Winifred Lamb: Aegean Prehistorian and Museum Curator

Cover image: British School at Athens

My biography of Winifred Lamb is due to be published in September 2018. The study covers her time as a student at the British School at Athens (as well as her preliminary visit to the Mycenae excavations before she was admitted), and her excavations at Mycenae, Sparta, in Macedonia, on Lesbos and on Chios. Her active fieldwork in the Aegean continued into the 1930s when she shifted her interests to Anatolia (through the excavation at Kusura).

Lamb was simultaneously the honorary keeper of Greek Antiquities at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, where she created a prehistoric gallery displaying finds from British excavations on Crete and on Melos.

A God in Every Stone: Kamila Shamsie

Kamila Shamsie's latest novel, A God in Every Stone (Bloomsbury), has just been published in the UK. Part of it is set on an excavation in Turkey during July 1914 where Vivian Rose Spencer is excavating a temple of Zeus.

I was delighted to receive a mention in the acknowledgements and a pointer to my Sifting the Soil of Greece. [See details]

• Amazon.com
• Amazon.co.uk

Harry Pirie-Gordon and the Palestine Guide-Books

Gill, D. W. J. 2013. "Harry Pirie-Gordon and the Palestine Guide Books." Public Archaeology 11: 169-78.

Abstract
Harry Pirie-Gordon (1883–1969) was responsible for the preparation of a series of guidebooks published by the Palestine News immediately after the First World War. The information had been prepared for the British attack on Palestine. Pirie-Gordon first went to Syria in 1908 ostensibly to study Crusader castles. He took part in the survey of the Syrian coast around Alexandretta and worked as a foreign correspondent for The Times. Pirie-Gordon was commissioned in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) and initially worked through the Arab Bureau in Cairo. After a spell in Salonica, he was commissioned in the Army, returned to Cairo, and took responsibility for the publication of the Palestine News for the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. Allenby’s campaign in Palestine drew on the developing technology of aerial photography to prepare accurate maps of troop dispositions.

[DOI]

BSA students and the Fitzwilliam Museum

My study of donations to the Fitzwilliam Museum by students of the BSA is now available online.

Gill, D. W. J. 2012. "From the Cam to the Cephissus: the Fitzwilliam Museum and students of the British School at Athens." Journal of the History of Collections: 1-10.

Abstract
The Fitzwilliam Museum holds material brought back to England by some of the early nineteenth-century travellers to Greece, including Edward Daniel Clarke and William Martin Leake. However, it was not until the later nineteenth century, with the founding of such organizations as the British School at Athens and the Cyprus Exploration Fund, that the Museum's collections started to be enriched through material excavated or otherwise acquired in Greece by archaeologists and other students. This article maps the impact of the emerging discipline of archaeology on the Fitzwilliam's collections in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It also demonstrates how the Museum profited from the close connections between students, archaeologists and museum officers of the period.

[Abstract]

John Pendlebury at Amarna

The EES has issued a video showing the work of John Pendlebury at Amarna.

Sifting the Soil of Greece: Review

Review by Sinclair Hood, in The Anglo-Hellenic Review 44 (Autumn 2011), 29

• 'Gill's book is a revelation of the diversity and interest of the work done by the staff and members of the BSA in the period of just over 30 years from its foundation in 1886 until 1919.'
• 'There are three long and useful appendices on Trustees, Managing Committee (Council) Members and Directors, and Students, followed by a very full biography, which all help to make this an invaluable work of reference.'

Winifred Lamb: obituary

Winifred's obituary appeared in The Times.

Rachel Maxwell-Hyslop

Rachel Clay excavated with Winifred Lamb at Kusura. Her obituary has appeared in The Daily Telegraph (3 August 2011). She appears as "Miss Stone" in Winifred's short story, "The Inspector Interferes".

Sifting the Soil of Greece: Student Biographies

Sifting the Soil of Greece contains three sets of short biographies:

• i. Trustees of the British School at Athens
• ii. Members of the Managing Committee of the British School at Athens
• iii. Directors and students at the British School at Athens

Sifting the Soil of Greece: Library Information

Sifting the Soil of Greece is now listed on WorldCat.

