Winifred Lamb: Aegean Prehistorian and Museum Curator

Cover image: British School at Athens

My biography of Winifred Lamb is due to be published in September 2018. The study covers her time as a student at the British School at Athens (as well as her preliminary visit to the Mycenae excavations before she was admitted), and her excavations at Mycenae, Sparta, in Macedonia, on Lesbos and on Chios. Her active fieldwork in the Aegean continued into the 1930s when she shifted her interests to Anatolia (through the excavation at Kusura).

Lamb was simultaneously the honorary keeper of Greek Antiquities at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, where she created a prehistoric gallery displaying finds from British excavations on Crete and on Melos.

Battle of Başkent

Battle of Başkent was a battle between the armies of Mehmed II and the Ak Koyunlu ruler Uzun Hasan on the plain of Tercan near Erzurum. The Battle of Başkent also known as Battle of Otlukbeli.

The expansionist drive of Mehmed II into Anatolia impelled the Ak Koyunlu, who ruled Iran and southern Caucasus to form an alliance with Venice and other Christian powers. Venice, a long time naval power in the Levant had hoped for control of a port on the Syrian or south Anatolian coast and to that end had attempted a military alliance with Uzun Hasan.

Both the Ottoman and Ak Koyunlu armies were ready for a final confrontation. Finally, on 11 August 1473, in a pitched battle at Başkent near Otluk Beli, Uzun Hasan’s army was completely routed.

The Venetians, who at that time were at war with the Ottomans, sent artillery units to support the Ak Koyunlu. Though the Ak Koyunlu army was superior in terms of manpower, the Ottoman troops were better organized and equipped. In this battle, Ottoman artillery employed in concert worth war wagons created havoc within the ranks of the nomadic Ak Koyunlu army. While other factors such as discipline were important, the artillery overshadowed the rest.

The battle took nearly a whole day. With this defeat, the Ak Koyunlu in effect no longer played a serious role in the great power’s struggle for Anatolia.
Battle of Başkent

Archaeology in the Ottoman Empire

Debbie Challis has published her study of British archaeology in the Ottoman Empire. This covers three main areas:

• Asia Minor: Lycia and Caria
• North Africa: Carthage and Cyrene
• Ionian Greece: Ephesus and Smaller Excavations

This book discusses the period before the establishment of the Asia Minor Exploration Fund (see also Funding) and the later work by students of the British School at Athens (see Gill 2004).

References
Challis, D. 2008. From the Harpy Tomb to the Wonders of Ephesus: British archaeologists in the Ottoman Empire 1840-1880. London: Duckworth. [WorldCat]
Gill, D. W. J. 2004. "The British School at Athens and archaeological research in the late Ottoman Empire." In Archaeology, anthropology and heritage in the Balkans and Anatolia: the life and times of F.W. Hasluck, 1878-1920, edited by D. Shankland, pp. 223-55, vol. 1. Istanbul: The Isis Press. [WorldCat]

Asia Minor Exploration Fund: Funding

One of the constant refrains of the BSA Managing Committee in the early years concerned finance. Yet this is hardly surprising given the demands from other archaeological projects in the eastern Mediterranean. George Macmillan was Honorary Treasurer of the Asia Minor Exploration Fund (AMEF) and made constant appeals:

• 1882: £520 raised
• 1883: £300 spent on travels in Anatolia; further appeal for £500.
  
• 1890: appeal for £500 to cover the 1890 season
  
• 1891: appeal for £400 to cover the 1891 season
  
• 1893: £150 raised (of which £100 from the Royal Geographical Society)
  
• 1893: appeal for £2000 to excavate at Derbe or Lystra

The BSA students were often involved with the work of AMEF from its earliest years, notably David Hogarth, John A.R. Munro, and Vincent W. Yorke.

The appeal for funds took a nationalistic tone:

It would be little to the credit of England if want of funds should oblige Professor Ramsay to leave the completion of his task to foreign hands. (1890)

One might wish that a foreign nation had not stepped in to a field which, with more liberality on the part of Englishmen, could have been covered completely by our own explorers, but the work is so vast that in the interests of knowledge the application of foreign zeal and money is not altogether to be regretted. (1891)

Very much yet remains to be done, and if the work so well begun by a small band of Englishmen is not to be left unfinished or transferred to foreign hands, English liberality must supply the funds necessary for its continuance. (1893)

It is little wonder that the BSA was only raising some £500 a year when there were such competing demands on the same subscribers.

