Agnes Conway

Agnes Ethel Conway (2 May 1885 – 1950), later Agnes Horsfield, was a British writer, historian and archaeologist who worked in the Middle East from 1929 to 1936. Perhaps best known for her excavations at Petra and Kilwa, which had been owned by the Wyatt family in the 16th century.

Personal life Agnes Conway was born in 1885 to William Martin Conway, who was, himself, an art historian, collector, explorer and politician, and Katrina Conway (née Lombard). She attended Baker Street High School and Kings College before becoming a student at Newnham College, Cambridge from 1903 - 1907. They lived together in Jerash until 1936, and then began to travel around the Mediterranean. Eventually, they returned to England and remained there until her death in 1950. She left her family papers to the medievalist and art historian Joan Evans, who eventually produced a volume on the family. These papers are now kept at the Cambridge University Library, having been presented by Evans in 1966.

Career Although Conway predominantly studied Ancient History for a History Tripos at Newnham College, Cambridge, she also studied Greek under Jane Ellen Harrison, acclaimed classist and then Lecturer in Classical Archaeology at Newnham.

From 1917 to 1929, Conway worked on gathering materials representing women's work in the First World War as the chair of the Women's Work Sub-Committee of the newly established Imperial War Museum. As part of these activities she took part in a March 1919 tour of France and Belgium with the photographer Olive Edis.

Shortly after the war, Conway began studying in London at the Institute of Historical Research on the economic history of sixteenth-century England, a topic she returned to in later publications. In this period, Conway published several articles relating to the castle and the Wyatt family.

Conway visited Petra for the first time in 1927, accompanying family friends on an extensive trip through the Middle East: Egypt, Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq. She contacted George Horsfield, Chief Inspector of Antiquities for the Transjordan Government, in order to find out more about the site; eventually becoming part of a team of archaeologists, including Horsfield, Tawfiq Canaan, a Palestinian physician, and Dr Detlief Nielsen, from Copenhagen, to explore Petra in detail in March 1929. She and Horsfield published reports on the site during the 1930s and 40s. This five-day expedition produced a co-authored article from the three in 1933.

An archive consisting of hundreds of small personal photographs, some letters, postcards and excavation notes she and Horsfield produced while travelling and excavating is now kept at UCL's Institute of Archaeology. 'The Family of William Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, Chancellor and Juticiar of England, 1190—1191'. 1923. Archaeologia Cantiana. 36: 15–42. 'The Wyatt Mss. in the Possession of the Earl of Romney'. 1924. Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research. 1 (3): 73–76. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2281.1924.tb01314.x. ISSN 0950-3471. 'The Maidstone Sector of Buckingham's Rebellion Act, Oct. 18, 1483'. 1925. Archaeologia Cantiana. 37:97-120. (with George Horsfield) 'Historical and Topographical Notes on Edom: with an account of the first excavations at Petra'. 1930. The Geographical Journal. 76 (5): 369–390. doi:10.2307/1784200 (with George Horsfield and Nelson Glueck) 'Prehistoric Rock-Drawings in Transjordan'. 1933. The American Journal of Archaeology. 37 (3): 381–386. doi:10.2307/498950 (with George Horsfield) Sela-Petra, The Rock of Edom and Nabatene I. The Topography of Petra. II. Houses. 1938. Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities of Palestine 7: 1–42. (with George Horsfield) Sela-Petra, the Rock, of Edom and Nabatene. III. Excavations. 1938. Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities of Palestine 8: 87–115. (with George Horsfield) Sela-Petra, the Rock, of Edom and Nabatene. IV. The Finds. 1942. Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities of Palestine 9: 105–204.