ReViews: Bringing Archaeology to the Public

The Life of Margaret Alice Murray: A Woman’s Work in Archaeology

By Kathleen L. Sheppard (Plymouth, UK: Lexington Books, 2013), 292 pp., $85 (hardcover)

Kathleen L. Sheppard brings a fresh contribution to the history of archaeology with this biography of Margaret Alice Murray. Murray’s life and work has been overshadowed by the legacy of her partner and mentor, Sir William Flinders Petrie. Furthermore, the social norms of Victorian and Edwardian Britain were not accommodating to independent women like Murray.

Sheppard begins by looking at Murray’s early life in India and describes how this background helped prepare her for the vibrant career she would have.

Sheppard then examines Murray’s time as a student at University College London (UCL), the only English university at the time that would admit women and, therefore, the only option for women like Margaret seeking a higher education.

Murray then spent two seasons in Egypt working as a field archaeologist. She still had to confront and cross gendered spaces in this environment. Despite the challenges of fieldwork, and of being a woman in a leadership position, she thrived.