{{Short description|British numismatist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Marion Archibald | image = Marion Archibald.jpg | birth_date = 1935 | death_date = {{death date and age|23 April 2016|1935|df=y}} | other_names = | siglum = | citizenship = <!-- use only when necessary per [[WP:INFONAT]] --> | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = [[numismatics|numismatist]], author | employer = [[British Museum]] }}
'''Marion MacCallum Archibald''' (1935 – 23 April 2016) was a British [[numismatics|numismatist]], author and for 33 years a curator at the [[British Museum]]. She was the first woman to be appointed Assistant Keeper in the [[British Museum Department of Coins and Medals|Department of Coins and Medals]] and is regarded as a pioneer in what had previously been a male-dominated field. Her 70th birthday was celebrated with the publication of a book of essays authored by 30 of her colleagues, collaborators and former students for whom Marion's name was "synonymous ... with the study of [[Coinage in Anglo-Saxon England|Anglo-Saxon coins]] at the British Museum".<ref name="INC"/>
==Biography==
Marion Archibald was born in 1935. She started her numismatic career at the [[Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery|Birmingham City Museum]] in 1958.<ref name="Essays"/><ref name="Oddy 1998">{{Cite book|title=Metallurgy in Numismatics 4|publisher=Royal Numismatic Society|year=1998|editor-last=Oddy|editor-first=WA|location=London|pages=xiii|editor-last2=Cowell|editor-first2=MR}}</ref>
She joined the Department of Coins and Medals at the [[British Museum]] in 1963, and was appointed Assistant Keeper in 1965; she retired from her post in 1997.<ref name="BM">{{cite web|title=Miss Marion Archibald (Biographical details)|website=British Museum|url=http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=56990|access-date=27 April 2018}}</ref>
Beyond the immediate study of Anglo-Saxon coins and monetary systems, her interests extended to dies, coin weights, trial pieces and lead strikings, and coin jewellery. She worked to advance the scientific analysis of coins, and as a member of the Royal Numismatic Society's scientific committee organised a conference on, and co-wrote a text, on the application of metallurgy in numismatics. Her responsibilities at the museum extended to fielding [[treasure trove]] finds, whether coin hoards, excavation coins or single-finds; these gave her ample subject-matter for a prodigious output of articles, notes and reports. She was a pioneer in the systematic recording of finds, as well as the application of an understanding of coin circulation histories on the dating of excavations; more generally, she worked to integrate numismatic and monetary system studies with archaeology and historical research, to the benefit of all these disciplines. She was reputed a superb lecturer.<ref name="INC">{{cite web|title=Marion Archibald, former curator at the British Museum, dies at age 80|url=http://incnews.org/2016/11/09/marion-archibald-former-curator-at-the-british-museum-dies-at-age-80/|website=International Numismatic Council|access-date=28 April 2018|archive-date=12 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191212160825/http://incnews.org/2016/11/09/marion-archibald-former-curator-at-the-british-museum-dies-at-age-80/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="Essays">{{cite book|title=Coinage and History in the North Sea World, c. AD 500-1250: Essays in Honour of Marion Archibald|publisher=Brill |date=2006 |editor-last1=Cooke |editor-first1=Barry |editor-last2=Williams | editor-first2=Gareth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X-qvyzsUkRsC|pages=1–7|isbn=9004147772 }}</ref>
Throughout her career Archibald worked as an officer and council member of the [[Royal Numismatic Society]] and the [[British Numismatic Society]], both electing her Honorary Fellow, the former in 1996. She was elected Fellow of the [[Society of Antiquaries of London]] in 1974. She held the post of president of the British Association of Numismatic Societies from 1986 to 1991; each year it sponsors a Marion Archibald Memorial Lecture at its annual conference.<ref name="BANS">{{cite web|title=B.A.N.S. |website=British Association of Numismatic Societies |url=http://www.coinclubs.org.uk/ |access-date=29 April 2018}}</ref> Her work was widely recognised, and she was awarded the [[Sanford Saltus Gold Medal]] of the British Numismatic Society in 1980, the [[Jeton de Vermeil]] of the [[French Numismatic Society]] in 1988, and the [[Medal of the Royal Numismatic Society]] in 2011. She continued to write after retiring from the British Museum.<ref name="INC"/><ref name="Essays"/>
Archibald was the secretary of the [[Royal Numismatic Society]] Scientific Research Committee from its inception in 1976 until 1997. During this time three volumes of ''Metallurgy in Numismatics'' were published by the Society (MIN 1 in 1980, MIN 2 in 1988, MIN 3 in 1993), Archibald co-editing the third volume with MR Cowell. The fourth volume (MIN 4 1998) included a dedication to Archibald highlighting her work as secretary, her editorship of MIN 3, and her work in organising the symposia which formed the basis for the MIN series.<ref name="Oddy 1998" />
Archibald's 70th birthday year was celebrated with the publication of a book of essays, ''Coinage and History in the North Sea World, c. AD 500-1250'' integrating an understanding of numismatics, monetary studies, archaeology and history, with papers from 30 of her colleagues, collaborators and former students. She died ten years later on 23 April 2016.<ref name="INC" /><ref name="Essays" />
==Publications and exhibitions== Marion Archibald, with co-authors, published three books; some 21 long articles and book chapters, and very many short articles, notes, and archaeological reports. She also contributed to the organisation and production of catalogues for five exhibitions.<ref name="Essays"/><ref name="INC"/>
===Books===
*{{cite book|first1=M M |last1= Archibald|first2=C E|last2=Blunt |title=British Museum, Anglo-Saxon Coins V. Athelstan to the reform of Edgar, 924-c.973|series=[[Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles]] |location=London |date=1986|publisher=Trustees of the British Museum}} *{{cite book|first1=M M |last1= Archibald |first2=M |last2=Cowell |title=Metallurgy in Numismatics 3|series=Royal Numismatic Society Special Publication |number=24 |publisher=Royal Numismatic Society |location=London |date=1993}} *{{cite book|first1=M M |last1= Archibald |first2=B J |last2=Cook |title=English Medieval Coin Hoards I. Cross and Crosslets, Short Cross and Long Cross Hoards|series=British Museum Occasional Papers | number=87 |location=London |date=2001 |publisher=British Museum}}
===Exhibitions===
*The Vikings (1980) *English Romanesque Art 1066-1200 (1984) *The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art 966-1066 (1984) *The Making of England (1991) *Heirs of Rome: the shaping of Britain AD 400-900 (1997)
==References== {{reflist}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Archibald, Marion}} [[Category:1935 births]] [[Category:2016 deaths]] [[Category:British curators]] [[Category:British numismatists]] [[Category:Employees of the British Museum]] [[Category:British women curators]] [[Category:Women numismatists]]