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.

Melos: the Hall of the Mystae

In April 1896 Robert Carr Bosanquet described to his sister Caroline the excavations at 'the Hall of the Mystae' on Melos.

A few days later we found a statue, headless alas, lying on its back on the mosaic pavement ...It represents a hierophant ... of Dionysos, probably, and was set up by the Mystae or Initiates. The mosaic is an unusually large one, some 40 feet in length, and 10 feet wide, and on the whole well preserved. Yesterday we finished clearing away the stone dykes and soil that overlay the upper end and were overwhelmed by the beauty of the upper compartment: it has a vine in each corner whose branches spread over the field: among them are birds of gorgeous plumage, pheasants and peacocks, at one side a deer or goat lying down. The colouring is very rich and the design good. It is probably the best mosaic that has been discovered in Greece. I am anxious to arrange for its permanent preservation and am wiring to Cecil Smith, whom I suppose to be in Athens, to that effect. He has left me in charge for over 3 weeks and I have only heard from him once, so I am anxiously awaiting his coming.

The drawing was made by Charles R.R. Clark, the excavation's architect.

Bibliography
Bosanquet, R. C. 1898. "Excavations of the British School at Melos. The Hall of the Mystae." Journal of Hellenic Studies 18: 60-80, pls. i-iii.

Francis Haverfield and Robert Carr Bosanquet

Phil Freeman was written a wonderfully detailed study of Francis Haverfield (1860-1919). In the section on Haverfield's 'associates', Freeman notes the strong link with Robert Carr Bosanquet (1871-1935), of Rock Hall, near Alnwick, Northumberland. Apart from being Director of the BSA, Bosanquet excavated at Housesteads on Hadrian's Wall, and later in Wales when he held the chair of classical archaeology at Liverpool.

Freeman notes the close link between the two (especially over the work in Wales) but comments (p. 414):

How and when Bosanquet came into contact with Haverfield again is not known. ... their association has to go back to Haverfield's work around Hadrian's Wall, where Bosanquet was born and later farmed.

The answer probably lies in Thomas Hodgkin (1831-1913) who had close links with Haverfield through the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne. Both were involved with the excavations at Corbridge (along with Haverfield's student Leonard Cheesman (1884-1915), who was subsequently admitted to the BSA).

In July 1902 Bosanquet married Ellen Sophia (1875-1965), Hodgkin's daughter, who had read modern history at Somerville College, Oxford. She recalled her frequent visits to Hadrian's Wall as a child:

From Chollerford you could start with the Roman Camp at Chesters and go to all the other camps along the Wall, especially dear Borcovicus (Housesteads). We went on this drive so often that Chapman said the horses drew up of their own accord when we came to the right halt for a camp or a view. And so even as children we became familiar with theories of vallum and milecastles.

The Hodgkins lived in rural Northumberland first at Bamburgh, and then at Barmoor Castle. Ellen mentioned the Bosanquets at social functions. Indeed, around 1892, she remembered meeting Bosanquet, then at Trinity College, Cambridge, on a walking-tour of the Wall with Ellen's brother Edward (also at Trinity).

Tellingly Ellen refers to Bosanquet's Oxford 'cronies' (in the autumn of 1902) but does not identify them. One was likely to have been Haverfield.

Bibliography
Bosanquet, E. S. n.d. Late harvest: memories, letters and poems. London: Chameleon Press.
Bosanquet, R. C. 1904. "Excavations on the line of the Roman Wall in Northumberland. 1: The Roman camp at Housesteads." Archaeologia Aeliana 25: 193-300.
Bosanquet, R. C. 1920. "Francis John Haverfield, F.S.A., a vice-president." Archaeologia Aeliana 17: 137-43.
Freeman, P. W. M. 2007. The best training ground for archaeologists: Francis Haverfield and the invention of Romano-British archaeology. Oxford: Oxbow. [Worldcat]

Easter at the BSA

Easter Sunday had a special significance for Ellen S. Bosanquet, wife of the School's Director, Robert. On April 17 1903, Orthodox Easter, she gave birth to their first child, Charles.