BSA Students and Archaeological Work in the Mediterranean Before the First World War

In the period up to the outbreak of the First World War BSA students were involved in archaeological work ranging from Sicily to Syria, from Tripolitania and Egypt to Macedonia (and beyond). Their focus was well beyond mainland Greece, the Aegean islands, and Crete.

Is there a major difference between official BSA archaeological projects and other work supported by students? For example, the excavations of the Cyprus Exploration Fund were directed by Ernest Gardner; and even when archaeological work on the island was taken over by the British Museum, BSA Students took part in the excavations and sometimes even directed (Francis B. Welch). The Asia Minor Exploration Fund, established before the BSA, accommodated BSA students from David Hogarth to the work on Roman colonies by G.L. Cheesman.

The BSA was associated with formal excavations at Megalopolis, Phylakopi on Melos, and at Sparta, as well as less ambitious work at Kynosarges. At the same time exploratory work was conducted at Cyzicus, and it had been hoped to open a site in Lycia, at Datcha or Colophon.

The archaeological impact of the BSA went far beyond the Aegean. It covered the Bronze Age but also firmly embraced Roman remains in Anatolia, Byzantine architecture, and even medieval castles in the Levant.

Asia Minor Exploration Fund

The Asia Minor Exploration Fund was an initiative of the Hellenic Society. It was established during 1882, and by 1883 the Fund had raised £500.

The committee consisted of:

• James Fergusson (1808-86), architectural historian
  
• David Binning Monro (1836-1905), Provost of Oriel College. [Later on the Managing Committee of the BSA]
• Henry Francis Pelham (1846-1907). [Later on the Managing Committee of the BSA]
• George Augustin Macmillan (1855-1936). Honorary Treasurer and Secretary. [Later on the Managing Committee of the BSA]

Fergusson had links with Heinrich Schliemann, and published on Halicarnassus and Ephesus.

Cyzicus and Robert De Rustafjaell

Robert De Rustafjaell --- changed from Robert Fawcus-Smith in October 1894 --- first visited the site of Cyzicus on the south coast of the sea of Marmara in 1900. He quickly obtained a firman for excavating and initiated work in the summer of 1901. However he needed additional archaeological expertise and approached the British School at Athens.

In December 1901 Robert Carr Bosanquet, director of the BSA, and Frederick W. Hasluck visited the site of Cyzicus with De Rustafjaell. They made a preliminary report on the site, making particular note of the inscriptions:

Dost remember the Poseidon monument, a pedestal or altar with tridents and fish and galleys thereon, which was represented on several of De R.'s photographs? We went this morning and dug it out and made paper impressions of the inscriptions.

Bosanquet continued with a description of his visit to the amphitheatre:

And Hasluck and I took the village watchman, a Tcherkess from the Caucasus, who patrols the fields armed with an old musket, and went to the amphitheatre, a most beautiful spot outside the walls. A stream has burst through the mighty fence and careers through the arena; a great part of the walls has fallen; but great piles of masonry still tower to heaven, and the hillsides are full of overgrown vaults; the whole hollow is a mass of luxuriant thickets, bay, arbutus, ivy and honeysuckle; sprays of unripe blackberries hang over the water.

In the end Bosanquet decided to excavate at Palaikastro on Crete, but Hasluck and the school architect, Arthur Henderson, continued to plan the site and record inscriptions.

