'Maghoula-hunting' in Thessaly

Excavations by the Greek Archaeological Service had drawn attention to the potential of Thessaly.

Alan J.B. Wace and A.W. Van Buren (of the American Academy at Rome) invesitigated the Magnesian peninsula in April 1905. They identified a possible site for excavation at Kato Georgi near Cape Sopias; this site, designated as Theotokou, was excavated by Wace and John P. Droop in 1907.

Wace and Droop had hoped to find remains of a Doric temple but were disappointed. They went 'maghoula-hunting' and identified a prehistoric mound at Zerelia near Almyros; this was excavated in 1908, with Maurice S. Thompson joining the team.

Wace and Thompson were joined in 1909 by T. Eric Peet. They worked on two sites: Palaeomylos near Lianokladi, in the Spercheios Valley, and Tzani Maghoula near Sophades. This work suggested to them that there were no clear links between the cultures of the Aegean and Central Europe.

Wace and Thompson excavated at Tsangli in 1910. Wynfrid Duckworth, who had worked with the BSA at Palaikastro, examined a skull found in one of the Neolithic levels. A second site was excavated at Rachmani, to the north-west of Larisa.

References
Bosanquet, R. C. 1902. "Thessaly. Prehistoric villages in Thessaly." Man 2: 106-07. [JSTOR]
Wace, A. J. B. 1906. "The topography of Pelion and Magnesia." Journal of Hellenic Studies 26: 143-68. [JSTOR]
—. 1908. "Topography of Pelion and Magnesia - Addenda." Journal of Hellenic Studies 28: 337. [JSTOR]
Wace, A. J. B., and J. P. Droop. 1906/07. "Excavations at Theotokou, Thessaly." Annual of the British School at Athens 13: 308-27.
Wace, A. J. B., J. P. Droop, and M. S. Thompson. 1907/08. "Excavations at Zerélia, Thessaly." Annual of the British School at Athens 14: 197-223.
Peet, T. E., A. J. B. Wace, and M. S. Thompson. 1908. "The connection of the Aegean civilization with Central Europe." Classical Review 22: 233-38. [JSTOR]
Vassits, M. M. 1907/08. "South-eastern elements in the pre-historic civilization of Servia." Annual of the British School at Athens 14: 319-42.
Thompson, M. S., and A. J. B. Wace. 1909. "The connection of the Aegean culture with Servia." Classical Review 23: 209-12. [JSTOR]
Wace, A. J. B., and M. S. Thompson. 1910. "Excavations in Thessaly, 1910." Man 10: 159-60. [JSTOR]
Duckworth, W. L. H. 1911. "35. Report on a Human Skull from Thessaly (Now in the Cambridge University Anatomical Museum)." Man 11: 49-50. [JSTOR]
Wace, A. J. B., and M. S. Thompson. 1911. "The distribution of early civilization in northern Greece." Geographical Journal 37: 631-36. [JSTOR]
Wace, A. J. B., and M. S. Thompson. 1912. Prehistoric Thessaly: being some account of recent excavations and explorations in north-eastern Greece from Lake Kopais to the borders of Macedonia. Cambridge archaeological and ethnological series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Woodward, A. M. 1913. "Inscriptions from Thessaly and Macedonia." Journal of Hellenic Studies 33: 313-46. [JSTOR]

Image
Skull from Neolithic layer at Tsangli.

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Cretan Exploration Fund: Anthropology

Human and animal remains from excavations of the Cretan Exploration Fund were send to Professor William Boyd Dawkins (1837-1929) of Manchester University. Boyd Dawkins was a friend of Evans and was invited to Knossos. He had worked on cave deposits in England, notably Wookey Hole and Cresswell Crags, and was thus a natural choice to advise Hogarth for the interpretation of animal remains from the Dictaean Cave. He also made comments on the skulls found during Hogarth's excavations at Kato Zakro.

Bosanquet wrote about the human remains from Palaikastro:

Old C---'s [presumably Charles Comyn] fondness for skulls is notorious; to-day he packed 13 of them in two large mule-paniers and sent them off to the Museum at Candia, hoping they may arrive there in time to be measured and reported on by Body-Dawkins. B.-D. is the author of a sporting book on 'Cave-hunting,' and what he doesn't know about bones isn't worth knowing. Also he's a pal of Evans', and is coming to Cnossos to stay with E. [April 21, 1902]

The following season Wynfrid L.H. Duckworth, Cambridge university lecturer in physical anthropology, joined the team to work on the remains found in the ossuaries. As he was a qualified medical doctor (St Bartholomew's Hospital in London) he was able to meet the medical needs of the local community.

Duckworth has a lot of doctoring to do and is very good and patient. Our drugs, sufficient for my modest practice, aren't enough for his, but that's just as well, for we have no business to take the place of the local doctors and chemists by a too wholesale distribution of medicines. [March 28, 1903]

Charles H. Hawes of Trinity College, Cambridge, joined the project in 1905 to continue this work.

References
Boyd Dawkins, W. 1900/01. "Skulls from cave burials at Zakro." Annual of the British School at Athens 7: 150-56. [See comment by J.L. Myres, Man 2 [1902] 122-23.]
Boyd Dawkins, W. 1902. "Remains of animals found in the Dictaean Cave in 1901." Man 2: 162-65. [JSTOR]
Duckworth, W. L. H. 1902/03a. "Excavations at Palaikastro. II. § 11. Human remains at Hagios Nikolaos." Annual of the British School at Athens 9: 344-50.
—. 1902/03b. "Excavations at Palaikastro. II. § 12. Ossuaries at Roussolakkos." Annual of the British School at Athens 9: 350-55.
Hawes, C. H. 1904/05. "Excavations at Palaikastro. IV. § 7. Larnax burials at Sarandari." Annual of the British School at Athens 11: 293-97.

Image
Skull from Zakro.

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