Sylvia Benton FSA, FSA Scot was a British classical archaeologist, best known for her work on ancient Greece and the Sculptor's Cave in Moray, Scotland.
23 Facts About Sylvia Benton
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Sylvia Benton was born 18 August 1887 in India at Lahore.
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At the time, her father, Alexander Hay Sylvia Benton, was a judge of the Chief Court of India.
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Sylvia Benton attended St Margaret's Primary School in Polmont, Scotland and Wimbledon High School in London.
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From 1907 to 1910, Sylvia Benton attended Girton College, Cambridge, studying the Classics.
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Sylvia Benton continued to assist Heurtley in his excavations in 1929.
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Sylvia Benton participated in excavations with Heurtley in Macedonia and Servia in 1930, and Armenochori in 1931.
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Sylvia Benton continued to travel throughout Greece, often accompanying archaeologists, including Ralegh Radford and John Pendlebury.
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Sylvia Benton returned to Oxford to study for the Diploma in Classical Archaeology, which she obtained in 1932.
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From 1928 to 1930, Sylvia Benton was in Scotland, excavating the Sculptor's Cave at Covesea on the south shore of Moray Firth.
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Sylvia Benton discovered evidence of human occupation dating to the Bronze Age, the late Roman Iron Age, and the medieval period.
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Sylvia Benton later determined that Bronze Age artefacts found in the cave were similar to objects found in Central Europe during the same time period.
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Sylvia Benton was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1928.
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Sylvia Benton returned to Greece in 1930 and assisted in excavations under the direction of Huertley at Ithaca from 1930 to 1932 and in 1934.
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Sylvia Benton participated in the excavation of a cave at Astakos in 1932 and Zakynthos with Hilda Lorimer in 1934.
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Sylvia Benton returned to excavate at Aeots in 1938, where she uncovered important finds of Geometric and Archaic periods of Ancient Greece.
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Sylvia Benton continued to analyze those finds at the Vathy museum in Ithaca for several years and published several articles on her work.
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Sylvia Benton moved back to England late in August 1939 at the beginning of the second World War and found war work in London, initially for Naval Hydrography.
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Sylvia Benton was badly injured in the bombing of London in 1945.
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Sylvia Benton authored several publications on the topics, but her work of twelve years on birds was not accepted for publication.
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When Sylvia Benton had completed her work at the Sculptor's Cave in 1930, she left behind a number of undisturbed deposits and artefacts on the floor of the cave for future archaeologists.
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Fifty years later in 1979, Sylvia Benton returned to the cave during its excavation by archaeologists Ian and Alexandra Shepherd, to retrieve the remaining artefacts.
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Sylvia Benton moved to Lossiemouth, Moray in 1970 when she retired, and later to Kincraig in 1984, where her family was located.