Margaret Collingridge Wheeler, Lady Wheeler ( Norfolk; 1916–1990) was an Australian archaeologist who worked at

Maiden Castle, Dorset Maiden Castle is an British Iron Age, Iron Age hillfort southwest of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester, in the English county of Dorset. Hill forts were fortified hill-top settlements Hillforts in Britain, constructed across Britain during the I ...

with

Mortimer Wheeler Sir Robert Eric Mortimer Wheeler Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, CH Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire, CIE Military Cross, MC Territorial Decoration, TD (10 September 1890 – 22 July 1976) was a British archaeolo ...

in the 1930s and at

Jericho Jericho ( ; , ) is a city in the West Bank, Palestine, and the capital of the Jericho Governorate. Jericho is located in the Jordan Valley, with the Jordan River to the east and Jerusalem to the west. It had a population of 20,907 in 2017. F ...

with Dame

Kathleen Kenyon Dame Kathleen Mary Kenyon, (5 January 1906 – 24 August 1978) was a British archaeologist of Neolithic culture in the Fertile Crescent. She led excavations of Tell es-Sultan, the site of ancient Jericho, from 1952 to 1958, and has been called ...

in the 1950s. She authored books about archaeology for a general audience.

Biography

Born in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Australia, Collingridge went to England to be educated. She joined the excavation team at

where

and his first wife

Tessa Wheeler Tessa Wheeler ( Verney; 27 March 1893 – 15 April 1936) was an archaeologist who made a significant contribution to excavation techniques and contributed to the setting up of major British archaeological institutions after the World War II, Se ...

were directing the examination of the Iron Age British hill fort. Several other notable women archaeologists took part in this excavation, including

Veronica Seton-Williams Veronica Seton-Williams (20 April 1910 – 29 May 1992) FSA, was a British-Australian archaeologist who excavated in Egypt and the Near East, as well as in Britain. She studied history and political science at the University of Melbourne and t ...

, Joan du Plat Taylor, Rachel Maxwell-Hyslop, and Margot Eates. She joined Wheeler's excavation at Camp d'Artus near Huelgoat,

Finistère Finistère (, ; ) is a Departments of France, department of France in the extreme west of Brittany. Its prefecture is Quimper and its largest city is Brest, France, Brest. In 2019, it had a population of 915,090.Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

in 1938 and subsequent explorations in

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

in 1939. Wheeler's biographer

Jacquetta Hawkes Jacquetta Hawkes (5 August 1910 – 18 March 1996) was an English archaeologist and writer. She was the first woman to study the Archaeology & Anthropology degree course at the University of Cambridge. A specialist in prehistoric archaeology, ...

noted that Wheeler had developed romantic feelings for Collingridge by this stage, although he married Mavis de Vere Cole in 1939, three years after the death of his first wife Tessa. Margaret Collingridge joined the ATS during the Second World War and learned range-finding. She met a childhood friend, Robert Norfolk, a submarine commander, whom she married. In 1941, Norfolk's submarine HMS ''Thorn'' went down in the Eastern Mediterranean. Margaret Norfolk married Sir

in 1945 when Wheeler was Director-General of Archaeology in India. She travelled extensively with Wheeler to sites in India, Iran and Afghanistan. In 1954, Margaret joined Dame Kathleen Kenyon's excavations at Jericho. Her book ''Walls of Jericho'' (1956) describes the excavation and personnel. She followed its publication with ''A Book of Archaeology'' and ''A Second Book of Archaeology''. Her obituary in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' noted her reputation for producing popular books on the discipline.''The Times'' (1990).

References

Sources

*Carr, L. 2012. ''Tessa Verney Wheeler: Women and Archaeology Before World War Two''. Oxford: Oxford University Press. *Cornwall, T. 1958. Digging Without Malice. ''The New Scientist''. 6 December, pp. 50–51. *Davis, M. 2008. ''Dame Kathleen Kenyon: Digging Up the Holy Land''. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press. *Hawkes, J. 1982. ''Mortimer Wheeler: Adventurer in Archaeology''. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. *Kenyon, K. 1957. ''Digging Up Jericho''. London: Ernest Benn. *Matthews, R. 2003. ''The Archaeology of Mesopotamia: theories and approaches.'' London: Routledge. *''The Times''. 1990. Lady Wheeler. The Times, 26 December, p. 10. *Wheeler, M. 1956. ''Walls of Jericho''. London: Chatto and Windus. *Wheeler, M. 1957. ''A Book of Archaeology''. London: Cassell & Co. *Wheeler M. 1959. ''A Second Book of Archaeology''. London: Cassell & Co. *Wheeler, R. E. M. 1943.
Maiden Castle, Dorset
'. Oxford: Oxford University Press for the Society of Antiquaries. {{DEFAULTSORT:Collingridge Wheeler, Margaret Australian archaeologists Australian women archaeologists 1916 births 1990 deaths 20th-century Australian archaeologists Wives of knights