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Sylvia Benton FSA, FSA Scot (18 August 1887 – 12 September 1985) was a British classical archaeologist, best known for her work on ancient Greece and the Sculptor's Cave in Moray, Scotland. Benton was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1928 and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in London in 1937.
Benton traveled throughout Greece in 1926. In 1927 to 1928 she was a student at the British School at Athens and assisted archeologist and school instructor, Walter Abel Heurtley, with excavations in Chalkidiki in Northern Greece. Benton was turned down for the 1928–1929 term at the school, because she had disobeyed an order from the school's Director not to climb the Taygetus mountains alone. She continued to assist Heurtley in his excavations in 1929. Benton was accepted at the School of Athens for the 1929-1930 school term. She participated in excavations with Heurtley in Macedonia and Servia in 1930, and Armenochori in 1931.
She continued to travel throughout Greece, often accompanying archaeologists, including Ralegh Radford and John Pendlebury. She returned to Oxford to study for the Diploma in Classical Archaeology, which she obtained in 1932. Later, in 1934, she went on to acquire a B. Litt. with the dissertation, the Barony of Odysseus.
Benton returned to Greece in 1930 and assisted in excavations under the direction of Huertley at Ithaca from 1930 to 1932 and in 1934. She also participated in the excavation of a cave at Astakos in 1932 and Zakynthos with Hilda Lorimer in 1934. . After Heurtley's retirement from the school in 1937, Benton began excavating on her own in North Ithaca, at Tris Langades, from 1937 to 1938. She returned to excavate at Aeots in 1938, where she uncovered important finds of Geometric and Archaic periods of Ancient Greece. She continued to analyze those finds at the Vathy museum in Ithaca for several years and published several articles on her work.
Sylvia moved back to England late in August 1939 at the beginning of the second World War and found war work in London, initially for Naval Hydrography. Later she worked with London's fire-fighting brigade at night. Benton was badly injured in the bombing of London in 1945. By the spring of 1947. with the war over, she was able to return to Greece and work at the Vathy museum in Ithaca. The 1953 Ionian earthquake devastated the islands, killed several hundred people and destroyed many buildings. After the earthquake, Benton participated in the restoration of the museums at Vathy and Stavros. During this time period, she divided her time between Ithaca and her home in Oxford, England.
In the 1950s, Sylvia focused her research on the themes of monsters, winds, birds in Greek art and literature. She authored several publications on the topics, but her work of twelve years on birds was not accepted for publication. When Benton had completed her work at the Sculptor's Cave in 1930, she left behind a number of undisturbed deposits and artefacts on the floor of the cave for future archaeologists. Fifty years later in 1979, Benton returned to the cave during its excavation by archaeologists Ian and Alexandra Shepherd, to retrieve the remaining artefacts. Benton, at the age of 92, climbed down a high scaffolding on the cliff face above the cave to view the progress of the excavation by the archeological team.
Benton moved to Lossiemouth, Moray in 1970 when she retired, and later to Kincraig in 1984, where her family was located. After a fall, she died in an Inverness hospital on 12 September 1985, at the age of 98.
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