Excavating under Gunfire

I will be contributing "Excavating under Gunfire: Archaeologists in the Aegean during the First World War" to the day workshop "Archaeology and Cultural Heritage Protection in Wartime: Contemporary and Historical Perspectives" in Swansea. It develops Chapter 13 of Sifting the Soil of Greece, "Students at War".

One of the topics will be the work of British and French archaeologists to record the archaeological remains and to preserve the finds during the campaign in Macedonia. French archaeologists formed part of the Service Archéologique de l'Armée d'Orient. They had gained expertise working on the site of Elaious at Gallipoli, a site that attracted gunfire from the Turkish forces.

The British work in Macedonia was initially led by Lt-Commander Ernest Gardner RNVR, a former director of the BSA and also Yates Professor Archaeology in the University of London. Gardner was one of several former BSA students operating with Naval Intelligence in Salonica (EMSIB).

For further details about Sifting the Soil of Greece see here.

Sifting the Soil of Greece

David W.J. Gill, Sifting the Soil of Greece: the Early Years of the British School at Athens (1886-1919). Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, suppl. 111. London: Institute of Classical Studies, 2011. ISBN 978-1-905670-32-1. £38. xiv + 474 pp.
[WorldCat]

The British School at Athens opened in 1886 “to promote all researches and studies” which could “advance the knowledge of Hellenic history, literature, and art from the earliest age to the present day”. Over the next thirty years the School initiated a major programme of excavations, initially on Cyprus, then at Megalopolis, on Melos, and at Sparta. School students took part in the work of the Cretan Exploration Fund and in the major regional surveys of the Asia Minor Exploration Fund.

Most of the students who were admitted to the School in this period had been educated at either Cambridge or Oxford. Women, mostly from Cambridge, took part in the School’s activities including the excavations at Phylakopi. The students’ research interests included Greek pottery, Aegean prehistory, and epigraphy. The experience of Greece prepared the students for later work in British universities and in other professions. Many extended their archaeological experience in Greece to fieldwork in Britain, Egypt, and India.

During the First World War former students were involved in intelligence work in the eastern Mediterranean through the activities of the Arab Bureau in Cairo.

Ordering
Email: icls.publications@sas.ac.uk
Phone: +44 (0)20 7862 8705
Website: Institute of Classical Studies
Book details and online ordering: ICS

Excavating Kyzikos

The BSA had conducted a short season of excavations at Kyzikos before the First World War. It now appears that Winifred Lamb considered working there around 1935. This came to nothing and she turned to prehistoric sites and excavated at Kusura in 1936 and 1937.

Archaeologists as Spies

Why did so many former students of the British School at Athens work for military intelligence? What were their roles? Was it just the British? What about other areas of archaeology?

David Gill, 'Archaeologists as Spies', Heritage Studies Research Group, Institute of Archaeology, Gordon Square, Room 612, UCL: 5 pm. All welcome.

Excavating Methymna

In late 1928 Winifred Lamb was excavating at Methymna (Molyvo) on Lesbos. Her working day was as follows:

• 6.30 am: tea, two raw eggs, bread and jam
• 7.00-8.30 am: excavating
• 8.30 am: a glass of milk 'and anything else I want'
• (8.30 am)-noon: excavating
• 12 noon - 1.30 pm: rest
• 1.30-5 pm: excavating

Reviews by Winifred Lamb 4

Winifred Lamb reviewed the following as 'W.L.':

