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Joan Oates

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Joan Oates
Born
Joan Louise Lines

(1928-05-06)6 May 1928
Died3 February 2023(2023-02-03) (aged 94)
Spouse
(m. 1956⁠–⁠2004)
ChildrenThree
AwardsFellow of the British Academy (2004)
Grahame Clark Medal for Prehistoric Archaeology (2014)
Academic work
DisciplineArchaeology
Sub-disciplineAncient Near East
InstitutionsGirton College, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research

Joan Louise Oates, FBA (née Lines; 6 May 1928 – 3 February 2023) was an American-British archaeologist and academic, specialising in the Ancient Near East. From 1971 to 1995 she was a Fellow and tutor of Girton College, Cambridge, and a lecturer at the University of Cambridge. From 1995 she was a Senior Research Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.[1] From 2004 she was director of the excavations of Tell Brak, having been co-director, with her husband, David Oates, between 1988 and 2004.[2]

Personal life

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Oates was born in Watertown, New York, on 6 May 1928,[3] to Harold Burdette Lines and Beatrice Naomi Lines.[4] She obtained her BA at Syracuse University, graduating in Chemistry and Social Anthropology in 1950,[5] before winning a Fulbright Scholarship to study at Girton College, Cambridge, where she received a PhD in 1953.[4]

While she was participating in the excavation of Nimrud, she met David Oates (1927–2004). They married in 1956 and had three children. They collaborated on a number of archaeological publications and excavations.[6][7]

Joan Oates died on 3 February 2023, at the age of 94.[8] Her funeral was held in Girton College Chapel on 23 February 2023.[8]

Academic career

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Oates' PhD studies were initially supervised by Dorothy Garrod and later by Max Mallowan. In the course of her studies she visited the British School of Archaeology in Baghdad and travelled with Mallowan to Nimrud.[5] During this time she became acquainted with novelist Agatha Christie, who based the character Sally Finch on her in the novel Hickory Dickory Dock.[5] She completed her PhD in 1954 and returned to the USA.

Oates began her career as an assistant curator in the Department of Near Eastern Antiquities at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and continued to visit Nimrud with Max Mallowan each year.[5]

She married David Oates in 1956 and they worked together on archaeological excavations in Nimrud, Ain Sinu, Nippur and Choga Mami.[9][10] The Choga Mami excavation was directed by Joan Oates.[5] After the birth of her children, Oates played a less active role in excavations, but continued to participate by documenting the finds, particularly potsherds.[5] This continued involvement contributed to her securing a Guggenheim Fellowship from 1966 to 1967. In 1968 they left Iraq due to the political instability and returned to Cambridge.[5]

In 1971 Joan Oates was elected a fellow of Girton College, Cambridge and Director of Studies in both Oriental Studies and Archaeology at that college, becoming a Senior Research Fellow in 1989.[5] She carried out excavations at Tell Brak in Syria 14 times between 1971 and 1993 and continuing to visit the site after her retirement.[10][5] She was co-director with her husband David of the excavations at Tell Brak from 1988 to 2004, and became its sole director after his death in 2004.[2] In 1988 she was a Visiting Scholar at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, and in 1989 she became a lecturer in the history and archaeology of the Ancient Near East at the University of Cambridge.

Her many valuable contributions to archaeology include establishing that the origins of Tell Brak were 1000 years earlier than previously thought and identifying a previously unknown stage in the development of writing.[5]

In 1995 she retired and was made a Life Fellow of Girton. She was a Senior Fellow of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at Cambridge from 1995.[11]

Honours

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In 1991 Oates was awarded the Arents Award by Syracuse University, bestowed on the most distinguished alumni who have made extraordinary achievements.[5] In 2004 Oates was elected a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA).[12] In 2014 she was awarded the Grahame Clark Medal for Prehistoric Archaeology by the British Academy.[13]

Selected works

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  • David Oates and Joan Oates, The Rise of Civilization, Oxford: Elsevier 1976. ISBN 072900015X.
  • Joan Oates, Babylon, New York: Thames & Hudson, revised ed. 1986. ISBN 0500273847.
  • Joan Oates, Carolyn Postgate and David Oates, The Excavations at Tell al Rimah: The Pottery, Warminster: British School of Archaeology in Iraq 1997. ISBN 0856687006.
  • David Oates, Joan Oates and Helen McDonald, Excavations at Tell Brak, Volume 1, The Mitanni and Old Babylonian Periods, Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 1998. ISBN 0951942050.
  • David Oates, Joan Oates and Helen McDonald, Excavations at Tell Brak, Volume 2, Nagar in the Third Millennium BC, Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 2001. ISBN 9780951942093.
  • Joan Oates and David Oates, Nimrud: An Assyrian Imperial City Revealed, London: British School of Archaeology in Iraq 2001. ISBN 0903472252.

References

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  1. ^ "OATES, Dr Joan". British Academy Fellows. British Academy. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b "Team Members". Tell Brak. McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. Retrieved 14 March 2015.
  3. ^ "Joan Oates obituary". The Times. 7 March 2023. Retrieved 8 March 2023.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b 'OATES, Joan Louise', Who's Who 2017, A. & C. Black, 2017; online edition, Oxford University Press, November 2016 accessed 5 June 2017
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k Shenton, Caroline; Thompson, Dorothy (2023). "Obitury: Dr Joan Oates FBA". The Year: The Annual Review of Girton College Cambridge: 130-134.
  6. ^ "Obituaries: Professor David Oates, MA, FSA, FBA (1927-2004)". Iraq. 66. British Institute for the Study of Iraq: v–vii. 2004.
  7. ^ "David Oates; Obituary". The Times. No. 68043. 7 April 2004. p. 26.
  8. ^ Jump up to: a b "Dr Joan Louise Oates FBA". The Times. 20 February 2023. Retrieved 20 February 2023.
  9. ^ Davenport, Ben (8 April 2014). "Dr Joan Oates". Department of Archaeology. University of Cambridge. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  10. ^ Jump up to: a b "Dr Joan Oates FBA". The British Academy. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  11. ^ "Oates, Joan Louise, (born 6 May 1928), Fellow, Girton College, Cambridge, 1971–95, Life Fellow, since 1995; Senior Fellow, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge, since 1995". Who's Who 2020. Oxford University Press. 1 December 2019. Retrieved 6 October 2021.
  12. ^ "Dr Joan Oates". britac.ac.uk. British Academy. 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
  13. ^ "Grahame Clark Medal 2014". Prizes and medals. The British Academy. 2014. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2015.