Jane (Jeanne) Dieulafoy (1851-1916) could be one of the reasons you get to wear trousers in the field. The French government of her day granted her the special privilege of wearing men’s clothing – without this cross-dressing was illegal.

Jane was a French archaeologist who – with her beloved husband Marcel-Auguste – fought battles, explored and excavated dressed as man (slide 6).

Most well known for her excavations at Susa, site of the famous Lion Frieze(now at the Louvre), Jane led (all-male) crews numbering in the hundreds. She devised new field methods, monitored trenching excavations, and meticulously mapped, labeled, and reconstructed everything that was discovered.

Oh, and from 1881-82 she travelled from Marseilles to Athens, Istanbul, Poti, Erevan, Jolfā, Tabrīz, Qazvīn, Tehran, Isfahan, Persepolis, Shiraz, Sarvestān, Fīrūzābād, Susa via Būšehr, and Mesopotamia ON HORSEBACK!

Written by Alison Atkin (@alisonatkin)

Edited & posted by Tori