Bryn Mawr College Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College Library and Information Technology Services Library Staff Research and Scholarship (LITS) 2001 Protomaiolica in Frankish Athens, in Mark Lawall et al., "Notes from the Tins: Research in the Stoa of Attalos, Summer 1999" Camilla MacKay Bryn Mawr, [email protected] Let us know how access to this document benefits ouy . Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.brynmawr.edu/lib_pubs Part of the Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture Commons Custom Citation Camilla MacKay, “Protomaiolica in Frankish Athens,” in M. Lawall et al., “Notes from the Tins: Research in the Stoa of Attalos, Summer 1999,” Hesperia 70 (2001), 178–179. This paper is posted at Scholarship, Research, and Creative Work at Bryn Mawr College. http://repository.brynmawr.edu/lib_pubs/9 For more information, please contact [email protected]. HESPERIA 70 (2001) T tS FROM THEH TIN Pages 163-1r82 RESEARCH IN THE STOA OF ATTALOS, SUMMER 1999 Reportsof the resultsof Americanexcavations and surveysin Greeceap- pearperiodically in the pagesof this journal,and studiesof majorclasses of artifactsfrom these excavationsare also published here. Many details of the archaeologicalrecord, however, lie hiddenwithin the sheervolume of finds from the manydecades of excavations.The notes in this collection areintended to bringsome of these detailsto the foreground. The title "Notesfrom the Tins"points up the authors'primary source of new data:the thousandsof formerolive-oil, motor-oil, and feta cheese tins that storethe uninventoriedcontext pottery from the Agoraexcava- tions.Although some of the objectsdiscussed here were uncovered in lo- cations other than these tins, the referenceto these containersis a re- minderthat researchinto excavationslong past involvesthe digging,and sometimesthe dirt,that is characteristicof excavations. The firstnote is John Papadopoulos's commentary on two photographs of the first teams of scholarswho workedat the Americanexcavations. This note highlightsthe immenseachievements of our predecessorsand reaffirmsour belief that theywould encourage and even demand the thor- ough and criticalreexamination of their resultsthat we engagein today. The remainingfive notes,presented in approximatelychronological order, reportnew discoveriesamong the ceramicfinds frompast excavations.In some casesthese finds representtypes hithertounknown, or unknownat Athens;in othercases the reconsiderationof the objector of the contextof discoveryprovides information about the use of ceramictypes in ancient dailylife. The artifactspresented here constitute new evidencefor ancient activitiesaround the Agoraand for Classicaland medievalsocial history. The authorswould like to thankJohnMcK. CampII, Directorof the Agora Excavations,for his interestin this projectand for permissionto studythe materialpresented. Line drawingsare the work of the authors exceptwhere noted. With the exceptionof Figures1 and 2, photographs areby CraigMauzy and are reproduced here with permissionof the Ameri- can School of ClassicalStudies, Agora Excavations. M.L.L. I64 MARK L. LAWALL ET AL. FACELESS ARCHAEOLOGY: TWO EARLY PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE STAFF OF THE ATHENIAN AGORA IN THE 1930S JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS In his forewordto JohnCamp's TheAthenianAgora, Colin Renfrewstated: "The excavationsof the Agora of Athens havebeen one of the greattri- umphsof urbanarchaeology of recentyears, bringing to life in a remark- ableway manyaspects of the worldof ClassicalAthens, which had hith- erto been glimpsedonly in the often slight and scantypassing references preservedin the writingsof the Classicalauthors."' As Renfrewwent on to note, this achievementwas all the greatersince, unlike the locationof monumentsthat had neverbeen lost to humanview, that of the Athenian Agorawas uncertain. Not only did the excavationsbring to light the heart of the Classicalcity, they alsorepresented a remarkablefeat of diplomacy, involvingthe successfulexpropriation, at the requestof the GreekGov- ernment,of over360 individualproperties.2 Initiated in 1931,' the excava- tions continuedat a staggeringpace until they were suspendedon April 22, 1940, in the courseof the tenth season,"because of the uncertaintyof politicalconditions" and "in order to facilitatethe departurefrom Athens of the membersof the staff,who desiredto leave beforeMediterranean waterswere closed to Americanshipping."4 The pace and extent of the excavationscan be gleanedfrom the fact that in the first nine seasonsof excavation(1931-1939), some 246,000 tons of earthhad been removed fromwithin the zone of the Americanexcavations.5 In this seriesof noteson materialfrom the tins of the Agora,it seemed appropriateto return,albeit briefly, to the 1930s