A Critical Analysis of Gendered Approaches to Funerary, Settlement and Public Space Archaeology in the Classical World

Abstract

This thesis is a critical analysis of the methods and application of gendered research in classical archaeology, with specific focus on funerary, settlement and public space archaeology. This study concentrates on the archaeological work conducted at three selected case study sites across the Mediterranean. For the funerary archaeology case study, the Pantanello Necropolis was selected, for settlement archaeology, Olynthus and for public space archaeology, the Athenian Acropolis. Through the analysis of research conducted at these sites, I intend to compare archaeological approaches to gender in classical archaeology to the rest of the discipline, with the aim of providing commentary on the past, present and future state of gendered analysis in the discipline. Gender theories began to be applied to archaeological studies on a wider scale in the 1980s, with the work of primarily Scandinavian and North American scholars. This thesis considers how gendered analysis has come into archaeology, specifically that of the classical world, and how notions of gender have changed and been changed by archaeological research. While this thesis positions itself as a critical analysis, it is intended to be a critique in the most productive sense of the word, emphasising good practices and methodologies for future elaboration and use.