Edith Mary Wightman

Edith Mary Wightman FSA FSA Scot (1 January 1938 – 17 December 1983) was a British ancient historian and archaeologist. She taught at McMaster University from 1969 until her death in 1983, rising to full professor. Wightman was best known for her studies Roman Trier and the Treveri and Gallia Belgica (1985).

Biography

Early life and education Edith Mary Wightman was born on 1 January 1938 in Leith, Scotland, the daughter of R. J. and Edith W. Wightman. She studied at the University of St Andrews, receiving her MA in 1960, when she graduated at the top of her year and was awarded the Millar Prize for the best annual record in her faculty. She held graduate scholarships until 1965. There she rose from assistant professor to associate professor in 1973 and to full professor in 1978. the Second Canadian Team excavations at Carthage, which she co-directed with Colin Wells; and the multidisciplinary field survey of the Liri Valley, Italy, which she directed.

Wightman was a regular attendee at Roman archaeology conferences, presenting on her research areas. These included the International Congress of Roman Frontier Studies, where she first presented her work on Gaul at Tel Aviv in 1967 and spoke on the Lingones at the congress in Lower Germany in 1974.

Death Wightman was murdered on 17 December 1983 in her office at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. Credit cards were missing, and police considered robbery the probable motive.

Reception Wightman's work has been described as a "model of how to combine literary, epigraphic, and archaeological data with caution and imagination". Her research for Gallia Belgica involved annual visits to archaeological institutes in Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands. Her posthumously published survey of Gallia Belgica has been called "magisterial", and John Percival wrote that "it is hard to think of a better study of an individual Roman province in terms of comprehensiveness and reliability". A "concern for the Roman countryside and its population" underlay her work, a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1973, a foreign associate member of the Société des Antiquaires de France in 1976, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1982.

Works Wightman, E. 1970. Roman Trier and the Treveri. London Wightman, E.M. 1974. La Gaule chevelue entre César et Auguste. In Actes du IXeme Congres International d'études sur les Frontières Romaines, Mamaïa, 6-13 septembre 1972. Wightman, E.M. 1975. The pattern of rural settlement in Roman Gaul. ANRW 2.4: 584-657 Wightman, E.M. 1977. Military arrangements, native settlements and related developments in early Roman Gaul. Helinium 17, 105–126. Wightman, E. 1978. Peasants and potentates: an investigation of social structure and land tenure in Roman Gaul. American Journal of Ancient History 3. Wightman, E. 1980. The plan of Roman Carthage, in New Light on Ancient Carthage (Ann Arbor, 1980), 29-46 Wightman, E. 1981. The lower Liri valley: problems, trends and peculiaritiies. In G. Barker and R. Hodges (eds.) Archaeology and Italian Society. Prehistoric, Roman and Medieval Studies. Oxford: BAR International Series 102. Wightman, E. 1985. Gallia Belgica. London: B. T. Batsford Wightman, E.M. 1994a The Iron Age. In J.W. Hayes and I.P. Martini (eds.) Archaeological survey in the Lower Liri Valley, Central Italy (BAR International Series 595). Oxford, Tempus Reparatum. 13–17. Wightman, E.M. 1994b Communications. In J.W. Hayes and I.P. Martini (eds.) Archaeological survey in the Lower Liri Valley, Central Italy (BAR International Series 595). Oxford, Tempus Reparatum. 30–33. Hayes, J.W. and Wightman, E.M. (1984) Interamna Lirenas: risultati di ricerche in superficie 1979–1981. In S. QuiliciGigli (ed.) Archeologia Laziale VI (Quaderni del Centro di Studio per l'Archeologia Etrusco-Italica 8). Roma, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. 137–148.