NEWSLETTER OF THE AMERICAN SCHOOL OF CLASSICAL STUDIES AT ATHENS ákoueákoueSpring 2012, No. 66 Students look for Greek graffiti at Abu Simbel. The Academic Program took an optional trip to Egypt this spring. See related story on p. 9. Photo M.M. Miles IN THIS ISSUE: Davis Bids Farewell 2 Wiener Lab Celebrates Twenty Years 3 Managing Commit- tee Appoint ments 4 Emerson Joins School as Executive Director 4 Neils Becomes Next ManCom Chair 5 Animals in the Agora 7 Egypt Trip 9 Fieldwork at Sounion 10 Affiliated Excavations 11 Schliemann vs. Stamatakis 15 New Wiener Lab Collections 16 INSERT: Niarchos Grant Showcases Gennadeion Treasures G1 “Z” Author Donates Papers G1 Vovolini Donates Papers, Joins Overseers G2 Lecture Series G3 Philoi Activities G4 Davis Bids Farewell It seems just yesterday that ákoue printed notice of my arrival in Athens and that an interview with me was posted on the School’s web site (www.ascsa.edu.gr), then still new. I was thus reluctant to write a farewell for this issue, not least because the thought of leaving Souidias 54 saddens me. I will miss waking to the chatter of birds in the garden, smelling the wisteria and the ákoue! bitter oranges in bloom, but above all the constant bustle of members and visitors coming and going, thousands each year. Many have become dear friends. I can’t believe how little I knew about ASCSA before assuming my post, or how much I now know about the academic, intellectual, and social communities in Greece in which we play such an impor- tant role. I console myself with the thought that I plan to remain an active member of the School after my term expires on June 30. Shari and I have taken an apartment in Jack Davis and Shari Stocker in Egypt during the School’s March trip. Pylos and plan to continue our work there; she, in fact, will later this year collaborate with the local directorate of antiquities in edu.gr and you will soon discover the rich digging foundations for a new roof over programs and activities that our staff in the Palace of Nestor. In the United States, Athens develop and maintain year-round, we also are both committed to support the even when they are hobbled by the collapse activities of the School in any way that may of the global economy and Greece is fac- seem useful to the Managing Committee ing near-bankruptcy. ASCSA is an extraor- and the Board of Trustees. dinary institution, indeed unique among Any final remarks inákoue might have American research centers abroad. It is our offered me a good opportunity to reflect staff that makes it so, and I am proud that AMERICAN SCHOOL OF on what has been accomplished in Athens I have had the opportunity to lead them as CLASSICAL STUDIES AT ATHENS over the past five years, but, to be honest, I director; I will miss them dearly, each and 54 Souidias Street, GR-106 76 Athens, Greece don’t even know where to begin. So much every one. Finally, I want to express my 6–8 Charlton Street, Princeton, NJ 08540-5232 has happened, so much has changed, so sincerest appreciation to my wife, Sharon ákoue, the newsletter of the ASCSA much has stayed the same. What I want to Stocker. I am extremely grateful to Shari for Spring 2012 No. 66 do instead is to encourage you to look at her support, without which I could never have been successful in serving the School Executive Editor what ASCSA is today — especially if you Mary Emerson have not recently spent a year with us in in the manner in which I wanted. Athens. Take only an hour to cruise the Editor News Archive and Events Archive at ascsa. — Jack L. Davis, Director, ASCSA Sally Fay Design & Production Mary Jane Gavenda ákoue is published semiannually by the ASCSA under the inspiration of Doreen C. Spitzer. Please address all correspondence and inquiries to the News letter Editor, ASCSA U.S. Office, 6–8 Charlton Street, Princeton, NJ 08540-5232. Tel: (609) 683- 0800; Fax: (609) 924-0578; E-mail: ascsa@ ascsa.org; Website: www.ascsa.edu.gr. ÁKOUE IN COLOR ON THE WEB. See this issue in color on the School’s website at: http://www.ascsa.edu.gr/ index.php/publications/Akoue/. Jack’s sense of humor will be missed at the School. Photo: C. Marconi 2 Wiener Laboratory Celebrates 20 Years, Announces New Facility Happy Anniversary! June 2, 2012 marks 20 years since the Wiener Laboratory opened its cabinets of reference collections, fired up the fume hood, and set out on its never- ending mission to fill in the blanks in the archaeological record through science- based archaeology. In its two decades, the Wiener Labo- ratory has facilitated the independent re- search of over 100 scholars representing more than a dozen countries. Its educa- tional mission has recently expanded to include more involvement with the Regular Member curriculum, and