References
Hasluck, F. W. 1901/02. "Sculptures from Cyzicus." Annual of the British School at Athens 8: 190-96.
—. 1902. "An inscribed basis from Cyzicus." Journal of Hellenic Studies 22: 126-34. [JSTOR]
—. 1903. "Inscriptions from Cyzicus." Journal of Hellenic Studies 23: 75-91. [JSTOR]
—. 1904. "Unpublished inscriptions from the Cyzicus neighbourhood." Journal of Hellenic Studies 24: 20-40. [JSTOR]
—. 1904/05. "Notes on the Lion group from Cyzicus." Annual of the British School at Athens 11: 151-52.
—. 1907. "Inscriptions from the Cyzicus district, 1906." Journal of Hellenic Studies 27: 61-67. [JSTOR]
—. 1910. Cyzicus: being some account of the history and antiquities of that city, and of the district adjacent to it: with the towns of Apollonia ad Rhyndoveum, Miletupolis, Hadrianutherae, Priapus, Zeleia, etc. Cambridge archaeological and ethnological series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [WorldCat]
Hasluck, F. W., and A. E. Henderson. 1904. "On the topography of Cyzicus." Journal of Hellenic Studies 24: 135-43.
Rustafjaell, R. de 1902. "Cyzicus." Journal of Hellenic Studies 22: 174-89. [JSTOR]
Smith, C., and R. de Rustafjaell. 1902. "Inscriptions from Cyzicus." Journal of Hellenic Studies 22: 190-207. [JSTOR]

Inscription
Hasluck's image of the statue base of Antonia Tryphaena, excavated by De Rustafjaell at Cyzicus in 1901.

BSA and Anatolia: Colophon

Cecil Harcourt-Smith, in his last year of office as Director, joined the steam yacht Rona belonging to Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild, a major donor to the BSA, in the early part of 1897. Clearly one of the objects was to identify a possible major site for excavation after the work at Phylakopi on Melos.

The cruise took Harcourt-Smith to Salonica and through the Aegean. He was particularly interested in the site of Colophon to the south of Smyrna. Hamdi Bey, Director of the Imperial Museums in Constantinople, was approached for a firman. However due to the outbreak of war in Thessaly and on Crete, the excavation never took place.

The American School also considered Colophon a suitable site to excavate though the work did not start until after the First World War in 1922 and quickly came to a halt due to events in Anatolia.

Publishing the results of BSA projects

Articles on BSA projects were initially published in The Journal of Hellenic Studies and then in The Annual of the British School at Athens (from vol. 1 for the session 1894/95). Reports on major projects (Megalopolis, Phylakopi and Sparta) then appeared as Supplementary Papers for the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies:

• Gardner, E. A., W. Loring, G. C. Richards, W. J. Woodhouse, and R. W. Schultz. 1892. Excavations at Megalopolis, 1890-1891. Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. Supplementary Paper, vol. 1. London: Macmillan.
• Atkinson, T. D., R. C. Bosanquet, C. C. Edgar, A. J. Evans, D. G. Hogarth, D. Mackenzie, C. Harcourt-Smith, and F. B. Welch. 1904. Excavations at Phylakopi in Melos. Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, Supplementary Paper, vol. 4. London: Macmillan.
  
• Dawkins, R. M. 1929. The sanctuary of Artemis Orthia at Sparta. Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, Supplementary Paper, vol. 5. London: Macmillan. [digital]
  

These Supplementary Papers also published the results of the Asia Minor Exploration Fund:

• Headlam, A. C. 1892. Ecclesiastical sites in Isauria (Cilicia Trachea). Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. Supplementary Paper, vol. 2. London: Macmillan.

The third Supplementary Paper was relevant to the work in Athens:

• Middleton, J. H. (ed. E.A. Gardner) 1900. Plans and drawings of Athenian buildings. Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies. Supplementary Paper, vol. 3. London: Macmillan.

Results from excavations at Palaikastro were published after the First World War as a supplement to the Annual:

• Bosanquet, R. C., and R. M. Dawkins. 1923. The unpublished objects from Palaikastro excavations, 1902-1906. British School at Athens supplementary papers, vol. 1. London: British School at Athens.

Scotland and the BSA

Apart from Oxford and Cambridge, one of the main groups admitted to the BSA in the period up to 1914 consisted of students from Scotland. A key influence was (Sir) William Ramsay (1851-1939), a graduate of the university of Aberdeen, who continued his studies at St John’s College, Oxford. Ramsay had travelled widely in Asia Minor and was elected a research fellow at Exeter College in 1882. He was subsequently appointed to the Lincoln and Merton Chair of Classical Archaeology at Oxford in 1885, before moving back to Aberdeen in 1886 where he was Regius professor of humanity.

At least three of Ramsay’s students completed their studies at Aberdeen and then continued their studies in England.

