Damophon of Messene

Several BSA students worked on Greek sculpture as their project. One of the key projects was undertaken by Guy Dickins who was invited to publish the sculptures from the sanctuary at Lykosoura in Arcadia. The site had been excavated by the Greek Archaeological Service under P. Kavvadias and the statues were found in the summer of 1889. The remains were quickly reported (by Charles Waldstein [see AJA 1890, pp. 209-10]) as the cult statues described by Pausanias (8.37.1-6) in the temple of Despoina. These colossal statues, created by Damophon of Messene, represented Despoina and Demeter, seated on a throne, with Artemis and Anytos alongside.

Waldstein wrote:

Of these statues, nearly all the fragments apparently have been recovered. There are over a hundred fragments, most of which have already been brought here, though not unpacked and not visible to the public, while some of the torsos were so large that they could not be transported on the roads that exist there. Special arrangements will be made for transporting them soon.

What Waldstein stressed was that this was the discovery of an original cult statue in situ.

Interest in Damophon was stirred by an article (1904) by Augustus M. Daniel, an associate student of the BSA, who restated a case for dating his work to the fourth century. Waldstein responded in a short note restating the case for a date in the early fourth century BCE. The case for a second century BCE date was presented by Ida Carleton Thallon (1906), who had been a student at ASCSA in 1899-901.

Dickins, a student of Percy Gardner, was admitted to the BSA in 1904/05 and started to work on Damophon (alongside his contribution to excavations in Laconia). During his second year at the BSA the Greek Government invited Dickins to ‘help in the re-erection of the colossal group at Lycosura’. At the annual meeting of the Hellenic Society in June 1908 it was reported that Dickins had reconstructed ‘out of unnumbered fragments, of the great group by Damophon of Messene … giving us for the first time satisfactory evidence in regard to monumental sculpture in Greece in the second century B.C.’ He continued this work on Damophon in the study of the sculptures in collections at Rome.

References
Daniel, A. M. 1904. "Damophon." Journal of Hellenic Studies 24: 41-57. [JSTOR]
Dickins, G. 1904/05. "A head in connexion with Damophon." Annual of the British School at Athens 11: 173-80.
—. 1905/06. "Damophon of Messene." Annual of the British School at Athens 12: 109-36.
—. 1906/07. "Damophon of Messene. II." Annual of the British School at Athens 13: 357-404.
—. 1910/11. "Damophon of Messene. III." Annual of the British School at Athens 17: 80-87.
Thallon, I. C. 1906. "The date of Damophon of Messene." American Journal of Archaeology 10: 302-29. [JSTOR]
Waldstein, C. 1904. "Damophon." Journal of Hellenic Studies 24: 330-31. [JSTOR]

• Reconstruction of group (Perseus).

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Guanaco Hike, Ushuaia

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Rapido Por Favor!!

Well, wow, I FINALLY got some photos online!! We are staying at a hostel with not only free internet, but fast enough internet that I can upload pics! Yay! So, enjoy a few photos here...

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"How different the bare limbs of the stalwart British undergraduates!"

One of the themes for research at Athens was ancient Greek drama. Ernest Gardner excavated the theatre at Megalopolis in the early 1890s. The combination of the continuing interest in Greek theatre and the appearance of new sculptural finds available for study - such as the painted korai from the Athenian akropolis - probably lay behind Ethel B. Abrahams’ research into Greek dress during the 1905-6 session (published as Greek Dress [1908]).

As part of the first International Archaeological Congress at Athens in April 1905 the Antigone was performed in the stadion (as it had been for the 1896 Olympics) and it was observed in The Times that the actors ‘were incomparably superior to most of those who have interpreted the Greek drama at Oxford and Cambridge’. The choice of venue was criticised:

The enormous Stadion, on the restoration of which immense sums have been spent and much magnificent material wasted, was never a beautiful structure and can hardly be adapted to any useful purpose in modern times, least of all to a dramatic representation.