its strong sense of community and collaboration has earned it a reputation among scientists for a wel- coming environment that encourages open discussions and the sharing of ideas across research methodologies. But 20 years of accumulation of com- parative collections and journals, and in- Eleanna Prevedorou studies her “old fellows” in the confines of the current main lab creasing utilization by scientists, has left space. A new Wiener Laboratory facility, which will greatly expand research and study space, is in the planning stages. Photo: E. DeForest little elbow room in the main lab space and little to no storage space for future mate- rials. Oolithic limestone samples from a “Storage is not just piling stuff up,” says School. Three months after new members quarry near Ancient Corinth, Pentelic Eleanna Prevedorou, surrounded for the toured the laboratory and learned of the marble, and animal bones from Nichoria moment by about 230 people who were ongoing research, including Prevedorou’s, have been relegated to a shipping container buried 5,000 years ago near Marathon she traveled with them on their annual trip in the School’s gardens. This season in the and who are now stacked floor to ceiling to Marathon and Tsepi and contextualized main lab, the preparation of Research As- in boxes in a storage room beside the lab. the “old fellows” at their burial site itself. sociate China Shelton’s reference collec- Her research on Bronze Age burial prac- And last fall the lab initiated a seminar se- tion of seeds blended across the table to tices involved the repatriation from Vi- ries for students in the Regular Program Eleni Nodarou’s Cretan petrography work, enna of some of the remains from Tsepi, (see related article, p. 17). while behind them human bones took up necessitating international permissions and This conscientious interaction among the length of one of the three tables as two underscoring the importance of adequate lab and literary researchers at the School researchers discussed whether they were lab facilities. The space, she adds, must be is helping to create new generations of looking at a right or left hand. The smell climate-controlled, secure, and designed archaeologists who are more willing to of coffee mingled with that of pork as Flint to careful specifications that respect inter- explore beyond their own traditional re- Dibble, a Regular Member at the School, national requirements for the curation of search methodologies to better inform the converted the students’ fall barbecue cen- archaeological material. world’s understanding of past cultures. This terpiece into a reference skeleton in the wet The new facility will provide scholars collaboration, still a sensitive subject for lab around the corner. with separate spaces for quiet study and many in the field, is slowly becoming more It’s time for more space for more science. reading, group discussion and consulta- normative. The Wiener Laboratory is excited to an- tions, strewing, collection preparation, and Susan Kirkpatrick Smith of Kennesaw nounce plans to build a freestanding facility lunch, all of which currently occur in the State University was the first J. Lawrence below the Blegen Library, expanding its re- approximately 50 square meters of the lab’s Angel Fellow in 1992. She recalls that in search and study space from approximately main room. starting her career, she didn’t realize how 160 square meters in a basement to 1,000 More space “means that you can do much of a divide existed between classi- square meters on three floors. Architectural more in terms of conservation of the ma- cal archaeologists and anthropologists. plans for the new facility, currently being terial, cleaning, and preparation and cu- It wasn’t just that they didn’t know what finalized, include multiple lab spaces for ration of the material,” Prevedorou says. one another did, she recalls, but that some- materials that require sterile conditions, “Human bones do take a lot of space, but times, scholars studying the same time chemicals, x-ray, or microscope work; a think of all the interesting stuff that they periods or concepts didn’t even care how kitchen; seminar space to accommodate can tell us. So we can excuse the old fellows other methodologies addressed the same larger groups such as School workshops or if you consider how much information we questions. lecture audiences; strewing space for ana- get from them.” “One of the things that happened was, lyzing large collections; and a full library The Wiener Laboratory has of late because the lab was new that year, the and reading room. Scholars also look for- considerably increased its efforts to share people that were at the school when I was ward to additional storage space.