In December, 1884, the two brave and venturesome explorers were on their way to Susa with high hopes, but not without a full knowledge of the difficulties and dangers that they would have to confront among the fanatical nomads of Arabistan, where the very name of Christian inspires rage and horror. It meant, as Mme. Dieulafoy herself tells us, "to cross the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, the Persian Gulf and the deserts of Elam three times in less than a year; to pass whole weeks without undressing; to sleep on the bare ground; to struggle nights and days against robbers and thieves; to cross rivers without a bridge; to suffer heat, rain, cold, mists, fever, fatigue, hunger, thirst, the stings of divers insects; to lead this hard and perilous existence without being guided by any interest other than the glory of one's country."[221]
In spite, however, of all the opposition which they encountered among the fanatical Mussulmans of Arabistan and of the dreadful sufferings incident to living in a desert where it was at times impossible to secure the necessaries of life, their mission was successful, and their account of their finds in the ancient capital of Elam was as thrilling in its way as anything reported of the excavations at Troy or Pompeii. Their splendid collection of specimens of ancient Persian art and architecture, now on exhibition in the Museum of the Louvre, testifies to the successful issue of their expedition and to their indomitable energy in conducting researches under the most untoward conditions.[222] So highly did the French government value the part Mme. Dieulafoy had taken in this arduous enterprise that it conferred on her a distinction rarely awarded to a woman for scientific work—that of Chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
As an archæologist, the gifted and energetic American woman, Miss Harriet Boyd—now Mrs. C. H. Hawes—has achieved an international reputation for her remarkable excavations in the island of Crete. She is a frequent contributor to archæological journals; but it is upon her splendid work in the field that her fame will ultimately rest.
Her first work of importance was undertaken as Fellow of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. This was in 1900, and the field of her investigations was the Isthmus of Hierapetra in Crete. Here she excavated numerous tombs and houses of the early Geometric Period, circa 900 B.C., and paved the way for those brilliant discoveries which rewarded her labors during the following three years.
The investigations conducted during these three years under Miss Boyd's directions yielded results of transcendent value. Assisted by three young American women—the Misses B. E. Wheeler, Blanche E. Williams, and Edith H. Hall—she superintended the work of more than a hundred native employees whom she had on her payroll. By good fortune in the choice of a site for excavation and by well-directed efforts she was soon able to unearth one of the oldest of Cretan cities and to expose to view the ruins of what was probably one of the ninety cities which Homer tells us in his Odyssey graced the land of Crete—"a fair land and a rich, in the midst of a wine-dark sea."
So remarkable were the finds in this long-buried Minoan town and so well preserved are its general features that it has justly been called the Cretan Pompeii. It antedates by long centuries the oldest cities of Greece and was a flourishing center of commerce ages before the heroes of the Iliad battled on the plains of Troy.
It is not too much to say that the extraordinary discoveries made by this enterprising Yankee girl at Gournia, no less than those made by British and Italian archæologists at Knossos and Phæstos, have completely revolutionized our ideas respecting the state of culture of the inhabitants of Crete during the second and third millenia before the Christian era. They have thrown a flood of light on the origins of Mediterranean culture, and have, at the same time, supplied material for a study of European civilization that was before entirely wanting.
An enduring monument to Miss Boyd's ability as an archæologist is her notable volume containing an account of her excavations at Gournia, Vasilike and other prehistoric sites on the Isthmus of Hierapetra. It will bear comparison with any similar productions by the Schliemanns or the Dieulafoys. A later work on Crete, the Forerunner of Greece, which she wrote in collaboration with her husband, Mr. C. H. Hawes, is also a production of recognized merit. As a study on the origin of Greek civilization it opens up many new vistas in pre-history and illumines many questions that were before involved in mystery.
Besides Mrs. Hawes, three other American women have achieved marked distinction by their archæological researches. These are Mrs. Sarah Yorke Stevenson, Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Mrs. Zelia Nuttall.
Mrs. Stevenson has long been identified with the progress of archæological research, especially with that in Egypt and the Mediterranean. A prominent member of many learned societies, she is likewise a writer and lecturer of note. She enjoys the distinction of being the first woman whose name appears as a lecturer on the calendar of the University of Harvard. In acknowledgment of her scholarly ability and eminent services in the development of its Department of Archæology, the University of Pennsylvania has conferred upon her the honorary degree of Doctor of Science.