Talk:Sonia Chadwick Hawkes

Latest comment: 1 year ago by Richard Nevell in topic GA Review

Sources

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I'm leaving some notes here on sourcing to aid future development of the article and note what particular sources may have to add. Richard Nevell (talk) 21:55, 16 February 2023 (UTC)Reply

Obituaries

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  • Paul Ashbee (1999). "Sonia Chadwick-Hawkes, M.A., F.S.A." Archaeologia Cantiana. 119: 430–432. ISSN 0066-5894. Wikidata Q115191108.
  • Open access obituary with a focus on Hawkes' research and how it relates to Kent. Also notes her influence on the understanding of Sutton Hoo. Ashbee was an earlier medieval archaeologist, like Hawkes, and co-directed the Sutton Hoo dig. Well placed to comment on the impact of Hawkes' work on early medieval archaeology.
  • Speak was a doctoral student at Oxford under Hawkes' supervision. Goes into more detail on her work at the Institute of Archaeology in Oxford.
  • Welch was another of Hawkes' doctoral students. Described in Collectanea Antiqua (p. 1) as "the best summary available, and one that, even with the aid of archival research or further anecdotes, we could not improve upon or add to significantly"
  • A reprint of the obituary in the Independent with some added references.

An obituary also appeared in the winter 1999 edition of the Kent Archaeological Review. I have not tracked this down.

Biographies

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There is not a biography of Sonia Chadwick Hawkes, but various publications include information.

  • Sonia Chadwick Hawkes doesn't have her own entry in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, but does have a couple of paragraphs in C. F. C. Hawkes' biography.
  • A review seems to indicate that the biography ends its narrative around 1939, before he met Sonia. But there is a timeline which goes up to 1989 and may have some useful context. The work was Sonia's, so she may be mentioned in the book.
  • Reprinted from a pamphlet written to mark the Institute's 25th anniversary; essentially an eye-witness account, and provides some useful context.
  • Hawkes' notes on her lecturing role, prepared around the time of her retirement. Has autobiographical elements.

Other

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Volume 11 of Studies in Anglo-Saxon Archaeology and History was a 'tribute to Sonia Hawkes'. May contain some notes about her.

  • Brugmann, Birte (2006). "Background to the Report". In Sonia Chadwick Hawkes and Guy Grainger (ed.). The Anglo-Saxon Cemetery at Finglesham, Kent. Oxford: Oxford University School of Archaeology. pp. 19–22. ISBN 0954962710.
    • From the article on Finglesham Anglo-Saxon cemetery: Brugmann opined that these publications [11 articles on Finglesham] soon exhibited "a considerable influence" on Anglo-Saxon cemetery studies.

Map

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After seeing a location map on the article for Orford Castle, I thought something similar might be useful here showing places Hawkes excavated. I'm not sure how well it will work, so I'm posting a copy of the map here as well for reference.

 
 
100km
62miles
 
New Wintles
 
Cow Down
 
Finglesham
 
Updown
 
Worthy Park
Excavations led by Hawkes

Richard Nevell (talk) 01:21, 8 March 2023 (UTC)Reply

GA Review

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This review is transcluded from Talk:Sonia Chadwick Hawkes/GA1. The edit link for this section can be used to add comments to the review.

Reviewer: Caeciliusinhorto (talk · contribs) 09:42, 27 April 2023 (UTC)Reply

I will review this article Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 09:42, 27 April 2023 (UTC)Reply

Okay, everything looks like it is supported by citations to reliable sources. In spotchecking references, I find:

