Thursday 13 November 2008

The BSA and the Ben Nevis Observatory

The £500 Government Grant to the BSA accounted for more than a quarter of the School's income for the period 1894-1918. However it did not meet with approval in a letter to The Scotsman (5 October 1904). The correspondent was making a complaint to MPs from Scotland over the lack for funding for the Ben Nevis Observatory.

Interestingly the BSA funding was on a par (in 1904) with the Royal Geographical Society and the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland. The Scottish Meteorological Society was awarded ('a miserable') £100, and the correspondent added:
Even the British School at Athens has a grant of £500 per annum, but a similar sum could not be spared for the Ben Nevis Observatory!
However by this period several students from Scotland had been admitted as Students.

The letter closed with this parting shot:
It is evident that for Government grants only English and Irish need apply.

Tuesday 11 November 2008

We Will Remember Them

It is the 90th anniversary of the end of the First World War. Seven former students of the BSA were killed: two at Gallipoli and five on the Western Front.

Stanley Casson served on the Western Front in the East Lancashire Regiment; he was wounded in May 1915. In 1916 he joined the General Staff in Salonica and served on the Allied Control Commission in Thessaly (1917). At the end of the war he served in Constantinople and Turkestan until he was demobilised in 1919. He was Assistant Director of the BSA under Alan Wace (1920-22), and Reader in Classical Archaeology at Oxford. He re-enlisted in the Intelligence Corps at the outbreak of the Second World War and served in Holland and Greece rising to the rank of Lt.-Colonel. He was killed on active service in a flying accident on 17 April 1944 and was buried in Newquay.

Saturday 1 November 2008

The Temple of Aphaia: revised date

Twenty years ago I suggested in the Annual of the British School at Athens that the Temple of Aphaia on Aegina should be dated to the 470s. I based this proposal on the pottery found in the terrace system of the temple.

Now Andrew Stewart has revisited the evidence in "The Persian and Carthaginian Invasions of 480 B.C.E. and the Beginning of the Classical Style: Part 2, The Finds from Other Sites in Athens, Attica, Elsewhere in Greece, and on Sicily; Part 3, The Severe Style: Motivations and Meaning", AJA 112, 4 (2008) 581-615 [online]. In his discussion of the temple of Aphaia (pp. 593-97) Stewart concludes, "The conclusion is inevitable—however unpalatable to some: the new Aphaia temple surely postdated the Persian Wars in its entirety."

  • "The Temple of Aphaia on Aegina: the date of the reconstruction", BSA 83 (1988) 169-77
  • "The Temple of Aphaia on Aegina: further thoughts on the date of the reconstruction", BSA 88 (1993) 173-85

Image
© David Gill, 2008

Saturday 11 October 2008

Piet de Jong: The Propylaia

The most recent number (no. 224) of Current Archaeology carries an illustrated letter about a previously unknown watercolour by Piet de Jong showing the Propylaia. The picture came from a cottage in Norfolk (England) that had once been occupied by the writer John Middleton Murry (1889-1957), friend of Piet de Jong.

Tuesday 30 September 2008

Intelligence Gathering in the First World War

Many of the former BSA students helped to gather intelligence during the First World War (see Harry Pirie-Gordon). But other archaeological institutes were involved in similar activities.

In late November 1916 the directors of the German and Austrian archaeological institutes were required to leave Athens as they were alleged to have been involved with espionage and 'other hostile acts against the Entente Powers'.

Thursday 28 August 2008

BSA Students and the City of London School

I have earlier commented on BSA students who had been educated at the City of London School. The history by Douglas-Smith contains a biographical index for some former pupils.
  • Ernest Arthur Gardner (1862-1939), Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge; BSA 1886/87; director 1887-95. Douglas-Smith, p. 542.
  • Charles Henry Hawes (1867-1943), Trinity College, Cambridge; BSA 1904/05. Not mentioned.
  • Frederick Arthur Charles Morrison (1872-1899), Jesus College, Cambridge; BSA 1896/97. Not mentioned
  • John Knight Fotheringham (1874-1936), Merton College, Oxford; BSA 1898/99. Douglas-Smith, p. 541.
A.J. Spilsbury, who was appointed to the school in 1900, is also mentioned (Douglas-Smith, pp. 321, 323-24). Among his contributions was a piece on 'Greece Revisited' for the Magazine (1901). It cites a caricature of Spilsbury in the guise of 'Gilson' (p. 332):
Gilson swung in (into the form-room), hos gown flying behind his stocky figure, his mouth tight as a trap, and ordered the other lights to be switched on. Then he put his mortar-board on his desk and stood at the foot of the dais with a paper in his hand. It was the late list ...
Reference
Douglas-Smith, A.E. 1965. The City of London School. 2nd ed. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. [WorldCat]

Wednesday 27 August 2008

BSA Students and Fellows of the British Academy

Several former students of the BSA (for the period 1886-1919) were elected Fellows of the British Academy (FBA). These include:

Tuesday 26 August 2008

BSA Students and Folklore

Folklore was an element of student research. The Cambridge emphasis can probably be traced back to J.G. Frazer (himself a student at the BSA) and to William Henry Denham Rouse (1863-1950). One of the earliest discussions is by Edward E. Sikes of St John’s, who worked on folklore elements in Hesiod in the early 1890s. Sikes drew on contemporary folklore studies and interpretations. John C. Lawson of Pembroke College was interested in the traditions of Skyros, and studied ‘folk-lore and traditional beliefs of the Greek people’ drawing on ‘oral as well as literary sources’. F.W. Hasluck of King’s College collected folk-lore traditions in Anatolia. R.M. Dawkins of Emmanuel College recorded folk-tales and noted carnivals. A.J.B. Wace also collected folk-tales and reworked them in a series of short-stories. One of the few non-Cambridge students to work in this area was Mary Hamilton of St Andrews, who researched Greek saints and explored continuity from pre-Christian times.

