Margaret Alice Murray

Born in 1863, she built a remarkably long career as an Egyptologist, archaeologist, anthropologist, historian, and folklorist. She worked at University College London from 1898 to 1935 and is noted as the first woman appointed as a lecturer in archaeology in the United Kingdom.

Alongside her academic work on ancient Egypt and field archaeology, she became widely known for writing about folklore and the history of witchcraft. Those later books reached a broad audience and helped keep her name in public discussion long after her university career ended.

She lived to the age of 100, dying in 1963. Today she is remembered both for her role in early archaeology and for the lasting debate around some of her most influential theories.