Spotlights
Archaeologist of the Month: Gertrude Caton Thompson
Gertrude Caton Thompson was a no-nonsense woman with an expert understanding of Stone Age sites as well as the later archaeology of tropical Africa. She didn’t let prejudice cloud her view as she took in evidence, comparing ceramics and the structure of ancient walls to contemporary ones, to unequivocally say that native African people had been responsible for the important site of Great Zimbabwe.
Gertrude Caton Thompson was born in 1888 to a well-off family in
London, England. Although her father died at a young age, she and the
rest of her family were still able to live long and fulfilling lives.
Thompson was educated at home by a series of governesses and then sent
to a small, private boarding school called The Links. During her time
at The Links, she visited multiple European cities, such as Florence,
Italy, and Dresden, Germany. She completed this stage of her education
in 1905 with an interest in European cities and music. She played the
violin and so music was a large part of her life.
After she
graduated she went on a tumultuous journey through different European
and North African cities with her mother and her brother. She went on
treks with her brother to see various different archaeological sites
and tourist attractions in Egypt.
She moved back to London with
her family where she got involved in Women’s Suffrage and the Women’s
Emergency Corps in 1914. Around this time she moved back to France and
met up with a friend named Ella Stephens who helped nurture her
interest in prehistory. This new interest drove her to tour the sites
at Roches Rouges in France.
In 1921, she went to Abydos in Upper Egypt where she worked with
William Matthew Flinders Petrie who gave her training in archaeology
and stressed the importance of minor artifacts and cross-dating. After
her work at Abydos, she decided to take time off from excavating to
further her study of archaeology. Thompson was an intelligent person
and knew that she wanted to improve her technique to be more than just
the on-the-job training Petrie gave her. She went to Newnham College,
Cambridge for three terms under Dr. Gertrude Elles.
In 1924,
Thompson brought the geologist Elinor Gardner with her to excavate at
Fayum in Egypt. Thompson and Gardner’s findings provided much insight
into the neolithic people of Fayum. They discovered two very distinct
kinds of pottery, which means that there were at least two cultural
phases, dubbed Fayum A and Fayum B.
Thompson was selected by the British Association for the Advancement of Science to excavate at the controversial site of Great Zimbabwe in 1928. This was an incredible opportunity for her and she took it with gusto.
At that time, Europeans didn’t want to admit that Great Zimbabwe was
created by Black Africans. Many people thought Phoenician explorers
built it or that it was the long-lost palace of the Biblical Queen of
Sheba. Thompson knew to hold her judgment until after the evidence had
been found and analyzed.
In previous years, another team, led by
David Randall-McIver, had started excavations and found evidence that
the site was created by local African people, but that angered
settlers in South Africa, so they were forced to stop excavation for
two decades.
Thompson had her work cut out for her from the very
beginning since the site was so embroiled in controversy.
Unfortunately, the site had been pillaged. Fortunately, she was
formally trained and had a sharp mind. She used what Petrie had taught
her about cross-dating, a technique used in Egyptian archaeology to
date sites based on imports from distant lands, and the importance of
small artifacts to say that Great Zimbabwe was at the height of its
power before the Portuguese arrived. She also found that Great
Zimbabwe had started as a small farming village and then dramatically
increased in size. Her conclusion that native African people created
Great Zimbabwe is still supported by archaeologists today.
Gertrude Caton Thompson is remembered even to this day as a
strong figure in archaeology, as well as a role model to young women
who wish to pursue a career in archaeology. Her many discoveries over
the years have added greater knowledge and understanding to the
discipline, especially her findings at Great Zimbabwe.
Caton Thompson, Gertrude. Mixed Memoirs. Paradigm,
1983.
Fagan, Brian. Great Archaeologists, Thames &
Hudson, New York, NY, 2022, pp. 119–121.
“Gertrude
Caton-Thompson.” Royal Asiatic Society, 28 Jan. 2022,
https://royalasiaticsociety.org/gertrude-caton-thompson/.
Wendrich, Willeke. “Gertrude Caton Thompson (1888-1985), Famous
Footsteps to Fill.” Archéo-Nil, Persée - Portail Des Revues
Scientifiques En SHS, 19 Apr. 2022,
https://www.persee.fr/doc/arnil_1161-0492_2007_num_17_1_933.
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