American School of Classical ewsletter Studies Spring 1985 at Athens Ka>..~ 'Avrdp.OITTJV, Dr. Cooper Cleaning at Kavousi Reveals Large Settlement of the The Open Meeting address, n A New Look Late Bronze to Early Iron Age at Old Buildings,n marked the last official public engagement for Frederick Cooper, as the Mellon Professor of Archaeology at In 1900, Harriet Boyd (Hawes), who later the American School of Classical Studies. went on to excavate the Minoan town of In this address Fred presented characteris­ Goumia in East Crete, uncovered a settle­ tically innovative, and at times iconoclas­ ment and cemetery of the early Iron Age tic, thoughts on the nature of the Treasury (about 1100-800 B.c.) at the site of Vronda of the Athenians at Delphi, the Temple of CThunder HiW) on a ridge above the Athena Nike, and the sanctuary of Athena modem village of Kavousi (Fig. 1). Shere­ Polias, both on the Athenian Akropolis, ported finding a large house with a fore­ and nthe building overlooking the Atheni­ court on the summit of the hill, store­ an Agora which for the last fifty years has rooms, a massive wall on the east, and been called the Hephaisteum. 0 Regular traces of other walls. No plan, however, of and associate members in the audience her excavations was drawn, and the few who had accompanied Fred on many ~ finds, including pithos fragments, pottery, field trip, had heard and argued these pro­ and iron tools, were only briefly described. posals in situ and at meals. We are proud that Fred had been inspired on those trips The Kavousi Project was begun in (with us!). We remember fondly pacing 1978 to study the material from the area out measurements of buildings with him, and bring up-to-date the information ignoring entire monuments in order to available about the site using modem sci- concentrate on clamps and dowels. AND Fred at the helm Continued on page 15 n? one who has studied with Fred during hts three years as Mellon Professor will forget ever a certain temple in Arcadia (Bassae), nor its architect (Ictinus). Fred's study of archaeology and archi­ tectural history began at Yale with expo­ s~re to color theory in contemporary art wtth Joseph Albers and to Greek Architec­ ture with Vincent Scully. He mastered the technique of surveying while studing Art History part time at the University of Pitts­ burgh where he encountered Rhys Car­ penter. In 1962 he came to Greece, and to Bassae, for the first time, and, a few years later published in AJA a preliminary study of the Temple of Apollo based on this visit. Graduate studies in Art History at the University of Pennsylvania were not lim­ ited to the ancient world. In n A Recon­ struction of Duccio's Maesta,n his students will be relieved to learn that Fred, true to form, first looked into the structural prob­ lems of the altarpiece, the nails and dow­ els, before considering the problems of iconography. Continued on page 12 Fig. 1. The settlement of Vronda from the southeast Published by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens 1 Images of Corinth, 1937 and 1938 ]. Lawrence Angel, renowned "Bone Man", supervisor and curator of Physical Anthro­ pology at the Smithsonian Institution, reci­ pient of the 1983 Pomerance Award for Sci­ entific Contributions to Archaeology, first came to Greece in November 1937. He was twenty-two and his wife Peggy was twenty. We asked her for some impressions of "in those days . .." Married in July, we had spent much of the summer preparing for the trip. Larry's aim was, and is, to contribute information about the health and body structure of the The bell tower, Old Corinth human beings whose achievements are studied by other specialists. Sometimes he does measure living human beings, but his Larry's first Greek skull 1937-1939 research focused on the skele­ tons excavated by classical archaeologists. His gratitude for access to archaeolog­ ical skeletons communicated itself even to Pavlos Daphnai, the cook of the Oakley House staff, who brought to a 1938 birth­ day celebration for Larry a candle-lit pro­ duction of Karayozi. In this performance, just as the dragon was about to swallow someone, the villain said: "Be sure you save the skull, so I can give it to Mr. Angel!" Pavlos was expressing as well the un­ easy fascination felt by our frequent on­ lookers. In Corinth there was Barba Yanni, who tried to teach us the Albanian words for the bones being studied. Perhaps he began to understand Larry's philosophy tQat in studying bones, the evidence of Larry and Peggy Angel, Christmas 1937 The train to Hexamilia, pre-automatrice death, he like the archaeologists, is helping