Select bibliography
Casson, S. 1913. "The dispersal legend." Classical Review 27: 153-56. [JSTOR]
—. 1927. "The growth of legend." Folklore 38: 255-71. [JSTOR]
Dawkins, R. M. 1904. "Greek and Cretan epiphany customs." Folklore 15: 214. [JSTOR]
—. 1924a. "Ancient statues in mediaeval Constantinople." Folklore 35: 209-48.
[JSTOR]
—. 1924b. "Ancient statues in mediaeval Constantinople: additional note." Folklore 35: 380.
—. 1929. "Presidential address: folklore and literature." Folklore 40: 14-36.
[JSTOR]
—. 1930. "Presidential address: folk-memory in Crete." Folklore 41: 11-42.
[JSTOR]
—. 1942a. "Folklore in stories from the Dodecanese." Folklore 53: 5-26. [JSTOR]
—. 1942b. "Soul and body in the folklore of modern Greece." Folklore 53: 131-47.
[JSTOR]
—. 1944. "A modern Greek folktale and comments." Folklore 55: 150-61. [JSTOR]
—. 1949a. "The story of Griselda." Folklore 60: 363-74. [JSTOR]
—. 1949b. "Obituary: Margaret Masson Hasluck." Folklore 60: 291-92. [JSTOR]
—. 1951. "The meaning of folktales." Folklore 62: 417-29. [JSTOR]
—. 1951b. "Obituary: W. H. D. Rouse." Folklore 62: 269-70. [JSTOR]
—. 1951c. "Recently published collections of modern folktales." Annual of the British School at Athens 46: 53-60.
—. 1952. "The silent princess." Folklore 63: 129-42. [JSTOR]
—. 1953a. "In a Greek village." Folklore 64: 386-96. [JSTOR]
—. 1953b. Modern Greek Folktales. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Halliday, W. R. 1910a. "The force of initiative in magical conflict." Folklore 21: 147-67. [JSTOR]
—. 1910b. "A spitting cure." Folklore 21: 388. [JSTOR]
—. 1912a. "A Greek Marriage in Cappadocia." Folklore 23: 81-88. [JSTOR]
—. 1912b. "Folklore scaps from Greece and Asia Minor." Folklore 23: 218-20. [JSTOR]
—. 1912c. "Modern Greek folk-tales and ancient Greek mythology." Folklore 23: 486-89. [JSTOR]
—. 1913. "Cretan folklore notes." Folklore 24: 357-59. [JSTOR]
—. 1914. "Modern Greek folk-tales and ancient Greek mythology: Odysseus and Saint Elias." Folklore 25: 122-25. [JSTOR]
—. 1919. "A sailor's saying." Folklore 30: 316-17. [JSTOR]
—. 1920. "Obituary: F.W. Hasluck." Folklore 31: 336-38. [JSTOR]
—. 1920. "The story of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves." Folklore 31: 321-23. [JSTOR]
—. 1921. "Snake stones." Folklore 32: 262-71. [JSTOR]
—. 1922. "Snake stones." Folklore 33: 118-19. [JSTOR]
—. 1923. "Notes upon Indo-European folk-tales and the problem of their diffusion." Folklore 34: 117-40. [JSTOR]
—. 1924a. Folklore studies: ancient and modern. London: Methuen.
—. 1924b. "Passing under the yoke." Folklore 35: 93-95. [JSTOR]
—. 1924c. "The Mithraic grade of "Eagles"." Folklore 35: 381. [JSTOR]
—. 1930. ""The Superstitious Man" of Theophrastus." Folklore 41: 121-53. [JSTOR]
—. 1933. Indo-European folk-tales and Greek legend. Gray lectures; 1932. Cambridge: The University Press.
—. 1950. "A motif found in Moslem legend." Folklore 61: 218. [JSTOR]
Hasluck, F. W. 1911/12. "Plato in the folk-lore of the Konia plain." Annual of the British School at Athens 18: 265-69.
—. 1912/13. "Studies in Turkish history and folk-legend." Annual of the British School at Athens 19: 198-220.
—. 1919. "Prentice Pillars: the architect and his pupil." Folklore 30: 134-35. [JSTOR]
Hasluck, F.W. (eds. M.M. Hasluck, R. M. Dawkins). 1926. Letters on religion and folklore. London: Luzac & Co.
Hasluck, F. W. (ed. M. M. Hasluck). 1929. Christianity and Islam under the Sultans. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Hasluck, M.M. ‘The significance of Greek personal names’, Folklore 34, 2 (1923) 149-154, 249-251. [JSTOR]
—. 1925. "Ramadan as a personal name." Folklore 36: 280. [JSTOR]
—. 1926. "A lucky spell from a Greek island." Folklore 37: 195-96. [JSTOR]
—. 1927. "The basil-cake of the Greek New Year." Folklore 38: 143-77. [JSTOR]
—. 1949. "Oedipus Rex in Albania." Folklore 60: 340-48. [JSTOR]
Lawson, J. C. 1910. Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient Greek Religion: a study in survivals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sikes, E. E. 1893. "Folk-Lore in the 'Works and Days' of Hesiod." Classical Review 7: 389-94. [JSTOR]
—. 1909. "Four-footed man: a note on Greek anthropology." Folklore 20: 421-31. [JSTOR]

Thursday 21 August 2008

David Hogarth and Cyprus

David Hogarth's Devia Cypria is available online. The context of this trip was within the work of the Cyprus Exploration Fund.

Hogarth, D. G. 1889. Devia Cypria: notes of an archaeological journey in Cyprus in 1888. London: Henry Frowde.

Wednesday 20 August 2008

BSA Students and Coins

The main research topics for students were on pottery and sculpture. However several worked on coins. Among the Cambridge students, Francis Brayne-Baker of Christ’s College studied coins from Asia Minor. Sidney W. Grose also of Christ’s College worked on the McClean coins in the Fitzwilliam Museum and subsequently became honorary keeper there. Alan Wace of Pembroke College published a coin hoard of Hellenistic coins found at Sparta.

Among the Oxford students, Joseph G. Milne of Corpus Christi College excavated in Egypt (publishing coins from the Faiyum), and subsequently became deputy keeper of coins in the Ashmolean Museum (1931-51). John W. Crowfoot of Brasenose College worked on the iconography of Thracian coins, linking them to specific inscriptions from Athens. E.S.G. Robinson of Christ Church worked on numismatics in the collections at Athens, and collected coins on his journey through Lycia and Pamphylia. He subsequently became assistant keeper, and then keeper, in the department of Coins and Medals at the British Museum.

Select Bibliography
Baker, F. B. 1892. "Coin-types of Asia Minor." Numismatic Chronicle 12: 89-97.
—. 1893. "Some rare or unpublished Greek coins." Numismatic Chronicle 13: 21-35.
Crowfoot, J. W. 1897. "A Thracian Portrait." Journal of Hellenic Studies 17: 321-26.
Grenfell, B. P., A. S. Hunt, D. G. Hogarth, and J. G. Milne. 1900. Fayum towns and their papyri. Egypt Exploration Fund. Graeco-Roman branch. Memoirs, vol. 3. London: Egypt Exploration Fund.
Grose, S. W. 1915. "Croton." Numismatic Chronicle 15: 179-91.
—. 1916a. "A dekadrachm by Kimon and a note on Greek coin dies." Numismatic Chronicle 16: 113-32.
—. 1916b. "Some rare coins of Magna Graecia." Numismatic Chronicle 16: 201-45.
—. 1917. "Primitiae Heracliensis." Numismatic Chronicle 17: 169-89.
—. 1920. "The Balliol College collection." Numismatic Chronicle 20, 4th ser.: 117.
—. 1923. Catalogue of the McClean collection of Greek coins [in the] Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Milne, J. G. 1905a. "A hoard of coins from Egypt of the fourth century B.C." Revue archéologique 5: 257-61.
—. 1905b. "Roman coin-moulds from Egypt." Numismatic Chronicle: 342.
—. 1908a. "The copper coinage of the Ptolemies." Annals of Archaeology and Anthropology 1: 30-40.
—. 1908b. "The leaden token coinage of Egypt under the Romans." Numismatic Chronicle: 287.
—. 1911a. "The Dadia hoard of the coins of Knidos." Numismatic Chronicle: 197.
—. 1911b. "Hoard of silver coins of Knidos." Numismatic Chronicle: 197.
—. 1912. "Two hoards of coins of Cos." Numismatic Chronicle: 14.
—. 1913. "Coutermarked coins of Asia Minor." Numismatic Chronicle: 389-98.
—. 1914. "A hoard of coins of Temnos." Numismatic Chronicle: 260.
—. 1916. "A hoard of bronze coins of Smyrna." Numismatic Chronicle: 246.
—. 1917. "The Alexandrian coinage of the early years of Hadrian." Numismatic Chronicle 17: 31.
—. 1917. "Some Alexandrian coins." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 4: 177-86.
—. 1920. "Two Roman hoards of coins from Egypt." Journal of Roman Studies 10: 169-84.
—. 1922. "The coins from Oxyrhynchus." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 8: 158-63.
—. 1929. "Ptolemaic coinage in Egypt." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 15: 150-53.
—. 1931. "Woodeaton coins." Journal of Roman Studies 21: 101-09.
—. 1933. "The Beni Hasan coin-hoard." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 19: 119-21.
—. 1935. "Report on coins found at Tebtunis in 1900." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 21: 210-16.
—. 1936. "Pliny on the First Coinages at Rome." Classical Review 50: 215-17.
—. 1938. "Roman literary evidence on the coinage." Journal of Roman Studies 28: 70-74.
—. 1940. "The "Philippus" coin at Rome." Journal of Roman Studies 30: 11-15.
—. 1943. "Pictorial coin-types at the Roman mint of Alexandria." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 29: 63-66.
—. 1945. "Alexandrian coins acquired by the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 31: 85-91.
—. 1946. "The problem of the early Roman coinage." Journal of Roman Studies 36: 91-100.
—. 1950. "Pictorial coin-types at the Roman mint of Alexandria: a supplement." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 36: 83-85.
—. 1951. "Pictorial coin-types at the Roman mint of Alexandria: a second supplement." Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 37: 100-02.
Robinson, E. S. G. 1914. "Coins from Lycia and Pamphylia." Journal of Hellenic Studies 34: 36-46.
—. 1946. "Rhegion, Zankle-Messana and the Samians." Journal of Hellenic Studies 66: 13-20.
—. 1951. "The coins from the Ephesian Artemision reconsidered." Journal of Hellenic Studies 71: 156-67.
Wace, A. J. B. 1907/08. "Laconia I. Excavations at Sparta, 1908. § 8. A hoard of Hellenistic coins." Annual of the British School at Athens 14: 149-58.