She describes the day in Late harvest: memories, letters and poems (London: Chameleon Press). The court physician, Dr Louros, attended her:

It was rather a shock when the crucial moment arrived ... and I found at the bedside, not an accoucher in nice white drill jacket, but a Court official clad in blue cloth and gold braid, with orders jingling in a row on his chest. I have no doubt he had come to me straight from some court function ... The pangs of childbirth were punctuated throughout that day by the continual popping of firearms, for the Greeks celebrate Easter by "shooting Judas" at intervals. Finally, when it was seen that I had given birth to a son on Easter Day, there was universal rejoicing for a variety of reasons.

Charles later became the first Vice-Chancellor of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Melos: the churches

In April 1896 Robert Carr Bosanquet, who had been left in charge of the excavations while Cecil Harcourt-Smith was in Athens, was joined on Melos by two contemporaries from Trinity College, Cambridge: Henry Martineau Fletcher (1870-1953) and Sydney Decimus Kitson (1871-1937). Fletcher and Kitson had both matriculated at Trinity in 1889 (the year above Bosanquet) and were on an extended trip through Italy and Greece. While on Melos they made a study of the Byzantine churches. Neither was admitted as a student of the BSA.

Fletcher had been educated at Marlborough, and had been awarded a first in Part 1 of the Cambridge Classical Tripos (1892). He was articled to Mervyn Macartney. He later worked as an architect (FRIBA 1908) and served as Vice-President (1929-31) Honorary Secretary (1934-39) of RIBA. He helped to design the War Memorial at St John's College, Cambridge.

Kitson had been educated at Charterhouse. Kitson's father, James, was a locomotive engineer; his half-brother was the First Baron Airedale. Kitson was articled to E.J. May in London. He practised as an architect in Leeds as the senior partner of Kitson, Parish, Ledgard and Pyman. Among his designs was the Leeds School of Art. Kitson was an authority of John Sell Cotman and the Norwich School of painting. His collection of Cotman drawings and watercolours were bequeathed to RIBA; a former BSA student, Adolph Paul Oppé, prepared the catalogue.

Reference
Fletcher, H. M., and S. D. Kitson. 1895/6. "The churches of Melos." Annual of the British School at Athens 2: 155-68.

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 of the BSA, was appointed professor of classical archaeology in 1906.

The Greek archaeology interests of the department were strengthened in 1907 with the appointment of John L. Myres as Gladstone professor of Greek and lecturer in Ancient Geography, though his stay was short as he returned to Oxford in 1910. He was replaced by Arnold W. Gomme who held the position of assistant lecturer in Classics (1910-11). He had a strong interest in topography, filling a gap left by Myres, but he moved to Glasgow after a year. Gomme in turn was replaced by Henry A. Ormerod, who served as assistant lecturer in Greek (1911-23). During this time he started his work on piracy in the ancient world. Arthur M. Woodward was appointed assistant lecturer in 1911 after serving as Assistant Director in Athens (1909/10). However after a year he moved to Leeds as Reader, no doubt reflecting his expertise in the field of epigraphy. A further BSA student, William R. Halliday, joined the university in 1914 as the Rathbone professor of Ancient History (1914-28).

James George Frazer (BSA 1889/90) was appointed professor of Social Anthropology in 1908.

Bosanquet left Liverpool in 1920 to make way for men returning from the First World War. He was succeeded by another BSA student, John P. Droop. who held the Charles W. Jones Professor of Classical Archaeology (1921-48). Droop had excavated with Bosanquet in Greece, and also in Egypt at Abydos. A further former BSA student was T. Eric Peet who arrived as the Brunner professor of Egyptology (1920-33). There was further change in 1923 when Ormerod left Liverpool to become professor of Classics at Leeds. He returned to Liverpool in 1928 as the Rathbone professor of Ancient History (1928-51) when Halliday left.

Excavation Equipment: Melos, 1896

Robert Carr Bosanquet described landing on Melos with the project equipment in April 1896:

Then came a mule-ride—that is to say our luggage rode and we walked—of three quarters of an hour up to Trypiti. As the luggage included a bath, 2 cameras, 2 large portmanteaux, 1 Gladstone, 1 hold-all, 1 big roll, 1 bag and 117 small paper parcels, it was rather hard to arrange them all on 2 mules. The one that carried the bath looked like a new kind of tortoise.