Helene J. Kantor (1919–1993)

Helene J. Kantor was born in Chicago, Illinois. Her father was Jacob Robert Kantor, an eminent psychologist. She was born with a rare muscular disease and was home schooled before entering Indiana University at age 15. After earning a bachelor's degree in zoology/biology, she went to the University of Chicago in 1938 to study archaeology under Henri Frankfort at the Oriental Institute. There she earned a Ph.D. in 1945 and became a research assistant. In 1951, she was named assistant professor, and in 1963 was promoted to full professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. A specialist in the pottery of the ancient Near East, she taught a wide variety of courses on the art and architecture of various areas from Iran to Egypt and the Aegean. With Pinhas Delougaz, she directed excavations at several sites in Israel and Iran during the 1960s and 1970s, including Chogha Mish, a prehistoric city dating back to the 34th century B.C. In her writing on the site, Prof. Kantor revealed a previously unknown stage of Iran's Neolithic Period. Another influential work was The Aegean and the Orient in the Second Millennium B.C. (1947).