub-disciplineArcheological surveys of Africa
InstitutionsBedford College, London
Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

Elinor Wight Gardner (24 September 1892, in Birmingham – 1980),[1] a geology lecturer at Bedford College, London and research fellow at Lady Margaret Hall,[2] is best known for her field surveys with Gertrude Caton–Thompson of the Kharga Oasis which are now recognized as pioneering interdisciplinary research in Africa.[3][4]

In 1925, Caton-Thompson and Gardner began the first archaeological survey of the northern Faiyum, where they sought to correlate ancient lake levels with archaeological stratification. They continued working in the Faiyum over the next two years for the Royal Anthropological Institute where they discovered two unknown Neolithic cultures. The pair also worked on prehistoric sites at Kharga Oasis in 1930. This led to research more broadly on the palaeolithic of north Africa, which Caton-Thompson published in 1952.[3]

  1. ^ "Pitt Rivers Museum".
  2. ^ Magarita Díaz-Andreu; Marie Louise Stig Sorensen, eds. (2005). Excavating Women: A History of Women in European Archaeology. ISBN 1134727755.
  3. ^ a b G Caton-Thomson; E W Gardner (1952). Kharga Oasis in prehistory. OCLC 755035832.
  4. ^ "TrowelBlazers — the Six Degrees of Dorothy Garrod". Archived from the original on 9 March 2014. Retrieved 9 March 2014.