Tuesday 19 August 2008

Athens and the 1896 Olympic Games

The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in April 1896. Cecil Harcourt-Smith was the director of the BSA. Edward Frederic Benson was one of the students at the BSA and remembered the build-up to the events:
Athens took up the notion very warmly, for athletes of all nations would certainly flock there, in order to have the honour of competing with the Hellenes, whose forefathers had been the originators of contests in bodily prowess … Strings of young men in shorts trotted about the streets of Athens all day, occasionally bursting into sprints … one day I saw two stout and elderly gentlemen solemnly wresting together, by the columns of Zeus Olympios.

Wednesday 23 July 2008

Parental Background of BSA Students (1886-1914)

I was struck by the background of the fathers of students admitted to l'École française d'Athènes (EfA) in its first half century (1846-96). Here is a selection:
  • teachers in secondary education: 22%
  • doctors / pharmacists: 11%
  • legal profession: 9%
  • academics: 9%
  • financial sector: 2%
Contrast this with the 133 students from the BSA for the period 1886-1914:
  • clergy: 17%
  • legal profession: 11%
  • landed / farmers: 9%
  • financial sector: 6%
  • merchants: 6%
  • craftsmen: 6%
  • school teachers: 5%
  • academics: 4%
  • medical: 4%
Several of the school teachers were also ordained (usually in the Church of England). The fathers of three of the women were university academics, three were ordained ministers, and three were merchants. It has not been possible to identify the parental backgrounds for all the BSA students.

References
Valenti, C. 1996. "Les membres de l'École française d'Athènes: étude d'une élite universitaire (1846-1992)." Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 120: 157-72. [Cefael]

Tuesday 22 July 2008

Student numbers at the BSA (1886-1914)

Over 130 students were admitted to the BSA from its opening first year in 1886 until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. Only 50 students were admitted to l'École française d'Athènes (EfA) for the same period. There was a single session, 1908/09, in which there were more students admitted to the EfA than the BSA.

References
Gill, D. W. J. 2008. Students at the British School at Athens (1886-1914). Swansea: Ostraka Press. [Details]
Valenti, C. 1996. "Les membres de l'École française d'Athènes: étude d'une élite universitaire (1846-1992)." Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 120: 157-72. [Cefael]

Monday 21 July 2008

Hellenic Ministry of Culture Website

There is a temporary (over a week now) problem with the official website. A temporary solution is now available here.

Thursday 10 July 2008

BSA Students (1886-1919): Archive Material

Some of the BSA students have papers listed on the National Register of Archives (NRA). These entries include a link to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. There is a facility for adding notes on each of the individuals. [For short biographies]

Anderson, John George Clark (1870-1952). Christ Church, Oxford.
Atkinson, Thomas Dinham (1864-1948). Architectural Student.
Benson, Edward Frederic (1867-1940). King’s, Cambridge.
Bevan, Edwyn Robert (1870-1943). New, Oxford.
Bosanquet, Robert Carr (1871-1935). Trinity, Cambridge.
Calder, William Moir (1881-1960). Christ Church, Oxford.
Casson, Stanley (1889-1944). Senior Scholar of St John’s College, Oxford.
Cheesman, George Leonard (1884-1915). Fellow of New College, Oxford.
Crowfoot, John Winter (1873-1959). Brasenose, Oxford.
Dawkins, Richard Mcgillivray (1871-1955). Emmanuel, Cambridge.
Findlay, Adam Fyfe (1869-1962). United Presbyterian Church.
Frazer, James George (1854-1941). Fellow of Trinity, Cambridge.
Fyfe, David Theodore (1875-1945). Glasgow School of Art.
Gardner, Ernest Arthur (1862-1939). Gonville & Caius, Cambridge.
Guillemard, Francis Henry Hill (1852-1933). Gonville & Caius, Cambridge.
Halliday (Hoffmeister), William Reginald (1886-1966). New, Oxford.
Hawes, Charles Henry (1867-1943). Trinity, Cambridge.
Hogarth, David George (1862-1927). Magdalen, Oxford.
James, Montague Rhodes (1862-1936). King’s, Cambridge.
Jones, Henry Stuart (1867-1939). Fellow of Trinity, Oxford.
Lorimer, (Elizabeth) Hilda Lockhart (1873-1954). Classical tutor of Somerville College, Oxford.
Marshall, John Hubert (1876-1958). King’s, Cambridge.
Mayor, Robert John Grote (1869-1947). King’s, Cambridge.
Munro, John Arthur Ruskin (1864-1944). Fellow of Lincoln, Oxford.
Myres, John Linton (1869-1954). Fellow of Magdalen, Oxford.
Oppé, Adolph Paul (1878-1957). New, Oxford.
Ormerod, Henry Arderne (1886-1964). Queen’s, Oxford.
Peet, Thomas Eric (1882-1934). Queen’s, Oxford.
Pirie-Gordon, Charles Harry Clinton, of Buthlaw (1883-1969). Magdalen, Oxford.
Richards, George Chatterton (1867-1951). Fellow of Hertford, Oxford.
Robinson, Edward Stanley Gotch (1887-1976). Christ Church, Oxford.
Sellers, Eugénie (Mrs A. Arthur Strong) (1860-1943). Girton, Cambridge.
Sikes, Edward Ernest (1867-1940). St John’s, Cambridge.
Smith, Solomon Charles Kaines (1876-1958). Magdalene, Cambridge.
Thompson, Maurice Scott (1884-1971). Corpus Christi, Oxford.
Tillyard, Eustace Mandeville Wetenhall (1889-1962). Jesus, Cambridge.
Tod, Marcus Niebuhr (1878-1974). St John’s, Oxford.
Toynbee, Arnold Joseph (1889-1975). Balliol, Oxford.
Traquair, Ramsay (1874-1952). Architectural studentship.
Wace, Alan John Bayard (1879-1957). Pembroke, Cambridge.
Yorke, Vincent Wodehouse (1869-1957). King’s, Cambridge.

