Archaeologist involved all her life with Mycenae and an authority on the ancient Greek culture’s terracotta figurines Lisa French, who has died aged 90, was the leading authority on Mycenaean ceramics. The first archaeologist to study systematically the culture’s terracotta animal and human figurines – “dollies”, as she called them – she was also the first female director of the British School at Athens (1989-94). Mycenae, situated in the Argolid region in the eastern Peloponnese, 120km south-west of Athens, is one of the principal archaeological sites of the late bronze age in mainland Greece, and now possesses Unesco world heritage status. Ancient Greek legend had it as the home of Agamemnon, who led the Greeks in the war against Troy; and it was where in 1876 Heinrich Schliemann first put spade to earth. Continue reading...
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