and to the team thatwas assembledto embarkon the projectof unearthingthe marketplaceand civiccenter of ClassicalAthens (Figs. 1-2). To be sure,this choiceof topic was determinedin partby a senseof nostalgiaand a desireto look backas the new millenniumwas entered-and, with it, the eighth decadeof the Agoraexcavations. But my intentionwas not just to worshiparchaeologi- cal ancestors;6I had a curiosityto gaze on the facesof those who contrib- uted to this fadingera of Hellenistarchaeology: to seethe young scholars whose careersestablished the Agora'sfame. Apartfrom the numeroustins of contextmaterial in the basementof the Stoa of Attalos,the filing cabinetsof the Archivesof the AgoraExca- vationscontain documentation important for the historyof archaeology. Within this wealth of historicalmaterial are photographsof the Agora 1. In Camp 1986, p. 7. I am grate- Philippides and her mother,Mary Zelia for the excavations,see Shoe Meritt ful to JanJordan and Sylvie Dumont Pease Philippides,for clarifyinga num- 1984, p. 175. for archivalassistance in the Agora, to ber of details, and to Judith Binder for 3. Capps 1933; Shear 1933a. For Craig Mauzy for his photographic a delightful afternoonof Athenian furtherbackground, see Lord 1947, skills, and to Mark Lawall for initiating reminiscences. pp. 231-244; Shoe Meritt 1984, this series of notes. The drawings 2. See Shear 1939, p. 201; for the pp. 175-202. identifying the individualsin Figs. 1 land prices, see Shear 1933a, p. 96; for 4. Shear 1941, p. 1; Shoe Meritt and 2 are the work of Anne Hooton, the negotiations,see Capps 1933, p. 90; 1984, p. 175. to whom I am, once more, most cf. Morris 1994, pp. 34-35; for further 5. Shear 1940, p. 262. grateful.Special thanks are due to Dia informationon the plans and funding 6. Cf. Dyson 1989, p. 215. NOTES FROM THE TINS I65 Figure 1. The staff of the Agora Excavations in 1933: (1) Charles Spector; (2) Piet deJong; (3) Joan Bush [Vanderpool]; (4) Arthur Parsons; (5) Elizabeth Dow; (6) Eugene Vanderpool; (7) Mary Zelia Pease [Philippides]; (8) Virginia Grace; (9) Gladys Baker; (10) James Oliver; (11) Homer Thompson; (12) LucyTalcott; (13) Benjamin Meritt; (14) Josephine Shear; (15) T. Leslie Shear; (16) Dorothy Burr [Thompson] CA/"''\t A- \ team in the course of different years. Few of these have been published; an exception is a splendid photograph of the excavation staff and workforce in 1933 that appeared in Agora XIV.7 Of the early group-photographs, 7. AgoraXIV, pl. 112:a. two stand out (Figs. 1-2). Both of these mounted photographs document I66 MARK L. LAWALL ET AL. Figure 2. The staff of the Agora Excavations in 1934: (1) Gladys 9 ~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~Baker;16 (2) Joan Vanderpool; (3) Lucy 7 8 1 13 Talcott; (4) T. Leslie Shear; 10 14 1~~~~5 17(5) JosephineShear; (6) Dorothy / 18 ~~~~Burr[Thompson]; (7) Sophokies (8) Piet de Jong; 2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Lekkas; 6 ~~~~(9)Catharine Bunnell; (10) Alison Frantz; (11) DorothyTraquair; (12) Rodney Young; (13) Eugene Vanderpool; (14) James Oliver; (15) Arthur Parsons; (16) Sterling Dow; (17) Charles Spector; (1 8) Homer Thompson members of the staff of the early Agora excavations as weli as scholars working on Agora material.Annotations on the photographs do not indi- cate their dates, but it is clear on the evidence of Shear's preliminary re- ports that Figure 1 was taken in 1933 and Figure 2 in 1934.8 8. See especiallyShear 1933b; Frantz,seen in Fig. 2, worked for a los, not pictured,"who did such satis- 1935a, p. 311; 1935b, pp. 340-341; time as an assistantto Lucy Talcott in factorywork that his services [were] 1936, pp. 1-2. A numberof internal 1934, and then as photographerfrom engaged for another season"(Shear details verify the dates suggested for 1935 on. Before the 1935 campaign 1936, p. 1). Each of the photographs these photographs.For instance, had begun, Charles Spector,shown in illustratedhere was accompaniedby a Waage, who does not appearin Figs. 1 both photographs,was called home by sheet of tracingpaper listing the names and 2, had alreadyleft the staff by 1932 illness in his family and was replaced of those appearingin them. In the and Simpkin died in 1933. Alison by a young Greek architect,John Trav- photographs,the name of Charles NOTES FROM THE TINS I67 Edward Capps, in his foreword to the first excavation report, listed the fellows and staff of the excavations up to the third campaign, which was to begin in January 1933. Seven appointments had been made, as follows:9 1929-1932: Homer A. Thompson, Frederick 0. Waage III, Mary Wyckoff [Simpkin] 1931-1934: Dorothy Burr [Thompson], Eugene Vanderpool 1932-1935: James H. Oliver, Arthur W. Parsons The staff for the third campaign was as follows: T. Leslie Shear, Directorof Excavations Richard Stillwell, Director of the