Wednesday 9 July 2008

BSA Students (1886-1919) and The Dictionary of British Classicists

Many of the better known students of the BSA (1886-1919) appear in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [website]. Others feature in the Dictionary of British Classicists (3 vols; Bristol: Thoemmes Continuum, 2004), ed. Robert Todd [publisher]. [Review in History of Intellectual Culture] [Review in TLS]

Anderson, John George Clark (1870-1952). [HWB]
Benson, Edward Frederic (1867-1940). [WHP]
Bevan, Edwyn Robert (1870-1943). [JRCC]
Bosanquet, Robert Carr (1871-1935). [DWJG]
Calder, William Moir (1881-1960). [JR]
Cary, Max. See Caspari, Max Otto Bismarck.
Caspari, Max Otto Bismarck (Max Cary) (1881-1958). [HWB]
Casson, Stanley (1889-1944). [DWJG]
Dawkins, Richard Mcgillivray (1871-1955). [DWJG]
Dickins, Guy (1881-1916). [DWJG]
Droop, John Percival (1882-1963). [DWJG]
Forster, Edward Seymour (1879-1950). [RBT]
Frazer, James George (1854-1941). [RAA]
Gardner, Ernest Arthur (1862-1939). [DWJG]
Gomme, Arnold Wycombe (1886-1959). [MHC]
Hardie, Margaret Masson (Mrs F.W. Hasluck) (1885-1948). [DS]
Hasluck, Frederick William (1878-1920). [DS]
Hasluck, Margaret Masson. See Hardie, Margaret Masson.
Hogarth, David George (1862-1927). [DWJG]
Hutton, Caroline Amy (c. 1861-1931). [SLD]
Jones, Henry Stuart (1867-1939). [DWJG]
Lamb, Dorothy (Mrs J. Reeve Brooke) (1887-1967). [DWJG]
Lorimer, (Elizabeth) Hilda Lockhart (1873-1954). [CDF]
Mackenzie, Duncan (1861-1934). [NM]
Marshall, John Hubert (1876-1958). [NL]
Myres, John Linton (1869-1954). [DWJG]
Ormerod, Henry Arderne (1886-1964). [DWJG]
Peet, Thomas Eric (1882-1934). [DWJG]
Richards, George Chatterton (1867-1951). [DWJG]
Richter, Gisela Marie Augusta (1882-1972). [DWJG]
Sellers, Eugénie (Mrs A. Arthur Strong) (1860-1943). [SLD]
Strong, Eugénie. See Sellers, Eugénie.
Stuart-Jones, Henry. See Jones, Henry Stuart.
Thompson, Maurice Scott (1884-1971). [DWJG]
Tod, Marcus Niebuhr (1878-1974). [DWJG]
Toynbee, Arnold Joseph (1889-1975). [RBT]
Wace, Alan John Bayard (1879-1957). [DWJG]
Woodhouse, William John (1866-1937). [LZ]
Woodward, Arthur Maurice (1883-1973). [DWJG]

Contributors:
RAA = Robert Ackerman
HWB = Herbert W. Benario
MHC = Mortimer Chambers
JRCC = Robert Cousland
SLD = Stephen L. Dyson
CDF = Diane Fortenberry
NM = Nicoletta Momigliano
DWJG = David Gill
NL = Nayanjot Lahiri
WHP = William H. Peck
JR = James Russell
DS = David Shankland
RBT = Robert B. Todd
LZ = Louise Zarmati

BSA Students (1886-1919): Published Books

A working list of published books by BSA students admitted during the period 1886 to 1914 can be found at WorldCat.

This is in addition to the bibliography on the History of the British School at Athens.

Monday 7 July 2008

BSA Corporate Subscriptions (1894-1918)


The re-organisation of the BSA under Cecil Harcourt-Smith brought about an increase in the amount of money attracted from corporate bodies. This income represented around 51% of the total subscriptions for the BSA during this period. The Rules and Regulations stated:
VI. A corporate body subscribing not less than £ 50 a year, for a term of years, shall, during that term, have the right to nominate a member of the Managing Committee.
Representatives from the Hellenic Society and Oxford University on the Managing Committee were joined by a representative from Cambridge (from 1896/97). Each institution then gave £100 per annum (except for the Hellenic Society and Oxford during the First World War).

The BSA was regularly supported by a subscription of £5.5.0 from the Society of Antiquaries of London, and £25 from HRH the Prince of Wales (and after he became King).

Oxford Colleges
  • Brasenose College (by 1894/95, £5)
  • Christ Church (from 1895/96, £20)
  • Corpus Christi College (from 1895/96, £5)
  • Magdalen College (from 1895/96, £10)
Cambridge Colleges
  • Caius College (by 1907/08, £10)
  • Emmanuel College (by 1911/12, £5)
  • King's College (from 1895/96, £10)

Other British Institutions
Canada
  • McGill University, Montreal (from 1896/97, £5.5.0)
Information and chart revised 7 August 2008.

Tuesday 1 July 2008

The British School at Athens (1886-1919): Outline

I am revising the text of my study of the British School at Athens (1886-1919). Here is the working outline:

Part 1: The School

Chapter 1: The Origins of the School

Chapter 2: The Directors of the School

Chapter 3: The BSA Managing Committee

Part 2: Students of the British School at Athens

Chapter 4: Oxford and Cambridge Students

Chapter 5: Women at the British School at Athens

Chapter 6: Other Students in Athens

Part 3: Fieldwork

Chapter 7: Cyprus

Chapter 8: Mainland Greece and the Peloponnese

Chapter 9: The Islands

Chapter 10: Anatolia

Chapter 11: North Africa and Other Projects

Part 4: After the British School at Athens

Chapter 12: Subsequent Careers

Chapter 13: Further Excavations

Chapter 14: Students at War

Appendix

Biographies of Students at the British School at Athens (1886-1919)

Friday 27 June 2008

The youngest BSA Student

Students were normally admitted to the BSA after completing their studies. There were exceptions. Three Oxford students were admitted after completing Classical Moderations, and three Cambridge students after completing Part 1 of the Classical Tripos.

In spite of strict criteria about entry to the BSA, Richard Stanton Lambert (1894-1981) was admitted in 1912/13 when he was 18. He had been educated at Repton School (1908-12) and had won a classical scholarship to Wadham College, Oxford.

After his time in Greece, Lambert was admitted to Wadham in the Michaelmas term of 1913. By early 1914 he was speaking in public debates about the need for reductions in armaments. He secured registration as a conscientious objector in 1916 and subsequently joined a Friends' Ambulance Unit (1916-18).

After the war Lambert was a lecturer in Economics at Sheffield University, and in 1927 took charge of Adult Education at the BBC. He became the first editor of The Listener (until 1939).

Thursday 26 June 2008

BSA Students and Military Decorations from Greece

Several former BSA students were awarded Greek decorations in recognition of their military (and civilian) service during the First World War.

The most prestigious was the Order of the Redeemer first awarded in 1833. There are five classes. The Gold Cross was awarded to Erenest A. Gardner (who had served in naval intelligence in Salonica), and the Silver Cross was to John C. Lawson and Richard M. Dawkins (who had both served in naval intelligence on Crete). Other members of the school were awarded the order though the class is not clear: Robert C. Bosanquet, Stanley Casson, William R. Halliday, Solomon C. Kaines Smith, Arthur M. Woodward. Bosanquet had been present in Salonica working with refugees from Serbia.

The second most prestigious was the Royal Order of George I instituted in January 1915. There were two recipients, John L. Myres (Commander) and Henry A. Ormerod (Chevalier).

Kaines Smith and Lawson were awarded the Greek Medal of Military Merit, and E.M.W. Tillyard the Greek Military Cross.

Wednesday 25 June 2008

BSA Students and Crete in the First World War

Students of the BSA had been involved in a series of excavations across Crete since the foundation of the Cretan Exploration Fund. These had included Knossos, the Dictaean Cave, Kato Zakro, Praesos, Palaikastro, the Kamares Cave and Plati.

Three former BSA students were commissioned as officers in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR): Richard M. Dawkins (1871-1955), John C. Lawson (1874-1935), and William R. Halliday (1886-1966). Their role was to monitor the activity of German submarines and to be involved in counter-espionage.

Lawson was a Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge, and Dawkins had just resigned as Director of the BSA and was a Fellow of Emmanuel College, Cambridge. Both were in their 40s. Halliday had been appointed Rathbone Professor of Ancient History at Liverpool in 1914. Lawson was commissioned in February 1916, Halliday in May, and Dawkins in December. All held the rank of Lieutenant; Lawson rose to be Lt-Commander. (Dawkins' father had retired from the Royal Navy with the rank of Read-Admiral.) Lawson was based at Suda Bay, Dawkins to eastern Crete (an area he knew well from his excavations there), and Halliday to the western part of the island.