The contrast was made with the Oxford and Cambridge plays ‘in which every detail was scientifically worked out in accordance with the ascertained usage of the Greek stage’. The report noted

the incorrectness of the costumes, the inartistic arrangement of the drapery, the negligent grouping of actors and chorus, and the inadequate decoration of the architectural background. There was, in fact, a total absence of the picturesque and the sculpturesque, although Athens abounds in ancient models and in archaeologists whose advice might have been sought to ensure accuracy in drapery and architectural detail. Thus Ismene wore a chiton like a modern petticoat, and the armed attendants, who resembled Roman legionaries rather than Greek hoplites, wore, like the other actors, opéra comique “tights”—how different the bare limbs of the stalwart British undergraduates!—while no attempt was made at polychrome decoration of the architectural scena.

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Brrrr...It´s Chile

No wait, it´s Argentina. Wait, where am I? No, really, we are in Bariloche, Argentina right now. We were travelling up Chile, going north, with no intention of going back in to Argentina for at least three more weeks, but we ended up flying from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt instead of taking the bus, which would have taken us about 30 hours (the flight was about 2) and then missing out on a couple of National Parks that we wanted to hit up, so the bottom line is...we have extra time! So we flagged down a bus (literally flagged down and didn't have a seat and had to negotiate a price with the driver) and headed back into Argentina.

Before this, we have been hanging out in the Lake District of Chile, which has been great. It reminds me of Tahoe a little bit; it is beautiful, but not too hot, only about 70 degrees (sorry, North-easterners!! ONLY 70?!) It has been nice to do some hiking, hanging out at the lake, eating empanadas and seafood and just enjoying the Chilenos and their way of life, which is NOT bad at all! We went to a beach on the Pacific (Maicopue) that was ¨off the gringo grid¨. Nobody spoke English, we mingled with the locals on the beach and ate lots of cheap fried food and swam in the freezing cold Pacific... It was great!!

Next up is... a few more days here in Bariloche (nice to relax and not have to worry about where we are going next) and then its back to Chile for a festival in Valdivia and then onto the Lago Villarica, where there is a nice beach and a massive volcano...activity and relaxation all in one... Then we will contiue our quest north towards Santiago.

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Arnold Wycombe Gomme

A short biography of A.W. Gomme (1886-1959), Trinity College, Cambridge, is available from the University of Glasgow archives.

Gomme's parents appear in ODNB:

• Sir (George) Laurence Gomme (1853-1916).
• Alice Bertha Gomme (née Merck), Lady Gomme (1853-1938)
  

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'Trafficking' antiquities from Melos

The issue of looting and the destruction of archaeological sites is not a new one. Cecil Harcourt-Smith, at the Annual Meeting of Subscribers in July 1897 commented about the need for excavation on Melos:

The antiquities of the islands are in many instances still comparatively unexplored, and are subject to the caprice, or even the trafficking, of the ignorant peasantry, and it is therefore highly desirable that, before it is too late, everything that can be done should be done to place on record their valuable but steadily disappearing remains of art and history.

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BSA Students and the Board of Education

Several former BSA students joined the Board of Education.

