| Cecil L. Curle | |
| Birth Name: | Cecil Louisa Mowbray |
| Birth Date: | 1901 |
| Sub Discipline: | Scottish archaeology Early Christian archaeology |
Cecil Louisa Curle (1901 - 12 April 1987) was a Scottish archaeologist and art historian.[1]
Born Cecil Louisa Mowbray, she was first educated at home before studying history of art at the Glasgow College of Art, the Courtauld Institute, and the Sorbonne. Whilst in France she worked with to explore and paint some of the cave paintings at Lascaux.
After returning to Scotland Cecil became interested in Scottish archaeology. She was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1934. She excavated at Ness of Burgi with A.O. Curle, as well as at Jarlshof and on Shetland. In 1936-1937 she was employed by the Office of Works to supervise excavations at the Brough of Birsay.
Cecil married Alexander T. Curle in 1938 - he was the son of the archaeologist A.O. Curle. During the Second World War they briefly moved to Dorset. As a result of her research on Early Christian Scotland, Curle (as she was now known) was elected as a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London in 1943. In the 1970s and 1980s Curle published the find from her earlier excavations on the Brough of Birsay and followed this with the first volume in the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph series on a summary of the Pictish and Norse finds from the site.