Lawson later wrote about aspects of his activity as an intelligence officer:
He must secure native agents ashore along coastlines of many hundred miles to report sightings of submarines, and movements of ships or persons suspected of communicating with or re-victualling them, and devise codes for the passing of such information. He must direct the tracking and procure the arrest of spies and enemy agents in general.
One of Lawson's actions was to annexe (briefly) the island of Kythera in January 1917 as he considered it to be acting as a base for enemy submarines responsible for a series of sinkings.

This work on Crete was conducted alongside other intelligence work through the Eastern Mediterranean Special Intelligence Bureau (EMSIB) in Salonica (see Harry Pirie-Gordon) or through civilian activity in Athens.

Tuesday 24 June 2008

Henry Arnold Tubbs

The biographical history of Henry Arnold Tubbs (Talbot-Tubbs from at least 1897), one of the BSA students, is unclear. He was born in Lancashire in 1865, and was a scholar at Pembroke College, Oxford (1883-87). Tubbs was awarded a Craven Fellowship and admitted to the BSA for two sessions (1888-89, 1889-90) to work with Ernest Gardner on Cyprus (Cyprus Exploration Fund). During the 1890 season of excavations he had to leave the island to take up office in the Department of Classics at University College, Auckland, New Zealand. He was made a full professor in February 1894 (initially for a period of five years, to 1899).

His time in Auckland was not easy. In January 1896 he was due to have been married in Sydney; however he sustained serious injuries and the marriage was unable to proceed.

Tubbs remained in office until 1907 when he was dismissed. In December 1907 Tubbs (named as Henry Arnold Talbot Tubbs) went to the Supreme Court in Auckland seeking £700 in damages ('Professor claims damages', [Auckland] Evening Post 3 December 1907; 'Professor and university', Otago Witness, 11 December 1907).

In later life he seems to have moved to Australia (New South Wales and Queensland).

Lectures for the Royal Society of New Zealand:
  • '"A", a Passage in Archaeology', 30 June 1897 [details] (history and development of alphabetic writing)
  • 'Greek Painted Vases: their Importance, Form, and Design', 19 August 1901 [details]

Monday 23 June 2008

BSA Students and Clerical Family Backgrounds

It is striking how many students (about one sixth) admitted to the BSA up to the First World War were sons and daughters of clerical families. Several students were later ordained members of the Church of England, or served as ministers in Scotland.

Church of England
  • Thomas Dinham Atkinson, son of the Rev. George Barnes Atkinson (d. 1917), Rector of Swanington, Norfolk, and schoolmaster in Sheffield.
  • Edward Frederic Benson, son of the Rev. Edward White Benson (1829-96), headmaster of Wellington College, and later Archbishop of Canterbury (1883-96).
  • Alexander Cradock Bolney Brown, son of the Rev. George Bolney Brown (1850-1931), Rector of Aston-by-Stone, Staffs.
  • John Winter Crowfoot, son of the Rev. John Henchman Crowfoot.
  • David George Hogarth, son of the Rev. George Hogarth (1827-1902), vicar of Barton-on-Humber.
  • Charles Cuthbert Inge, son of the Rev. William Inge, DD., Provost of Worcester College.
  • Montague Rhodes James, son of the Rev. Herbert James (1822-1909), Rector of Livermere, Suffolk.
  • Henry Stuart-Jones, son of the Rev. Henry William Jones (1834-1909) Henry William Jones (1834–1909), Vicar of St Andrew's Church, Ramsbottom, Lancashire.
  • John Cuthbert Lawson, son of the Rev. Robert Lawson (d. 1909), Rector of Camerton.
  • William Loring, son of the Rev. Edward Henry Loring (1823-79), Rector of Gillingham, Norfolk.
  • Robert John Grote Mayor, son of the Rev. Joseph Bickersteth Mayor (1828-1916), of Queen's Gate House, Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey; schoolmaster, headmaster and university professor.
  • John Linton Myres, son of the Rev. William Miles Myres (d. 1901), Vicar of St Paul’s Preston.
  • Oswald Hutton Parry, son of the Rev. Edward St John Parry; in 1891, private school master in Stoke Poges, Bucks.
  • John Ff. Baker Penoyre, son of the Rev. Slade Baker Stallard-Penoyre.
  • Edward Ernest Sikes, son of the Rev. Thomas Burr Sikes (St John's College, Oxford, 1849), Vicar of Burstow, Surrey.
  • John Laurence Stokes, son of the Rev. Augustus Sidney Stokes (1846-1922), Vicar of Elm, Cambs.
  • Erwin Wentworth Webster, son of the Rev. Wentworth Webster (1829-1907), Anglican chaplain at St Jean-de-Luz, Basses-Pyrénées.
  • Hercules Henry West, son of the Very Rev. John West, Dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.
  • Rev. William Ainger Wigram, son of the Rev. Woolmore Wigram (1831-1907), Vicar of Brent Pelham with Furneaux Pelham, Hertfordshire.
  • Arthur Maurice Woodward, son of the Rev. W.H. Woodward.

Ministers in Scotland
  • John G.C. Anderson, son of the Rev. Alexander Anderson, from Morayshire.
  • Mary Hamilton, daughter of the Rev. William Hamilton, minister of Trinity Congregational Church, Dundee.
  • Elizabeth Hilda Lockhart Lorimer, daughter of the Rev. Robert Lorimer (1840–1925), minister of the Free Church of Scotland at Mains and Strathmartine, Forfarshire.

Friday 20 June 2008

BSA Students and Oxford Poetry

Several of the BSA Students wrote poetry. The following BSA students published in Oxford Poetry:
  • Roger Meyrick Heath (1889-1916), Oriel Coll.: 'The Crimson Box' (1910-13)
  • Richard Stanton Lambert (1894-1981), Wadham Coll.: 'East-End Dirge' (1914), 'For a Folk-Song' and 'War-Time' (1915)

John Ellingham Brooks

One of the more shadowy students at the BSA was John Ellingham Brooks (1863-1929). He had been educated at St Paul's College, Stony Stratford, Bucks., and then Peterhouse, Cambridge (1883-86; BA 1886). He was admitted at Lincoln's Inn (28 January 1887) and passed his Roman Law examination (1889).

In 1890 Brooks met (William) Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) in Heidelberg (see also Samuel J. Rogal, A William Somerset Maugham Encyclopedia [Greenwood, 1997]). Bryan Connon has noted:
Ten years his senior and an ostentatious homosexual, Brooks encouraged his ambitions to be a writer and introduced him to the works of Schopenhauer and Spinoza.
Brooks was admitted to the BSA in Ernest Gardner's last year as Director (1894/95). The reason stated was to do:
some preliminary work with a view to further research in another Session, especially in connection with the early Italian travellers in Greece, with the Greek teachers in Italy at the time of the Renaissance, and with the records and doings of the French and English travellers at the end of last and the beginning of the present century.
Brooks was re-admitted as an Associate in 1896/97 under Cecil Harcourt-Smith.

In 1895, the year of Oscar Wilde's imprisonment, Brooks and Maugham arrived on Capri. It was there Brooks met (Beatrice) Romaine Mary Goddard (1874-1970), an American citizen. Brooks and Goddard married on Capri on 3 June 1903; they separated after a year.

On Capri Brooks developed a close relationship with Edward Frederic Benson (1867-1940), another former student at the BSA (1891/92-1894/95). Benson recalled in As We Were (1930):
For several years I had been out here for some weeks of the summer, sharing the quarters of a friend of mine resident on the island, but now we had taken between us the lease of the Villa Cercola, and my footing in Capri was on a more permanent basis. ... the house was much bigger than Brooks's last habitation. (p. 339)
These events took place in 1914, but Benson had clearly been visiting Capri since 1895 (see Robert Aldrich, The Seduction of the Mediterranean: Writing, Art and Homosexual Fantasies [London: Routledge, 1993], 126) as he had been part of the circle of Goddard, Maugham and Brooks. The Villa Cercola was also leased with Maugham.

