flea

Maybe two of the people on my friendslist will know who she was, but I just got an email that Machteld died on Friday, at 88, after several months of declining health. Watch the New York Times for an obituary, but I bet not until Monday at earliest. Machteld was one of the legendary women archaeologists of the 20th century, excavating at several major sites in Turkey, chairing the department of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology at Bryn Mawr, and serving as president of the Archaeological Institute of America. When I was an undergraduate she was a mysterious figure in a funny sort of fishing hat who occasionally appeared in the seminar rooms at night (she was already emerita, and in her later 70s). I didn't know her well myself, but she was a mentor to my good friend Amy B. and, of course, to several generations before us.

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ION Casper has just fallen asleep on the study floor during a PBS special on Patsy Cline, after many hours of being turbo-toddler. Hee.