• John G.C. Anderson, son of the Revd Alexander Anderson, from Morayshire. On completing his studies in Aberdeen Anderson went to Christ Church as an exhibitioner (1891-96) aged 20, and then out to the BSA as Craven University Fellow. He was involved with the publication of epigraphic material from the School’s excavation at Kynosarges, and then travelled in Anatolia making a special study of Phrygia. One of Anderson’s achievements was the plotting of a map of Asia Minor.
• William Moir Calder, the son of a farmer. He went to Robert Gordon College, Aberdeen (1894-99), then Aberdeen University, where he obtained a 1st class in Classics (1903). Like Anderson he was admitted to Christ Church as an Exhibitioner (1903), aged 22. On completing his studies in 1907, he was admitted first to the British School at Rome under Thomas Ashby. Like Anderson he had an expertise in epigraphy.
• Margaret Masson Hardie, the daughter of a farmer from Chapelton, Drumblade near Elgin. She had been educated at Elgin Academy before moving to Aberdeen University where she obtained a 1st class in classics. She then continued her studies at Newnham College, obtaining a first in classics. She was admitted to the BSA in 1911/12 and assisted with Ramsay's epigraphic survey of the sanctuary of Men Askaenos at the Roman colony of Pisidian Antioch.

This pattern of continuing studies in England is found for students from Glasgow and Dundee. Two of the BSA students had previously studied at Glasgow.

• James George Frazer had studied at Larchfield Academy, Helensburgh, and then at the University of Glasgow (1869-74). Among the influences there was George Gilbert Ramsay, professor of humanity (1863-1906), who had been educated at Trinity College, Oxford. At the age of 20 Frazer went to Trinity College, Cambridge (1874-78) where he obtained a 1st class in the Classical Tripos (1878). Frazer was admitted to the BSA as a mature student to work on Pausanias.
• One of G.G. Ramsay’s other pupils was Campbell Cowan Edgar, from Tongland, Kirkubrightshire. He was educated at Ayr Academy, then Glasgow University (1887-91). For part of this time Edgar studied under (Sir) Richard Claverhouse Jebb (1875-89) and Gilbert Murray (1889-99), consecutive holders of the chair of Greek at Glasgow. After Glasgow, Edgar became Bible Clerk at Oriel College (1891), at the age of 20, continuing his study of classics (1891-95). The award of a Craven Fellowship allowed him to study in Athens where he gained archaeological experience at Kynosarges and on Melos. His contemporary at Oxford and in Athens was Anderson. Edgar worked with David Hogarth at Naukratis and shortly afterwards joined the catalogue commission in Cairo.

Other students from Scotland included:

• Hilda Lorimer, the daughter of Revd Robert Lorimer, was educated at Dundee High School at the University College, Dundee (1889-93) where she obtained a 1st class in classics. At the age of 20 she obtained a scholarship to continue her studies at Girton College, Cambridge, obtaining a first class in 1896. She was admitted to the School as Pfeiffer Travelling Student (1901-02) and was able to work with W. Dörpfeld of the German School.
• Duncan Mackenzie, who had studied in Edinburgh (1882-90), chose to study on continental Europe. He completed a doctorial thesis on Lycian sculpture from the University of Vienna (1895). His experience of continental archaeological training soon put him to good use in the BSA excavations on Melos, and then with Evans at Knossos.

Few students from Scotland were admitted directly from Scotland. During the session 1894/95 two theology students from Aberdeen went sent out:

• John Garrow Duncan, from Aberdeen, by the Church of Scotland.
• A.F. Findlay, by the United Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

Both worked specifically at modern Greek. Duncan became interest in Egyptian antiquities and worked with Petrie in Egypt and Palestine. Findlay worked specifically on the account of Paul at Athens in the Acts of the Apostles.

In 1895 there was a concerted move to improve the financial situation of the BSA. The appeal to the treasury was supported by academics from several universities in Scotland: St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh. This seems to have encouraged the admission of a number of students direct from Scotland.