Brooks died in May 1929.

Thursday 19 June 2008

Mary Hamilton and the BSA

Mary Hamilton (1881-1962) was educated at St Andrews. Her father, Rev. William Hamilton, was the minister of the Trinity Evangelical Union Church in Dundee. (The church had been opened by James Morison [1816-93], founder of the Evangelical Union, in December 1877.) She held a fellowship from the Carnegie Trust (working on incubation) and was subsequently admitted to the BSA for the sessions 1905/06 and 1906/07. In Athens she met Guy Dickins (1881-1916) and they were married, c. 1909. Mary continued to use the address of her parents in Dundee.

Dickins was appointed lecturer in classical archaeology at Oxford in 1914 and they moved to 12 Holywell Street. Dickins was commissioned in November 1914 (Kings Royal Rifle Corps) and served in France; he died of wounds received on the Somme in 1916. Mary continued living at Holywell Street until 1917 when she moved to Bevington Road in Oxford. In 1925 she returned to Scotland, Callendar in Perthshire. She subsequently married Lacey Davis Caskey (1880-1944), curator of Classical Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and her contemporary in Athens at the American School (ASCSA); they lived in Wellesley, Mass.

Mary returned to Callendar in 1950.

Bibliography
Hamilton, M. 1906. Incubation, or, the cure of disease in pagan temples and Christian churches. London: W.C. Henderson & Son.
—. 1906/7. "The pagan element in the names of saints." Annual of the British School at Athens 13: 348–56.
—. 1910. Greek saints and their festivals. London: W. Blackwood & Sons.

Wednesday 18 June 2008

BSA Students and St Andrews

Only a small proportion of students admitted to the BSA had studied in Scotland. There was a single student from St Andrews. Mary Hamilton, originally from Dundee, graduated from St Andrews in Classics in 1902, and subsequently held a Research Fellowship under the Carnegie Trust (1903/04). This resulted in her study of Incubation, or, the cure of disease in pagan temples and Christian churches (1906) [WorldCat]. She was formally admitted as a student to the BSA in 1905/06 and 1906/07; in 1905 she was also admitted to the British School at Rome.

Three former students of the BSA were lecturers in St Andrews:
  • William John Woodhouse (1866-1937) was lecturer in Ancient History and Political Philosophy (1900). He had been admitted as a student at the BSA in 1889/90 and had subsequently been an assistant lecturer at Bangor (1896-99). In 1901 he moved to Sydney to be professor of Greek.
  • Adolph Paul Oppé (1878-1957) was a lecturer in Greek from 1902 immediately after his year in Athens (1901/02). In 1904 he was appointed lecturer in Ancient History at Edinburgh.
  • Alan John Bayard Wace (1879-1957) was appointed lecturer in Ancient History and Archaeology (1912-14) after a long-period as a student in Athens (first admitted 1902/03) and librarian for the British School at Rome (1905/06). He left St Andrews to become director of the BSA.

Thursday 5 June 2008

Students at the British School at Athens (1886-1914): Index Available

The index for the Students at the British School at Athens (1886-1914) is now available from Amazon. [Further details]


Monday 2 June 2008

Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire

Debbie Challis has published her study of British archaeology in the Ottoman Empire. This covers three main areas:
  • Asia Minor: Lycia and Caria
  • North Africa: Carthage and Cyrene
  • Ionian Greece: Ephesus and Smaller Excavations
This book discusses the period before the establishment of the Asia Minor Exploration Fund (see also Funding) and the later work by students of the British School at Athens (see Gill 2004).

References
Challis, D. 2008. From the Harpy Tomb to the Wonders of Ephesus: British archaeologists in the Ottoman Empire 1840-1880. London: Duckworth. [WorldCat]
Gill, D. W. J. 2004. "The British School at Athens and archaeological research in the late Ottoman Empire." In Archaeology, anthropology and heritage in the Balkans and Anatolia: the life and times of F.W. Hasluck, 1878-1920, edited by D. Shankland, pp. 223-55, vol. 1. Istanbul: The Isis Press. [WorldCat]

Friday 23 May 2008

John L. Myres: 'the passionate ubiquity of the Flying Dutchman'

In March 1917 John L. Myres, who had been conducting raids on the Anatolian coast, was posted to Syra. Compton Mackenzie (Aegean Memories, 1940) described his arrival:
A scholar of mundane reputation before the war, Professor J.L. Myres was now a Lieutenant-Commander in the R.N.V.R. In appearance he resembled some Assyrian king with more than a suggestion of the pirate Teach, and to such an outward form were added the passionate ubiquity of the Flying Dutchman and the fierce concentration of Captain Ahab. During the previous year he had organized a series of cattle raids on the Anatolian seaboard which in the end were stopped because it was alleged that they were doing more harm to the Greek population in Asia Minor than to their Turkish masters.

Tuesday 6 May 2008

Oxford Students at the BSA Before Completing Studies

Oxford students were normally admitted to the BSA after completing their studies. However, like Cambridge, there were exceptions.
  • Rupert Charles Clarke (1866-1912), Exeter College. Class. mod. 2nd (1886); admitted to BSA 1886/87 (under Francis C. Penrose); Lit. Hum. 2nd (1888).
  • Oswald Hutton Parry (1868-1936), Magdalen College. Class. mod. 2nd (1889); admitted to BSA 1889/90 (under Ernest A. Gardner); Lit. Hum. 3rd (1891).
  • John George Smith (J.G. Piddington) (b. 1869). Magdalen College. Class. mod. 2nd (1890); admitted to BSA 1891/92 (under Ernest A. Gardner); Lit. Hum. 3rd (1892).
Smith was re-admitted as assistant to the director, Cecil Harcourt-Smith, in 1895/96.

Friday 2 May 2008

Towards a Bibliography for the History of the British School at Athens

The Annual of the British School at Athens and the Journal of Hellenic Studies are important sources of information about the early history of the British School at Athens. But what studies have been published? What about the people? The excavations?

I have posted a (working) and preliminary list here. This will indicate the closest copy to your location (type in your postcode or zipcode). The list can also be downloaded.

Readers are welcome to leave suggestions (as a comment) or to send me an email. The list can then be updated.

Friday 25 April 2008

Gallipoli: Remembering Lives Lost

Today, April 25, is ANZAC Day when we remember the fallen at Gallipoli during the First World War. Two BSA students were killed during the campaign (see "BSA Deaths in the First World War"): Lieutenant George Leonard Cheesman, Hampshire Regiment, fell on 10 August 1915 during the surprise attack on Chunuk Bairun, and Captain William Loring, 2nd Scottish Horse, died of his wounds on the hospital ship Devanha on 24 October 1915. Loring's brother, Captain Ernest Loring RN, also served aboard ship at Gallipoli; two further brothers, Lt.-Col. Walter Latham Loring, Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and Major Charles Buxton Loring, 37th Lancers (Baluch Horse) had been killed on the Western Front in October and December 1914.

At least two other former BSA students took part in an intelligence role (see "BSA Students and the First World War: Harry Pirie-Gordon"). Lt. Commander David Hogarth RNVR, working for the Arab Bureau in Cairo, was at Gallipoli in August 1915 interrogating Turkish prisoners of war. Lt. Harry Pirie-Gordon RNVR (Magdalen College, Oxford, like Hogarth) arrived at Gallipoli at the start of the landings but was evacuated on health grounds ('ptomaine poisoning') in May. He returned in the autumn and worked with Captain Ian Smith of the Royal Engineers (his former colleague from 1911-12 when they surveyed the area round the port of Alexandretta) on interrogation. Among the prisoners was Sharif Muhammad al Faruqi, an officer of the Ottoman army, who was interviewed in October 1915. Faruqi was recruited for the Arab Bureau operating as ‘G’, and serving as a go-between for Cairo and the Sharif of Mecca.

