Esther Boise Van DemanBorn 1 Oct 1862; died 3 May 1937 at age 74.American archaeologist who was studying on a scholarship in Rome when she decided that Roman archaeology was to be her chosen field of work. In 1907, while attending a lecture in the Atrium Vestae, that she noticed that the bricks blocking up a doorway were different from those in the structure itself, and she speculated that those differences in building materials might provide a wealth of information for dating the choronology of Roman structures. Thus began thirty years of life in Rome. She was the first woman to specialize in Roman field archaeology. She established lasting criteria for the dating of ancient constructions, which advanced the serious study of Roman architecture.[Image: Photo by Ester Van Deman: Excavations of the Atrium Vestae in the Forum, Rome, Italy.] |
