Elizabeth Jane "Betchen" Wayland Barber (also E. J. W. Barber) is an American scholar and expert on

archaeology Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsc ...

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Ling ...

textiles Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

, and folk dance as well as Professor emerita of archaeology and linguistics at

Occidental College Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is one of the oldes ...

Early life

Wayland Barber was born in 1940, in Pasadena. She became interested in archaeology at a young age because of her love of interdisciplinary sciences. Her family moved to

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

during her childhood, where she learned

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

, beginning her interest in linguistics. She first developed expert sewing and weaving skills under her mother's tutelage.

Scholarly work

She earned a bachelor's degree from

Bryn Mawr College Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United ...

in Archaeology and Greek in 1962. Her chief mentor was

Mabel Lang Mabel Louise Lang (November 12, 1917 – July 21, 2010) was an American archaeologist and scholar of Classical Greek and Mycenaean culture. Biography Lang took her first degree at Cornell University in 1939 and was awarded her PhD at Bryn M ...

from whom she learned

Linear B Linear B was a syllabic script used for writing in Mycenaean Greek, the earliest attested form of Greek. The script predates the Greek alphabet by several centuries. The oldest Mycenaean writing dates to about 1400 BC. It is descended from ...

and who advised her honors thesis on

Linear A Linear A is a writing system that was used by the Minoans of Crete from 1800 to 1450 BC to write the hypothesized Minoan language or languages. Linear A was the primary script used in palace and religious writings of the Minoan civi ...

. In addition to Lang, she wrote her thesis under Emmett L. Bennett Jr. Her thesis used computer indices of the

Hagia Triada Hagia Triada (also Ayia Triada, Agia Triada, Agia Trias, , " Holy Trinity") is the archaeological site of an ancient Minoan settlement. Hagia Triada is situated on the western end of a prominent coastal ridge, with Phaistos at the eastern end and ...

Linear A texts in an attempt to decipher its signs and symbols. The computer indices were made via

punched cards A punched card (also punch card or punched-card) is a piece of stiff paper that holds digital data represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Punched cards were once common in data processing applications or to di ...

, a method which was preceded by the work of Alice E. Kober on Linear B. She earned her PhD from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...

in linguistics in 1968. Her doctoral study at

was supervised by Sydney Lamb, under whom she wrote her dissertation, "The Computer Aided Analysis of Undeciphered Ancient Texts."

Books

Her books include ''Prehistoric Textiles: The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages with Special Reference to the Aegean'' (1992), ''Women's Work: The First 20,000 Years; Women, Cloth, and Society in Early Times'' (1995), ''The Mummies of Ürümchi'' (1999), ''When They Severed Earth from Sky: How the Human Mind Shapes Myth'' (2004, coauthor with Paul T. Barber), ''The Dancing Goddesses: Folklore, Archaeology, and the Origins of European Dance'' (2013), ''Resplendent Dress from Southeastern Europe: A History in Layers'' (2013), and ''Two Thoughts with but a Single Mind: Crime and Punishment and the Writing of Fiction'' (2013, co-author with P. T. Barber and Mary F. Zirin). Among other things, she has proposed that if 19th-century scientists had thought to name prehistorical periods with an eye on women's work and the things they invented, instead of focusing their naming only on men's more durable inventions (

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly ...

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...

, etc.), that they might have acknowledged women's invention of string as what she has named “The String Revolution.”

Personal life

In addition to her academic work, as of 2009 she has directed and choreographed for her own folk and historical dance troupe for 38 years. In 2016 and 2017 Dr. Barber's dance troupe performed a
UCLA (See Video)Occidental College, and 2017 Sunshine Statewide Folk Dance Festival.

References

External links

Elizabeth Wayland Barber speaks on the Xinjiang Textiles: More Corridors in the Goldmine at the Silk Road Symposium held at the Penn Museum in March 2011.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barber, Elizabeth Wayland Living people American women archaeologists Linguists from the United States Bryn Mawr College alumni Indo-Europeanists Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni 20th-century American archaeologists 21st-century American archaeologists 20th-century American writers 21st-century American writers 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers Year of birth missing (living people) Women linguists Textile historians