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 in 1886 “to promote all researches and studies” which could “advance the knowledge of Hellenic history, literature, and art from the earliest age to the present day”. Over the next thirty years the School initiated a major programme of excavations, initially on Cyprus, then at Megalopolis, on Melos, and at Sparta. School students took part in the work of the Cretan Exploration Fund and in the major regional surveys of the Asia Minor Exploration Fund.

Most of the students who were admitted to the School in this period had been educated at either Cambridge or Oxford. Women, mostly from Cambridge, took part in the School’s activities including the excavations at Phylakopi. The students’ research interests included Greek pottery, Aegean prehistory, and epigraphy. The experience of Greece prepared the students for later work in British universities and in other professions. Many extended their archaeological experience in Greece to fieldwork in Britain, Egypt, and India.

During the First World War former students were involved in intelligence work in the eastern Mediterranean through the activities of the Arab Bureau in Cairo.

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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: Casson, Dunbabin.

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 School

Chapter 1: The Origins of the School

Chapter 2: The Directors of the School

Chapter 3: The BSA Managing Committee

Part 2: Students of the British School at Athens

Chapter 4: Oxford and Cambridge Students

Chapter 5: Women at the British School at Athens

Chapter 6: Other Students in Athens

Part 3: Fieldwork

Chapter 7: Cyprus

Chapter 8: Mainland Greece and the Peloponnese

Chapter 9: The Islands

Chapter 10: Anatolia

Chapter 11: North Africa and Other Projects

Part 4: After the British School at Athens

Chapter 12: Subsequent Careers

Chapter 13: Further Excavations

Chapter 14: Students at War

Appendix

Biographies of Students at the British School at Athens (1886-1919)

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); Lit. Hum. 3rd (1891).
  
• John George Smith (J.G. Piddington) (b. 1869). Magdalen College. Class. mod. 2nd (1890); admitted to BSA 1891/92 (under Ernest A. Gardner); Lit. Hum. 3rd (1892).

Smith was re-admitted as assistant to the director, Cecil Harcourt-Smith, in 1895/96.

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 to look for sites on Melos.

The next assistant was George Chatterton Richards (1867-1951) who had been admitted to the BSA under Ernest Gardner and had assisted with the excavations at Megalopolis. He had studied at Balliol College, and while in Greece had held a fellowship at Hertford College. In 1891 he was appointed professor of Greek at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire (1891-98). It was in this period that he was assistant to David G. Hogarth for a period of four months for the 1897/98 session to deliver 'lectures in the museums to students and (at Easter time) to visitors'. He also prepared the report on 'Archaeology in Greece'.

Hogarth's second assistant director was Robert Carr Bosanquet (1871-1935) for the year 1899/1900 (for which he received a stipend of £350). Like Richards, Bosanquet prepared the report on 'Archaeology in Greece'. With Hogarth excavating on Crete, Bosanquet took administrative control in Athens which prepared him for becoming the successor to Hogarth.

Marcus N. Tod (1878-1974) was Bosanquet's assistant for two sessions (1903/04, 1904/05), alongside a fellowship at Oriel College, Oxford; he had previously been Senior Student at the BSA. As Senior Student he had assisted with the reorganisation of the Library (1902/03), and one of his roles as assistant director was supervision of the library and hostel.

Henry Julius Wetenhall Tillyard (1881-1968) served as temporary librarian during 1904/05 as the Penrose Memorial Library opened. (Tod had returned to his fellowship in Oxford in early March 1905.) Tillyard had been working on boundary stones in Attica and had taken an active part in the Laconia project.

Frederick W. Hasluck (1878-1920) was appointed librarian for the BSA in 1905/06 (alongside a fellowship at King's College, Cambridge). Hasluck had earlier been admitted as student in 1901/02. He was then appointed assistant director and librarian from 1906/07 until 1915 (with a stipend of £150). For one year, 1910/11, he was on leave of absence and was replaced by Arthur M. Woodward (1883-1973). During Richard M. Dawkins' leave of absence (1911/12) Hasluck was acting director.

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.

BSA and King's College

Students

• Montague 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 Benson (1867-1940). Marlborough. Exhibitioner (1888); Part 1, 1st (1890); Scholar (1890); Part 2, 1st (1891). BSA 1891/92 (Worts Fund), 1892/93 (Cambridge Studentship), 1893/94 (Craven Student), 1894/95 (Prendergast Greek Student).
• Arthur George Bather (1868-1928). Rossall. Scholar; Part 1, 1st (1889); Part 2, 1st (1891). BSA 1889/90, 1891/92 (Cambridge Studentship), 1892/93 (Prendergast Greek Studentship), 1893/94 (Cambridge Studentship).
  
• Robert John Grote Mayor (1869-1947). Eton. Bell Scholar (1889); Craven Scholar (1891); Part 2, 1st (1892). BSA 1892/93.
• Vincent Wodehouse Yorke (1869-1957). Eton. Part 1, 1st (1891); Scholar (1891); Part 2, 1st (1892). BSA 1892/93, 1893/94; Hon. Treasurer 1906-55.
  
• Frank Russell Earp (1871-1955). Uppingham. Exhibitioner (1892); Part 1, 1st (1893); Scholar (1893); Part 2, 1st (1894). BSA 1896/97.
• Clement Gutch (1875-1908). Harrow. Part 1, 1st (1897); Scholar (1897); Part 2, Greek and Roman Archaeology, 1st (1898). BSA 1898/99 (Cambridge Studentship).
• John Hubert Marshall (1876-1958). Dulwich. Scholar; Part 1, 1st (1898); Scholar (1898); Part 2, 1st (1900). BSA 1898/99, 1900/01 (Prendergast Greek Studentship), 1901/02 (Craven Student).
• Frederick William Hasluck (1878-1920). Leys. Part 1, 1st (1899); Scholar (1899); Part 2, 1st (1901). BSA 1901/02 (Cambridge Studentship), 1902/03, 1904/05, 1905/06; Assistant Director and Librarian 1906-15.

Fellows

• Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936). Fellow (1887-1905); Dean and Tutor; Provost (1905-18); Vice-Chancellor (1913-14).
• William Loring (1865-1915). Fellow (1891-97).
• Arthur George Bather (1868-1928). Fellow (1894); Assistant Master at Winchester (1894-1928).
• Robert John Grote Mayor (1869-1947). Fellow (1894).
• Vincent Wodehouse Yorke (1869-1957). Fellow (1895).
• Frank Russell Earp (1871-1955). Fellow (1897).
• Frederick William Hasluck (1878-1920). Fellow (1904).
• Sir John Hubert Marshall (1876-1958). Hon. Fellow (1927).