Beatrice De Cardi
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Beatrice de Cardi OBE FSA FBA |
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|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
5 June 1914 London, England |
| Died | 5 July 2016 (aged 102) London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Title | Secretary of the Council for British Archaeology (1949–73) |
| Awards |
Officer of the Order of the British Empire (1973) Burton Memorial Medal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1993) Gold Medal of the Society of Antiquaries of London (2014) |
| Academic background | |
| Education | St Paul's Girls' School |
| Alma mater | University College London |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Archaeologist |
| Sub discipline | Specialist in the archeology of the Persian Gulf, Balochistan, Pakistan and Qatar |
Beatrice Eileen de Cardi, OBE, FSA, FBA (5 June 1914 – 5 July 2016) was a British archaeologist, specializing in the study of the Persian Gulf and the Baluchistan region of Pakistan. She was president of the British Foundation for the Study of Arabia, and she was Secretary of the Council for British Archaeology from 1949 to 1973. At the end of her career, she was the world's oldest practising archaeologist.
De Cardi was born in London on 5 June 1914, the second daughter of a Corsican father, Edwin de Cardi, and an American mother, Christine Berbette Wurfflein. She was educated at St Paul's Girls' School, although her schooling was interrupted by ill health. From 1933 to 1935 she studied history, Latin and economics at University College London. She also studied archaeology, under the prominent archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler.
De Cardi received her earliest training as an assistant at the digs conducted by Wheeler and his wife Tessa at the Iron Age fort of Maiden Castle in southern England. Her role there involved learning to classify pottery, and led to a career-long interest. In 1936, after graduating, she was offered a position as Wheeler's secretary at the London Museum, where he held the position of Keeper. She later became his assistant.
During World War II de Cardi worked for the Allied Supplies Executive of the War Cabinet in China. She was based in Chungking but frequently visited India. She became fascinated with the region, and after the war, she became Britain's Assistant Trade Commissioner in Karachi, Delhi, and Lahore. From these locations she conducted archaeological surveys in western Baluchistan. De Cardi's work there involved collecting surface materials (including ceramic sherds, copper objects, bone and flint) from a number of sites in Jhalawan. Her expeditions were carried out with the assistance of an official from the Pakistani Archaeological Department, Sadar Din. Din had been recommended to de Cardi by Wheeler, who had taken a new position of Director General of Archaeology in India. Together, Din and de Cardi discovered 47 archaeological sites.
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