EARLY AMERICAN EXCAVATIONS IN
GREECE
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© This material copyright Timothy E. Gregory; all rights reserved.
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I. Professional excavation in Greece began
with the founding of the various foreign archaeological
"schools" and major foreign excavations
A. Germans at Olympia: German School
B. French at Delphi: French School
C. British at Knossos: British School
II. Founding of The American School of
Classical Studies
A. Charles Eliot Norton founded the
Archaeological Institute of America in 1879, with a purpose
to organize a school in Athens
B. In 1882 the Managing Committee of the
School first met to draw up plans
C. There was opposition, but 9 colleges
cooperated in the founding of the School
D. William Watson Goodwin of Harvard was
named first director of the School for 1882-83
III. Years of Growth
A. Greek government gave the School a
plot of land to build a permanent School
B. The School was built 1887-88
C. In 1886 the School undertook its
first excavation, at Thorikos (for $400)
D. Other excavations followed: Eretria, Sikyon, Argive Heraion
E. First major excavation: Korinth
1896-the first major Greek city to be excavated
QUOTES:
Norton, in 1880: "France and Germany have their schools
at Athens, where young scholars devote themselves, under the
guidance of eminent masters, to studied and research in
archaeology. The results that have followed from this training
have been excellent; and it is greatly to be desired, for the
sake of American scholarship, that a similar American School may
before long enter into honorable rivalry with those already
established."
A committee was formed to plan a School in 1881 and the
Managing Committee had its first meeting in 1882.
The first colleges which offered initial encouragement were
Harvard, Yale, Brown, Johns Hopkins, and Cornell. In December
1881 a letter was sent out inviting official participation from
Harvard, Yale, Brown, Amherst, Cornell, Johns Hopkins, CCNY,
Michigan, Columbia, Virginia, Princeton-and later to Union,
Trinity, Wesleyan, and Dartmouth.
At the first meeting of the Managing Committee (6 April 1882)
favorable answers were received from Harvard, Yale, Amherst,
Brown, Johns Hopkins, CCNY, Columbia, Princeton, and Wesleyan.
Opposition from many, including President Barnard of Columbia.
The New York Times laughed at the idea (31 March 1882): "We
sincerely hope that the ardent but mistaken Hellenists who are
trying to establish an American school of classical studies at
Athens will take counsel of their good sense before it is too
late and abandon the project. Greek is a good thing, no doubt
… but … it is wholly unnecessary to go clear to Athens
to get it….. The intentions of these young gentlemen cannot
be questioned, of course. They were doubtless inspired by a
sincere zeal for the cause of sounder classical education. But
their scheme of an American school for the study of the language
and literature of Greece on the very spot where that language and
literature reached their highest development is manifestly
absurd. Why should our young men go to Athens to study Greek? Is
not American Greek good enough for Americans? If the time has
come when an American boy can no longer sit on a wooden bench in
New Haven, Cambridge, or Amherst, and put the oration on the
crown into English, or analyze the metres of a chorus of
Sophocles with the same profound unintelligibility and profound
unintelligibility and painstaking misunderstanding that have
characterized the class-room work of our colleges for the past
century, then Greek is no longer a fit study for the youth of
this Republic…."
Walter Miller at Thorikos: He had 25-30 workmen. The
representative of the Greek government "found the work
tedious and spent most of his time at the coffee shops of Laurium, leaving me to my own devices at the dig."
Miller wanted
to find the stage building. "The results, as far as the
problem in hand was concerned, were negative. If there ever was
any sort of stage building, every vestige of it had been removed.
We next turned our attention to clearing up the rows of seats for
the spectators. While this was going on, I had to be constantly
on the alert, For those Greek workmen could not be disabused of
the idea that I was hunting for buried treasure; and if it was
not hidden under one seat, it would surely come to light under
the next one; and many a time I had to arrest a pick in the very
act of descending to tear a seat from its place."
For further information on this topic (outside the class
website):
Architecture
Report
