MS 439 A4278 Honor Frost Archive Catalogue
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MS 439 A4278 Honor Frost Archive catalogue Original catalogue compiled by Dr Emma Saunders for the Honor Frost Foundation, August 2016 (University of Southampton, Revised 2018) 2 Honor Frost Honor Frost (1917-2010) was a pioneer in the field of underwater archaeology and the first to promote underwater archaeology as a scientific discipline. Born in Cyprus in 1917, she became the ward of the London solicitor, Wilfred Evill, after the death of her parents. Her love of diving started in a Wimbledon garden when, as a young woman, she submerged herself in a ‘well’, as described in her book Under the Mediterranean: travels with my bottle (1963). Following school in Switzerland, where she became bi-lingual in French, she enrolled at the Central School of Art in London which was rusticated during the war to the Ruskin School of Art in Oxford, later working as a designer for the Ballet Rambert and as director of publications at the Tate Gallery. In the mid-40s she designed a ballet called Khadra, which was choreographed by Celia Franca for the Sadler’s Wells Theatre Ballet to music by Sibelius. Her artistic calling came to a halt after she fell fully in love with diving in Marseilles in the late 1940s, training with the Club Alpin Sous-Marin in Cannes. This was the start of her deep interest in diving, and her mentor was the archaeologist Frederic Dumas. Dumas took her on her first dive at a wreck of a Roman ship at Antheor on the south coast of France. Later, she was able to develop and consolidate her archaeological skills, when she joined Kathleen Kenyon at Jericho as a draftsman for the excavations in 1957. Honor realised quickly that the discipline of terrestrial archaeology was not for her, but she felt that many of its skills could be adapted to underwater archaeology. She was able to use these carefully learned methods of meticulous recording in many of her future projects. She moved to Lebanon from Jericho and surveyed the ancient harbours of Byblos, Sidon and Tyre, where she developed her special interest in ports, harbours and anchors under the auspices of the Institut Francais d’Archeologie in Beirut. She believed that anchors could play a key role in identifying wrecks and showing patterns of trade, and they continued to fascinate her throughout her career. Her anchor work included catalogues of anchors at Kition, Cyprus, and of votive Bronze Age temple-anchors at Byblos and Ugarit, as well as numerous publications, and comparative notes and drawings with which she hoped to develop a worldwide stone anchor corpus. In 1960, Honor was involved in the early stages of the excavation of a Bronze Age Phoenician ship at Cape Gelidonya off the coast of Turkey. This was the first excavation of a shipwreck using systematic excavation techniques, and she was instrumental in the initiation of the project. Recognising the significance of copper ingots raised by diverjournalist Peter Throckmorton in 1958, whom she had met by chance while visiting Bodrum with her ‘bottle’ (aqualung), she worked together with Throckmorton and Joan du Plat Taylor to raise awareness of the site, gathering an excavation team under the director George Bass. Her major contribution to the project was her meticulous underwater recording of the site, her fluency at drawing, her experience at diving, and her connection with Dumas whom she brought on board, and whose ability to find underwater engineering solutions was vital for progress in the field. These excavations played a crucial role in the 3 development of underwater archaeology and its identification as a scientific discipline. In 1966-1967 Honor went on to survey and partially excavate a Roman shipwreck, the Mortar Wreck in Mellieha Bay, Malta. In 1968 she worked on a UNESCO sponsored preliminary project to survey the Pharos site in the Port of Alexandria. There, she identified the submerged remains as those of the lost palace of Alexander and Ptolemy, thus establishing the great historical and international importance of the ruins. In collaboration with the Sicilian authorities and the British School at Rome, she directed the excavation and recovery of the Punic warship of Marsala, discovered in 1971. Her team of international archaeologists worked on the site for a number of years, publishing regularly. The Punic ship was subsequently restored for display in a local museum. In addition to her excavation work, Honor was instrumental in promoting marine archaeology as a discipline: she helped found the Council for Nautical Archaeology, was on the Council for the Society for Nautical Research for many years, and played a part in establishing the International Journal of Nautical Archaeology in 1972. She was active in her contacts with academics and officials to ensure that the field was held up to the high standards that she believed in. Honor was made a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1969. Her awards included the Golden Trident Award and the Premio Franco Papo award of the Rassegna di Archeologia Subaquea (both in 1985) and the Colin McLeod Award (in 2005). Among many other works she published Under the Mediterranean: travels with my bottle (1963), an account of her early experiences as a maritime archaeologist and one of the first popular books on underwater archaeology. In later years, she continued her work on stone anchors and harbour-works, conducting further surveys in Lebanon and Syria. She continued to publish regularly and lectured prolifically. Old age did little to quell her extraordinary energy and erudition. When she died unexpectedly aged 92, Honor was planning another season of excavations at Sidon, and a trip to India to see what was reportedly the world’s largest stone anchor. 