XPost: alt.obituaries, soc.history
From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net

On Sat, 2 Jun 2018 19:28:28 -0700 (PDT), That Derek
<thatderek@yahoo.com> wrote:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/may/31/vera-evison-obituary

Archaeology

Vera Evison obituary

Expert on Anglo-Saxon graves and glass

Catherine Hills and Leslie Webster

Thu 31 May 2018 13.00 EDT

The archaeologist Vera Evison, who has died aged 100, expanded
knowledge of the crucial period in British history that saw the
transition from Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England, the fifth to
seventh centuries AD. She did this by pioneering the introduction of continental methods to develop the systematic study of Anglo-Saxon
cemeteries.

Connections between Anglo-Saxon England and Germany and Scandinavia
have long been recognised, but Vera showed that there was also
considerable interaction between southern Britain and northern France
and the Low Countries, the areas under Frankish control in the
post-Roman period.

Her excavation at the large, richly furnished Buckland Anglo-Saxon
cemetery in Dover (1951-53) marked a turning point in the recognition
of the strong element of Frankish material culture in Kent. Among the
many finds from the Dover graves were imports from France and the
Rhineland, as well as locally made copies : silver and garnet
brooches, wheel-thrown pots and above all glass vessels.

Vera improved the approach to excavating and recording burials,
participating in the excavation of almost every grave herself. Each
day she took a train from London to Dover, excavated graves all day
with the help of a few workmen, put the finds into a suitcase, caught
the train back, lectured at what is now Birkbeck, University of
London, in the evening, and then catalogued the finds, which
eventually went to the British Museum, ready to start again the next
day.

Through the exercise of such energy, dedication and a steely will she
rose to the top of her profession at a time when this was very
difficult for a woman who had entered university as a mature student
and did not possess independent means. Anglo-Saxon archaeology in the
1940s and 50s was dominated by a small number of Oxbridge-educated
men, and it took boldness and determination to break into this charmed
circle.


Born in Lewisham, south-east London, Vera was the youngest of five
children of Francis Evison, a cabinetmaker and woodwork teacher, and
his wife Emily (nee Scott), a specialist dry cleaner and restorer of
fine textiles and furs. She lived all her life in London, first in a
flat over the family business in Lewisham High Street, and then, from
1940, in a house in Harrow.

On leaving Lewisham Prendergast school in 1937, Vera attended evening
classes in many subjects including archaeology and then studied for a
London BA in English language and literature, supporting herself by
working as a secretary for Kathleen Kenyon at the London University
Institute of Archaeology.

In 1947 she went to Stockholm and studied archaeology with Nils Åberg, beginning her interest in the European Migration period of the fourth
to seventh centuries AD, and acquiring knowledge of Scandinavian
languages. She also worked as a volunteer assistant at the British
Museum, helping to unpack Anglo-Saxon objects, including the finds
from the burial mounds at Sutton Hoo, near Woodbridge, Suffolk, when
they were returned from storage to London after the second world war.

Though she worked on Kenyon’s excavations at Sabratha in Tripolitania
(now Libya) in the summer of 1948, Vera’s stories about this did not
relate to the archaeology but to her social life, suggesting a more
sociable and light-hearted younger woman than her later students
encountered. She had a sense of humour, but also a fairly critical and
at times caustic wit.

Vera had a long teaching career at Birkbeck, from appointment as a
part-time lecturer in 1947 to professor in 1979, retiring in 1983. Her reputation has perhaps been stronger abroad than at home: the
festschrift The Evidence of Material Culture (2016) appeared in a
French series, with articles in both English and French, while some
reviews of her 1965 book The 5th century Invasions South of the Thames
(1965) were hostile concerning her “frankophilia”.

Her single-minded devotion to her subject was communicated with
encouragement and enthusiasm. Former students can still recall
elements from her lectures in the early 60s to this day – not least
her fascinating descriptions of working with glass-blowers: she paid
great attention to the precise details of archaeological evidence,
especially of artefacts, and broadened the horizons of those she
taught beyond the limits of the British Isles. Her study of early
medieval vessel glass culminated in a Catalogue of Anglo-Saxon Glass
in the British Museum (2008), including vessels that were not designed
to sit neatly on a table: they had small unstable bases, ensuring that
their contents had to be drunk at a sitting, or passed around.

She kept herself fit through tennis and swimming. Taped on the mirror
in her office at Birkbeck was a large notice which informed her
students that smoking was not allowed in the room, at a time when
smoking was ubiquitous and allowed in most places. She never took the
lift, and preferred walking to travelling by bus.

She respected people prepared to defend their position, and would be
prepared to concede the point if robustly argued; but she had no time
for those who did not.

Vera’s stated aim when she was 95 years old was to reach 100, which
she duly achieved.

• Vera Ivy Evison, archaeologist, born 23 January 1918; died 19 March
2018

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