Thursday 24 April 2008

Students at the British School at Athens (1886-1914)

Gill, D. W. J. 2008. Students at the British School at Athens (1886-1914). Swansea: Ostraka Press.
ISBN 978-0-9558498-0-0.
Cost: £5.95.

72 pages, 6" x 9", perfect binding, cream interior paper (60# weight), black and white interior ink, white exterior paper (100# weight), full-colour exterior ink.

This volume provides indexes for more than 130 students admitted to the British School at Athens from its establishment in 1886 to the outbreak of the First World War. There is a short introductory essay with bibliography.

Contents

A. Introduction

B. School Backgrounds

C. Cambridge Colleges

D. Oxford Colleges

E. Universities and Educational Establishments in England

F. Universities and Educational Establishments in Scotland

G. University and Educational Establishments in Ireland

H. Universities and Educational Establishments Outside Great Britain

I. Fellowships at Cambridge Colleges

J. Fellowships at Oxford Colleges

K. Students by Year of Admission at the BSA

L. Directors and Students Listed in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)

M. Alphabetical List of Students




Support independent publishing: buy this book on Lulu.

Friday 18 April 2008

The Ptolemaic Base of Arsinoe-Methana

An overview of the Ptolemaic occupation of the Methana peninsula in the Peloponnese has now appeared. Discussion includes the fortified naval base on the Nissaki as well as the topographical features of the isthmus connecting the peninsula with the Troezenia (and featuring in a number of border disputes known from inscriptions recovered from Epidauros). Methana, renamed Arsinoe, was one of a series of Ptolemaic bases in the Aegean.

This study builds on the earlier BSA / Liverpool University survey of the peninsula.

Reference
Gill, D. W. J. 2007. "Arsinoe in the Peloponnese: the Ptolemaic base on the Methana peninsula." In Egyptian Stories: a British Egyptological tribute to Alan B. Lloyd, edited by T. Schneider and K. Szpakowska, pp. 87-110. Alter Orient und Altes Testament, vol. 347. Munster: Ugarit-Verlag. [Publisher]

Image
The fortified naval base on the Nissaki. © David Gill.

Tuesday 15 April 2008

'Maghoula-hunting' in Thessaly

Excavations by the Greek Archaeological Service had drawn attention to the potential of Thessaly.

Alan J.B. Wace and A.W. Van Buren (of the American Academy at Rome) invesitigated the Magnesian peninsula in April 1905. They identified a possible site for excavation at Kato Georgi near Cape Sopias; this site, designated as Theotokou, was excavated by Wace and John P. Droop in 1907.

Wace and Droop had hoped to find remains of a Doric temple but were disappointed. They went 'maghoula-hunting' and identified a prehistoric mound at Zerelia near Almyros; this was excavated in 1908, with Maurice S. Thompson joining the team.

Wace and Thompson were joined in 1909 by T. Eric Peet. They worked on two sites: Palaeomylos near Lianokladi, in the Spercheios Valley, and Tzani Maghoula near Sophades. This work suggested to them that there were no clear links between the cultures of the Aegean and Central Europe.

Wace and Thompson excavated at Tsangli in 1910. Wynfrid Duckworth, who had worked with the BSA at Palaikastro, examined a skull found in one of the Neolithic levels. A second site was excavated at Rachmani, to the north-west of Larisa.

References
Bosanquet, R. C. 1902. "Thessaly. Prehistoric villages in Thessaly." Man 2: 106-07. [JSTOR]
Wace, A. J. B. 1906. "The topography of Pelion and Magnesia." Journal of Hellenic Studies 26: 143-68. [JSTOR]
—. 1908. "Topography of Pelion and Magnesia - Addenda." Journal of Hellenic Studies 28: 337. [JSTOR]
Wace, A. J. B., and J. P. Droop. 1906/07. "Excavations at Theotokou, Thessaly." Annual of the British School at Athens 13: 308-27.
Wace, A. J. B., J. P. Droop, and M. S. Thompson. 1907/08. "Excavations at Zerélia, Thessaly." Annual of the British School at Athens 14: 197-223.
Peet, T. E., A. J. B. Wace, and M. S. Thompson. 1908. "The connection of the Aegean civilization with Central Europe." Classical Review 22: 233-38. [JSTOR]
Vassits, M. M. 1907/08. "South-eastern elements in the pre-historic civilization of Servia." Annual of the British School at Athens 14: 319-42.
Thompson, M. S., and A. J. B. Wace. 1909. "The connection of the Aegean culture with Servia." Classical Review 23: 209-12. [JSTOR]
Wace, A. J. B., and M. S. Thompson. 1910. "Excavations in Thessaly, 1910." Man 10: 159-60. [JSTOR]
Duckworth, W. L. H. 1911. "35. Report on a Human Skull from Thessaly (Now in the Cambridge University Anatomical Museum)." Man 11: 49-50. [JSTOR]
Wace, A. J. B., and M. S. Thompson. 1911. "The distribution of early civilization in northern Greece." Geographical Journal 37: 631-36. [JSTOR]
Wace, A. J. B., and M. S. Thompson. 1912. Prehistoric Thessaly: being some account of recent excavations and explorations in north-eastern Greece from Lake Kopais to the borders of Macedonia. Cambridge archaeological and ethnological series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Woodward, A. M. 1913. "Inscriptions from Thessaly and Macedonia." Journal of Hellenic Studies 33: 313-46. [JSTOR]

Image
Skull from Neolithic layer at Tsangli.

Wednesday 9 April 2008

Piet de Jong: Architect and Archaeological Illustrator

Piet de Jong (1887-1967) is described in this new collection of his work as “one of the great archaeological illustrators of the 20th century” (Papadopoulos 2007: xix). Although the focus is on the American work in the Athenian agora, de Jong started his association with the British School at Athens on Alan J.B. Wace's excavations at Mycenae. He then worked with Sir Arthur Evans on Crete, Arthur M. Woodward at Sparta, and Humfry G.G. Payne at Perachora (see the caricatures in Hood 1998). De Jong also designed extensions to the BSA Hostel and Library.

Reference
Hood, R. 1998. Faces of archaeology in Greece: caricatures by Piet de Jong. Oxford: Leopard's Head Press. [Worldcat]
Papadopoulos, J. K. Editor. 2007. The art of antiquity: Piet de Jong and the Athenian Agora. Princeton, NJ: American School of Classical Studies at Athens. [Worldcat]

Monday 7 April 2008

Directors: the Transition from Dawkins to Wace

Richard M. Dawkins was due to complete his term of office as director at the end of September 1913. However in this was extended for an additional year (in spite of the suggestion in Helen Waterhouse that his term of office came to an end in 1913). Alan J.B. Wace was offered the directorship in the autumn of 1913, to start from October 1914.

Dawkins felt he could resign due to the death of his mother's cousin, the historian John Andrew Doyle (1844-1907). Dawkins inherited Doyle's two houses in Wales: Plas Dulas in Denbighshire and Pendarren near Crickhowell. Dawkins' mother, Mary Louisa, was a granddaughter of Sir John Easthope (1784-1865).

One of Dawkins' neighbours in Crickhowell was Harry Pirie-Gordon who was admitted as a student in 1908.

Reference
Waterhouse, H. 1986. The British School at Athens: the first hundred years. British School at Athens supplementary volume, vol. 19. London: Thames & Hudson.

Friday 4 April 2008

Cretan Exploration Fund: Anthropology

Human and animal remains from excavations of the Cretan Exploration Fund were send to Professor William Boyd Dawkins (1837-1929) of Manchester University. Boyd Dawkins was a friend of Evans and was invited to Knossos. He had worked on cave deposits in England, notably Wookey Hole and Cresswell Crags, and was thus a natural choice to advise Hogarth for the interpretation of animal remains from the Dictaean Cave. He also made comments on the skulls found during Hogarth's excavations at Kato Zakro.

