The British School at Athens June 2018
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The British School at Athens June an institute for advanced research 2018 presentations that were made at our From the Director AGM in February, we will make the structure of our support base simpler the Library and Archive, the Fitch and clearer from 1 January 2019. Laboratory and the Knossos Research Our Development Officer covers Centre. As always, most of our lectures the process in greater detail below, are available on our YouTube channel. outlining the associated entitlements, The Knossos Research Centre hosted but we are introducing three levels of a visit by the BSA’s Patron, HRH The support: Friends, Pendlebury Circle Prince of Wales in May. The occasion and Director’s Circle, as well as a new was the event ‘Cooking Like Minoans’, category for legacy pledges, the 1886 co-organised with Branding Heritage, Circle. We hope that all current Friends part of a deliberate strategy by the BSA of the BSA UK and subscribers world- HE the Ambassador, HRH The Prince of Wales and the Director in the Knossos to boost its visibility beyond its core wide will remain part of our community Stratigraphical Museum (V. Goumas) stakeholders. Other similar initiatives and that those able to do so will have seen us sponsor lectures for a consider supporting the BSA at one of It is a great pleasure to introduce the general audience in Manchester, as the two higher levels. The good news third issue of our newsletter and to well as in London, including a highly is that the switch to a calendar-year wish everyone well for a productive successful lecture by Ian Collins on renewal cycle means that everyone on and enjoyable summer. This issue the painter John Craxton. Craxton a September renewal cycle will have focuses on the BSA’s academic and is currently being celebrated along their subscription extended to the end outreach programme from October with his friends Nikos Hadjikyriakos- of 2018 without charge. You will be to June, which has been an active Ghika and Patrick Leigh Fermor in an provided with further information in period for events in Athens, London exhibition ‘Charmed Lives in Greece’ at good time to enable renewal (ideally by and elsewhere ranging from seminars the British Museum, for which a special Direct Debit) effective 1 January 2019. to gallery tours. We also profile some curator-led tour was arranged for the We hope you find this newsletter of our researchers — working across BSA. Catch the exhibition if you still can informative and enjoyable. Please do a range of subjects from epigraphy — it closes on 15 July. feed back reactions and suggestions to the recent history of Greece — and In addition to events designed to to [email protected]. report on our world-class facilities: draw in a broader group, following the John Bennet wa-na-ka-te-ro, ke-se-nu-wo – Royal Visitors The BSA was thrilled to be able to where they engaged with individuals who Knossos Curator in attendance, guided participate in the first official joint visit have generously supported UK higher the couple through the palace complex, to Greece by HRH The Prince of Wales, education and research, including the BSA. where they learned about its history, our Patron, and the Duchess of Cornwall The highlight for the BSA came on the function and how it related to the wider on 9–11 May. The Director had the third day, when Their Royal Highnesses region. At the entrance to the site, in front unexpected honour of participating in visited both the archaeological site of of the Evans bust, the Director presented a state banquet held by the President Knossos and the Knossos Research Centre. to the ‘royal visitors’ a Linear B tablet he of the Hellenic Republic, Prokopis The Minister of Culture & Sports, Mrs Lydia had made to commemorate the occasion. Pavlopoulos, on 9 May, while he and the Koniordou, and the Secretary General of The Duchess met a group of school Chair, Dr Carol Bell, attended a reception the Hellenic Ministry of Culture & Sports, children who were learning about Minoan the following evening at the UK Embassy, Dr Maria Vlazaki, with the Director and the culture, while The Prince moved on to the Left: Knossos Curator Kostis Christakis discusses details of the evidence held in the Stratigraphical Museum for ancient food consumption (V. Goumas) Right: Danae Lange (far left), Curatorial Project Manager, and Anna Moles (left) talk to HRH The Prince of Wales about their work (V. Goumas) The British School at Athens 2018 – June Left: Curatorial Project Assistant Eleni Makrygiorgou discusses her work with HRH The Prince of Wales (V. Goumas) Right: ‘Cooking Like Minoans’ (V. Goumas) Knossos Research Centre, to experience and pear; pork with sage; lamb with Stratigraphical Museum, accompanied ‘Cooking Like Minoans’, an event marking trachanas; and chicken with vine leaves. by the Director and Knossos Curator, European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018, Jerolyn’s ‘performance’ exemplifies how Kostis Christakis, who showed him a small co-organised by the BSA and Branding archaeological evidence, in combination selection of materials held there relating Heritage, a not-for-profit organisation with experimental approaches, can help to food and consumption. The Prince promoting cultural heritage. reconstruct culinary practices, connecting also learnt from Anna Moles (UCL) about At the Knossos Research Centre The past and present, something that appeared her doctoral research into the long-term Prince was welcomed by the BSA’s Assistant to resonate with His Royal Highness. health of Knossos’ urban population Director, Fitch Laboratory Director and Also present were Mrs Koniordou and Dr in the Hellenistic to Roman periods. by the Director of Branding Heritage. Vlazaki, the British Ambassador, HE Kate Knossos Curatorial Project Manager The central feature of the event was the Smith CMG, the Mayor of Heraklion, Danae Lange (Heidelberg) and Assistant preparation of food following ancient Vassilis Lambrinos, the Governor of the Eleni Makrigiorgou (Sheffield) briefed practices reconstructed from archaeological Crete Region, Stavros Arnaoutakis and His Royal Highness on their work. After evidence by Jerolyn Morrison (PhD, other figures from the fields of academia, leaving Knossos, The Prince joined The Leicester). The dishes, prepared in Minoan- business, art and journalism. Duchess in nearby Archanes, where they style cooking pots she herself had made, After experiencing Minoan cooking, participated in Cretan dancing before were lentils with garlic, coriander and even adding honey to one of the dishes, returning to the UK. honey; pork with grape molasses (petmezi) The Prince then walked up to the BSA People Chryssanthi Papadopoulou (Assistant Director) “Each year the British Council makes three Study UK Alumni Awards in the following categories: Professional Achievement, Entrepreneurial and Social Impact. The awards are presented at a ceremony held in Athens; this year’s ceremony was at the Athens Plaza Hotel on 7 March. I was thrilled to be one of three short-listed for the Professional Achievement Award. Above: Chryssanthi Papadopoulou at the Although I didn’t win the award, the event British Council Study UK Alumni Awards helped to highlight the strong educational ceremony links between the UK and Greece, as well as to raise the BSA’s visibility here in Right: Chryssanthi Papadopoulou, Cathy Greece. Winners had studied at Cranfield, Morgan, Huw Smith and Malcolm Schofield in UCL and Birmingham, while Sheffield was Buckingham Palace gardens represented in all three categories. “In addition to publishing two articles delivered invited seminars in Oxford in I was honoured to represent the BSA in peer-reviewed journals (Journal of 2017 on ‘A phenomenological reading of at the Prince of Wales’ 70th Birthday Maritime Archaeology and Archaeological the Athenian Adonia’, and in Cambridge in Patronage Celebration in Buckingham Reports) this academic year, I have also just May on ‘Chaos and Greek Polytheism’. Palace gardens on 22 May. Other than completed and submitted the manuscript “The BSA’s contribution to the annual myself, the BSA was represented by its for an edited volume entitled The Culture UCL/BSA Teacher Study Day continued past (Prof. Cathy Morgan) and present of Ships and Maritime Narratives. The in February 2018, where I delivered a Director, previous Chairman of Council volume will be published by Routledge course entitled ‘Recent Archaeological (Prof. Malcolm Schofield) and Deputy in the series BSA Modern Greek and Discoveries in Attika’, receiving Honorary Treasurer (Huw Smith). The tea Byzantine Studies. The volume includes unanimously positive feedback. was excellent, even if the Royal couple papers in anthropology, ethnography, “Last but not least, continuing the were only visible from a distance.” poetry, philosophy and film studies. I also royal theme elsewhere in the Newsletter, 2 www.bsa.ac.uk The British School at Athens 2018 – June Roderick Beaton of what BSA rules permitted. I had been in “In the meantime, I had a PhD to Athens hardly more than a month, when in research and write. By my second year I (King’s College London) the early hours of Saturday 17 November had settled that it would be on Greek folk 1973, tanks suppressed the Athens songs. The thesis was about the words of A BSA member since 1973, Roderick Polytechnic uprising against the junta. I the songs, their poetry and their meaning. Beaton retires this summer from King’s was lucky, I wasn’t inside the Polytechnic, But I was immediately swept away by the College London, where he has been but I was on the streets. That was my one music. I determined to experience Greek Koraes Professor of Modern Greek and only experience of political violence folk songs in performance, in their natural and Byzantine History, Language and and the only time I’ve been beaten up in environment.