Katherine Routledge and Madeleine Colani
Victorian Trowel Blazers or Honorary Men?
Abstract
Katherine Routledge and Madeleine Colani, two pioneering European archaeologists, were born in August 1866. Routledge’s groundbreaking study of the Easter Island moai was made possible by her family’s vast wealth, while Colani’s tenacity overcame humble beginnings, and a childhood marred by war, to triumph academically and secure scientific missions to the Plain of Jars in Laos. A century ago, perseverance and commitment allowed these women to create their own legacies through challenging archaeological explorations in the autumn of their lives. Both women defied male authority and refused to conform to gender expectations, but met with unequal success in the personal sphere. The year that international prehistorians saluted Colani as one of their own, Routledge met a lonely death in a mental institution. This article discusses their scholarship, the environment in which they operated and the value of their respective legacies.
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