• Joseph Grafton Milne (1867-1951). Manchester Grammar School. Corpus Christi College, Oxford. Assistant Master (6th Form) at Mill Hill School (1891-93); Junior and Senior Examiner, and Assistant Secretary to the Board of Education (1893-1926); Reader in Numismatics, Oxford University (1930-38); Deputy Keeper of Coins, Ashmolean Museum (1931-51); Librarian, Corpus Christi College (1933-46).
• William Loring (1865-1915). Eton. King's College, Cambridge. Fellow (1891). Examiner for the Board of Education (1894-1903); Called to the Bar, Inner Temple (1898); private secretary of Sir John Eldon Gorst MP (1835-1916), vice-president of the committee of council on education; Served in the Boer War (1899-1902) and wounded at Moedwill; personal secretary to Sir William Reynell Anson MP (1843-1914), parliamentary secretary to the Board of Education with responsibility for the 1902 Education Act; Director of Education under the West Riding C.C. (1903-5); Warden of Goldsmith's College, New Cross (1906). Hon. Secretary of British Schools in Athens and Rome.
• Robert John Grote Mayor (1869-1947). Eton. King's College, Cambridge. Fellow (1894). Education Department (1896); Call to the Bar, Lincoln's Inn (1899); Assistant Secretary, Board of Education (1907-19); Principal Assistant Secretary (1919-26); Chairman of Committee on co-operation between Universities and Training Colleges (1926-8); and of Central Advisory Committee for certification of Teachers (1930-5).
• Adolph Paul Oppé (1878-1957). Charterhouse. New College, Oxford. Lecturer in Greek, St Andrews University (1902); Lecturer in Ancient History, Edinburgh University (1904); Examiner in the Board of Education (1905); seconded to Victoria and Albert Museum (1906-07, 1910-13); seconded to Ministry of Munitions (1915-17); Select Committee on National Expenditure (1917-18); retired from Board of Education (1938).
  

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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 Wales and Monmouthshire (1891-98). During this period he was not only ordained, but also served as Assistant Director of the British School under David Hogarth (1897).

Richards was succeeded by Ronald Montagu Burrows (1867-1920) who held the post until 1908 when he moved to Manchester. Cardiff had a succession of Greek archaeologists including Percy Neville Ure (1879-1950) who was lecturer in Greek from 1903 until moving to Leeds. Though neither Burrows nor Ure were officially admitted as students, they excavated at Rhitsona in Boeotia (though it was not an official BSA dig). It was a Cardiff student, G.E. Holding, who may hold the honour of being the first woman to work on a British field-project in Greece, Rhitsona.

Henry J.W. Tillyard held the chair of Greek at University College, Cardiff (1926-46). He had previously held the chair of Latin, University College, Johannesburg (1919-21), and the chair of Russian at Birmingham (1921-26).

The only other university in Wales that employed former BSA students as lecturers was Bangor. It had become part of the University of Wales in 1893; previously it had been the University College of North Wales awarding London degrees (1884-93). William John Woodhouse (1866-1937), who had been working in Aitolia, joined the department as assistant lecturer in 1896; he left in 1899 to become lecturer in Ancient History and Political Philosophy at St Andrews. Edward S. Forster (1879-1950), who had worked at Praesos on Crete and as part of the survey of Laconia, joined the department as assistant lecturer (1904-05). He left for to be lecturer (and later professor) of Greek at Sheffield.

(Sir) Henry Stuart-Jones (1867-1939) served as Principal for the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth (1927-34) but resigned on the grounds of ill health.

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BSA Students in Australia and New Zealand

Former BSA students had a major impact on the teaching of classics in England outside Oxford and Cambridge (e.g. Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, London). Three former students held chairs in Australia and New Zealand.

• H. Arnold Tubbs (born c. 1865; Pembroke College, Oxford) worked with this Cyprus Exploration Fund and had to leave during the final season of excavations in Cyprus in 1890 to take up the position of professor of Classics at University College, Auckland, New Zealand.
• William John Woodhouse (1866-1937; The Queen's College, Oxford) had worked on the Megalopolis excavations and then conducted a survey in Aetolia. He was assistant lecturer in Bangor and then lecturer in St Andrews. In 1901 he was appointed professor Greek at the University of Sydney. He was also the honorary curator of the Nicholson Museum of Antiquities (1903-37).
• Cecil A. Scutt (1889-1961; Clare College, Cambridge) had been admitted to the BSA just before the outbreak of the First World War. He was an assistant master at Repton for two terms (1915-16), and joined Military Intelligence in Macedonia; he was invalided out of the army in 1918. In 1919 he was appointed professor of Classical Philology, University of Melbourne (1920-55).

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