t6 give the bones' owners some measure of immortality. In looking back I find myself saying "in those days," but when we were actually there, at the beginning of Larry's research, Akoue! we were living in new days, and were very conscious of the real old days, the years of Excerpts from the files of 30 years ago suggest April 29, 1955: (CHM to WMC) We must work which preceded us and our contem­ "plus t;a change, plus c' est Ia meme chose." find a sound method of putting ourselves poraries. I remember my awe on discover­ in the public eye, if we are ever going to ing that one group of skeletons was January 3, 1952: (Charles Hill Morgan, get that additional endowment for the wrapped in a 1916 newspaper story listing School. the casualties of the battle of Jutland. Chairman of the Managing Committee, to I remember too the non-working part Ward M. Canaday, President, Board of May 11, 1955: (CHM to WMC) I have in of these visits to Corinth. Usually we went Trustees) The original number of support­ mind specifically to find approximately there by train, sitting in the dining car and ing institutions whose interest made possi­ fifteen thousand dollars for the demolition enjoying, over tangerines and nuts, the ble the founding of the School was six. of the house at the east end of long slow climb to Eleusis and then the The present count is seventy-four of Asteroskopiou, and very much larger spectacular glide along the cliffs of the Ka­ which two have joined in the past year. sums, some day, to clear the area north of ki Skala. I didn't expect bandits, but did Early this fall we started another drive for the railroad tracks and find the Stoa wonder if we would plunge into that blue members and have been turned down in Poikile. water. every instance ... We shall, however, con­ tinue our efforts in this direction. May 23, 1955: (CHM to WMC) Oscar Bro­ Old Corinth was still a village then, neer's new book on the South Stoa at Cor­ and the air, after the ascent from New March 18, 1954: (WMC to Spyros P. Skou­ inth has just come out and is a credit to a Corinth, fresh and chill. The sounds were ras) I have been asked the question as to great scholar. th~se of the country: sheep bells, roosters how much support is being given by peo­ November 25, 1955: 0. L. Caskey, Director crdwing, dogs barking. Then, as now, we ple whose national roots are in Greece. looked up to the constant presence of to WMC) The season of trips with the stu­ Acrocorinth, and down across the sloping May 11, 1954: (CHM to WMC) I was able to dents is over and we celebrated with a big plain to the Gulf of Corinth. Each morning squeeze a little more excavation money for Thanksgiving dinner. The party had to be we walked past the Temple of Apollo to the Agora ... But I should like to see some limited to the Members and immediate the apotheke where were stored the skele­ of our "surplus" made available for the family since even so there were seventy­ tons Larry was studying, and each evening normal needs of the School. We have just two people at table where we carved seven barely got by with maintenance over the turkeys and a dozen mince pies. I wish you Continued on page 14 past few years. could have enjoyed it with us. 2 Malcolm Hewitt Wiener Elected Trustee of the School Born in Tsingtao, China, on July 3, 1935, A.I.A. Gold Medal to schooled in Tsingtao, San Francisco, New Margaret Thompson York City, and Washington, with a magna cum laude degree from Harvard in econo­ This award is no longer "news" to readers of mics, it was sea duty as Ensign/Lt. jg USN Archaeology (January/February 1985) or the which brought Malcolm to Greece for the Archaeological Journal of America (Vol. 89, first time in 1957, and since then he has 1985) or to those who were present at the never been very far away. meetings in Toronto in December 1984. Pro­ A Harvard law degree in 1963 added fessor Mellink's citation has been published. further to his pro bono activities, as Con­ We print Margaret Thompson's response be­ sultant to the Department of Justice activi­ cause it is an eloquent reminder of the quality ties, as Consultant to the Department of of scholarship for which the ASCSA stands. Justice Commission on Criminal Law and Drug Abuse, 1973; as General Counsel of the Archaeological Institute of America, Nineteen years ago I had the privilege 1968-1975; Advisor to the U.S. Depart­ of presenting to Carl Blegen the first of the ment of State on the International Con­ medals that Leon and Harriet Pomerance vention on Illicit Traffic in Antiquities, had established for archaeological 1970-1975; Executive Director of the achievement.