Sylvia Benton

Sylvia Benton FSA, FSA Scot (18 August 1887 – 12 September 1985) was a British classical archaeologist, best known for her work on ancient Greece and the Sculptor's Cave in Moray, Scotland. Benton was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1928 and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in London in 1937.

Early life and education Benton was born 18 August 1887 in India at Lahore. From 1907 to 1910, Benton attended Girton College, Cambridge, studying the Classics. She represented Cambridge women and Girton College in hockey.

Benton travelled throughout Greece in 1926. In 1927 to 1928 she was a student at the British School at Athens and assisted archeologist and school instructor, Walter Abel Heurtley, with excavations in Chalkidiki in Northern Greece. Benton was turned down for the 1928–1929 term at the school, because she had disobeyed an order from the school's Director not to climb the Taygetus mountains alone. She continued to assist Heurtley in his excavations in 1929. Benton was accepted at the School of Athens for the 1929-1930 school term. She participated in excavations with Heurtley in Macedonia and Servia in 1930, and Armenochori in 1931. She discovered evidence of human occupation dating to the Bronze Age, the late Roman Iron Age, and the medieval period. Uncovering layers of sand on the floor of the cave, Benton found human remains, burnt deposits in the soil and evidence of ancient stone hearths. Her methods were cutting edge for that time:“the sieving of every bucket/spadeful of deposit was remarkable for its time in Scotland, as was the amount of horizontal control she exercised through her grid.” - Ian A. G. Shepherd . After Heurtley's retirement from the school in 1937, Benton began excavating on her own in North Ithaca, at Tris Langades, from 1937 to 1938. She returned to excavate at the Aeots in 1938. She first excavated a cave, where work began underwater as the cave’s floor had been submerged by the rise in sea-level. However, Sylvia quickly realised that it was a stratified site, so pumps were installed. The finds established continuity of use from Mycenaean through the Dark Age to late classical times. The excavations uncovered the remains of 12 bronze tripod-lebetes, dating from the 9th and 8th centuries BC and terracottas with dedications to the Nymphs and to Odysseus.

Benton moved to Lossiemouth, Moray in 1970 when she retired, and later to Kincraig in 1984, where her family was located. She was the Honorary Curator of the Elgin Museum, during her retirement in Lossiemouth. In her later years, she worked on a book about birds, but because of failing eyesight, she could not complete it. From April 1984 she was cared for by her great-niece, Mrs Elizabeth Neill. The obituary in the Annals of the British School of Athens described her in her final years as, "a 'good trencher-woman' — meat and drink agreed with her; and she was taking her daily walk until the end. Though deaf she could recall the old days and was telling amusing stories of them when visited two months before her death."

Personality 'In archaeology for half a century she saw what she wanted to do and did it well; not least, she enjoyed doing it.'