Bosanquet wrote about the human remains from Palaikastro:
Old C---'s [presumably Charles Comyn] fondness for skulls is notorious; to-day he packed 13 of them in two large mule-paniers and sent them off to the Museum at Candia, hoping they may arrive there in time to be measured and reported on by Body-Dawkins. B.-D. is the author of a sporting book on 'Cave-hunting,' and what he doesn't know about bones isn't worth knowing. Also he's a pal of Evans', and is coming to Cnossos to stay with E. [April 21, 1902]
The following season Wynfrid L.H. Duckworth, Cambridge university lecturer in physical anthropology, joined the team to work on the remains found in the ossuaries. As he was a qualified medical doctor (St Bartholomew's Hospital in London) he was able to meet the medical needs of the local community.
Duckworth has a lot of doctoring to do and is very good and patient. Our drugs, sufficient for my modest practice, aren't enough for his, but that's just as well, for we have no business to take the place of the local doctors and chemists by a too wholesale distribution of medicines. [March 28, 1903]
Charles H. Hawes of Trinity College, Cambridge, joined the project in 1905 to continue this work.

References
Boyd Dawkins, W. 1900/01. "Skulls from cave burials at Zakro." Annual of the British School at Athens 7: 150-56. [See comment by J.L. Myres, Man 2 [1902] 122-23.]
Boyd Dawkins, W. 1902. "Remains of animals found in the Dictaean Cave in 1901." Man 2: 162-65. [JSTOR]
Duckworth, W. L. H. 1902/03a. "Excavations at Palaikastro. II. § 11. Human remains at Hagios Nikolaos." Annual of the British School at Athens 9: 344-50.
—. 1902/03b. "Excavations at Palaikastro. II. § 12. Ossuaries at Roussolakkos." Annual of the British School at Athens 9: 350-55.
Hawes, C. H. 1904/05. "Excavations at Palaikastro. IV. § 7. Larnax burials at Sarandari." Annual of the British School at Athens 11: 293-97.

Image
Skull from Zakro.

Obituary: Nicolas Coldstream (1927-2008)

Nicolas Coldstream, best known for his work on Early Iron Age Greece, died on March 21, 2008. He was born on March 30, 1927, at Lahore, India, and was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge. He was temporary assistant keeper in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum (1956-57), and then Macmillan Student at the BSA (1957-60). In 1960 he was appointed lecturer at Bedford College, University of London, promoted reader (1966), and subsequently professor of Aegean Archaeology (1975). He was elected Yates Professor of Classical Archaeology at University College London in 1983 (a position he held until his retirement in 1992).

Coldstream edited the Annual of the British School at Athens (1968-73) and was chair of the Managing Committee (1987-91).

Wednesday 2 April 2008

Melos: the Hall of the Mystae

In April 1896 Robert Carr Bosanquet described to his sister Caroline the excavations at 'the Hall of the Mystae' on Melos.
A few days later we found a statue, headless alas, lying on its back on the mosaic pavement ...It represents a hierophant ... of Dionysos, probably, and was set up by the Mystae or Initiates. The mosaic is an unusually large one, some 40 feet in length, and 10 feet wide, and on the whole well preserved. Yesterday we finished clearing away the stone dykes and soil that overlay the upper end and were overwhelmed by the beauty of the upper compartment: it has a vine in each corner whose branches spread over the field: among them are birds of gorgeous plumage, pheasants and peacocks, at one side a deer or goat lying down. The colouring is very rich and the design good. It is probably the best mosaic that has been discovered in Greece. I am anxious to arrange for its permanent preservation and am wiring to Cecil Smith, whom I suppose to be in Athens, to that effect. He has left me in charge for over 3 weeks and I have only heard from him once, so I am anxiously awaiting his coming.
The drawing was made by Charles R.R. Clark, the excavation's architect.

Bibliography
Bosanquet, R. C. 1898. "Excavations of the British School at Melos. The Hall of the Mystae." Journal of Hellenic Studies 18: 60-80, pls. i-iii.

Tuesday 1 April 2008

David Hogarth on Melos

David Hogarth had excavated at Old Paphos with the Cyprus Exploration Fund (1888) and then at Koptos in Egypt with Flinders Petrie (1894). He then joined the Egypt Exploration Fund's excavation at Deir-el-Bahari (1894), before working at Alexandria with E.F. Benson (1895), a BSA student, and then the Faiyum (1895-96).

Petrie had been the main influence on Hogarth when he went to Phylakopi on Melos to direct the BSA's excavations there. He noted:
The workmen were all native Melians, a singularly honest and industrious lot as compared with many that I have had to do with in excavation work, but possessing little experience and not conspicuous intelligence. Consequently, while they were little likely to steal, they needed constant watching and directing; and I found it not advisable to introduce among them methods that, following Mr. Petrie, I had used from time to time in Egypt, under which the men are left very much to themselves. For instance, payment by cubic metre of earth excavated, which I had contemplated introducing in order not to have to "drive" the gangs, proved not feasible in view of the large quantity of valuable pottery which the soil everywhere contained. It would have been necessary to counteract the tendency to haste, which all metre work induces, by paying a price for countless sherds which up to then had had no money value in the island. Both the disbursement would have been too great for our funds, and an unfortunate precedent would have been introduced to disturb the Aracadian simplicity of the Melians.

Bibliography
Hogarth, D. G. 1897/98. "Excavations in Melos 1898. I. The season's work." Annual of the British School at Athens 4: 1-16.

Francis Haverfield and Robert Carr Bosanquet

Phil Freeman was written a wonderfully detailed study of Francis Haverfield (1860-1919). In the section on Haverfield's 'associates', Freeman notes the strong link with Robert Carr Bosanquet (1871-1935), of Rock Hall, near Alnwick, Northumberland. Apart from being Director of the BSA, Bosanquet excavated at Housesteads on Hadrian's Wall, and later in Wales when he held the chair of classical archaeology at Liverpool.

Freeman notes the close link between the two (especially over the work in Wales) but comments (p. 414):
How and when Bosanquet came into contact with Haverfield again is not known. ... their association has to go back to Haverfield's work around Hadrian's Wall, where Bosanquet was born and later farmed.
The answer probably lies in Thomas Hodgkin (1831-1913) who had close links with Haverfield through the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. Both were involved with the excavations at Corbridge (along with Haverfield's student Leonard Cheesman (1884-1915), who was subsequently admitted to the BSA).

In July 1902 Bosanquet married Ellen Sophia (1875-1965), Hodgkin's daughter, who had read modern history at Somerville College, Oxford. She recalled her frequent visits to Hadrian's Wall as a child:
From Chollerford you could start with the Roman Camp at Chesters and go to all the other camps along the Wall, especially dear Borcovicus (Housesteads). We went on this drive so often that Chapman said the horses drew up of their own accord when we came to the right halt for a camp or a view. And so even as children we became familiar with theories of vallum and milecastles.
The Hodgkins lived in rural Northumberland first at Bamburgh, and then at Barmoor Castle. Ellen mentioned the Bosanquets at social functions. Indeed, around 1892, she remembered meeting Bosanquet, then at Trinity College, Cambridge, on a walking-tour of the Wall with Ellen's brother Edward (also at Trinity).

Tellingly Ellen refers to Bosanquet's Oxford 'cronies' (in the autumn of 1902) but does not identify them. One was likely to have been Haverfield.

Bibliography
Bosanquet, E. S. n.d. Late harvest: memories, letters and poems. London: Chameleon Press.
Bosanquet, R. C. 1904. "Excavations on the line of the Roman Wall in Northumberland. 1: The Roman camp at Housesteads." Archaeologia Aeliana 25: 193-300.
Bosanquet, R. C. 1920. "Francis John Haverfield, F.S.A., a vice-president." Archaeologia Aeliana 17: 137-43.
Freeman, P. W. M. 2007. The best training ground for archaeologists: Francis Haverfield and the invention of Romano-British archaeology. Oxford: Oxbow. [Worldcat]