Sifting the Soil of Greece

David W.J. Gill, Sifting the Soil of Greece: the Early Years of the British School at Athens (1886-1919). Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, suppl. 111. London: Institute of Classical Studies, 2011. ISBN 978-1-905670-32-1. £38. xiv + 474 pp.[WorldCat]The British School at Athens opened...

Read More

Assistant Directors: The Inter-War Years

The Assistant Directors were:Stanley Casson: 1920-23. [DBC]Walter Abel Heurtley: 1923-33. [DBC]Romilly James Heald Jenkins: 1933 (Senior Student). [Obituary: The Times 9 October 1969]Arthur Hubert Stanley ('Peter') Megaw: 1934 (Senior Student and Librarian); 1935-36. [Obituary: The Times 4 August 2006]Thomas James Dunbabin: 1936-46 (Deputy Director from 1939). [DBC]Cambridge: Heurtley, Jenkins, Megaw.Oxford:...

Read More

The British School at Athens (1886-1919): Outline

I am revising the text of my study of the British School at Athens (1886-1919). Here is the working outline:Part 1: The SchoolChapter 1: The Origins of the SchoolChapter 2: The Directors of the SchoolChapter 3: The BSA Managing CommitteePart 2: Students of the British School at AthensChapter 4: Oxford and Cambridge StudentsChapter 5: Women at the British School at AthensChapter 6: Other Students in...

Read More

Oxford Students at the BSA Before Completing Studies

Oxford students were normally admitted to the BSA after completing their studies. However, like Cambridge, there were exceptions.Rupert Charles Clarke (1866-1912), Exeter College. Class. mod. 2nd (1886); admitted to BSA 1886/87 (under Francis C. Penrose); Lit. Hum. 2nd (1888).Oswald Hutton Parry (1868-1936), Magdalen College. Class. mod. 2nd (1889); admitted to BSA 1889/90 (under Ernest A. Gardner);...

Read More

Assistant Directors (1895-1915)

The first assistant director was appointed in 1895/96 to assist Cecil Harcourt-Smith who was on a six-month secondment from the British Museum. The post was held by the John George Smith (b. 1869) who had been admitted to the School in 1891/92, while still an undergraduate at Magdalen College, Oxford, under Ernest Gardner. One of Smith's roles was to assist with the Library; he also accompanied Harcourt-Smith...

Read More

BSA and Wales

There are surprisingly no students admitted to the BSA from universities in Wales in the period up to the First World War. Yet there was a growing interest in classical archaeology in the constituent colleges. George Chatterton Richards (1867-1951) was a BSA student (1889-1891), and worked with Ernest Gardner at Megalopolis. Richards was appointed professor of Greek at the University College of South...

Read More

BSA and King's College

StudentsMontague Rhodes James (1862-1936). Eton. Scholar (1882); Bell Scholar (1883); Part 1, 1st (1884); Craven Scholar (1884); Part 2, 1st (1885). BSA 1887/88.William Loring (1865-1915). Eton. Bell Scholar (1886); Part 1, 1st (1887); Battie Scholar (1888); Part 2, 1st (1889). BSA 1889/90 (Cambridge Studentship), 1890/91 (Craven University Student), 1891/92, 1892/93; Secretary 1897-1903.Edward Frederic...

Read More

BSA Managing Committee (1886-1918)

The original committee consisted of the following 'five members ... appointed by the general body of subscribers':Professor Percy Gardner (1846-1937) John Gennadius (the Greek Minister in London) Professor Richard Claverhouse Jebb (1841-1905) Sir Frederic Leighton (1830-96)Mr John Edwin Sandys (1844-1922)There were also:The TrusteesThe TreasurerThe Honorary Secretary'members to be nominated by each...

Read More

BSA Students and Liverpool University

The University College of Liverpool was founded in 1881, and received its university charter in 1903. John Garstang (1876-1956), who had studied under Francis J. Haverfield in Oxford and excavated in Egypt with Flinders Petrie, was appointed honorary reader in Egyptology at Liverpool in 1902. Garstang then worked towards the foundation of the Institute of Archaeology (1904). Robert C. Bosanquet, director...

Read More

Oxford and the Managing Committee

The University of Oxford's nominee on the Managing committee was David Binning Monro (1836-1905), Provost of Oriel College (from 1882). On his death the nominee was Professor Percy Gardner (1846-1937) who held the Lincoln and Merton chair in Classical Archaeology (from 1887). Gardner had served on the original Managing Committee when he held the Disney chair of archaeology in Cambridge.Those elected...

Read More

Archaeology in Greece (1886-1921)

A report on archaeological work was initiated by Penrose in the first year of the School. This was continued initially by Jane Harrison, and then by Ernest Gardner as director. It was sometimes authored or co-authored by the assistant director or librarian (Richards, Bosanquet, Tod, Hasluck, Droop). When the Annual was started the report appeared in both the Journal of Hellenic Studies and the Annual...

Read More

BSA Students and the Church of England

Several of the BSA students were ordained members of the Church of England. Five Oxford men were ordained after their time in Athens. There is one Cambridge student who was admitted as a student after ordination.Rupert Charles Clarke (1866-1912) was the son of Frederick Ricketts Clarke, a printer in Taunton, Somerset. His father died when he was young, and his mother Elizabeth continued to run the...

Read More