• Beazley, J. D.: Attic red-figured vases in American museums. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press, 1918. In Burlington Magazine 35, No. 197 (Aug., 1919), 81-82. [JSTOR]
• Herford, Mary A.B.: A Handbook of Greek Vase Painting. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1919. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 35, No. 199 (Oct., 1919), 174-175. [JSTOR]
• Beazley, J. D.: The Lewes House Collection of Ancient Gems. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1920. In Burlington Magazine 37 (Nov., 1920) 256-57 [JSTOR].
• Pfuhl, Ernst (translated by J.D. Beazley): Masterpieces of Greek Drawing and Painting. London: Chatto & Windus, 1926. In Burlington Magazine 50, no. 290 (May 1927), 278. [JSTOR]
• Beazley, J. D.: Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Great Britain fascicule 3. Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, fascicule 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1927. In Burlington Magazine 51, No. 296 (Nov., 1927), 259-260. [JSTOR]
• Lunsingh Scheurleer, C.W.: Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. I-Pays Bas, Musée Scheurleer. II-France, Collection Mouret (Fouilles d'Ensérrune). In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 53, No. 306 (Sep., 1928), 151-52. [JSTOR]
• Strong, Eugénie: Catalogue of the Greek and Roman Antiquities in the Possession of the Right Honorable Lord Melchett. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 55, No. 318 (Sep., 1929), 154-55. [JSTOR]
• Evans, Arthur: The Palace of Minos at Knossos. Vol. III. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 58, No. 334 (Jan., 1931), 53. [JSTOR]
• Caskey , L.D.: Attic Vase Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 60, No. 348 (Mar., 1932), 168-69. [JSTOR]
• Beazley, J. D.: Der Pan-Maler Berlin: 1931. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 60, No. 350 (May, 1932), 265-66. [JSTOR]
• Stawell, F. Melian: A Clue to the Cretan Scripts. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 61, No. 352 (Jul., 1932), 49 [JSTOR]
• Johansen, K. Friis and Chr. Blinkenberg: Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum. Denmark, Copenhagen, Musée National by ; Oxford Ashmolean Museum, II. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 61, No. 355 (Oct., 1932), 188-89. [JSTOR]
• Ducati, Pericle: Pontische Vasen. Bilder Griechischer Vasen by J. D. Beazley; Paul Jacobsthal. Berlin: 1932. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 63, No. 364 (Jul., 1933), 49. [JSTOR]
• Beazley, J. D.: Der Kleophrades-Maler. Bilder Griechischer Vasen Vol. VI. Berlin: 1933; Payne, H.G.G.:  Protokorinthische Vasenmalerei. Bilder Griechischer Vasen Vol. VII. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 64, No. 374 (May, 1934), 247. [JSTOR]
• Luce, Stephen B.: Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Providence, Rhode Island 1. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 65, No. 377 (Aug., 1934), 95-96. [JSTOR]

Others:

• Hill , George F.: Select Greek Coins. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 51, No. 295 (Oct., 1927), 200-201. [JSTOR]
• Lawrence , A.W.: Later Greek Sculpture and Its Influence on East and West. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 52, No. 299 (Feb., 1928), 104. [JSTOR]
• Lövy, Emanuel: Polygnot: ein Buch von Griechischer Malerei. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 58, No. 335 (Feb., 1931), 102. [JSTOR]
• Contenau , C. and V. Chapot: L'Art Antique: Orient, Grece, Rome. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 59, No. 341 (Aug., 1931), 96. [JSTOR]
• Gallatin, Albert: Syracusan Decadrachms of the Euainetos Type. In The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, Vol. 59, No. 341 (Aug., 1931), 96-97 [JSTOR]

Reviews by Winifred Lamb 3

Here are some additional reviews by Winifred Lamb:

• The Palace of Minos. A Comparative Account of the Successive Stages of the Early Cretan Civilisation as Illustrated by the Discoveries at Knossos. Vol. II by Arthur Evans, in The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 53, No. 306 (Sep., 1928), pp. 146-147 [JSTOR]
• Vasen um Meidias by Walter Hahland; Papers of the British School at Rome XI; Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, France, Musée du Louvre 6. by E. Pottier, in The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 57, No. 331 (Oct., 1930), p. 199 [JSTOR]
• Der Berliner Maler by J. D. Beazley; Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Athenes, Musee National, I by K. A. Rhomaios; Mlle. S. Papaspyridi; Madrid: Musee Archeologique National, I by J. R. Mélida, in The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 59, No. 340 (Jul., 1931), p. 46 [JSTOR]
• Necrocorinthia, a Study of Corinthian Art in the Archaic Period by Humphrey Payne, in The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 60, No. 348 (Mar., 1932), pp. 164-165 [JSTOR]
• Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum: France by S. Lambrino (Marcelle Flot), in The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 62, No. 359 (Feb., 1933), p. 94 [JSTOR]

Antissa: Winifred Lamb's excavating team

Winifred Lamb's excavating team consisted of:

• J.K. Brock (Trinity College, Cambridge)
• Nine Six
• Robert M. Cook (Clare College, Cambridge)

Excavation dates:

• 1931, 15-27 June
• 1932, 29 May - 3 July

References

Lamb, W. 1930/31. "Antissa." Annual of the British School at Athens 31: 166-78.
—. 1931/32. "Antissa." Annual of the British School at Athens 32: 41-67.

