Elizabeth K. Ralph (1921–1993) was a pioneer in the development and application of radiocarbon dating techniques to archeology, as well as a long-time member of the U.S. women's field hockey team.
She also improved instruments for the measurement of magnetic intensity, including cesium magnetometers, which located landscape anomalies that could signal the presence of archaeological sites.
[4] In Penn's Radiocarbon Lab, Ralph conducted her first analysis of museum materials on a set of human bones from the Hotu Cave in Iran, which Carleton S. Coon excavated between 1949 and 1951.
Robert H. Dyson, director of the Penn Museum known for his excavations at the Neolithic site of Hasanlu in Iran, later recalled that she competed in field hockey tournaments throughout most of her career.
[3] Henry N. Michael, with whom she co-authored the book Dating Techniques for the Archaeologist (1911), described her work excavating in southern Italy, in the 1960s, as "legendary" because she had to walk hundreds of miles across archaeological sites with the improved cesium magnetometers that she devised.
[2] With her colleague Henry N. Michael, a professor at Temple University and a fellow Penn PhD who worked closely with her in the MASCA lab, Ralph developed research on dendrochronology.
The Archaeological Institute of America cited Ralph for many publications and achievements, including her leading roles in developing the half-life mode of radiocarbon dating; recognizing the need for a correction factor in this process; and testing instruments for sub-surface excavation as first demonstrated in her work at Sybaris.