Lady Olwen Phillis Frances Brogan was a British archaeologist and expert on Roman Libya. She attended University College London and later taught there. She was the author of two monographs, over thirty articles and was a regular reviewer for Antiquaries Journal, Antiquity and Journal of Roman Studies. Brogan initially learned excavation techniques under Mortimer Wheeler at Verulamium and Caerleon, while her MA thesis analysed the Roman frontier in Germany and the relationship of Germanic peoples with the Roman Empire. She was one of the leading excavators at Gergovia in 1930 which expanded knowledge of Gallic oppida, however this work was interrupted by the Second World War. Following the war, Brogan started work at Sabratha in Northern Libya, where she was the chief supervisor under the directorship of Kathleen Kenyon from 1948-1951. While working at Sabratha she supervised an area of domestic housing behind the forum which became known as “Casa Brogan” and showed a method of excavation which produced excellent stratigraphy and recording. This went against the traditional colonial excavations in North Africa where houses were cleared more than excavated. Brogan's excavated in Libya nearly every year from the 1950s to 1974, particularly in Tripolitania at sites Lepcis Magna with John Ward-Perkins, but she also worked in Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, allowing her to compare the different sites and regions. Brogan’s largest work in Tripolitania was the interior settlement and monumental cemetery at Ghirza, consequently one of the best published site of the Libyan interior. Brogan excavated the site alongside Emilio Vergera-Cafarelli and David Smith over four seasons. This work showed structures which fit into the tradition in Roman Africa of fusing Hellenistic, Punic and Roman traditions with African ritual needs and ideologies. In the 1970s, Brogan also produced a publication of a previously unknown 6km long Roman linear barrier made of stone wall and bank and ditch. This was significant as it marked the continuation of frontier earthworks already known in Tunisia. Between 1969-74, Brogan was appointed as the first Honorary Secretary for the Society for Libyan Studies. In 1984 the Society organised a conference in her honour, resulting in the publication of 'Town and Country in Roman Tripolitania: Papers in honour of Olwen Hackett'.
Published Works
Brogan. O. 1933. The new battle of Georgovia. Antiquity 7:216-19.
Brogan. O. 1934, An introduction to the Roman land frontier in Germany. Greece and Rome 3-4: 23-30.
Brogan. O. 1935. The Roman ‘limes’ of Germany. Archaeological Journal 92: 1-41.
Brogan, O. 1936. Trade between the Roman Empire and the free Germans. Journal of Roman studies 26: 195-222
Brogan, O. 1955. When the home guard of Libya created security and fertility on the desert frontier: Ghirza in the third century A.D. Obelisk and temple tombs of Imperial Roman date near Ghirza. in The Illustrated London News22nd January 1955: 138-42 and 29th January 1955: 182-85
Brogan, O. 1962. A Tripolitanian centenarian. In Hommages à Albert Grennier : 368-73.
Brogan, O. 1964. The Roman Remains in the Wadi el-Amud. Libya Antiqua 1:47-56.
Brogan, O. 1965. Henschir el-Ausaf by Tigi and some related tombs in the Tunisian Gefara. Libya Antiqua 2: 47-56.
Brogan, O. 1965. Notes on the Wadis Neina and Bei el-Kebir and some predesert tracks. Libya Antiqua. 2: 57-64.
Brogan, O. 1970. British Archaeology in Libya 1943-1970. Libyan Studies 1: 6-11.
Brogan, O. 1971. First and second century settlement in the Tripolitanian pre-desert. In F.f. Gadalla, Libya in History. Proceedings of a conference held at the Faculty of Arts, University of Libya 1968. Benghazi: 121-130.
Brogan, O. 1971. Expedition to Tripolitania 1971. Libyan Studies 2: 10-11
Brogan, O. 1974. The Coming of Rome and the Establishment of Roman Gaul. In S. Piggot, G., Daniel and C.McBurney, France before the Romans. London: 192-219.
Brogan, O. 1975. Round and Misurata. Libyan Studies 6: 49-58.
Brogan, O. 1975. Inscriptions in the Libyan alphabet from Tripolitania and some notes on the tribes of the region. In J. Bynon and T. Bynon, Hamito-Semitica. Mouston: 267-89.
Brogan, O. 1976. Ghirza and Zliten, In R. Stillwell, Archaeology in the Levant. Essays for Kathleen Kenyon. Warminster: 233-37.
Brogan, O. 1980. Hadd Hajar, a ‘clausura'; in the Tripolitanian Gebel Garian south of Asabaa. Libyan Studies 11: 45-52.
Brogan, O and Desforges, E. 1940. Georgovia. Archaeological Journal 97: 1-36.
Brogan, O., Hawkes, C., Desforges, E. 1935. Fouilles à Georgovie. Revue archéologique 5: 220-30
Brogan, O. and Oates, D. 1953. Gasr el-Gezira, a shrine in the Gebel Nefusa of Tripolitania. Papers of the British School at Rome 21: 74-80.
Brogan, O. and Reynolds, J. M. 1964. Inscriptions from the Tripoitanian hinterland. Libya Antiqua 1:43-46.
Brogan, O. and Reynolds, J.M. 1985. An inscription from the Wadi Antar. In Buck, D.J. and Mattingly, D.J.. 1985. Town and Country in Roman Tripolitania. Papers in honour of Olwen Hackett. BAR S 274, Oxford: 13-23.
Brogan, O. and Smith, D.J. 1957. The Roman frontier at Ghirza, an interim report. Journal of Roman Studies. 47: 173-84.
Brogan, O. and Smith, D.J. 1985. Ghirza: a Romano-Libyan Settlement in Tripolitania. Libyan Antiquities Series 1. Tripoli.
Reynolds, J.M., Brogan, O. and Smith, D. 1958. Inscriptions in the Libyan alphabet from Ghirza in Tripolitania. Antiquity32: 112-115.
Vita-Finzi, C. and Brogan, O. 1965. Roman dams on the Wadi Megenin. Libya Antiqua 2: 65-71.