• Archibald Paterson, an Edinburgh graduate, who went to Athens 1895/96, to work on Christian antiquities.
• W.W. Reid was a student of Ramsay in Aberdeen. Reid was admitted to the BSA on a Blackie Travelling Studentship (1896-97). He travelled through Asia Minor and Cyprus. He was later ordained a minister in the Church of Scotland.
• William Alexander Curtis, who had studied theology at Edinburgh, went to Athens at the age of 21 (1897-98), and was later to become a colleague of Ramsay at Aberdeen as professor of systematic theology (1903-15) before returning to Edinburgh.
• Mary Hamilton, a graduate of the University of St Andrews, was admitted to the BSA as a holder of a Research Fellowship under the Carnegie Trust (1905-06, 1906-07). She worked at the interface of theology and the classical world, in particular the custom of incubation.
• John Arnott Hamilton, an ordained minister and Edinburgh graduate, was admitted to the BSA at a mature student (1913-14). He had a long-standing interest in church architecture, and went out to Athens as a holder of the Blackie Scholarship to study Byzantine architecture completing a work on the church at Kaisariani.

Two former students of architecture at the Glasgow School of Art were admitted:

• David Theodore Fyfe (1899/1900), who became architect to the excavations at Knossos.
  
• Frank G. Orr (1905/06).

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 (1894/95, 1895/96). Wace contributed a single report on work in Asia Minor (1903).

Penrose, F. C. 1887. "Excavations in Greece, 1886-1887." Journal of Hellenic Studies 8: 269-77.
Harrison, J. E. 1888. "Archaeology in Greece, 1887-1888." Journal of Hellenic Studies 9: 118-33.
Gardner, E. A. 1889. "Archaeology in Greece, 1888-89." Journal of Hellenic Studies 10: 254-80, pl. viii.
—. 1890. "Archaeology in Greece, 1889-90." Journal of Hellenic Studies 11: 210-17.
—. 1891. "Archaeology in Greece, 1890-91." Journal of Hellenic Studies 12: 385-97.
—. 1892/3. "Archaeology in Greece, 1892." Journal of Hellenic Studies 13: 139-52.
—. 1894. "Archaeology in Greece, 1893-94." Journal of Hellenic Studies 14: 224-32.
—. 1894/5. "Archaeology in Greece, 1894-5." Annual of the British School at Athens 1: 55-66.
—. 1895. "Archaeology in Greece, 1894-5." Journal of Hellenic Studies 15: 202-10.
Smith, C. 1895/6. "Archaeology in Greece, 1895-6." Annual of the British School at Athens 2: 47-62.
—. 1896. "Archaeology in Greece, 1895-6." Journal of Hellenic Studies 16: 335-56.
Richards, G. C. 1898. "Archaeology in Greece, 1897-1898." Journal of Hellenic Studies 18: 328-39.
Hogarth, D. G., and R. C. Bosanquet. 1899. "Archaeology in Greece, 1898-9." Journal of Hellenic Studies 19: 319-29.
Bosanquet, R. C. 1900. "Archaeology in Greece, 1899-1900." Journal of Hellenic Studies 20: 167-81.
—. 1901. "Archaeology in Greece, 1900-1901." Journal of Hellenic Studies 21: 334-52.
Bosanquet, R. C., and M. N. Tod. 1902. "Archaeology in Greece, 1901-1902." Journal of Hellenic Studies 22: 378-94.
Wace, A. J. B. 1903. "Recent excavations in Asia Minor." Journal of Hellenic Studies 23: 335-55.
Dawkins, R. M. 1907. "Archaeology in Greece (1906-1907)." Journal of Hellenic Studies 27: 284-99.
—. 1908a. "Archaeology in Greece, 1907-1908." Journal of Hellenic Studies 28: 319-36.
—. 1908b. "Archaeology in Greece: a correction." Journal of Hellenic Studies 28: 153.
—. 1909. "Archaeology in Greece, 1908-1909." Journal of Hellenic Studies 29: 354-65.
—. 1910. "Archaeology in Greece, 1909-1910." Journal of Hellenic Studies 30: 357-64.
—. 1911. "Archaeology in Greece (1910-1911)." Journal of Hellenic Studies 31: 296-307.
Hasluck, F. W. 1912. "Archaeology in Greece 1911-1912." Journal of Hellenic Studies 32: 385-90.
Droop, J. P. 1913. "Archaeology in Greece, 1912-1913." Journal of Hellenic Studies 33: 361-68.
Wace, A. J. B. 1921. "Archaeology in Greece, 1919-1921." Journal of Hellenic Studies 41: 260-76.