Reviews of Thermi

Winifred Lamb, Excavations at Thermi in Lesbos. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1936.

• V. Gordon Childe, Man 36 (July 1936) 122-23. [JSTOR]
• TLS 5 September 1936, 710.
• D.B. Harden, 'Thermi in Lesbos', Classical Review 50, 6 (Dec. 1936) 232-33. [JSTOR]
• H. Philippart, AntClass 5 (1936) 440-41.
• Hetty Goldman, Classical Weekly 30, 18 (Mar. 22, 1937) 207-08. [JSTOR]
• V. Gordon Childe, Journal of Hellenic Studies 57, 1 (1937) 84-86. [JSTOR]
• S. Casson, Antiquity 11 (1937) 123-24.
• K. Bittel, Germania 21 (1937) 278-81.
• George E. Mylonas, The Classical Journal 33, 4 (Jan. 1938) 234-36. [JSTOR]
• Carl W. Blegen, American Journal of Archaeology 42, 4 (1938) 593-94. [JSTOR]
• Alan J.B. Wace, Antiquaries Journal 19 (1939) 98-99.

Reviews by Winifred Lamb 2

Here are further reviews:

• Euthymides and His fellows by Joseph Clark Hoppin. In CR 33, 3/4 (May - Jun., 1919), 73-74 [JSTOR]
• Catalogue of Arretine Pottery in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston by George H. Chase. In CR 33, 3/4 (May - Jun., 1919), 78-79 [JSTOR]
• Der Berliner Maler by J. D. Beazley. In CR 45, 5 (Nov., 1931), 176-77 [JSTOR]
• Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum by J. D. Beazley; H. G. G. Payne; E. R. Price. In CR 46, 4 (Sep., 1932), 160-61 [JSTOR]
• Die Metallindustrie Anatoliens in der Zeit von 1500-700 vor Chr by Stefan Przeworski. In JHS 59, 2 (1939), 291-92 [JSTOR]
• Prosymna, the Helladic Settlement Preceding the Argive Heraeum by Carl W. Blegen. In JHS 59, 1 (1939), 141-42 [JSTOR]
• Prehistoric Macedonia. by W. A. Heurtley. In Man, 40 (Feb., 1940), 28-29 [JSTOR]
  
• Tyrrhenika: An Archaeological Study of the Etruscan Sculpture in the Archaic and Classical Periods by P. J. Riis; Tyrrhenika. In JHS 65 (1945), 123 [JSTOR]
• Ausgrabungen von Alaca Höyük: ein Vorbericht über die im Auftrage der Türkischen Geschichts kommission im Sommer 1936 durchgeführten Forschungen und Entdeckungen by H. Z. Kosay; Alaca Höyük. In JHS 66 (1946), 130 [JSTOR]
• Die Bestattungsbraeuche im vorgeschichtlichen Anatolien by T. Özgüç
  Türk Tarih Kurumu Tarafindan Karahöyük Hafriyati Rapouru, 1947: Ausgrabungen in Karahöyük by T. Özgüç; N. Özgüç. In JHS 70 (1950), 83-84 [JSTOR]
• Karatepe Kazilari (Birinci Ön-Rapor). Die Ausgrabungen auf dem Karatepe (Erster Vorbericht) by H. Th. Bossert; V. B. Alkim; H. Çambel; N. Ongunsu; I. Süzen. In JHS 71 (1951), 263-64 [JSTOR]
• The Coming of Iron to Greece by T. Burton Brown. In JHS 76 (1956), 122-23 [JSTOR]
• Early Anatolia. A Description of Early Civilisation in Asia Minor, As Revealed by the Last Half-Century of Excavating and Exploration by Seton Lloyd. In JHS 77, 2 (1957), 365 [JSTOR]