4 The Honor Frost Archive Archival history The Honor Frost Archive comprises Honor’s record of her professional archaeological career, collated meticulously during her lifetime. In her will, she requested that her archive should be catalogued and made available to scholars for research. When she died in 2010, she left the bulk of her estate to establish a foundation to promote marine and maritime archaeology with a focus on the Eastern Mediterranean. The Honor Frost Foundation, established in 2011, took on the administration of her archive and in 2015, employed a project archivist to catalogue it fully. Honor’s library collection (comprising 79 boxes of books, journals and offprints) was subsequently donated to the University of Southampton in 2016. Contents and scope Honor Frost was the first diver to realise that it was essential not only to record shipwrecks of historical interest photographically, but also to represent them in meticulously detailed plans, notes and publications. Working on the mantra learnt from Kathleen Kenyon that ‘Excavation, however well excavated, without adequate publication is wanton destruction’, Honor published regularly and was a meticulous record keeper. This is reflected in the broad scope of the archive. The archive includes field notes, reports, plans, drawings, and photographs for Honor’s maritime projects in France, Sicily, Malta, Egypt, and in the Eastern Mediterranean (Lebanon, Syria and Turkey). Particularly significant are the archives of the Cape Gelidonya, Turkey and Mellieha Bay, Malta shipwrecks, the large series of records on the Punic Ship, Marsala (which alone comprises c.25 boxes), and the sets of files recording Honor’s survey work on the Pharos in Alexandria and on submerged harbour-works in Syria and Lebanon. The archive also includes c.11 boxes relating to Honor’s original research on stone anchors, including anchor drawings and corpus index cards. An unusual feature is the high proportion of photographic material in the archive (29 boxes) providing a thorough record of her excavations, surveys and personal travels. The archive also includes a small number of artefacts and ecofacts, and documents recording Honor’s involvement with national and international maritime organisations for the protection of maritime cultural heritage. Throughout her life, Honor published and lectured prolifically. The archive contains original drafts and offprints of all of Honor’s key publications on maritime archaeology, including her book ‘Under the Mediterranean’, and an unfinished manuscript recounting her experiences excavating the Marsala Punic Shipwreck titled ‘The Second Life of a Phoenix’. There is also a comprehensive set of drafts of Honor’s lectures, presented at various locations worldwide between circa 1961 and 2007. Honor’s artistic skill is represented by her archaeological drawings, by a series of sketches from Lebanon, and by two sets of early ballet set designs, dating from the 1950s. It is also 5 evident in her use of customized boxes and folders, decorated with sketches and postcards. Honor was a prolific letter writer and was well connected both within the diving world and in the field of maritime archaeology. She maintained life-long friendships and correspondence with colleagues such as Frederic Dumas, Lucien Basch and Paul Adam. An unusual feature of the archive is that both incoming and outgoing correspondence is preserved, thanks to her practice of keeping draft and carbon copies of letters sent. A fluent linguist, she wrote in English, French and Italian. Professional and personal content is often intermixed. The correspondence files provide a fascinating window into Honor’s personal and professional life. The following is a breakdown of some of the key items in each series of the archive: Series 1: ‘Excavation/survey work’ Records of Honor’s marine archaeology projects in the eastern Mediterranean including many sub-series relating to her excavation and survey work in France, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Sicily, Malta, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey. File types include: excavation field notes and journals, dive logs, logs of finds, post-excavation notes on the analysis of finds, research files, draft and final reports, correspondence, maps and plans of dive areas and shipwrecks, drawings of artefacts and shipwrecks, and large-scale illustrations, maps and charts.