  • Christopher joined Sonia at Longbridge Deverill for the final season of excavation in 1960, which Paul Ashbee described as a "honeymoon joint enterprise". I don't have any reason to doubt this, but the Ashbee source does not explicitly date this to 1960 or support that it was the final season at the site.
  • Good catch, there was a reference for that extra detail which was missing, Hawkes 1994. The quote is The excavation of the site, directed for the then Ministry of Works, took over a series of seasons from 1956 to 1960, during which year I was assisted by my late husband Professor Christopher Hawkes. Richard Nevell (talk) 20:02, 27 April 2023 (UTC)Reply
  • A major piece of work on Late Roman zoomorphic belt fittings, "Soldiers and settlers", prompted much debate – this needs a secondary source; as does describing the paper as "influential".
  • I've added a reference to the obituary by Welch, and removed the primary source. I've also removed "influential", since while I think that can be gathered from the description in the obituary it's perhaps just a little beyond what it says. Richard Nevell (talk) 20:02, 27 April 2023 (UTC)Reply
  • Sonia collaborated with her husband, Christopher Hawkes, as a researcher and they co-edited Greeks, Celts and Romans and Christopher contributed a section to Sonia's article on the Finglesham Man. Christopher's health began declining in the 1980s, and around this time Sonia and he spent time travelling in Europe. – that she collaborated with Christopher Hawkes on an article on the Finglesham man isn't in Ashbee. You should be able to just cite this to the article in question, though, I imagine.
  • Ashbee mentions Greeks, Celts and Romans, so I've duplicated that reference closer to that bit of text and added Hawkes, Davidson & Hawkes 1965 to reference that the Hawkeses worked together on that. Richard Nevell (talk) 20:02, 27 April 2023 (UTC)Reply
  • The British Council webpage on Landscape of the Megaliths (currently ref 25) seems to be for a different work than the one which was dedicated to Hawkes; the one illustrated in Nicholas Hawkes' article is this one, which the V&A dates to 1937, not this 1934 work which at any rate is oil-on-canvas, not a lithograph.
  • I'm kicking myself for not spotting that. It was staring me in the face. Anyway, I've swapped the British Council reference for the V&M. The intention was to give readers a look at the picture if they want. Richard Nevell (talk) 20:02, 27 April 2023 (UTC)Reply

Other comments:

  • Per WP:ATTRIBUTEPOV the description of Hawkes as a "discerning systematiser of the great array of Anglo-Saxon grave furnishings" needs attribution; I also don't see why there's a citation to the Welch obit as well as Ashbee after it.
  • I've clarified in the text that the quote comes from Ashbee. With Welch, that more accurately cover the start of the sentence (that Hawkes was a leading authority in Anglo-Saxon archaeology) so I've shifted the reference earlier so it doesn't look like it relates to the quote. Richard Nevell (talk) 20:02, 27 April 2023 (UTC)Reply

Images are all fine – the photo of Hawkes has an acceptable fair use rationale and I cannot find a free alternative; the others are freely licensed. Nothing obviously missing from the article. I didn't find any issues with copyvio in my spotchecks, and Earwig doesn't see anything either. No issues with neutrality or stability.

The following are minor details, none of which are strictly required by the GA criteria:

  • "post-graduate", "re-assessing" – any reason for the hyphen? I wouldn't, and nor does the OED.
  • "appointed Curator of Scunthorpe Museum" – per MOS:JOBTITLES, "curator" should be lowercase here.
  • Per MOS:" you should be using double-quotation marks rather than single quotation marks in several instances – at any rate you should be consistent: you use both double and single quotes at different places for both quoted text and work titles.
  • Titled artworks are considered major works by MOS:ITALICTITLE, and so Landscape of the Megaliths should be italicised rather than in quotation marks.

Generally this seems to be pretty close to GA standard; I have a few quibbles about sourcing but assuming they are all cleared up I imagine this should be pretty easy to promote. Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 18:35, 27 April 2023 (UTC)Reply

Thanks for taking the time to read the article and give it a thorough check. It's handy to have another pair of eyes on the article. Richard Nevell (talk) 20:02, 27 April 2023 (UTC)Reply
@Richard Nevell: Your changes all look good, and I'm not seeing any other issues on a second look through. Congratulations – I'm happy to promote this to GA Caeciliusinhorto (talk) 17:45, 2 May 2023 (UTC)Reply
Thank you very much! Richard Nevell (talk) 19:57, 2 May 2023 (UTC)Reply