Grit-Tempered, with a New Preface

A landmark portrayal of pioneering women in science, reissued on its 25th anniversary

Updated with a new preface on the 25th anniversary of its first publication, this volume documents the lives and work of pioneering women archaeologists in the southeastern United States from the 1920s through the 1960s. Some of these women were working at the time of the book’s first publication in 1999, and they either wrote their own stories or were interviewed. Others were no longer living; their biographies are gleaned from archival research. Rich with humor, tragedy, and important information for the history of archaeology in the South and beyond, as well as anthropology in general, this book includes the story of African American women excavators on WPA crews during the Great Depression; tales of innovative lab work, adventurous fieldwork, and public archaeology; and provocative discussions of women in archaeology and of gender in the archaeological record.